The current price of the 360 Arcade SKU stands at €280 and the Premium SKU at €349 in Europe. However the German Financial Times uncovered plans two days ago, that Microsoft may be dropping prices for both systems from as early as next week in mainland Europe.

The new prices would knock the Arcade down to 199 (~£150) and the Premium to €299 (~£230). That would potentially make the Arcade cheaper than a Wii!

Possible price drops were also mentioned by MCVuk last week.

Microsoft is yet to make an official statement but this would not be the first time they drastically dropped their prices on multiple SKUs at once.

However, the most interesting thing is that nothing has been mentioned for the Elite.
Previously they had dropped prices for all three systems at once, it would not be wise to drop two SKUs and leave the Elite still sitting there at the same price as a PS3. Not unless they were giving the Elite something extra.

It does seem that, sooner or later, Microsoft will come round to Blu-Ray, I just don’t believe that it should be in this generation of consoles. The 360 has almost peaked, lord knows it has enough different systems already, the last thing we need is another SKU and if you want my opinion (Which you probably don’t but I’m gonna give it anyway) all the rumours of Microsoft eyeing up Blu-Ray will lead to only one thing: The next generation of Xbox will come sooner than expected, and it will bring Blu-Ray along with it.


Also on other news, I’ll be attending Play.com Live @ Wembley next Sunday; a close friend of mine has a cousin in one of the bands performing on stage and has managed to get us a few tickets. I don’t expect it to be a mind blowing day of awesomeness but it should be a good laugh at the very least.

If anyone else is attending send me a PM and maybe we can go raid the Lego Indiana Jones exhibit.