Xbox 360 to launch in Europe on November 25th - UK sources News

Ha Ha

Thats alot of money...

w00...

... hmm, £299.

/curbs his enthusiasm

Hehe!

Are you sure you didn't make this story up!?

£249.99 is the RRP! The fact that SONY are continuing to mug people off and are making no bones to hide the fact, will have no bearing on the final Xbox 360 price! :)

this is a standard price for nxt gen console so it seems right. i expect PS3 to be more expensive especially with all the talk from sony's president :/

this is a standard price for nxt gen console so it seems right

Dreamcast? :P

And I still say it'll be £199...

No-one bought one for £299 last time, what makes them think this time will be any different?

Perhaps the fact that they had a 0 installed base before? With a 20+ million installed base now I expect they will shift a few more than last time.

£249 would be great tho :)

if anything the minimum the price will be no less that £250.

So, farewell then, Microsoft's chances in the next generation war.

What are they thinking? "Yes, our machine is inferior to the PS3; yes, we're still going to sell it at the same price; yes, they have BluRay and we've got technology from 1997; yes, we're bumping up the RRP of games but we're going to be 3 months ahead of Sony! That's going to make up for everything!"

"No-one bought one for £299 last time, what makes them think this time will be any different? Stop being so bloody stupid and release it for £199."

'Stupid' would be buying the Nintendo 'revolution' at that price, actually, no just buying it.

Guaranteed £250 or less.

Mark this post.

That'll be $532 or €430. Thank God the games are going to be cheap £49.99. \o/\o/\o/ For import.

i expected 299 we always get ripped off in the uk, to put things in perspective the current generation NVIDIA 7800 is £399, just for a graphics card a full multi processor system for 299 isnt that bad

if you want something on launch be prepared to pay for it... ill be buying along with PGR3, Ghost Recon 3

and those who expect the ps3 to launch 3 months later outside of japan are kidding themselves

UKP = U.K. Pound? or something else? because I only know GBP...

/stops nit-picking.

399 EUR so then - just what I expected... so Sony's evil plans worked and they tricked MS in raising the price bar higher and then crush them by selling PS3 at the same price ;-)

i'll wait for the official word before commenting on the price.

I'm not buying it at that price, I've been there too often... spent loads of money and then realise there's nothing that interesting to play on the 'new box'.

I'll wait until it's sub £200 (probably when PS3 launches) before I consider one of these. In the meantime the PS2 and XBox will suffice for some time wasting.

Maybe Tescos will do a two for one

I think it will launch here at £299.. wait 6 months then it will be £199 and the games will be cheaper too!!

i expect that the xbox 360 will cost 400 - 500 dollars untill the ps3 comes out and the price will go down 100$
still not a bad price they are trying to make some money this time
but the fact is sony has sold millions of psx so they will have a hard time slling it most people will wait till all 3 next gen consoles come out thats what iam going to do dont wanna wast my money 600 is my limit for the next gen
P.S.
balor is a fucking fanboy which is really stupid its not like u make any money every time a xbox sells dude get a fucking life u make no point

I think it will launch here at £299.. wait 6 months then it will be £199 and the games will be cheaper too!!

No, 2 months is the norm for an Xbox reduction, I reckon 2 weeks before Christmas the price will be £199.99. Even though Microsoft will claim record sales and warning the public not to panic over shortages. :)

£45 quid a game ! quess which orifice that can be shoved up.

Oh yeah, they can take £45+ games and ram them right up there! That goes for any console.

Yup Sid, you're probably right.. MS will bleat on about how they just can't possibly satify demand then drop the price a few months after launch, just like last time. I waited and got my XBox for £99, i'll do the same this time too.

just compare the specs to a pc, now shut up

well, i hope this isnt the case, because i cant be spending £300 (before games/extra controller/RGB cable) on a console without a severe beating from the wife...

there is just no explaining that sort of outlay on a personal entertainment device.

"quite sad the fanboys have to come on and say 'ha ha' to rumours. "

I'm just laughing at all those xbox fanboys who said that M$ loves us Europeans while Sony are trying to screw us all the time. Looks like M$ wants to screw us as well, even though the EU contributes more to M$'s profits in software sales than the US. Thanks a lot M$!

well johnson in my mind the 360 is on par with the ps3. At least. Thats what I gather from reading various techsites.
And jokerr. No need to get riled up. You know precisely dick about the price. So do I. Its all rumours.
As to the price. I dont believe the 299. That would be just plain stupid and seriously hinder them winning this round. And they should know. Last time showed them, installed fanbase or not. And I dont believe that MS really care about Sonys pricetalk.

Oh, they do....

There is no way i am paying £300, i did the last time and felt a right mug when the price dropped. Its the same old tactics. And if the games are £45 then they can stuff it where the sun don't shine. Just look at the history of the the first PSX. They dropped the price, changed the spec etc, then done the exact same for the PS2. Microsoft did the same. So just wait till later on as it will drop in price. People seem to have less money these days and the big boys should remember this.

I'll buy one immediately at £199 at £249 I'll consider it but probably wait at £299 forget it, I'll wait...

What was all that talk about not screwing Europe and not repeating the debacle of the original Xbox at US$299 / UK£299?

At that price, talk about squandering your lead and time advantage...

"The original plan was UKP 249, but now that Sony is talking about the PS3 being expensive, UKP 299 is looking more likely," according to one source

What a bunch of suckers. Methinks SCE Japan are playing mind games. I doubt the PS3 will cost more than US$350.

And the PSP debacle itself shows that at least even Sony aren't doing pound for dollar conversion rates. £180 for PSP is not right (compared to $249) but at least SCE Europe are acknowledging some semblance of exchange rates.

They did it before, now with an installed base there is more of a chance to get away with it this time... Why not try again?

Going from Xbox to 360 is less of an upgrade than going from ps2 to ps3 so I'll pass thanks.

It categorically won't be £299. Microsoft's head honchos are on record as saying that they won't make the same pricing mistakes in Europe as last time.

£199 is still my prediction. Game price prediction's probably right though.

"Going from Xbox to 360 is less of an upgrade than going from ps2 to ps3 so I'll pass thanks."

Mate, it's that sort of attitude that leads to waterlogged floors and frustrated mothers.

just wait untill halo 3 comes out then buy one and i gaurantee it will be at least hundred pound cheaper than launch. problem solved

Why would a next-gen console be cheaper than this gen? £299 seems perfectly reasonable to me. Jeez, I just paid £950 for a laptop and it only has a 3GHz cpu with an ATI X300. And my Mac Mini was knocking on £500 with the custom spec I ordered.

£299? Bargain. And I'll still be able to save a few quid, for PS3 whether it be more or the same price.

Forgive the lengthy post, but there's some interesting things to consider here.

MS aren't stupid - they know they have to make up as much ground against Sony in the time they have. They know that better hardware doesn't convince people to part with extra cash, and they learned the hard way. £299 would be daft.

It's Sony who are in a bind this time. Can they afford to release a BluRay player for £199? Only if nobody else is planning on coming to market with a stand-alone player. If they do hit that price point on PS3, they've eroded the consumer stand-alone market before it's even started. Very silly if you're trying to sell the industry a standard:

"Here large companies, re-tool all your factories to support our expensive new player format... oh, and by the way, we've already set expectation of a retail price point of £199, so you'll have to come in under that if you want to compete with us".

There is another knock-on effect. At £199 MANY people will adopt the PS3 with the intention of using it soley to play movies. As everyone knows, that's going to hurt. The console is sold at a loss with the intention of recovering the difference on game sales. To offset that loss they already know how many games they need each person to buy - let's say 7. If you don't buy 7 games for your PS3 or 360 you are essentially a bad customer.

But looking a bit deeper, we also need to consider that Sony owns the BluRay standard. So essentially any movie sold also lines their pockets; but to what degree? Movies sell for less than games - but then people tend to buy more movies. But how soon after the launch of a new standard before there's enough of a market in next gen movies? We also need to take into account the penetration of Hi-Def TV's - so far, this isn't exceptionally high anywhere, but even less-so in Europe.

Sony are essentially betting the farm on Hi-Def. They're in a critical position. They make the Television, they make the players, they own the recording medium and the movie studios. Now how loyal to Sony are you?

Will you spend £300 on a console? Maybe.
Will you spend £45 quid on a game? Sure
£20 quid on a movie? Probably
And now the key component. £1000 on a television? (Sure other people make them, but we know Sony's are about the best).

For this reason, I think avoiding next gen movie playback for the time being could well be a stroke of genius... it means every adopter of your hardware can, and ONLY has to buy your games in order for you to make a profit.

Thanks for reading.

Nice post Nige

Vin I don't understand your humour, if it was humour. Even if the ps3 and 360 are level pegging (It's a battle of +/- on many things, but listening to opinions I respect ps3 has a slight edge) there is more incentive to get a ps3 for me as my ps2 games are starting to look dog ugly, wheras things like Oddworld Stranger looks damn pretty to me still. It depends on how quickly the games dry up on current platforms of course, and if my video card needs the money instead. If I'm sinking £300 into gaming, I generally upgrade the oldest item showing it's age that still gives me fun and that would be the ps2 right now.

It's a risky strategy, but don't assume that Hi-Def TV's will always be too expensive for most people. It's like LCD monitors. At first they were too expensive for most people so most people just stuck with the old CRT monitors, but as more people bought them they quickly came down in price. Few peple are going to buy a Hi-Def tv at £1000 but they will at £300-£400.

Agreed, I don't assume that the technology won't come down in price - I'm just wondering if it will be in the life time of this forthcoming generation.

For a start there's a format war to be fought yet, BluRay vs HD-DVD - history and common sense dictates that only one can survive. With the exception of CD, Sony's track record in this department isn't great.

Edit: Fortune doesn't always favour the technically superior... PS2 vs Xbox, Beta vs VHS, CD vs DAT/Minidisc, x86 vs PowerPC - there's probably a few I've forgotted :)

"What was all that talk about not screwing Europe and not repeating the debacle of the original Xbox at US$299 / UK£299?"

And what happened to waiting for confirmation before acting as if rumour were fact?

*Waits for the inevitable PS3 £399 rumours*

299 quid? Rip off!

People are saying they wouldn't pay £45 for a game-if you had gotten an XBOX on launch you'd have probably noted that certain games were £45 then (I'm looking at you Halo) but the price VERY VERY quickly dropped to a more reasonable £40.

Thats that off my Christmas list then, lets just hope it goes down in price in time for next year. :/

Bloody MS, money grabbing basts like they are!

LOL @ Money grabbing...

Go an buy a dual core AMD or Intel chip right now - see how much change from £299 YOU get.

heh, is this when they tell devs to tell journos it'll be 299, so that when they release it for 249.99 everybody thinks "well thats not too bad".

the funny thing about this place is that people are complaining but i guarantee you that this will be norm for next gen consoles. i still think it will be less thant £299 but everyone saying they can shove it up their *** etc. will be in for a shock when they want to buy a revolution or ps3 ;)

What shock is that then? They'll probably be the same price.

exactly tengu. thats the shock. people think MS are ripping them off when thats just standard

"the PS3 will most likely be around £500 and as games come on blu ray you're talking £50. "

I highly doubt that. They'd effectively be handing over the console market to MS and Nintendo if they were to charge that much.

"I highly doubt that. They'd effectively be handing over the console market to MS and Nintendo if they were to charge that much."

We can all dream, eh?