Xbox 360 price drop rumoured

IF ANYTHING COULD ensure the launch of the PS3 became a nightmare for Sony, a significant Xbox 360 price drop would be it.

A small price drop in Europe has already occurred, but this tiny adjustment to the Core SKU is hardly worth mentioning, and certainly won't affect the launch of Sony's new console. A more significant drop of around $100 would certainly cause further worrying at Sony HQ, and it seems Microsoft are pushing ahead with cost reductions in an attempt to make the price drop financially plausible.

Rumours of contract renegoiations with Microsoft from suppliers in Taiwan, state that "the total production cost [of the Xbox 360] can be reduced by 15-20% due to diminishing costs for most components along with increasing production scales and decreasing defect rates" - and this fits perfectly with similar sources stating back in July that a price drop late in 2006 was a target for Microsoft.