This just in, we just received a press release from Microsoft announcing that the Xbox 360 Elite will be seeing a price drop of R1500 as of August 28th (yeah, that’s tomorrow).
This now brings the price of the Elite down to an RRP of R3,399.00.
Is it only me or is the price drop of R1500 more than I expected? US prices dropped $100 dollars so I was expecting something in the R800 range to be honest. This also officially brings us into the phase-out period for the Xbox 360 Pro.
Cheap enough? Still too expensive? Leave a comment below.
Last Updated: August 27, 2009
Nick de Bruyne
August 27, 2009 at 14:15
Was just chatting with Geoff, the PS3 slim is only going to be R300 more and comes with a blu ray player.
Nick de Bruyne
August 27, 2009 at 14:16
Now things will get interesting.
easy
August 27, 2009 at 14:18
makes you wonder how long ms have been keeping the price artificially high, and if that is not the case, how much of dent this will make in the pockets?
pound for pound, the ps3 would seem to be the better value for money console at the moment.
darthdad
August 27, 2009 at 14:20
Wow, great price for the Elite. I paid R2999 for my pro.
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 14:29
They have taken the HDMI cable out unfortunately. If you add Wifi, Blu Ray and X-box subscription fee to the mix along with the lack of HDMI CABLE then the PS3 Slim is a no brainer.
Ruslan
August 27, 2009 at 14:31
In the end its the games that will decide who wins. The PS3 still has some nasty lazy developers thanks to the different SDK from Sony’s cell PS3.
Ruslan
August 27, 2009 at 14:33
And has Sony been doing with its artificially unchanged price for how many years now? So far I havent see not ONE game take advantage of the extra BR capacity since most games still dump data on the HDD or the BR drive is too slow to keep up without intermittent hiccups in gameplay ( Mirror’s Edge & KZ2 come to mind ).
MS doesnt have to worry about its pockets simply because its software division rakes in the profits. Sony on the other hand…
Geoff
August 27, 2009 at 14:36
I paid R3799 for my pro :/
fred
August 27, 2009 at 14:41
….and wi-fi , and bluetooth , and free network.
Nick de Bruyne
August 27, 2009 at 14:41
I still don’t understand why everyone thinks that everybody on the planet uses WiFi networks at home.
When I finally got a PS3 it turned out that it just doesn’t like my Wifi so I have to use a cable anyways. I’m not the first one either, its quite a large problem for a lot of people, I wonder if it has been rectified in the Slim.
ewie
August 27, 2009 at 14:45
You are right , Xbox is a lot more expensive than a ps3.
This let you ask the next question, so why is the Xbox
selling more than the ps3. Must be the experience users get out of it.
RonaldMcDeath
August 27, 2009 at 14:48
Daammnnn this is sweet. Ok, now I need to see which one to go for. PS3? or Elite?
janrik
August 27, 2009 at 14:52
Depends. Do you play online?
Do you plan to buy BR movies?
How large are your hands?
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 14:59
I own all next gen systems i didnt mean to start a fanboy war and for those that do use WiFi like myself and have experienced any problems with it on either 360 or PS3 its added value . You can personally take out Wifi as a greater value proposition if personally get no value out of it. So take out the Wifi then and add up the other extras and its still greater value for money Right?
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 15:05
What do sales have to do with value? If you want to follow a sales chart that you use to base the value you get from the hardware of a console then by all means do so. All im saying is for me the value of the Hardware in the SLIM = Greater than the value of the Hardware in the 360 Elite which are both greater than the value of the Hardware in the Wii.
Nick de Bruyne
August 27, 2009 at 15:06
Yeah definitely, you still make a very good point. Im just grumpy because my PS3’s wifi is up to crap and I only have one cable in that room so I have to always swop them out depending on what I am playing. PS3’s wifi doesnt pick up auto and I have to put all the settings in myself and even then, it take 5mins to log into PSN and its really really slow for some strange reason.
Anyone know a fix?
ewie
August 27, 2009 at 15:06
Yes and the value of the arcade > all.
Because at the end to play games, that is all you need.
Ruslan
August 27, 2009 at 15:08
I had the same weird wifi issues with my netgear router. So I went cable too. :cheerful:
Ruslan
August 27, 2009 at 15:10
Well, Ninty is laughing all the way to the bank with their Wii ( two Gamecubes slapped together ) while their HD rivals are battling it out with costs and sales. Funny hey? People dont know what value is until the PR department does its magic it seems.
Nick de Bruyne
August 27, 2009 at 15:11
“How large are your hands?” – LOL
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 15:12
I dont want to upset you but umm the Arcade increased in price in the UK. I dont know what that means for SA but im guessing bad news. Let me put it in another way. The value of the Elite > greater than the value of the Arcade now for me anyway. I would go as far as to say that anyone who purchases a 360 Arcade now instead of an Elite is a fool unless they cant afford to do so that is.
janrik
August 27, 2009 at 15:12
Same here. DLINK and Netgear router did not like the PS3 wifi.
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 15:22
So true. When you think back to the launch of all 3 consoles i doubt anyone realizes that they purchased a PS3 for R6000 which cost Sony R10 000 to make, Xbox 360 R4000 for something that probably cost R5000 to make and Nintendo R3000 which probably cost them R1500 to make :whistle:
ewie
August 27, 2009 at 15:25
Agree that whoever buy a arcade and want to play on-line is doff (if they just want to use it for single player or media centre extender then it work 100% for them as they don’t need the hard drive). Don’t think the arcade will increase here as we have been doing a lot better than the uk on exchange rates lately, and already had our increase beginning of the year. So it can only go down again.
I personally would never buy the arcade, as I have too many xbla games on my hard drives.
Fox1
August 27, 2009 at 15:35
I paid R4699 for my Elite :tongue:
Ruslan
August 27, 2009 at 15:48
I just want Sony to fix the silly R2 and L2 triggers on their Dualshocks… pathetic triggers!!!!!!!!
fred
August 27, 2009 at 15:48
I have no wifi issues with my ps3 , connected to Hauwei B970. Connects first time every time.
fred
August 27, 2009 at 15:51
Do you like to pay for online , do You use wifi networking at home , would you like to watch blu-ray movies too … then you have an obvious choice.
fred
August 27, 2009 at 15:53
I paid 6500 for my ps3.
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 16:02
Try these add ons. They work great for me.
http://more.take2.co.za/moreusa-realtriggers-b001iaoexu.html
janrik
August 27, 2009 at 16:06
I was going to comment on triggers being last gen, but I won’t… 😉
Atomic
August 27, 2009 at 16:26
As an x-box 360 Owner, I’d advise people to buy the Ps3, even despite this price job. – Microsoft’s lack of local live support and locked Content has sealed the deal for me – I will not be buying their next console.
*shows Microsoft a toffee apple*
Aslam Levy
August 27, 2009 at 16:31
I have an Xbox360 and must agree that not having live enable in SA sux balls!
And the Blu-ray wins it for Sony in this round
ewie
August 27, 2009 at 16:35
Look like the cable supplied with the xbox does not have the bulky lump of plastic blocking the hdmi cable slot as well. So no need to take out the knife to remove the plastic.
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 16:44
I think we kind of all shot ourselves in the foot on this one though. MS knows we just sign up with UK and USA accounts anyway so im guessing they are asking themselves why they should bother :devil:
eXp
August 27, 2009 at 17:07
I paid R20 000 for hair implants… and not on my head. *wink*
Fox1
August 27, 2009 at 17:28
Xbox 360 has Gears of War, PGR, Forza, Halo 3(which has sold more than 10 million units).
It depends if you want hardware that you are going to use, or games that you want to play.
Oh and nobody has mentioned SIXAXIS as yet :whistle:
Nick
August 27, 2009 at 17:48
Sony and Nintendo have tons of games also. Gamers tend to play the best games on all platforms while fanboys umm do what you do!
RonaldMcDeath
August 27, 2009 at 18:10
Well said Nick.
RonaldMcDeath
August 27, 2009 at 18:14
Guess it’s PS3 for me. I’ll probably wait a bit to see if there are any weird hardware issues with the crunch (overheating, disk drive issues etc.). But, since I rarely used xbox live, except for a few games of Call of Duty 4 and recently Battlefield, I’m sure I can do without it, actually.
RonaldMcDeath
August 27, 2009 at 18:17
That’s true, Exp came to me for a consultation, and in the immortal post-coital words of Canaan Banana (the first president of Zimbabwe) “while you were sleeping, we helped ourselves”
Fox1
August 27, 2009 at 19:06
Is being a fanboy a bad thing? :cwy:
If it were not for fanboys, we would not have these price cuts, super hardware and hot games :angel:
RonaldMcDeath
August 27, 2009 at 19:11
lol, I would even go further and say that without fanboys we would have had price cuts earlier (capitalism for the win). If you have diehards defending a console almost to the point of religious fanaticism, why should they improve it? :ninja:
Fox1
August 27, 2009 at 19:28
But MS dropped the price of the 360 many times :biggrin:
Fox1
August 27, 2009 at 19:50
The PS3 is a good deal though :cheerful:
LazySAGamer
August 27, 2009 at 21:29
I’m happily surprised at a R1500 price cut… at least it shows that Microsoft are planning on staying competitive locally.
As for which one is a better option, it all depends on the games in the end. I have to be honest and say that the integrated Blu-Ray does nothing for me but Uncharted 2, God of War and MAG are all huge draw cards.
Oh and Nick why don’t you just buy a small hub for the back of your PS3 and Xbox to stop having to swap cables?
Nick de Bruyne
August 28, 2009 at 02:37
I tried a small little hub but alas, the Playstation 3 refuses to even see the cable when it runs through the hub. Xbox 360 picked it up no problem. I dont get it…
Fox1
August 28, 2009 at 10:17
Put your router by your consoles and then use your other stuff to connect by wireless. You would just need a longer phone cable though :biggrin:
ndibu
August 28, 2009 at 22:27
Still too expensive!! At the current rate, we should be getting this baby at R3000 and yes I have considered the shipping and tax costs. Right now its still R1100 more than they paying in the states…no way they can justify that