New rumors of the XBOX 360 Arcade Price Drop have emerged. According to someone “close to Microsoft’s marketing department” the Arcade system will cost $199 and will ship with a motion controller.
The arcade system will come with the console, a 512mb memory card, the motion controlled controller, and motion controlled arcade mini-games. The console is expected to ship Holiday 2008. Another attempt by Microsoft to compete with the Wii for casual gamers. Albeit Microsoft’s interest in casual gamers seems sudden, they have had their eye on them for a few years.
“The positioning of the platform is very different now. We were so paranoid that people knew the Xbox was a hardcore gaming machine in the first generation that we really alienated, or closed off, a lot of our opportunity. If you’ve seen the brand ads now for 360 it’s completely different — it’s much more approachable” Shane Kim, Microsoft - 2006
“I don’t think we want to lose the relationship with hardcore gaming — I don’t think that will happen. I think we can do this without losing the hardcore gamer” says Kim to CNET.
