XBox: Huge US Price Cut

Microsoft have generally been slower to cut XBox prices in the US than they have in Europe – possibly because it started out at a much lower price there in the first place. Now, they’ve made a massive cut – possibly because sales of video games in the spring/summer months traditionally slump.

The XBox has been cut by $30 (UK£16.50, €24.60 ) to $149 (UK£81.75, €122.12). This makes it cheaper in the US than a GameBoy Advance SP is in the UK (a GBA-SP is currently UK£84.99 on Amazon, making it nearly US$155).

Microsoft are planning similar price cuts for Canada and Mexico, but would not say if other markets could look forward to a discount.

Many games such as Counter Strike and Project Gotham Racing will also see price cuts to $29.99.

Microsoft also released a rather striking limited edition “Crystal” XBox in the UK this week – it’s entirely transparent and is only £139, which sounds like good value until you compare the Dollar price with the new US price for the ordinary model (US$253, €207).

Crystal XBox

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?