14 DAY TRIAL // We're always waiting for a providential cheap Xbox 360 console to be made available, but major price reductions rarely happen. However it seems that Tesco has posted a brilliant offer on their site, making a Xbox 360 available for about $70. Yes, it's an unbelievable price, but it seems that we might be dealing with an error rather than a premature Christmas offer.
There are people who already ordered the $70-worth bundle which includes Forza Motorsport 2, Viva Pinata, the console and a wireless controller and it seems that they'll be refunded. The Internet page which included details about the bundle is also gone and the entire affair seems to have passed right now. When the piece of information surfaced, rumors also claimed that we'll see similar offers coming from Virgin or Woolworths, but now it's clear that we won't.
This is exactly what Microsoft didn't need, bad publicity... It's already having a hard time catching up with the Wii and PS3, while massively penetrating the Japanese market, so a fake cheap bundle won't exactly help them. We've seen tons of retailer-related issues this year, like the fact that Halo 3 was available in some UK stores a week before its official launch or Guitar Hero III being shipped with the older version of the controller. I think that the problem can be found in the communication department, as major producers and the distributors don't always stay in touch in order to control the sales process.
When this happens, major gaming blockbusters receive a blow right where it hurts: in the sales segment. Nevertheless, good games always sell well, specially if they have a decent fanbase to rely on. There are people out there who would spend days in front of a game store just to get to buy the latest copy of .... (fill in the blanks - Assassin's Creed, Halo 3, BioShock, Orange Box, Hellgate London etc).