Rumor: New $199 360 SKU with motion controller

[Gazz]

Rumor: New $199 360 SKU with motion controller

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 10:30AM by Dustin Burg
Take it for what it's worth, but we've received a tip from a source close to Microsoft's marketing department who has shed some light on the Xbox 360 price cuts that are rumored to be going down in a few weeks time. More specifically, the $199 Xbox 360 Arcade bundle.

According to the source, Microsoft will be positioning the Arcade bundle to be in direct competition with the Wii, meaning that the marketing push behind it will focus on family friendly entertainment. With family oriented games on the packaging, the Arcade console will come packaged with the traditional Arcade goodies (512MB memory card, etc.), the new Fall update pre-loaded as well as a motion controller and a few motion controlled mini games developed by Rare. That's right, a motion controller! Supposedly, the motion controller will work with all 360 consoles and will even be sold separately, bundled with an even more expansive list of mini motion controlled games. This new $199 Xbox 360 Arcade bundle is said to release Holiday 2008.

File this all under rumors'ville for now, but don't totally discredit the information. $199 Arcade's are sounding very likely and, with Microsoft's push to undercut the Wii, matching the Wii's motion controls sounds like a total possibility. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Thanks, Keyser Söze]
Rumor: New $199 360 SKU with motion controller - Xbox 360 Fanboy

MS is going for the direct face off with the Wii it seems. After failing to have an impact on the PS3, have they completely lost their minds or is this complete turnaround in their business model a good thing?
Discuss.

[interman]

More like MS and Sony have failed to make an impact on the Wii. MS has sold more consoles than Sony, so it's no wonder the NPDs look the way they do.

A motion controller might be fun. I assume it'd work differently than the wii though.

[Gazz]

The 360 has been on the market a year longer then the PS3 and already lost about a million of it's first year 6 million lead and has been outsold by the PS3 for all but 2 weeks this year. NPD confirms that statement of mine.

Sony actually made a huge impact on the Wii. It seems everyone forgets that they still sell the PS2 and sold just as many of those as Nintendo sold Wi's last year and did so without any significant advertising for it. That's without mentioning the fact that most third party games are toned down to be able to be ported to the PS2 easier. Not something that's fair, but it's reality.

The only desperate party is MS here. They first aimed at Sony by trying to undermine Bluray with hd-dvd which failed terribly. Then aimed for their games catalog and made the incredibly dumb mistake of releasing games on pc in better quality, and never fixed the RROD issues that plaqued it's image. Then they released the "arcade" version at 299 dollars, which only outsold the PS3 for a week and didn't even dent the Wii or PS2 it was aimed at and now they'll try motion control as the last one in line.

The constant change of higher management at Microsoft is costing them dearly and is overclouding the real dangers for them.

[KamisoriX]

LOL, PS3 fails to make an impact anywhere. it's the "will be" console but unfortunitly it never "is".

Yes i own one, so unlike some gazzolas out there I know what I'm talkin bout.