SKU too? Xbox 360 Elite for $400 at Amazon

by Christopher Grant { Jul 13th 2008 at 3:57PM }

While not quite as widespread as this morning's nationwide $50 pricecut (aka: clearance sale) on the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro, the Xbox 360 Elite wasn't content sitting around while its kid brother gobbles up all the attention (and sales). For what we presume will be a limited time only, Amazon is cutting $50 off the still-$450 Elite, making the HDMI-enabled, 120GB console seductively affordable. Now, if someone would just pay some attention to the $280 Xbox 360 Arcade, we'd have a price-cut hat trick.

Tags: Amazon, Retail, Xbox-360-Elite

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Co @ Jul 13th 2008 4:02PM

Microsoft: "Please buy our product."

Patrick Carr @ Jul 13th 2008 4:08PM

Why bash a price drop? Fanboy much?

Heh @ Jul 13th 2008 4:24PM

Co- Is that the remark someone told you and the other Sony fanboys about the PS3?

deaftly @ Jul 13th 2008 4:26PM

Florida sucks

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 4:30PM

"Microsoft: "Please buy our product."

As opposed to what? Breaking in and stealing one from Wal-Mart? Murdering someone who has a 360? Duct-taping twenty Xbox's together? Writing a flawless 360 Emulator?Getting a job at a Chinese factory and trying to sneak one out? Stealing a bunch of parts from RROD-ed 360's and building your own one?

Or should they try Sony's approach?

"What do you mean they're not buying our product? It's "the" fucking PS3! The successor to PS2 that owned 90% of the market! Fuck price-cuts, they should feel entitled for being able to buy one in first place!"

Heh @ Jul 13th 2008 4:34PM

"Writing a flawless 360 Emulator?"

Actually, I like the sound of that one. I'll give you a budget of $20- should be enough to buy you some hot pockets and some pepsi. Now get to work and call me when you're finished with it.

JerJerBinks @ Jul 13th 2008 4:41PM

The problem with your comment is that you forgot to place emphasis on the right word.

"Microsoft: PLEASE buy our product."

90% of comedy is in the delivery, and you failed hard.

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 4:41PM

Maybe by 2020.It took them over eight-years to write a relatively bug-free PS2 & Xbox emulators that can run smoothly on computers.

Even a pimped-out $10,000 rig wouldn't have the processing power to run 360 games, let alone the "thousand core cell thingy" commonly known as PS3.

DangerMouse @ Jul 13th 2008 4:42PM

It's just good timing. Drop the price before E3, and while it's still fresh in the minds of the unsure consumer, hit 'em with a slew of new games coming in the near future. It's all strategy. And yes, I'm sure they want you to buy their product.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 13th 2008 5:05PM

Jakka: your comments are no better than Co's.

Especially because I believe the PS3 got a price cut earlier than any other console in recent history.

Grant @ Jul 13th 2008 5:08PM

"Even a pimped-out $10,000 rig wouldn't have the processing power to run 360 games"

lol, really?
you do realize the 360 is just a 3-core computer with a decent graphics chip?
a dependable software emulation would probably have to be done on a game to game basis, but that's what they did with a lot of original xbox games to get them running on the 360.

Considering when the 360 came out, consumer dual core computers were only becoming main stream at that point. Now quad core computers are becoming the status quo, and can be found in $700-800 machines. Slap in a top of the line graphics card(hell, why not two), and you've got something that would probably triple all the specs on a 360, which should be more than able to emulate it, for under $2K. It would take a ton of programming to make the actual emulator, but the point is the 360 is not the powerhouse you make it out to be, and emulation isn't that insanely resource exhaustive.

Co @ Jul 13th 2008 5:17PM

lol you guys are a trip.

deaftly: Why the Florida hate? You're not a Buckeyes fan, are ya? ;)

Go Gators!

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 5:26PM

@ LS2LS7

First of all, I don't really care and second of all, that's because PS3 was way to expensive in first place.Also as a general rule, if your rival console is having a price-cut, you're bound to have a price-cut too unless:

1) Your console is far cheaper as it is IE: Wii
2) You're so far ahead in terms of sales that you don't give a shit anymore IE: Wii,PS2.

PS3 doesn't fall into neither category so the only reason why it didn't have a price-cut is either the fact that they lose too much money as it is or my SARCASTIC remark.

@ Grant

Read my comment again.Only recently, they have managed to get PS2 games running smoothly.It's not about hardware because then even a £200 could run these.See, 360 Code and Hardware is completely different from PC code and hardware.It's like having to translate from a different language then tell your PC to run it simultaneously.You can do it on a "weak" 360 because it's a direct 360 Code > 360 Hardware > Result action. On PC it's 360 Code > Emulator > PC Code > PC Hardware > Emulator > Xbox 360 Hardware > Result kind of crap.Now get it perfected so it works flawlessly without crashing.

Now think about it, if executing the following formula with a PS2 emulator pushes your PC to it's limits, then how powerful would your PC need to be to do the same with an infinitely more powerful 360?

aristokrat @ Jul 13th 2008 9:04PM

Yeah, the Xbox 360 runs on a little platform called PowerPC. A reliable x86 emulator is a long way off. And you're gonna need 8 cores to get that bad boy running smoothly if it ever does happen, unless you want to do game-by-game optimization, because instruction-set translation can be more taxing on a processor than the actual code.

deaftly @ Jul 13th 2008 10:00PM

Nah wasn't directed at a team Co, Florida just sucks in general.

Jake11 @ Jul 13th 2008 4:02PM

some solid price cuts MS. I wish games would get a price cut. 60 is so expensive.

OMGOMG @ Jul 13th 2008 4:14PM

Not gonna happen. Come on. Remember when Mario 64 was $70?? People need to realize an increase in price is just part of inflation.

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 4:32PM

You don't know expensive.Ask an Aussie or (to the lesser extent) an European.They're literally dreaming of $60 games.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 13th 2008 5:06PM

The 20GB price cut isn't a price cut, the model is the same price, just the old config is being cleared out. And this one doesn't appear to be an MS price cut, it's an Amazon sale.

MarkHawk @ Jul 13th 2008 4:12PM

All Xbox 360 systems are HDMI out of the box since Sept of 07.

Ben @ Jul 13th 2008 4:27PM

"$50 off the still-$450 Elite, making the HDMI-enabled, 120GB console seductively affordable"
Umm, aren't both the Arcade and the Pro also HDMI enabled? According to Wikipedia, all models that are still being produced, as of July 2007 have HDMI ports. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360#Comparison_of_features
Correct me if I'm wrong...

Heh @ Jul 13th 2008 4:30PM

I don't believe they meant it was the ONLY one with HDMI, but stating that it has HDMI as a general bulletin point-esque thing.

Hafk @ Jul 13th 2008 4:55PM

The HDMI was the original selling point of the Elite, along with it's black paint job and 120 gigs of raw storage POWER.

Of course, they threw it on to the other models, driving down incentive to get the Elite.

Ignatius @ Jul 13th 2008 5:02PM

The Elite is the only one that comes with the HDMI cable, though...

WRE: I own all 3! (4 if you count the DS.) @ Jul 13th 2008 4:32PM

That's cool. Now please, Microsoft, just lower the prices on your hard drives!

Heh @ Jul 13th 2008 4:33PM

Heh @ Jul 13th 2008 4:35PM

First time joystiq's comment system has bit me in the ass and I suspect this won't be the last time.

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 4:43PM

hehe, you got Joy-rolled.

Hafk @ Jul 13th 2008 4:53PM

Make the Xbox 360 Arcade $230-250 and then it becomes the "Oh, that money we brought for the Wii could can buy this instead" console.

Drives the sales. Although, the Wiis are starting to be in stock now, so this may not be worth it anymore.

Dwag @ Jul 13th 2008 5:07PM

The Arcade still looks like garbabe compared to a Wii.
Motion control beats mostly anything the Arcade has to offer. The Arcade ain't worth shit without a HDD.

Why do the retailers have to be the only smart ones to realize that the Elite can actually sell units if it were a $100 less than the 80GB PS3? MS should realize that nobody buys the Elite and releasing a 60GB at 350 just makes the Elite look like garbage.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 13th 2008 5:10PM

Even at the same price, 360 isn't going to cut into Wii sales much. Right now, 360 doesn't appeal to the same people who are making a Wii so hard to find.

Let me put it this way, how many sales is 360 losing right now to Wii? How many people who wanted to play Bioshock, Halo 3 or Mass Effect decided upon going to the store that they'd save $50 and play Zack & Wiki instead?

Co @ Jul 13th 2008 5:22PM

"Right now, 360 doesn't appeal to the same people who are making a Wii so hard to find."

Right now? 360 will never appeal to the mass market that Wii has appealed to.

Everyone that the 360 targets already has one. The 'hardcore to the bone mountain dew IV injectors' are not that big of a market.

Jakka @ Jul 13th 2008 6:16PM

cough* Newton Waggle cough*

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 13th 2008 10:15PM

Co:
In theory, MS could rejigger their lineup and come out with so many family-friendly games that 360 does become a competitor to Wii. I don't see it happening, but I don't rule it out completely.

I do agree right now that 360 is far from overlapping with the Wii.

Dwag @ Jul 13th 2008 5:28PM

The Hardcores are pretty big though come on if MS had focused a lot on them Sony wouldn't have a market outside of JP but MS wants everything so they go and use good FP developers to make crap like how Sony's doing to Insomniac.

Rare: Could easily make another Perfect Dark or even a whole new IP.

David M @ Jul 13th 2008 5:50PM

Hmm I don't know what I should do - buy the $299 360 on sale right now b/c it's the cheapest or wait for the $350 60gb b/c there is a slight chance they'll also include other items, change the hardware in some way, or stores will bundle a free game, or buy the $399 Elite that's on sale at Amazon right now.

I don't know if the Elite is worth $100 over the 20gb though - the only diff is color, 100 more gigs and a free cable right? That's the price of 2 games I can buy. Hmm.

Then again, if I wait til August maybe PS3 will have a price drop and i'll just buy that instead? I don't like how the 360 doesn't include wifi and it's another $50 for Live and both systems would be another $50-60 for a second controller. Darn I can't decide!!! Probably should have bought the PS3 when they included the $100 gift card (although I don't like how it doesn't have PS2 backwards compatibility). I guess I'll at least wait until E3 is over to see what other announcements there are.

aristokrat @ Jul 13th 2008 9:09PM

Ah, the one thing us early-adopters have to gloat over, our universal backwards compatibility. I wonder if my 60GB has increased in value because of all the things they have stripped from the ensuing versions?

Dave @ Jul 13th 2008 6:13PM

Here is what I think is happening:

Arcade SKU: Stays $280

Xbox 360 SKU: Fire sale at $299 to get rid of 20GB models, 60 GB at $349 for good.

Xbox 360 Elite: Will announce that it is coming with BluRay built in for the 2008 holiday season and will continue to cost $450.