Our very own Nick Chester can’t help but detect a whiff of desperation flavoring persistent price cuts, and I certainly get that feeling too with the news that Microsoft Japan is slashing Xbox 360 prices by up to 30%.
Currently, the Xbox 360 is a hard-to-acquire item in Japan thanks to the country going crazy for Tales of Vesperia. When the 360 returns, it will sport a massive price cut. The Arcade system will drop by ¥8,000 to ¥19,800 ($182) while the Pro and Elite models will be dropping down by ¥5,000 and ¥8,000, pricing them at ¥29,800 and ¥39,800 respectively. That’s $274 and $367, for those who don’t understand Moon Currency.
Well, that’s lovely stuff, but it smacks of a Microsoft still desperate to keep hold of some scraped momentum in Japan, when it could instead be focusing on the market that actually gives some semlance of a sh*t. Still, this seems to be the way of many companies in the industry right now — ignorantly treat the people who care like a commodity that will always be there, while scrabbling around for a piece of other peoples’ pie. Still, great news for any Japanese people who were holding out. There are millions of ’em out there.
