360 Arcade Price Increase In The UK

[Gorvi]

First Nintendo, now Microsoft, from Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ms-increases-arcade-360-price-in-uk):
Retailers have told Eurogamer that Microsoft will increase the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 bundle to £159.99 (from £129.99) starting 1st September. The five XBLA games will no longer be included in the bundle, either.
That's going from about $212 up to $261.

[Norse]

What's up with UK? Haven't Sony and Nintendo increased the price of their consoles as well? I don't think this is the case for rest of Europe.

[Karak]

...Weird news out of the UK lately.

[Gorvi]

What's up with UK? Haven't Sony and Nintendo increased the price of their consoles as well? I don't think this is the case for rest of Europe.
Nintendo did with the Wii a few months back, I think Sony did something odd with the PS3's price in Canada in early 2008 or 2007, I'm not sure.

[Iron Past]

The other skus didn't increase? Does the UK have a different Arcade bundle than the US (like Japan), or are they just being weird?

[BigJonno]

It's supposed to be because of the pound being weak against the euro.

[Chris_D]

MS should go and suck some balls.

[KamaItachi]

Because you just can't gouge Europe enough.

[Badger]

Seems like they're moving prices in-line with the Wii. No point in under-cutting the competition by £50 around Christmas, everybody that still wants one will buy one.

If this rumoured PS3 slim announcement and subsequent price drop turns out to have any shred of truth, Sony are going to make a killing in the UK at the end of the year. For the sake of a £100 price gap I can't see anybody choosing the historically unreliable 360 sans hard-drive over a PS3 with blu-ray support and 80GB storage. Microsoft still charge about £100 for the hard-drive alone.

[CES]

I love my country. Don't you?

[KidCactus]

What's up with UK? Haven't Sony and Nintendo increased the price of their consoles as well? I don't think this is the case for rest of Europe.
I know the PS3 price was increased in Sweden a while back. Not by much, though.

[Narradisall]

Yeah, as mentioned, weak pound against the Euro.

While other Eurp countries have started to pull out the recession we're still stuck in it.

Of course increasing prices doesn't exactly make sense, but as others have also mentioned, people still seem to find the cash to purchase games consoles.

[DangerousDaze]

What's up with UK? Haven't Sony and Nintendo increased the price of their consoles as well?

Yesterday, one of our biggest supermarkets announced a £50 price cut for the PS3. They're selling it at £250 including two free games instead of £299 with no games. That's a pretty significant cut, probably timed to coincide with Sony's announcement later today.

[Doogie2K]

I'm still not sure I get why companies seem to be setting European prices as though £1 = €1 = $1. Have European and especially British consumers always been hosed this badly?

[Chris_D]

Especially the Euro has been strengthening against the Dollar but it doesn't seem to have made much difference in Euro zone countries.

[Narradisall]

I'm still not sure I get why companies seem to be setting European prices as though £1 = €1 = $1. Have European and especially British consumers always been hosed this badly?

In short, yes.

I'd have to write and essay to explain why and its not really worth it.

You'll understand why we find it amusing when others comaplin (except the Australians) about high games, system or hard drive prices though. :D