September 5 is the date when Microsoft will officially cut the price of the Xbox 360 line of consoles in North America, following the
cut in Japan earlier in the week.
The interesting thing in the press release that details the price cut is that it puts the emphasis on the Xbox 360 Arcade and on the way it offers the promise of social interaction. It reads "Imagine if friends and families had the ability to instantly watch movies from Netflix, live out their musical fantasies through "Rock Band 2" (Harmonix/MTV Games) and "Lips" (iNiS Corp./Microsoft Game Studios), star in their own Hollywood classics with "You're in the Movies," or have the power to never miss the latest episode of "Heroes" - all from one device, starting at $199." Note that they’re not promoting one hardcore game and they mention
video streaming twice, which is kinda weird for what is mainly still a gaming console.
In another clear attack aimed at the Nintendo Wii and its social gaming power Microsoft is also announcing the creation of a new casual gaming channel on the Xbox Live service. It is called Primetime, and it will allow gamers from North America, France, Germany and Britain to compete against one another in casual games.
Microsoft is also taking 50 dollars off the price of the Xbox 360 Premium, which goes from 349 dollars to 299 dollars, while the Xbox 360 Elite, the top of the range console version, will now cost 399 dollars.
Don Mattrick, who is the senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, has stated that "I'm not at a point where I can say we're going to beat Nintendo. We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony." This is a rare admission on the part of Microsoft that the Nintendo made Wii is the bigger winner when it comes to sales and this generation of consoles. The race Microsoft is now trying to win is that with Sony's PlayStation 3, a console that has been gaining sales lately.
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