Xbox 360 Arcade confirmed - $279 package to battle Wii and PS3
By Dave Parrack
After rumours galore over the last few weeks, Microsoft has finally confirmed the existence and details of the new Xbox 360 Arcade pack. It’ll be priced at $279 and will be squarely aimed at the family market, currently being completely dominated by the Nintendo Wii.
Over the past few weeks rumours have been surfacing of a new lower priced basic Xbox 360 package. Photos were even taken and plastered across the web of the new SKU on shop shelves despite Microsoft keeping quiet on their plans for release. Whether this was a marketing ploy or a retailer’s mistake has never been revealed.
Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, told the Financial Times:
“Arcade becomes [for us] the ability to bring in a new set of audiences. They’re probably a little bit more casually focused, they’re looking for a new family experience or they’re more price focused.”
So Microsoft are finally going after the Wii’s market, which has proved very profitable in the year since its launch. The Xbox 360 has always been a bit more of a grown up machine than the Wii, with first person shooters and mature games being the mainstay of software. The Arcade pack should firmly place the Xbox 360 in the same bracket as the Wii, both price wise and target consumers, and could grab a sizeable chunk of the market.
For $279, Xbox 360 Arcade buyers will receive a core system with a 256mb memory unit, a wireless controller and an Xbox Live Arcade disk with Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man, and UNO games on it. This basically reads like a child friendly starter pack, and should expand Microsoft’s customer base considerably.
This confirmation of a lower priced entry level console comes hot on the heels of the new 40gb PS3 being announced by Sony. It seems the cost of owning a next gen console is starting to come down in price quite considerably, with a selection of lower priced options now on the table.
At the moment that’s all we have, with no release date (although rumours suggest early November) and no confirmation of a release outside of the US. The question is, will Microsoft trying to appeal to everyone be a successful experiment or not? What do you think?
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Stumble It!
Tips N4G
October 18th, 2007
Finally, Microsoft is talking sense–but after bad reputation, I doubt that this will be a major threat for the Wii
October 19th, 2007
dcdc
October 19th, 2007
get a ps3,360 is crap it will overheat and burn your house like my did.