Xbox One Price Cuts Insult Launch Day Gamers

If you are a fan of Microsoft’s consoles and you have £349 burning a hole in your pocket right now then the big news for you is that you could be the proud new owner of an Xbox One with a visit to either Amazon or Asda. Both retailers are cutting the price from the already generous looking £399 for the release of Titanfall, although other bundles strangely stay above £400.


This is the cheapest the market has seen Microsoft’s latest machine drop to since launch day in November amid financial reports that Sony’s PS4 has outsold it by more than double the amount of units worldwide (6 million to 3 million units at last count). Of course, though this may be encouraging for gamers yet to buy the Xbox One, those that have already spent £429 on the console which was inexplicably burdened with a compulsory Kinect sensor will be shaking their heads in disbelief.

Five months after release may be grounds for some sort of goodwill gesture from Microsoft, similar to that of the original Xbox where a quick price drop resulted in launch day owners being given a game and controller combo to make up for it. A brief glance around online forums would let Microsoft know what people are thinking of these drops so soon after the much criticised RRP was defended so stubbornly by company executives.

Suspicions have surfaced centring on the bundle game in question, Titanfall, because of claims from critics that there is very little difference between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions of the highly anticipated futuristic FPS. Similar criticism was levelled at the Call of Duty: Ghosts release which cost around £15 more between old and new gen consoles.


It looks like this lower price point will become a widespread feature of Microsoft’s plan for the future in anticipation of a ridiculously potent line up of PS4 releases over the next 18 months, or face embarrassment in the console war for the entire generation. It will raise questions, of course, such as why the Kinect was bundled with every Xbox One if the price was then pushed so much higher than the PS4 as a result? If Microsoft had given consumers the option, like Sony did with its own peripherals and kept the RRP to around £350 as well, then surely the sales of both machines would be more closely matched. They had the opportunity with the advantage in console exclusives at launch but this has really ruined their chance to get ahead before Sony began dropping titles like Infamous: Second Son, DriveClub, The Order: 1886, The Last of Us Remastered and Uncharted 4.

Though this is not an official worldwide price cut, like the one in February from £429 to £399, with deals like this springing up it undermines their credibility in the market and is quite the slap in the face to owners who backed them in November. What do Xbox One owning readers think of this news? Will you be expecting anything from Microsoft? An apology? Compensation? Bueller?

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