The Console Wars

[HenryTo]

Xbox to cut existing prices in light of an upcoming upgrade. Following is analysis courtesy of Retailing Today. The Wii comes with WiFi connectivity that lets you read news articles and weather forecasts, etc, but that's about it in terms connectivity outside of gaming.
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Top Story: Xbox price cut kicks of E3 convention
Microsoft kicked off the annual E3 video game convention in Los Angeles this week with a $50 price cut on its Xbox 360 console.

Effective July 10, the company lowered the price of the Xbox 360 to $299 from $349 to make way for a new-and-improved Xbox due in August. The new Xbox will feature a 60GB hard drive--compared to a 20GB hard drive in the current version--and will be priced at $349. The move may prompt Sony to lower the price of its $399 PlayStation 3.

The new Xbox will also allow users to stream movies and TV shows through a partnership with Netflix. That service will debut this fall and will require users to be members of Netflix and subscribe to the Xbox Live Gold online service.

E3 runs through July 16 and should generate more news today and tomorrow when Nintendo and Sony hold their annual press conferences.

RT Analysis...
The upcoming Xbox 360 upgrade shows video game consoles are continuing to evolve into all-in-one entertainment systems that combine gaming with TV, computers and the Internet, providing the "connectivity" consumer electronics analysts have been talking about for almost 10 years.

The big jump from a 20GB to a 60GB hard drive will allow the Xbox 360 to handle its new role as a conduit for video streaming and deliver faster connectivity. It's akin to what Apple did last week with the debut of the 3G iPhone that's twice as fast online as the original iPhone.

And it's following a trail blazed by Sony, which signaled where the game industry was heading two years ago when it loaded the PlayStation 3 with a Blu-Ray disc drive and 40GB and 60GB hard drives, giving them the power of most desktop computers.

Nintendo may be missing the boat on the interactive front, since its Wii console comes with a miniscule 512MB flash drive, so it will have to provide the second generation Wii with some serious upgrades if it wants to compete in the same space as Sony and Microsoft.

In the mean time, Nintendo can take comfort in the fact that it has sold 2.8 million Wii consoles during the first five months of the year, more than the PS3 (1.2 million) and the Xbox 360 (1.1 million) combined.

[rffrydr]

The kids are all using the Microsoft Live.com discount to buy overstocked PS3s on ebay--nothing is obvious.
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