Alert! Alert! We have breaking news here today. Oh yes. Although it’s been rumoured for a while, Microsoft have finally confirmed a 360 price drop and have announced a 60GB model of the console. Find out all the breaking news details inside.

Note: You may think this is old news, but neither the price drop, nor the 60GB console have been confirmed by Microsoft until yesterday. Rothbart heard about it and he’s not happy… in general AND at this news!

Lets start with the 360’s price drop. The premium 20GB console has dropped by $50 to $299 so that it is now only $50 more than the Wii. The elite (120GB hard drive) has an estimated retail price of $449 and the Arcade model, with a 256MB memory card and no hard drive, will sell at $279.

So here are the prices:

Elite (120GB) – $449

PS3 (40GB) – $399

Premium (20GB) – $299

Arcade (256MB) – $279

Wii – $249

It’s slightly different in the UK as the arcade console is cheaper than the Wii, but I couldn’t find any information on what this price drop means for Europe or the rest of the world, or whether we’ll actually get one at all.

‘But what impact will this price drop have?’ I don’t hear you cry. Well with the Wii still hard to find, a lot of people may just chuck an extra $50 at the cash desk and get a 360. I mean, if you walk into a store all ready to buy a Wii, but your told they’re out of stock, you might just decide to opt for a console with better graphics, better online, larger storage space and a great catalogue of games. You’ve got to admit it’s tempting. Still, I’m not gonna keep rambling on when we already have a great article on this. If you want to see more about the impact of the 360 price drop then read this article by Lono, or listen to Episode 49 of the Sarcastic Gamer podcast.

Now onto the 60GB model of the 360. The 60GB model will retail for $349 and will include everything the $299 Premium console has, only with a bigger hard drive. The 60GB 360 will release in the US and Canada early in August, but there’s no sign of any European launch date. So let’s update our little price table shall we? The answer is yes.

Elite (120GB) – $449

PS3 (40GB) – $399

60GB 360 – $349

Premium (20GB) – $299

Arcade (256MB) – $279

Wii – $249

There we go, nice and updated.

This means the 360 now has 4 SKUs, instead of the original 2 it had at launch. I can see this getting quite confusing…

My main problem with this new line up of consoles is that I cannot imagine why anyone would buy an arcade console with no hard drive, when, for $20 more, they could get a Premium with a 20GB hard drive. That makes no sense to me, especially when buying a 20 GB hard drive separately costs $90. They should just discontinue the arcade and have 3 console bundles 20GB, 60GB and 120GB. Then they should make the Elite, a bit more ‘elite’. I mean all it has is a bigger hard drive! They should chuck in built in wireless, a smaller or built in power brick, wireless headset and a built in Blu-ray player (though that last part might not be possible). It would up the price, but it would be a truly elite package.

So there you have it. All the details of the 360’s price drop and the new 60GB console.

Is anyone that doesn’t have a 360 now considering getting one? If so, which bundle? The comment box would be delighted to hear from you.

Source: Xbox Via Joystiq

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