Who`s dum enough to buy a flawed design gaming console these days anyway? You`re better off (financially, entertaining pov and phisically) with a wii. And in the meantime we wait for PC version of Halo3. Until it shows up most likely AMD and Nvidia will also have a valid mid-class offer (not the jokes they`re suggesting right now).

If I read this correctly, first it is stated that there will be a $50 drop on all variants, but reading on it is stated that the core's new price will be $280 ($19 drop, from $299), and the Elite will be $450 ($29 drop from $479). Now, I could be mistaken, but that to me is definately NOT a $50 drop on ALL variants...

[you are right: the headline should read "up to... " -ed]

I exepect another dip for the holidays...

It is $20 off of core, $50 off premium, and $30 off elite.

I don't see this helping as the Wii still sells for around $250 and the games are cheaper. Gotta remember that the majority of parents most likely to buy systems now a days were kids that grew up playing on the Nintendo game systems. But, I see the only thing hurting the Wii at the moment is the lack of new innovative games. Sure, you can pick up all the old great Gamecube games really cheap, but users want something new and entertaining! My 2 cents.

Bob

The release push backs, and teasing trailers have been giving fans blue-(well you know). Now they will have their own system too look forward to, with an entire package deal.

After 2 yrs 50 bucks is the best they can do, and only 30 on the elite. I would say elite at 399 and I may be interested for Blue Dragon, but anything higher than that for an FPS only console. It is not worth it.

When the core console hits $200 I'll buy one for the family room. I have a regular Xbox now and do a little PC gaming myself.

I won't buy a Wii if it was $50 though, I don't want to move when playing video games...what a dumb idea, video games are for being lazy!

The drop is too small. The billion dollar loss on the warranty repair fiasco doesn't help. I don't know how they justify charging $100 for a 20GB 2.5" HDD. MS should just sell the enclosures for $10 and let you supply your own HDD. Honestly, they are being as controlling as Apple.

As far as Wii, really only makes sense to me if one has a wife or young children (which I don't). I'm not going to buy an Easy-Bake Oven, either. If you're a grown man playing Wii in your basement, alone (like my buddy who is married), then I'd seek help.

360 is not a FPS-only machine, it just has a ton of them, many of which are excellent. The price is still too high and the same goes for PS3. Wii will most likely outsell them both, but so will the Nintendo DS. They do not share the same audience. How many people do you think are having trouble deciding between a 360 and a Wii? You buy one or the other, or maybe both.

i've been reading about this for a while because i've wanted to buy a 360 for a long time now, but my problem has always been money. My family isn't rich and i'm not one of those little spoiled Douches that get money from their parents for everything. I had to work over 90 hours this week to afford a 360 and when i call Eb games and find out that the Xbox 360 price drop is already here in Canada and has dropped the price of a premium $100 i nearly crapped my self and prayed to god.
i'm so glad that i am now able to pick up a Xbox 360 premium for $400 tax even though it should be alot less still because the canadian dollar is almost on par with the U.S. still
THANK YOU MICROSOFT I LOVE YOU.

I know it's sad, but I've had a Wii since Dec 26th. I broke down and bought a 360 Elite last week. I got tired of not being able to play online with the Wii. It's great for parties and backyard fun. But COME ON!!! it's been months and the online play sucks.

Bummer too on only a $30 drop. I went to EB today and was pretty shocked when I was only given a $32 store credit (applied directly to H3).

I find Microsoft's timing of the price drop very interesting, even more so than the drop only being $50 on the premium. I'm not sure what Microsoft's reasoning was to drop the price before the release of its most anticipated title. Halo 3 is almost guaranteed to move large amounts of consoles, so to drop the price now would to relinquish much revenue to be made just from that title, especially with the good position Microsoft is in right now. If this is to make the console more competitive with the wii then a $50 dollar price drop is inadequate anyways so it would seem that the smarter decision would have been to at least hold the price drop until Halo release to add to the hype, or possibly wait until November when several more triple A titles should have been released.

Maybe there is some way that they have been able to streamline the manufacturing process fairly recently. If they are able to get some of their parts for less than normal, then by correlating the price drop with the impending release of Halo 3 they will be able to move a lot more systems. Besides, Microsoft could afford to give the damned things away if it really wanted to.