Kmart releases ad for marked down Xbox 360 Premium bundle

Is Microsoft planning to mark down the price of the Xbox 360 around the time of the E3? A recent advert implies that this may be the case. Details are available in the full article.

Remember analyst Jesse Divnich’s previous prediction of a possible price drop for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 by around the time of the E3? Well, it looks like he wasn’t too far off, based on a new console Kmart ad that’s in circulation.

The advert in question prices the Xbox 360 Premium bundle at US$ 299 – 50 dollars less than the console’s current price in retail. Kmart’s bundle is expected to arrive on July 15, which falls within the week of this year’s E3 (July 14 to 17). Here are pics of the advertisement in question (via Joystiq and N4G):

On a related note, analyst Michael Pachter, speaking with Games Industry, explained that a possible price cut from Microsoft actually made sense. “Microsoft has historically been a price taker – meaning that they typically wait for Sony to cut first,” Pachter said. “However, they haven’t been in the position of having a cost advantage before, as they do now.”

Pachter reiterated on Sony’s recent financial reports, which showed that the company lost US$ 3.32 billion over the past two years as a result of pricing the PlayStation 3 below its production cost. Given this info, Pachter speculated that a price cut from Sony is unlikely, which in turn gives Microsoft the initiative in setting market prices.

“Putting Microsoft’s cost advantage together with Sony’s reticence to lose more money, it’s easy to conclude that you will see Microsoft reverse course and be a price leader,” Pachter said.

Via Joystiq