[Spank-A-Thon]

As taken from here.

[28/08/2002: 11:58]
Console war taken to the next level: hot on the heels of the PS2 price drop, Xbox is now £40 cheaper

Within moments of our speculation that Microsoft may be dropping the price of Xbox to mirror the PS2 price cut to £169.99, then Microsoft announce that, yes, Xbox will drop in price to £159.99.

The cut - down £40 from £199.99 - is the third price drop since Xbox was launched in the UK eight months ago and represents a reduction of almost 50% on its initial retail price of £299.99.

As per the PS2 reduction, the new Xbox price will come into effect from this Friday (30 August).

"The video games industry is more robust than ever this year and new consoles and games are expected to dominate Christmas wish lists," reckons Sandy Duncan, Vice President of Xbox Europe.

"Xbox is extremely well-positioned to be at the top of those lists because it's the best value. The intense power and gaming experiences consumers get with Xbox is simply unsurpassed."

With both Sony and Microsoft having announced cheaper next-gen hardware on the same day, we're now waiting to see if Nintendo will follow suit. We'll keep you posted.

Wow! An almost 50% price reduction in 8 months for the XBox. This is unbelievable. For me as a keen gamer, there is still not quite enough must-have games in the UK to make me buy one. But believe me, it is becoming tempting...

However, the news of this drop presents many questions. Why are they doing this? Is the XBox really doing so terribly in Europe? Is the XBox following in the footsteps as the Dreamcast (although without anywhere near the same quality of games)?

I think that MS are becoming desperate in Europe, they need to start shifting some XBox's and I believe this latest price cuts exemplifies that.

SONY don't need to worry, with close to 30 million units sold they are more than safe.. but what about the XBox?

I don't know, but I have a feeling that in Europe at least, the console war is over.

- S