US Xbox 360 price cuts now official.

With the rumors and leaked info being rampant over the past month all pointing to Xbox360's imminent price cut, Microsoft have finally made it official.

With effect from September 5, Xbox360 Arcade is priced at US$199 (RM650), lesser by US$80. The standard 60GB Xbox360 is now cheaper by US$50 to US$299 (RM1000) and the 120GB Xbox Elite gets the highest price cut, from US$449 to US$399 (RM 1300), a cut of US$150.

Microsoft's latest move is seen as it's effort to boost stagnant sales especially with Xmas season coming soon. This effectively makes Xbox Arcade as the cheapest next gen console in the market.Will Sony and Nintendo follow suit? With Wii's leader position and sales not seemingly letting up, its highly doubtful, but hey.... anything is possible.

Also, be mindful that prices in Malaysia may not come down so soon as prices in Asia have not been announced and due to existing stock levels.

Sony "Big Bang" event on October 12, 2007 to announce 40GB PS3?

Sony Computer Entertainment US is said to be announcing something major on its "Big Bang" event come October 12, 2007. Many gaming industrial players and enthusiasts are hoping that Sony will announce the cheaper USD$399 40GB PS3, which research is predicting to attract an increase of over 20% demand for the PS3 as of current.

More rumors are aslo being belt out, going as far as setting November 16th as a date that will see the street avaiability of the USD$399 40GB PS3. There were even leaked Best Buy documents showing the stock coding for a certain “40GB PS3″ stock in store by October 28th 2007!

Sony is still keeping mums at it, but with recent developments in the FCC, and Sony being eager to counter Xbox360 price cuts and Halo 3, the cheaper 40GB PS3 seemingly getting more real as each day passes. We shall know come October 12th or November 16.

Rumor Commentary: 40GB PS3 soon?

The internet as well as traditional media have been abuzz with the rumored 40GB PS3. Many industry watchers are suggesting that Sony could be announcing the 40GB PS3 sometime next week, in a bid to steal some of Halo 3's street release date.

There are more rumbles in the hardware industry players, with some unamed "electronic manufactuing news source" have revealed that Sony have enlisted FoxConn (Taiwan based company that currently produces the Playstation 2) to produce 40GB PS3. Rumors have even planted the 40GB PS3 with a USD$399.90 price level, but fully expecting other lesser specs (no bluetooth, no card readers, no WiFi?) at that price level.

Personally, although I am taking this rumor with a pinch of salt, there are several advantages for Sony to do so.

1) USD$399 price point is seen by industry player as the ceiling price consumers will buy for electronics goods.
2) At USD$399, it makes the (40GB) PS3 a very cheap blu-ray movie player with HD gaming capabilities, as the cheapest HD-DVD standalone players from rival camp Toshiba will be retailing at USD299.
3) With more total PS3 sold, this will also increase the total numbers of consumers of blu-ray movie discs.
4) With Sony deep entrenched in the blu-ray camp, increasing PS3 and blu-ray consumers makes perfect business sense as they will stand to earn from license of blu-ray players, movie deals (they do own several studios) and they dont want a repeat lost of technology format (remember Sony's betamax videotape lost the format war against JVC's VHS format).

As Sony is eager to win the next gen DVD format, by push more PS3 into homes with a cheaper USD$399 entry level 40GB PS3 makes perfect business sense to me. We will see if this turns out to the truth in the next few weeks.

RUMOR: New PS3 starter pack with Heavenly Sword and F1 06??

While I don't usually indulge in spreading rumors, the following rumor is too good to pass up.

It seems that a contributor (Robinspain) to NEOGaf forum has leaked to the internet an image that supposedly be a new starter pack headed for Europe and/or Australia. At the price of the current starter pack (which is supposed to expire on 31st Aug 2007) of Euro599, the new starter pack is rumored to contain two controllers and two new(er) games. The games are supposedly to be Heavenly Sword and F1 06 (huh??).

Personally, I am inclined to call this a hoax, but who knows if Sony will make an announcement regarding it soon?? Perhaps this starter is actually headed for Asia, and will be announced during CGA Games Convention 2007 tomorrow??