Officials from Microsoft have confirmed that the Xbox 360 family of consoles will receive new price cuts in Australia and New Zealand.
The Xbox 360 Arcade will drop in price by AU$50 to AU$349, while the Premium and Elite versions will fall by AU$80 to AU$579 and $AU649, respectively. Current exchange rates put the Australian dollar at near parity with the U.S. dollar.
The news follows still unconfirmed reports that a price cut of an equivalent amount is being planned in the U.S., with leaked retail fliers appearing to show a US$50 cut for the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Xbox 360 is currently being
outsold by the Wii by two to four times, while the PlayStation 3 is also outselling Microsoft’s console – albeit by a much smaller margin. The PlayStation 3 is currently priced at AU$699 in Australia and the Wii at AU$399.
The newspaper interviewed Australian Xbox group product marketing manager Jeremy Hinton and asked what had prompted the price cut. “We've got a track record showing that whenever possible we want to pass on savings to the consumer. We thought this was a great time to do that,” said Hinton.
Asked whether he was disappointed at the Xbox 360’s performance so far in Australia, Hilton answered: “If you look at the dollars going through the till over the past 12 months you'll see consumers are buying more Xbox 360 products than any other platform - the entire package of console, software and accessories. So we're very pleased with how it's tracking.”
Nevertheless, consumers in Australia and New Zealand have consistently complained of high prices for all next generation consoles, with reports of some retailers already adding their own discounts on top of the new Xbox 360 price cuts.
