European pricing for the Xbox 360 revealed
by Conrad Quilty-Harper 
{ Aug 17th 2005 at 10:25AM }
Along with the announcement of $299 and $399 pricing levels for the Xbox 360 in the US, Microsoft has revealed
European recommended retail prices for the two consoles and accessories. Not surprisingly us Europeans are getting
shafted. Instead of £165/€242 and £220/€323 respectively (what US dudes will pay), EU prices are £209.99/€299.99 and
£279.99/€399.99 for the basic and extra pack. That's £45/€58 and £60/€77 more! With such an inspired simulateous
worldwide release day it'd have been nice if everyone paid the same price.
Along with announcing the console prices in Leipzig, Germany today, Microsoft revealed how much the accessories are
gonna cost ya'. Here's a rundown:
-Hard Drive (20 GB) - $99.99/£69.99/€99.99 (aren't there 120GB PC drives available for less than this?)
-Memory Unit (64 MB) - $39.99/£22.99/€34.99
-Headset - $19.99/£14.99/€19.99
-Wireless Controller - $49.99/£32.99/€34.99
-Rechargeable battery pack - $11.99/£9.99/€14.99 (lasts for 25 hours of wires free power)
-Wireless Networking Adapter - $99.99/£59.99/€79.99 (eek!)
-Universal Media Remote - $29.99/£19.99/€29.99
-SCART AV Cable - $29.99/£17.99/€24.99
-VGA HD AV Cable - $39.99/£19.99/€29.99 (very useful if you have a PC screen)
Update: Added US prices for comparison.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
soco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
That's typical that Europe pays more as generally sales tax is figured into the price in Europe, whereas in the US that's always added on (because it varies from state to state). it's not nearly as much of a rape as the 479E for the original Xbox some areas had to pay.
Voodoo M @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
The question which strikes me is that, if the hard drive is now optional after all, what happens to backwards compatibility? Presumably all those 're-compiled emulators' (or whatever) were supposed to sit on the HD?
btmnky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Um, it does name all EU prices as well as all British equivalents.
petecchia @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
If you compare the price hike importers ike lik-sang and play-asia charge on console which do not get a simultaneous worldwide release, the price difference Microsoft is charging between Europe and USA is not so bad.
Replex @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
No, The HD comes with the $399 package.
Check http://www.xbox-scene for information.
MMagic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
its called europe payback time for Microsoft XP
Simon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
You say the HD AV Cable would be "very useful if you have a PC screen". Would this work with all PC screens? Is it just dependant on your screen resolution?
ymmv @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
The European prices are very reasonable since they include VAT. US prices always exlude VAT.
soco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
it didn't originally name both prices. originally it only had the british pound numbers.
i think several games backwards profiles, for backwards compatibility, will be stored on the device at shipping time. without the HD though, they won't be able to get new ones. perhaps you can download the profiles onto memory cards? they're likely not recompilations but rather patches for the weird video card crap certain games do.
Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Yep, I published the article a bit early when I wasn't finished with adding all the prices.
Cheers,
Conrad
toma.zed @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
I live in france and I think price are totally insane!!! juste because it's stamped Microsoft(c), a HDD will cost that much for a so little size??? There is no more retailer in my area (Paris, french capital) that sold brand new 20 Gb HDD.
I bought a 200Gb for less than their 20... and it has the USB external boxe include!!!
one thing is sure, I'm a hardcore gamer, but not at that price....
funkonaut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
The 20GB HDD is $99 because on the HDD sits the NVIDIA API wrapper. Microsoft has to pay NVIDIA a royalty if it is to play Xbox 1 games, so they put the wrapper on the HDD option so they won't have to pay NVIDIA for every console sold. Smart move for Microsoft's wallet, bad move for the consumer's wallet. Typical Microsoft.
Spartacus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Hey Conrad, can you edit the article ONE MORE TIME and add the US accessory prices? ;)
Dralt @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
So, ladies, that's how we are going to play it...
We are going to milk you dry on every accessory you buy.
More than $100 for a 20 GB HDD...ah ah ah...
More than $35 for 64 MB CF card...ah ah ah...
The Wireless Networking Adapter is more than $80 a pop...ah ah ah...
Come on ladies, earn that money and give it to us...
Voodoo M @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
I still don't get how backwards compatability is going to work on the cheapo version. My undertanding was that each of the 'patches' might be quite large. Are they going to put all of them on a ROM? And I also thought that some xbox games used the HD as a cache or virtual-memory. Is this going to be simulted in RAM? Not to mention the size of some xbox save games. Eaither way no HD seems like a step backwards.
Replex @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Still better and more affordable than the Sony PS3. Which analysts expect to retail over $400.
Replex @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Some analysts also expect PS3 to be near the $500 mark.
Jizzy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Some analysts are retarded.
nod @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
#15: Backwards compatibility is only available with a HDD. It will not work on the Core system out of the box. (unless you also purchase the hdd).
nod @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
#15: Backwards compatibility is only available with a HDD. It will not work on the Core system out of the box. (unless you also purchase the hdd).
Bryan Berg @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
A $39.99 WIRED controller? That thing better press the damn buttons for me! The only difference between the Xbox and the 360 wired controller is that extra "X" button in the middle, right? WTF?
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Replex, keep your opinions to yourself unless you explicitely say "in my opinion" or "I personally think", this is stuff you should have learned in 1st grade.
The prices came as a surprise to me. 50$ for a wireless controller? The wavebird is 10$ less than the WIRED controller, and 20$ less than the wireless. At launch, you could get 2 games (presumably somewhere at 50$-60$) or you could get one multiplayer game and an extra controller (assuming you only have an extra 100$ to spend). 100$ for a 20GB hard drive, as already stated, you can get HDD with 10-20x that capacity for as much or less. And 20$ for a slab of plastic faceplate? Man, M$ is so greedy, those things probably cost less than a dollar to make.
The value pack is good value, considering if you bought everything seperately, it would cost over 200$, but I was expecting Sony to launch the PS3 at 400$. I think M$ just did Sony a huge favor. And dont call me a Sony fanboy, I'm not taking sides on the 360 vs PS3 battle. Thank Moses the Revolution is going to be afffordable, I personally expect it to launch at 200$, cause thats what I'd call a significant price advantage.
Spartacus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
Jake Fry- How much did the PS2 HDD cost again? YES, a DESKTOP HDD would be much cheaper, however both the 360 and PS3 use LAPTOP sized HDD's which are considerably more expensive. I'm not saying I like or agree with the $100 add-on, I'm just saying that given the price of such devices in the past, it isn't rediculous. Furthermore, $20 for a faceplate isn't unprecedented either. Have a Nokia phone? Yeah, those faceplates cost 15-20 bucks too, and I bet they use less plastic as well! And $50 for a wireless controller? I remember when wireless came out for Xbox some models were pushing $70. EVERYONE QUIT WHINING, corporations don't hand out stuff for free, sorry to burst your bubble.
neepbhoy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:41PM
i like everyone here thinks the pricing for the xbox360 ,and most other microsoft products are expensive.
but lets not forget the bigger picture here,it has a gpu in effect of 2 times the power of nvidia 6800 , it has 3 x 3.2ghz proccessors and half a gb of ddr3 ram.
i myself have a pretty top end pc,and it wont run games anywhere like what an xbox360 will,so are we moaning our pc's cost us 2000? i think not.
the original playstation cost me £300 when it was released,and like every other console i bought ,i moaned about the price.
then when i got it home ,opened the box,plugged it all in and started playin,,,,,,,,,,man it was worth a million.
my point in short is were entering a new era of gaming,and each era costs us money (FACT)and if microsoft is taking a hit on the price of the console and adding it to the extras we buy,then so be it.
that ladies and gentlemen is called bussiness