In
a response to Sony's recently announced PS3 price drop in the US,
Microsoft's Japan division said it has no plans to change the price on
the Xbox 360, but left North America out of the conversation.
Many observers expect Microsoft to announce the Xbox 360's first price cut during a press briefing tomorrow night, in advance of the official start of the E3 Media & Business Summit...
There's more pressure on Microsoft now that the 60 GB Playstation 3 is around $500. That's less than $100 more than the Xbox 360 Elite, which does not feature a high definition disc player like the PS3's Blu-ray compatibility.
In Japan, the Xbox franchise has been undeniably the worst seller among all consoles. In the first half of 2007, Reuters reports that about 122,500 Xbox 360 units were sold in Japan. That's well behind the Wii's 1.78 million units and even below the PS3 sales of 503,500 consoles.
Despite that, president of Microsoft's Japan unit Darren Huston said in a Reuters interview, "Xbox prices in Japan are very competitive." There are no plans "at this time" to offer a price cut.
Source: TgDaily