Microsoft UK adopts "wait and see approach" on Xbox price cut

Although a price cut in Australia has followed yesterday's cuts in North America for the Xbox console, Microsoft UK has no imminent plans to change its pricing here - with the company adopting a "wait and see approach" on future cuts.

Thatâs the word from a senior industry source close to Microsoft, who told GamesIndustry.biz that the company was planning to observe the impact of the US cuts before making any decision on its pricing strategy in the UK.

Microsoft already considers its offering here to be better value than the American pricing, he explained, because consoles here are sold with a significant software bundle which drives the effective price of the hardware down.

Microsoft UK has long favoured adding software bundles to the Xbox console in order to increase its value, rather than cutting the baseline price of the hardware itself - a strategy which gives the company a higher attach rate for the console, as well as keeping overall revenues higher and discouraging the purchase of Xbox hardware for the mod chip market.

Microsoft UK could not be reached for official comment at the time of publication.