UK retailer Woolworths (not to be confused with the defunct US five and dime store) allegedly published a price cut for the Xbox 360 in the company's Christmas catalog, which officially releases in a couple weeks. Scans of the holiday booklet apparently show that each of Microsoft's consoles will receive a £30 cut, reducing the Arcade to £130, Pro to £170 and Elite to £230.

Woolworths would not confirm the information to GI.biz, stating that "The Christmas 2008 Woolworths Big Red Book" will release the first week of October and, "until that date, remains a confidential document."

The recent Xbox 360 price cut doubled sales of the console last weekend, according to Microsoft. The company tells Bloomberg that some consoles sold "six times" the previous weekend's rate ... of course, Microsoft didn't actually give any hard sales numbers.

For actual sales data since the price cut, it appears we'll have to wait another month for the NPD data -- unless Microsoft just comes out with it. The August NPD data (which should release very soon) won't reflect the alleged jump in sales.
[Via GameDaily]

Microsoft is running an "Extended Play Download Days" promotion between now and the end of October, with select downloadable content discounted for six Xbox 360 titles. Sure, half of the promotion consists of Beautiful Katamari accessories and stages, but we've also got Forza Motorsport 2, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero 3, Lost Odyssey and a deep discount for Oblivion Shivering Isles (from $30 to $20). Not coincidentally, today also marks the first day of the new Xbox 360 price drop.

Major Nelson announced that the price cuts for the Xbox 360 we reported on two weeks ago will be official as of Sept. 5. The new prices for the console are:

• Xbox 360 Arcade - $199
• Xbox 360 60GB - $299
• Xbox 360 Elite - $399

This means that the Elite and 60GB received a $50 price drop, while the Arcade received an $80 cut. Now we wait to see if the new prices help boost the Xbox 360's slouching sales.

The Xbox 360's continued struggle to win the hearts, minds and tightly shut wallets of Japanese gamers is not without benefits for tardy adopters. Microsoft has announced a new price drop for the system in the region, with the Xbox 360 Arcade model costing 19,800 yen ($180) as of September 11th. The nearly 30% drop will make the system the cheapest of the current-gen bunch -- and yes, that includes the Wii, you snarkastic lot sitting at the back.

In addition, the 60GB Xbox 360 will be introduced to Japan at 29,800 yen ($270), while the Elite will have its price chopped to 39,800 yen ($370).

[Via Engadget]

An image showing up on several forums (including QJ.net and HighDefDigest) allegedly shows the Sept.7 Kmart flyer featuring the expected rumored Xbox 360 price cut. This latest ad comes a week after a Radio Shack flyer featured similar information.

If this Xbox 360 price cut plays out anything like the one from last month, we'll continue receiving a steady stream of retail ad and system confirmations without a word from Microsoft until the 11th hour. Expect another gallery post with all the retail information if that's what happens.

[Via X3F]

It appears that two of the Xbox 360 SKUs will receive a $50 price drop by the week of Sept. 7, making the 60GB model $299 and the Elite $399 -- we've yet to hear any change on the $279 Arcade meanwhile, the Arcade will drop $80 to $199. A few of our retail contacts, some of whom have given us good intel in the past and who all work for separate corporations, have sent us identical information regarding a price drop. Evidence of the Elite and Arcade price cut can be found in the gallery below.

Update: Oh mercy, it's been a long day. The Arcade is marked as $199 in the flyer as well (under the TV, to the left). Thanks, Strike Man.

[Thanks Patrick, Master X, and everyone else who helped.]

Murmurings of another impending Xbox 360 price drop refuse to dissipate, with an alleged photograph of an unnamed retailer's inventory system, showing an early September price drop for the Arcade model, showing up on VGChartz. The screen seems to indicate a new $199.99 price for the unit -- as was rumored earlier this week -- becoming effective on September 7th, 2008.

With veracity and origin unclear, we'll leave you to debate the likelihood of this price drop. Of course, if you work at an electronics retailer, it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out for fellow employees taking impromptu snapshots of their monitors.

[Via Engadget]

"Is this thing on?"

This is his first night at the comedy club. It's a seedy, poorly lit establishment frequented by society's dregs and a lingering smell of burnt onions. He adjusts his tie and prays that the squeaky ceiling fan doesn't drown out his applause ... nor his accompaniment.

"So, what's the deal with these Xbox 360 prices? I tell ya, I'm beginning to think they're emo ... since they keep cuttin' themselves. Take this mole guy from Ars Technica. See, he's the one who let's 'em in on industry see-grits, but they can't tell us who he is due to a blinding contract. His latest piece o' dirt is that the Xbox 360 is goin' down in September -- that's $399 for the Elite, $299 for the 60 gigger and $199 for the Arcade. Man, I'm so confused by all these models. They keep explainin' them to me and I gotta keep asking. SKUse me?"

Squeak. Squeak.

[Thanks, "Heh." We're here all week.]

The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and we expect a few other mainstream news outlets, are finding it in vogue to report the $50 price drop for the Xbox 360 Pro is imminent. As evidenced by our gallery below, we're fairly certain that the new $299 price for the Pro console will be in effect by this Sunday.

Microsoft still has not confirmed the Pro price drop, which is making us wonder. We're slowly gathering evidence, and it's still too early to say for sure, but there's a niggling suspicion that Microsoft is pulling a repeat of Sony's great PS3 clearance sale switcharoo from 2007, but that's just a rumor for now.

Source -- WSJ (Subscription required)
Source -- Reuters

As we patiently wait for Microsoft to acknowledge the $299 Xbox 360 price drop, we'd like to thank everyone who helped by sending us information. We've put together the gallery below to store all the (non-duplicate) images we've received about the markdown.

Thanks, once again, to everyone who assisted.

Thanks to an anonymous GameStop manager we now have an internal corporate memo detailing the Xbox 360 Pro's price drop to $299 for this Sunday. We're currently trying to get a better resolution scan, but the whole shebang is detailed in black and white on the page.

We now wait for Microsoft to acknowledge the price drop, which has gone from leaks to full blown flood of retail flyer confirmation.

[Thanks again to everyone helping; special thanks to our Anonymous source.]

The latest evidence of a $50 price drop for the 20GB Xbox 360 to $299 this Sunday comes courtesy of mega-retailer Target. The fine gentlemen over at X3F received a scan of what will allegedly be printed in next week's flyer. As a nice bonus, with the purchase of the Xbox 360, Target shoppers will also receive a $25 gift card.

It's time Microsoft just came out with it.

[Thanks to everyone in the retail world helping with these stories!]

With a gallon of milk costing less than a gallon of gas in many places, it's not surprising to hear Activision CEO Bobby Kotick keep on message about console price cuts in this economy. Speaking with the Times Online, he believes there is real demographic expansion within the industry's customer base, but feels the cost of purchasing hardware is "prohibitive."

He points out that during economic slowdowns the game industry does well because people are looking for entertainment in their homes. Kotick may get his wish if the rumors of an incoming Xbox 360 price drop are true; at the same time, NPD figures show consumers warming up to the PS3's price. Meanwhile, we ponder making a car that runs on milk.

[Via GameDaily]

Following up on yesterday's rumor that the Xbox 360 Premium model will soon fall to $299, Joystiq has received (from a separate source) what we believe may be the full-page Kmart ad confirming the price drop . However, our new source says that the flyer is actually for the week of July 13 (E3 week!) and not the originally reported week of July 6. We're attempting to get a better quality scan (this latest image is courtesy of another cell phone) and hope to update by this evening.

Update: We now have a very good quality scan of the page. Click the image above to check it out.

[Thanks to everyone assisting in this story!!]