Scarcely a week after Sony's new, smaller PS3 and accompanying price drop hit the scene, Xbox spokesguy Major Nelson has the word that Microsoft is ready to play ball with its own drop to $299 for the Xbox 360 Elite. Please, try to contain your surprise.
As you can see, the Pro model is on the way out, with only the hard drive-absent Arcade and the all-black Elite models remaining on shelves. Arcade stays $199, and Elite drops right in line with the PlayStation 3 at $299. (You can scoop up a Pro with 60gb hard drive for a pretty decent deal at $249 while they're still in stores.)
Man, remember when $299 was the price of a console at launch? Yeah, I guess those days will never come again. At least things are getting interesting now: With both consoles sitting at the same price point and the same hard drive size, what will tip the scales? Xbox Live? The PS3's Blu-ray? Who will reign supreme? Two consoles enter, one console leaves!
Are either of these price drops going to influence your purchasing decisions anytime soon?