Xbox Price Drops in Australia & Europe

Due to intense competition from Sony and Nintendo, and retailer controled price wars over the Xbox in Germany, Microsoft has announced drastic price reductions of their new game console system in Australia and Europe beginning May 17th. The price of the system in Australia will fall by more than 38% and sell at a significant loss relative to production costs per unit. Australian consumers that have already purchased the system at original MSRP will be reimbursed with a free Xbox hand control and any 2 Xbox games of their choice. The European price of the Xbox will also fall by the equivalent of more than $150 American dollars in order to capture a wider market share.

Although price reductions have been speculated over for the Japanese market, no plans for price cuts in Japan or North America have been announced.

According to Madman’s Cafe, weekly sales of Xbox consoles in Japan place it at the bottom of the pile, selling even fewer units than Bandai’s handheld Wonderswan Color or Sony’s PSone. According to the LA Times, Microsoft has revised its original expectation of selling 4.5 million to 6 million Xbox video consoles by the end of June to a reduced 3.5 million to 4 million sales.

Source: GameSpot