Microsoft: No Xbox 360 price cut for years to come

The recent spate of price cuts across the whole Xbox 360 range has undoubtedly helped the Microsoft console emerge from a sales doldrum to be very successful over the past two months. But it seems Microsoft may be finished with price cuts for the foreseeable future, with years being mentioned before the next one is due.

The beginning of September saw Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 in every territory, and since then, sales in the U.S., Europe, and Japan have increased by huge margins. The method clearly works, with the price reductions bringing the Xbox 360 in to the budget range of a whole new set of gamers.

Nintendo meanwhile has been sitting on its prices since the Wii was released, with the continuing high sales and the extremely low launch price meaning there’s no need to alter things. Sony too has been quiet of late on the price front, and seems committed to the current price of the PS3, at least until next year.

And now Microsoft has come out and admitted that a further price cut anytime soon is very remote. In fact it could be many years until the Xbox 360 gets any cheaper. Microsoft’s head of gaming and entertainment in the UK, Stephen McGill, tells VideoGamer:

I’m not going to speculate where it might go (the price of the Xbox 360) in five or ten years time, whatever. But we’ve obviously just reduced the price and that’s because we can pass the costs reductions we have straight on to consumers. That’s the right thing to do, obviously from a business point of view it helps it sell even more. I think a lot of people have been waiting for it to become even more affordable and they’re now seeing that benefit and buying it in their droves and we can now hopefully continue it through Christmas and beyond.

It’s great value. And I think the value not only comes from the price of the console but the content. With NXE launching and obviously that’s free for everyone, and the portfolio. There isn’t a better range of games and entertainment, basically fun, on any other platform, and we’re incredibly affordable.

We’re a great price now. I’m not dropping the price for many many years in the future I would suspect.

As McGill is the UK head, that last pronouncement claiming no price cut for many, many years can only really be definite in the UK, but across the range price cuts tend to happen all over the world at around the same time, so I’d speculate that McGill thinks the price of the Xbox 360 will remain static in all territories for the next few years.

That seems strange to me because while the Arcade pack is now as cheap as anything, there’s still definite room for maneuver over the next year or so. Every other console generation has seen regular price cuts occur and these usually coincide with increased sales, so it’s slightly short-sighted to make this sort of announcement on price.

Maybe Microsoft just doesn’t feel the pressure to make any further price cuts when neither Nintendo or Sony seem to be at all bothered about making them?

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