MS to cut Xbox 360 Elite by £60?

Just hours after MCV revealed that Sony has been clearing the channel in preparation for its PS3 price cut on Tuesday it now appears as if Microsoft could be preparing an Xbox 360 price cut to counter the move.

Kotaku has become the latest website to claim that Microsoft is to ditch its mid-range Xbox 360 Pro SKU and drop the price of its high-end Elite model to fill the vacant space. It claims that the drop will come into effect on August 30th – the same time that Sony will launch its lower-cost PS3.

The Xbox 360 Elite, which is the only SKU to come in black and includes a 120GB HDD, currently carries an RRP of 229.99. If the talk is true then this will drop to 169.99 to replace the outgoing Pro SKU, which includes a 60GB HDD.

This would represent a 60 decrease in the UK and would make Microsoft’s high-end model the cheapest next-gen console on the market.

It is presumed that the Arcade SKU, which doesn’t include an HDD or HDMI cable, will remain at its current RRP of 129.99.

Claims first emerged last week that new Xbox 360 Arcade models hitting North American retail has seen all reference to the Xbox 360 Pro pulled from the packaging.

MCV has contacted Microsoft for comment.