Sony slashes PS2 price; Microsoft to make pre-emptive announcement

The PlayStation 2 and Xbox are set for European price cuts in the coming days, with Sony to cut its price to UKP 104.99 this week while sources in Germany indicate that Microsoft is to announce a UKP 99.99 price this afternoon.

Although it will be announced first, in a move designed to spoil the effect of Sony's cut to some extent, the Microsoft price drop is not expected to take effect across Europe until August 27th.

Sources at the Leipzig Game Convention in Germany have indicated that the announcement of Microsoft's price drop will be made there this afternoon at 3pm CET (2pm GMT), while the Sony announcement is expected to be made later in the day at 4.30pm CET.

Retailers will hope to see a significant sales boost for both consoles from the price cuts, much as was experienced by US retail back in June when Microsoft, and then Sony, slashed the price of their consoles within the space of a month of each other.

In the UK, the PS2 has continued to outsell the Xbox by a factor of between 2:1 and 2.8:1 over the course of the summer, with the Xbox shifting around 5,000 units per week while the PS2 hovered between 8,000 and 14,000 units.

Representatives of both Sony and Microsoft declined to comment on these reports at the time of going to press.

Update #1: Microsoft has now officially confirmed that the price point of the Xbox in Europe will be 149.99 Euro, with a UK price of UKP 99.99. "With the strongest Christmas games portfolio of any console, Xbox is now also the best value console on the market," commented Xbox EMEA regional VP Eduardo Rosini.Ã'Â "It's a winning combination for gamers this Christmas, and even more people in Europe will discover why it's good to play together with Xbox."