When Sony took the plunge and cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console last week, the ball moved into Microsoft’s court.
Now evidence is surfacing that Microsoft plans to cut the price of its Xbox 360 Elite console from $399 to $299, matching Sony’s PS 3 Slim with a 120-gigabyte hard drive.
Joystiq reported that a leaked Wal-Mart ad is the latest sign suggesting that Microsoft is cutting $100 from the price of the Elite, which has a 120-gigabyte hard drive. But it’s not clear what will happen with Microsoft’s two other lower-priced models.
Microsoft’s other models include the Xbox 360 model, which sells for $299 today and has a 60-gigabyte hard drive, and its Xbox 360 Arcade, which has no hard drive and sells for $199. Microsoft could eliminate the middle model and keep the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade at $199.
It’s pretty clear that Microsoft has to do something, since Sony’s PS 3 is closest to the Microsoft model in capability. (Sony’s PS 3 comes with a Blu-ray movie player, while Microsoft’s only has a DVD movie player).
Nintendo may or may not respond, since the Wii’s market is different, less-focused on hardcore gaming. The Wii is already cheaper at $249. Still, Nintendo may want to cut its hardware price since Wii sales have been hurting in the U.S. for five months relative to a year ago.