Anonymous sources reveal Xbox 360 launch date and UK price

360 News | £299 to you, squire.*

*Allegedly.

An article posted earlier today over at Eurogamer.net is claiming that 'highly-placed' sources in the UK gaming industry have let slip some interesting nuggets of information regarding the launch of Microsoft's next-generation Xbox 360 console.

According to the sources (who have insisted on anonymity), the machine will hit UK stores with a rather eye-watering £299 price tag, and is set to launch on November 25th. And despite Microsoft's endless talk about a simultaneous worldwide release, the sources also suggest the console will launch in the U.S. first, albeit only a few days earlier than in Europe. An official announcement is expected from Microsoft at the Game Convention event in Leipzig, Germany on August 17th.

The surprisingly high £299 price tag - which translates to just under $700AU - is some way above the mooted price point of the machine in the US, where virtually everybody and their dog is expecting a $299 (or £168 / $390AU) price point. It's believed that the pricey nature of the console may have been influenced by Sony, who have recently been discussing how PlayStation 3 will be released at 'a premium price'. Said one of Eurogamer's sources: 'The original plan was £249, but now that Sony is talking about the PS3 being expensive, £299 is looking more likely.'

Of course, this is mainly wild speculation, and until Microsoft do show up with an official announcement - they refused to comment on this story today, even when we used our best puppy dog eyes - we should probably say that none of this is concrete. Yet the appearance of the story on a site as reputable as Eurogamer is certainly interesting, and as a result we're not dismissing it entirely.

Eurogamer's sources were certain of one thing however: at launch, software will carry a recommended retail price of £44.99, or $104AU. Whether retailers actually follow that recommendation is another question, though the sources quoted by the article seem quite certain that this is the price being bandied about to retailers by Microsoft. Apparently, the big 'M' is a little unhappy at having to do this, though claims that it's being driven by demands from third party publishers. We reckon Bill wants a new conservatory and, ooh, maybe an ornamental koi pool would be nice?

Anyway, more news as soon as Microsoft or other 'highly-placed sources' cough it up.

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20 Comments

David

6 years ago

It will probably still be US$300 in America. It's just another company ripping off Europe and Australia.

Remember that the PSP will cost us PAL guys almost DOUBLE the Japanese price, and we get it almost a year later. That is a massive ammount of dis-resect for the PAL gamer by sony, maybe MS just wants in on that?

Then again, who knows? $700 is a mistake they made on the first Xbox, and it dropped quickly. Why would they do it again? I suppose they've proven this generation that they're in it for power and control, not to make money...

At least you poms actually get it this year!

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

^ At least you poms actually get it this year!

Oh, I'd be very surprised if you didn't get it this year David - remember Santa's elves need time to wrap the things up.

Gtpod

6 years ago

Ouch, £299's not a pretty sight at all. Might be out of my price range for once...

David

6 years ago

Chris-Leigh wrote

Oh, I'd be very surprised if you didn't get it this year David - remember Santa's elves need time to wrap the things up.

Huh?

Oh well, you're winning the cricket. Which is good.

Chris

6 years ago

Launching at £299 will lose any advantage they have in launching early. A £229-249 price will tempt a hell of alot more gamers before the PS3 is release.

themak

6 years ago

Seriously, this cannot be correct. This is roughly twice the price, and makes it the same price as a ps3. This is around $600USD, I simply cannot believe that Microsoft can set such a stupid price point and seriously expect all but the most hardcore deep-pocketed gamers to buy it. If they launch a penny over £200 then they will loose customers purely becuse it is out of their reach. Oh and if you read the source article correctly then the only thing the source said was the launch date, he mentioned £299 as a speculative top end of posssible price.
"may be as high as" is diiferent to "may be roughly" because it is far looser.

Oh and if they want to screw us brits then I'll placde my pre-order in Germany and get it shipped to the UK.

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

'Seriously, this cannot be correct. This is roughly twice the price, and makes it the same price as a ps3. This is around $600USD, I simply cannot believe that Microsoft can set such a stupid price point and seriously expect all but the most hardcore deep-pocketed gamers to buy it.'

It is surprisingly high, but then like-for-like US/Europe prices are nothing new to this industry.

'Oh and if you read the source article correctly then the only thing the source said was the launch date, he mentioned £299 as a speculative top end of posssible price.'

I think we covered in the article that this was speculation.

'"may be as high as" is diiferent to "may be roughly" because it is far looser.'

To be honest, I'm struggling to see the difference there, though I didn't actually write either of those anyway.

themak

6 years ago

Chris-Leigh wrote

'"may be as high as" is diiferent to "may be roughly" because it is far looser.'

To be honest, I'm struggling to see the difference there, though I didn't actually write either of those anyway.

I was merely saying that the article on eurogamer (the source) mentioned the price as a top guess, the only actual price speculation in the article that sounded about right was the PS3 at £249 to £299. Microsoft has been clear about significantly under cutting the PS3 in price. I belive that the source simply said something along the lines of "Yeah, the Xbox360 isn't going to sell for more than £299, 'cause that would be silly." Which becomes:

Quote

and the price tag may be as high as UKP 299.

which becomes

Quote

XBOX360 News: £299 to you, squire.*

*Allegedly

Before you reply think about this:
Would Microsoft release the Xbox360 for half the price of the PS3 in one country and make a big song and dance about how much the PS3 costs then to release the 360 for the same price as the PS3 in another?

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

The Eurogamer article:

Xbox 360 to launch in Europe on November 25th - UK sources
At £299, say our spies.

Highly-placed UK sources have revealed that the Xbox 360 is set to launch in Europe on November 25th, with the US launch preceding a few days earlier - and the price tag may be as high as UKP 299.

Under conditions of strict anonymity, several key sources in the UK games industry confirmed that the official announcement of the European date will be made by Microsoft to its trade partners on the 15th of this month, two days before a public announcement at Game Convention in Leipzig.

While they were confident of the dates being mooted, the price of the system remains less certain - with our sources indicating that Microsoft itself may not have made up its mind on the matter as yet.

"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 - although it was admitted that this pricing is a "best guess" based on information from Microsoft, not an official figure by any means.

Even allowing for the higher tax rates here in Europe, a UKP 299 price point would directly translate to $500 (including tax) in the US, which is significantly higher than is currently anticipated by most market watchers - among whom the general consensus is that the system will launch at $300, suggesting a UK price point of under UKP 200.

One area of pricing which our independent sources were more certain of was the pricing of software, with a number of Xbox 360 titles likely to hit shelves at around UKP 44.99 - a price premium over current generation software which Microsoft is said to be unhappy with, but which has been driven by demands from third party publishers.

Microsoft this afternoon declined to comment on the reports, saying simply that "we have nothing to announce at this time."

Check back soon for the official announcement.

Honestly, I can't see how I've misreported or twisted that in my own version. Are you sure we're not splitting hairs a little too finely here?

Note also their blurb is barely any different from mine ('At £299, say our spies' is very suggestive).

If I had failed to highlight that this is speculation, then I think you'd definitely have a point. But I went out of my way to explain it was speculative.

James

6 years ago

As CL says this is all speculation as the article clearly states. CL is not making his own judgement about the price - simply stating what other anaylists / insiders have said. You're arguing with the wrong person

themak

6 years ago

I'm not splitting hairs, I'm just saying that Microsoft has 2 main advantages against Sony: 1 launching earlier, and 2 being a lot cheaper. They are not going to throw away a big advantage.

I think Chris-Leigh writes some of the best articles, but Eurogamer Im sure is wrong about this one, but I know how to find out.

Chris-Leigh

6 years ago

'I'm not splitting hairs, I'm just saying that Microsoft has 2 main advantages against Sony: 1 launching earlier, and 2 being a lot cheaper. They are not going to throw away a big advantage.'

Have to say I agree with you there: I was surprised to hear these rumours about £299, and personally I'd have expected £249 at the most. Then again, the original Xbox launched at £299 here, so who knows? Well, we will actually. In about a week and a half.

'Eurogamer Im sure is wrong about this one, but I know how to find out.'

If this had appeared on most other sites, we'd have ignored it. But EG does have a solid reputation. I do believe wholeheartedly they've been informed by someone influential. The question is of course whether they've been informed accurately.

mrcivic

6 years ago

At that price I ain't getting it at launch.

Spanca

6 years ago

Who the hell deleted my post here (between one of David's and Socko's posts), and why? It was questioning why this article suggested that an Australian release would follow the European at a similar time, despite Microsoft saying Australia won't see it until 2006. I also notice that part of the article has subsequently been deleted.

Censorship sucks, especially when it's just to cover up something you haven't got the balls to admit was wrong.

ObsoletE

6 years ago

Quote

'The original plan was £249, but now that Sony is talking about the PS3 being expensive, £299 is looking more likely.'

to me it sounds like MS have been trolling sites where opinions are posted and seen that not many people have gone:
"Boo Sony! Expensive again *cry*"
and gone:
"well sh!t, if people are happy to pay lots for their console, why should we miss out?"

i suppose it'll also give them a 50pound buffer they can drop when the PS3 launches to give the impression of cutting prices...

meh, whatever...

i wasn't planning on buying launch consoles this time around anyway...

themak

6 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

Quote

'The original plan was £249, but now that Sony is talking about the PS3 being expensive, £299 is looking more likely.'

Except for the fact that the Xbox 360 is launching at $299 USD, and many people on forums go "boo hoo, all these American companies are screwing us for nearly twice the amount of money they want from Americans. The pound to dollar would have to go to 1:1 again for £299 to equal $299 and that simply isn't going to happen.

Kloppy

6 years ago

PAL regions get shafted.

Again.

(not really news, is it? Good reporting though.)

Infested Jibbs

6 years ago

I tell ya what Nintendo done pal gamers justice with the release price point of the ds in europe and over here.I bet NO-ONE knew that nintendo would retail it for pretty much the same price it went for in us/japan.

Hyperworm

6 years ago

Spanca wrote

<there was a section here regarding deletion of Spanca's post. I have deleted this section of my post personally. it wasn't a case of bad handling by staff or anything like that, so all is good ^^>

As for the Xbox 360, any remote chance that I might have become a 2-console gamer this coming generation will disappear if it's in the ~£299 price range.

Spanca

6 years ago

^ I was PM'd about it a couple of days ago.

Chris-Leigh wrote

Hey man,

Sorry about your deleted post - it was me. And honestly, it wasn't censorship - I was just trying to delete one of my posts and got mixed up with which delete button was applicable for which post. I ended up deleting both mine and yours. Sorry man.

Rest assured I won't be deleting your newer one.

- Fido

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