Microsoft to Drop Xbox 360 Price This Week?

Several analysts, as well as a new report released on Monday are suggestint that a cheaper Xbox 360 could be announced as early as this week on the heels of Sony's PS3 price reduction to US$499.

"We have a bunch of different projects that cost reduce and improve quality as you find issues," said Xbox president Peter Moore when asked about the Falcon chip. "Once you get millions [of consoles] in the field, you learn about the box under all kinds of different circumstances, you can adjust and tweak what you do accordingly."

Analyst Micheal Pachter said on Monday that Microsoft will, in fact, reduce the price of the Xbox 360 tomorrow at the start of the company's E3 press briefing. He believes the $299 Core will drop to $249; the $399 Premium to drop to $349; and the newly released $479 Elite to drop to $399 in response to lower-than-expected sales of all three systems.

In a related story, Microsoft's VP of Xbox Japan Darren Huston told reporters today that the company has no plans to cut the Japanese price of the Xbox 360 given its competitive pricing in the territory.