Microsoft lines up two Xbox 360 bundles for the holidays

by David Hinkle on Oct 18th 2011 6:00PM

Microsoft's annual Holiday bundle streak continues this year, with two different SKUs: one targeting the family crowd that enjoys flailing around together, the other targeting the hardcore gaming crowd that's all about no-scoping domes. Both bundles are shipping to retailers today, Major Nelson says.

The first bundle includes a 250 GB Xbox 360 S console with a Kinect, a copy of Kinect Adventures and Carnival Games: Monkey See Monkey Do, and three months of Xbox Live Gold, all for $399.99. The other bundle has a suggested price of $299.99, and sports a 250 GB Xbox 360 S console, three months of Xbox Live Gold and copies of Halo: Reach (downloadable) and Fable 3.

Source: Major Nelson

Tags: bundle, carnival-games-monkey-see-monkey-do, fable-3, fable-iii, halo-reach, kinect, kinect-adventures, microsoft, xbox

Reader Comments (57)

You would think they would include the Kinect bundle with a good Kinect game like Dance Central or Gunstringer, not Carnival Games...

@Tommy758

I think that bundle is aimed at kids... and with the sesame street and pixar kinect games, it's only natural they want more kids to get a kinect this holiday season.

@Tommy758

Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. The only reason I can think of is that they don't want to accidentally hose sales of DC2 ("Why buy Dance Central 2 at the same as your kinect when it already has DC1 in it?"), and maybe Gunstringer isn't a mainstream-enough product in their eyes.

@Tommy758

Exactly! If they had a decent dance game in there, it'd sell WAY more.

@Dante G

These bundles sucks. The Ps3's bundles are way more attractive, IMO.

@Tommy758

Not really. Why give away something for free that you know people are going to want to buy anyway? The free games for both bundles are good enough to entice people to buy them, but not so good (or new in the case of the non Kinect bundle), that would take sales away from them. Consumers will most likely be incliend to still buy those games you listed after getting these games for free.

Talk about crappy bundles. Absolutely nothing about them would make me rush to buy an Xbox if I didn't already have three.

@Cletus VanDamme

Three? What a waste of money. I only have 1 Wii and 1 PS3. Why would anyone need more than one of the same gaming system?

@tendoboy1984

Um clearly, it's 1 for the entertainment center, 1 by the Jacuzzi, and 1 in the bathroom. That's just standard.

@tendoboy1984

I'm guessing he has three in his household: living room, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, maybe?

I used to have two just to myself. One as backup in case of RROD. Lol.

@tendoboy1984 In case one breaks? RROD is a real problem in EARLY 360 models/motherboards.

@tendoboy1984

upgraded my 20gb console back in 2009. Gave the 20gb to my son, it ate a game so I bought him an Elite. Fixed the 20gb. So I have three. DUH!!!

@Cletus VanDamme
Yeah - Depending on your household it's not all that crazy to have multiples of a single system, if it the system you prefer. I have two 360's in my house - one in my older kids room & "mine" in the living room w/ the kinect. I've been trying to work a third into the equasion for my bedroom too, but havn't been successful in that debate yet...

@swooded

If your wife is a bit on the chubby side you can always play the "Fitness Evolved" angle. Or you can just grab your skinny wife by the hair and say something like "Me man, me want new Xbox" that oughta get her on board.

@Cletus VanDamme
Sound advice. I'll have to give it a go when I get off work.

@tendoboy1984 I have 4. They arent a waste if you use them for nearly every form of entertainment. I use mine to stream HDTV/DVR recordings from my Media Center server, its like U-verse with the one big DVR and the rest feed off of it. I also use them for gaming of course, Netflix, Hulu incase I missed a recording or dont have the channel, my DVDs and Blu-rays are ripped to that server so I watch them all on 360.

I lol'd at the jacuzzi, I considered getting a hot tub for the back yard and putting a TV/360 out there.

Before anyone asks, only one has RROD'd once that was in 2007.

With these and the various special edition slims (like the Gears and Star Wars themes), I have to assume this is some sort of record for most different console bundles released in a year.

The Gears of War bundle is where it's at.

I would like for them to lower that price so I can get another one. The Xbox that I have now could die at any time.

Crap. I was hoping for a 4GB bundle at 199.99 to use as a media center extender in the back room. Maybe one of the big retailers will throw one together...

@siteuntitled
Uh...the $199 4GB console has been available for more than a year, I think. Or were you hoping for $199 4GB w/ Kinect, 'cause that ain't happening for awhile, considering it's still at TWO-99.

Disc drive on my Holiday 2008 model is fizzing out on me, might need to replace. Or I could swap it for a 360 S model altogether.

@Shadowbender

And by that first replace I mean to repair the disc drive itself.

@Shadowbender
You should go for the 360s model you'll never have to worry about a RROD.

This is true. Wonder, though...I've never had an RROD, not only "not ever" but also never on my current model. So I wonder if at this point there is still a high risk of me getting an RROD...hmm.

@Shadowbender
Yeah I never got a RROD either but I upgraded my original model for the larger hard drive and just in case it ever happened. Also why the hell did I get downvoted it's true, the 360s model doesn't RROD.

One of these days I'll consider upgrading, maybe if my 60gb ever RRODs. But it's been going strong for about 3 years so meh.

No price drop=fail, Microsoft. You could have used the holiday to expand your lead on PS3 again, now you're just going to lose it. Poorly played.

@JasonGW
I agree, 400 bucks is too much for a 6 year old system (even if it is an updated version).

@JasonGW

False, MS continues to sell really well in NA, and with recent releases like Forza 4 (huge franchise in EU) their sales will be fine going into the holiday season.

You'd be surprised....

@BoBsS They're selling well in NA, but are being outsold by PS3 just about everywhere else. I follow the numbers every month, and am not at all surprised. Fact is, they need a price drop in order to maintain their lead through the holidays. If they don't get one, they WILL become #3 for the generation this winter.

Been thinking about upgrading to an S before my jet engine-sounding old model craps out, but these SKUs won't do it. Already own Reach and I've little to no interest in Kinect or Fable.

@Boring K

Yeah those aren't great bundles. I think it's a good idea to upgrade sooner rather than later though. Wait too long, then they announce the Xbox 720, and suddenly your money seems wasted. Lol.

@Boring K

i don't see how you can say that Reach is just "cool" unless, of course, you're not that into FPS games. it's the perfect FPS imo. good single player, staple Halo multiplayer awesomeness, and Forge World = easily worth $60, which is more than i can say for a whole lot of other games...

Well I haven't had a 360 for three years or so now and I wanted to get one, but I'll wait for a Gamestop or Walmart bundle or something.

This is just bad,... Halo Reach is cool, but Fable III is a train wreck of an addition.

@TheKbob
Fable III wasn't a train wreck. It was akin to Dragon Age 2 where it didn't quite live up to it's predecessor, but it was still a good game.

@TheKbob Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Fable 3, but if they offered the PC's challenge mode up as DLC for the 360 version? I would be ALL OVER THAT

I just wish the Star Wars bundle hadn't been pushed into sometime next year so they'd have time to pull the Star Wars Kinect game up from the bottom of the crap barrel. I want to upgrade to a quieter S model, and the fat hard drive and nerdgasm styling of that bundle was gonna be enough to get me to buy a new box. But for now I wait and ignore these drab offerings.

Really? Not even Halo Anniversary? They're bundling Halo: Reach, the game that came out over a year ago?

It would look more appealing if it were Gears 3 + Forza 4 cars and guns bundle.

@DokiDokiBawanga

Or if you buy in the next 15 minutes, you get a second Xbox 360, all for the low price of $19.99!

It sucks how Black Ops basically took over the Halo franchise. Halo is such a better game, I wish it still had the popularity it used to.

Only good game is Reach. Fable 3 is ok and should be played on PC.

Sony is annoncing their new bundle with Resistance 3 & Killzone 3 and Microsoft respond with this ?

I bought my 2nd xbox 360 S 250g one month ago $199.99 CDN @ Best buy, I think that was a better deal.

The fact that Xbox's still sell for more than $100 and keep selling makes me sad to be a human being.

@Slomoshun Whats sad about it? Its not like its lacking in comparison the PS3. Hell, the Wii is still over $100.

@AFATALERR0R

Actually yes the 360 does lack in comparison to the PS3. I own both and a gaming PC and there is a clear difference between all 3.

Any console selling over $100 in the year 2011/2012 is just a slap in the face to anyone that buys it. The technology is 7 yrs old ffs.

I got my 360 @ launch, which seems like eons ago. Ummmm... Microsoft, I'm ready for a new system now.

xbox720 or XXXbox

Kinect Carnival games, or Fable 3... Damn...

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Halo: Reach

Microsoft lines up two Xbox 360 bundles for the holidays

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:06PM Tommy758 said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:10PM Dante G said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:15PM CypherSignal said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:27PM Dizazter said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:04PM southernpredator said

Posted: Oct 21st 2011 2:29AM timotim said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:07PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:14PM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:29PM Dizazter said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:29PM FlashJS said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:36PM GuitarHero666 said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:40PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:46PM swooded said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:07PM Cletus VanDamme said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 8:23PM swooded said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 9:57PM AFATALERR0R said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:08PM Schlecht said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:12PM GlockXIII said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:13PM Grodd said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:13PM siteuntitled said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:17PM CypherSignal said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:30PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:31PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 8:23PM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Oct 19th 2011 12:49AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Oct 19th 2011 8:02PM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:37PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:40PM JasonGW said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:57PM fohf said

Posted: Oct 19th 2011 1:03AM BoBsS said

Posted: Oct 19th 2011 1:29AM JasonGW said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 6:53PM Boring K said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:01PM FlashJS said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 11:41PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:04PM TheKbob said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 8:26PM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Oct 19th 2011 12:44PM Robborboy said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:17PM Mr Bungo said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 18th 2011 7:53PM DokiDokiBawanga said

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