Is the recent price drop on Xbox 360 just a clearance sale of the “old” stock?
You can now get an Xbox 360 Premium for $50 less than it would have cost 24 hours ago. That’s $350 for the Premium console.
But not so fast – you might want keep that extra $50 handy.
Opposable Thumbs is reporting a rumor that a new Xbox 360 with a few serious improvements will soon be unveiled.
The rumor hails from a ‘source’ known to Ben, the writer of Opposable Thumbs. But the information falls in line with what we already know about the Microsoft product’s future.
According to the rumor, Microsoft plans a soft launch of a new version of the Core and Premium model Xbox 360 in late August or early September. These new machines will run cooler, ending the overheating problems they’ve been plagued with. They’ll have quieter DVD drives but, sorry, no standard HD DVD. These machines should even have the new 65 nm processors and HDMI output.
We know the red circle of death has been a problem for some time and is costing Microsoft a lot of money in extended warranties and repairs. It makes sense that cooler machines will prevail in the near future.
But these cooler machines are likely to have other hardware bonuses. The rumors about Xbox 360’s GPU and CPU switching to a 65nm process have been around for some time now. These processor improvements are believed to be hitting the streets this fall and will account for a cooler running Xbox 360.
It’s also nice to see a quieter DVD drive. As it stands, the Xbox 360 is easily the noisiest console of its generation.
So, I’d be leery of running out and taking advantage of that price drop unless you absolutely MUST own an Xbox 360 NOW! I’d wait. It could be scant weeks before we see a whole new unit available.
