Microsoft will be dropping the price of its Xbox One console to $349 starting January 16th, the company announced today.

The price drop, which is described as a "promotion" in the announcement, doesn't come with an end date. If this sounds confusingly familiar, that's because Microsoft instituted an identical price drop over the holiday season, which ended as of January 3rd. If you bought an Xbox One at the $399 price in the roughly two weeks between then and the upcoming drop, I bet you're really, really happy right now.

Most of the announcement and accompanying video involves touting of sales numbers--noting that the system was the best-selling console over the months of November and December in the U.S. according to NPD--and some brief overviews of things on the horizon, like screenshot functionality and new apps for the system. You can read/watch the entire thing here.

Weird move, they must like the increased sales.

That's hilarious and also kind of sad.

Makes sense. The Xbone is still selling better than the 360 was at this point in its life-cycle, so it's not like the console is a failure. It's just the PS4 selling so damn well. I expect this to become permanent.

They should have just scrapped the first $349 deal and combined it with this one so that you could pick up the console for a mere $299. That's how it works, right?

Sounds like a desperation act after Sony announcing 18.5 million consoles sold through to customers.

Good, I'll probably buy one in the fall for Halo 5. Hopefully it's this price or even cheaper then.

I'll give you a dollar for it.

lol what! hahaha

Super weird.

Sounds like case of left arm not talking to right arm. You guys just ended the last promotion!

Good price though. I want one.

:( one day

You gotta do what you gotta do. It's weird that they raised the price for a couple weeks only then to drop it again. Sucks for those who bought it at $400 recently. My prediction is this version of the Xbox One will stay at $350 and the rumored slim version will come in at $400.

Uh oh Microsoft will go buying for exclusives come E3...

Dark times are coming

makes sense. I think everyone saw this comming.

It is the better console right now and frigging Rocksmith 2014 has all the DLC which for some reason Sony will not allow for the PS4. I hate my PS4 though, Sony's software sucks, they are so slow and bringing things to the table and they have no first party worth a damn right now, I played my Vita more than my PS4 :\ GTA V runs better on the Xbox One, Ass Creed Unity runs better on the Xbox One, the online is way better on the Xbox One, frigging PSN is always down every other day and the store is slow as fook. On my Vita it often takes several tries to get it to load up the store properly.

I can safely say my PS4 is as useless as the PS3 was in it's early life.

Sony hasn't actually done anything of any worth though, they've just ridden the back of Microsoft's poor 2013 marketing. Microsoft have done so much more in turning it around and they have the better first party right now too. People were worried about the TV stuff and Kinect, well it turns out Microsoft had games too!

I personally wish the console stuck to the original plan, at least then it would have been very different, now we just have two very samey consoles. The whole being able to play without the disc thing would have been amazing as I love buying retail, but I don't want to have to use the disc.

Microsoft wants to get these into peoples homes

I just bought an Xbox One yesterday on Amazon :(

Can I get reimbursed the difference or does Amazon not do that?

Does Halo work yet?

I don't think so. Halo 5 does though.

That makes a ton of sense. It did really, really well at $350.

I'm pretty sure Amazon still does that.

@the_def_star: Aww that sucks sorry and I've never tried with Amazon so not sure. I know they do some limited price matching so maybe open a custome support ticket and see. Not a lot of help I know but best of luck.

I know "PC is SO MUCH BETTER THAN CONSOLES" but even $700 wouldn't take you that far with PC $350 was such a good deal for the Xbox One that I don't care if it's the weakest option for most games.

@the_def_star: Any time I've bought anything (other than food) that's gone on sale within a couple of weeks, I've been able to return the product and get the difference. I'd be surprised if Amazon won't do it for you since they're famous for treating their customers more favorably than most big corporate retailers.

I fucking knew it!

Not optimally, but yeah.

Again I think this proves that the American market is more loyal to price than to brand. Good on them, though. Maybe this will get Sony to step up their game.

...mmm bought a wii u. Too late until a redesign. And Games. Mario 3d world, Mario Kart, and Bayonetta, purchased with console, and next paycheck is Smash. I'm done for the next 6 months at least. That and Kirby, Yoshi(sorry Jeff but Kirby Epic yarn earned it's name, SM Bros world 2... screw that static I can agree), and Splatoon, are coming... maybe at least a year as I have to get through Warlords of Draenor, and the Hearthstone. Fuck Hearthstone, But I love the Hearthstone. F U HEARTHSTONE.

@kerafyrm: I wouldn't go as far as that, but I largely agree. I got a Xbox one at launch (I know im stupid) and had an opportunity to get the ps4 last of us bundle for $200 a few months a go and I bought it (mostly for bloodborne). I also have a Vita which I really enjoy and I think does not get enough love from the general public (the remote play is fucking so shit though, for a feature that everyone was touting being so cool). For the life of me I don't know how the ps4 interface is so shit compared to the vita and the xbox one.

So yah I just hope competition heats up even more so we can get some kickass games out of it, oh yah and maybe microsoft can throw us early adopters a bone here and there for being idiots and buying their console at $500. I mean I like the kinect and the voice commands specially with all the tv functionality; but cmon man throw me SOMETHING (AND HALO WAS SUCH A DOWNER)

Makes sense with how far behind they are worldwide. At this rate though if someone wants one might as well wait till the end of the year since they don't have any exclusives till then and it will probably be like $250 with 4 games and a $50 gift card or something.

@the_def_star:

Is it opened? You can just return it.

@corevi: why is it sad?

@pandashake:

Not open. Should be arriving tomorrow. The day it goes on sale is the day I gets delivered. Thanks for the comments guys. Gonna try to reach customer service tomorrow. It's only $30 but hey I could use that to buy a game or too :p

Coming up next month: a special Valentine's Day promo that will make it $349 for all of February! And then the March Promo, and April Fool's Promo.

I can't believe I'm saying this... but the WiiU is by far and away the better console right now.

Guys, can we stop piling on with the "so desperate." Microsoft won the holiday season. Still behind, but Xbox is selling fine.

I have an unopened PS4 anniversary edition, I am now seriously considering selling it for the ridiculous prices they are demanding and buying a standard PS4 and XBox One, and then going out drinking with the change

I still can't believe that the first console I bought of this(?) generation was a damned Wii U! There just aren't enough exclusive games to justify either of these consoles right now.

@the_def_star: They'll almost undoubtedly do it for you. Just wait till the price drops in a day or two, then hit up a support rep in the live chat and ask if you can get the difference since you just bought it. DON'T OPEN IT THOUGH, just in case they have to have you return it for some stupid reason (doubtful, but saying 'okay can I get a return shipping label so I can re-purchase then?' in the event they won't will almost certainly get you the difference), but the chance of that is almost zero. They've always been awesome when I've spoken to them.

The fact you aren't doing that right now makes you insane. That PS4 is not nice enough to justify the prices people are paying. Take advantage.

WiiU is legit man, I'm shocked to be in the same boat, but I can't complain.

Good thing I bought one during that Newegg deal. $350 for a One, free controller and a year of Gold is pretty sweet.

They should just really announce it as a permanent price drop.

Obviously someone high up at Microsoft took a look at sales figures from the holidays and loved what they saw.

I have to say, MS has been trying really hard to make this machine a must-buy and get into people's hands. During the holidays, the MS Store had refurbished consoles including the Kinect, Ryse (DL code) and one free physical game (incl most new games like MCC, COD: AW, and Sunset Overdrive) for $350. I was severely tempted. The PS4 is still $450 here in Canada and Sony is not budging an inch so far (I own a PS4 already).

Huh, I didn't think they were going to do a repeat so soon. I wonder if/how long the gap between reanimated promotion and permanent price change will be.

Valentine's Day: "Let the Xbox be the One for you."

St. Patrick's Day: "The only thing that should be pinched are your pennies."

April Fool's Day: "You'd be a fool if you haven't picked one up at this point."

Whenever I see these price drops I just assume that the Xbox division at Microsoft is constantly on fire. How long until it hits $300?

I'm waiting for the PS4 price drop. There isn't enough difference between consoles to justify purchasing it as a second console at full price at the moment but throw in a sweet deal and I might consider it.

For quite a while at many retailers you'd get 4-7 games bundled at the $350 (or country-equivalent) price, as well as many "choose a free game" options that made the per-console game sales rise for the NPD lists like with Destiny. If Sony drop the price they'll do it at E3 after talking about how great of a success it has been, but you know what?

The Xbox One still only sells in the US and the UK. Mindblowing. We get European numbers every week, no information if they're going to arrange for a new price-drop here as well unless it rolls out once our office hours begin. Right from the start MS aimed hard for the US market and they're doing a good job at it, it's gross the US counts as the world for so many but enjoy it, those of you who don't feel the need for Japanese games like me, those of you yet unfazed by broken busted janky-ass western games rarely worth their $60 ever.

I'm wondering how long now until Sony drops the PS4 price. Do they even have to?

Dear Microsoft, I hope you realize that nobody on earth will buy it at $399 after you've done this promotion twice. You'll never sell a unit unless it's on sale henceforth.

@corevi: kind of sad? Look at 2014 npds for top ten selling games of year. Most of the big games including destiny sold more copies for Xbox one than ps4. And most of that was in November and December.

switching prices back and forth in this small a time frame looks a little desperate

Classic Ross and Rachel scenario! Will they or won't they drop the price permanently?!?!?!?!?!

I can only assume that, once the Xbone returned to $399/$499, the sales momentum from the holidays froze, while the PS4 kept going.

It's literally the only the only scenario where this makes any sense at all. The only other scenario is MS not knowing what the hell it's doing with the system anymore.

I love that they're competing, especially now that I have an Xbone courtesy of Black Friday/Christmas, but... Seriously, guys, this looks desperate.