When to Expect an Xbox 360 Price Drop

One of the main things that happened at the Microsoft Conference during E3 was actually something that didn't happen: a price drop. According to Microsoft execs the company needs to increase the number of games in Japan and decrease the price in America in order to be successful; but yet there was no price drop announced. Which leads me to the topic at hand, when will it happen?

Basically the rule of the game is patience. If you can hold off for about a month after the release of Halo 3, and a little longer after the release of GTA IV, then you should be able to pickup the great "little box that turns around" (Xbox 360 for the slow) at a discounted price. There's really no reason for Microsoft to drop the price of the system right before they're ensured to sell hundreds of thousands of systems with games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto. A price drop right before the huge holiday rush will get those "parents with no clue" more incentive to pick up the machine without losing all the potential revenue from the two biggest Xbox releases of the year.

After the most recent speculation on the PS3's price drop, as if no one saw it coming, perhaps Sony should take a que from Nintendo and learn how to properly do a price drop. And by that I mean actually drop the price, not just upgrade the system and tell people it's cheaper. And I don't mean to pick only on Sony here because if you recall, Microsoft just recently released the more expensive Xbox 360 Elite a few months ago. When will you guys realize you aren't Apple? You can't release a new version with one new feature and have people clamor over it. Video games are a much different beast than the portable music industry. And by the way, anything above $400 is way too much for a home video game console.