Retailers Respond to Xbox 360 Price Restructuring

With the news of the official restructuring of the Xbox 360 pricing strategy yesterday, it appears that retailers are beginning to take action with their existing stock. Electronic Theatre contacted a number of UK high street retailers today, both national chains and independent retailers, and discovered some quite shocking results.

The Xbox 360 Pro bundle, which retailed at a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of £169.99 prior to yesterday’s price reshuffling and discontinuation of the model, appears to be the priority of many supermarket chains. Sainsbury’s are currently offering the best deal, with the Xbox 360 Pro bundle retailing for £169.97 including today’s hottest new release, Batman: Arkham Asylum. That’s two pence lower than the RRP of the bundle, packaged with a game with an RRP of £49.99 – though it should be noted that in the present economic climate, very few retailers hold new releases on their shelves at the full RRP. Indeed, Sainsbury’s is offering Batman: Arkham Asylum for only £39.99, which Electronic Theatre suspects will most likely be the average price-point for high street retail.

Tesco have also jumped on the Xbox 360 Pro bandwagon, with both of the stores Electronic Theatre contacted offering the bundle for £165.96 by itself, or with both the highly respected Mass Effect and Project Gotham Racing 4 for the exact same price. In addition, for a limited time, Tesco are now offering the Xbox 360 Elite, which had dropped from £229.99 to £199.99, with Resident Evil 5 for no additional cost. Indeed, Dixons, Currys, WH Smith and Gamestation all offer Xbox 360 Pro and Xbox 360 Elite bundles at a minimum of £28 lower than RRP, while only Comet and Argos failed to demonstrate competitive pricing.

The independent sector, however, is a very different matter. Of the five independents contacted, four told Electronic Theatre that they would now be making a loss on their existing console Xbox 360 bundles, except the Xbox 360 Arcade, of course. However, one did claim that Microsoft had made moves to soften the blow, as is usually the case with independent retail, and so Electronic Theatre would predict that many independent retailers simply aren’t aware of Microsoft’s intention to support independent stockists. Of the five stores contact, two held competitive deals – matching those of the national chains, even – whilst the remaining three offered price reductions when buying additional products, such as games or accessories, along with any Xbox 360 console bundle.

With the Xbox 360 Pro bundle now officially discontinued, it appears that, on the majority of high streets in the UK, this will in fact be the best value hardware bundle available while stocks last. Electronic Theatre questioned many stores about their remaining supplies, but most declined to comment; presumably for fears that once their low supplies have been diminished consumers will no longer consider their existing Xbox 360 Arcade and Xbox 360 Elite bundles. As ever, Electronic Theatre will keep you updated.

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