Xbox 360 Gets Cheaper

Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Sep 9, 2006

Xbox 360

Of course, I just buy one and then they decide to reduce the pricing (the package mentioned below will also include PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 3 — IMHO, the best racing game ever — and NINETY NINE NIGHTS). But then again, this new cheaper package will not include the hard drive, which would mean no downloading of extra content, so no regrets.

Microsoft Co said Friday it will release a cheaper, basic version of its Xbox 360 in Japan on Nov 2 to boost sluggish sales of the video game console here.

The launch of the Xbox 360 Core System, already sold in the U.S. and Europe, comes amid increasing competition with game console rivals Sony and Nintendo for market share.

The cheaper console won’t have the 20-gigabyte hard disk drive and other accessories included in the standard version. It will be sold for 29,800 yen, about 25% less than the standard version, Microsoft Japan said in a statement.

“It is a product to satisfy the needs of customers who want to enjoy the Xbox 360 in a handy manner and at a handy price with the Xbox 360′s core functions intact,” the statement said. (Crisscross)

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Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.

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Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.

A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

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He serves as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.

He also writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the last Tuesday of every month, in both the print edition and online.

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