NEWS - Thursday, July 5, 2007
Japan to Get Xbox 360 Elite in October
Microsoft, which is battling gaming giants Sony and Nintendo, is planning to release thier new Xbox 360 model, the Xbox 360 Elite in Japan at a reduced price to try to gain a foothold in Japan's notoriously tough to crack gaming market. According to Reuters, the Xbox 360 Elite will launch in Japan with a 47,800 yen($390 USD) pricetag, around $90 USD less than the U.S. price of $479.00. Jun Yoshihara a spokesman for Microsoft told Bloomberg news that. "The decision on the pricing was based on the situation in the Japanese market. We are not satisfied with our position in Japan and working to improve it." Microsioft has had a tough time trying to break into the Japanese market. The Xbox 360 has lagged behind the Wii by a 14-to-1 margin and the Playstation 3 by a 4-to-1 margin. Microsoft has sold only 122,565 consoles through June 24 of this year comapred to 1.78 million Wiis and 503,554 Playstation 3's. The Elite edition of the Xbox 360 upgrades the systems hard-drive from 20 gigabytes to a more formidable 120 gigabytes. It also adds HDMI functionality, a standard adopted for modern HDTV's.Source: http://communities.canada.com/
