Xbox 360 Elite priced for Europe?

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 19th July 2007

European retailers are now taking pre-orders for the Xbox 360 Elite at a price of £329.99.

The Xbox 360 Elite is ready and willing to hit shelves across Europe later this year on August 24th, the same day as Bioshock conveniently. In fact, the only thing which the new and improved version of the Xbox 360 is missing is a price for the European market.

Well, it misses a price no longer - kind of.

The 360 Elite, which has a fancy new black casing, 120GB hard disk and an HDMI port, is being tentatively priced by European retailers, despite a lack of official announcement from Microsoft. The Elite is now available for pre-order from Play.com, HMV and GAME at a price of £329.99.

The improved console has been available in the US for a while now, where it is priced at $479 across the nation.

Microsoft has adamantly refused to give an official price on the Elite just yet, so the figures which the retailers are using may still be subject to change - for better or worse.

A Microsoft spokesperson has suggested that the price cited by the European shops may have originated from a leak in another region.

The price seems about right however and is near to the early indications given by Xbox Marketing execs. Steve McGill, Xbox UK Marketing Director, recently told Eurogamer that; "If you compare it to the price difference between Xbox 360 Elite and Premium in the US, you wouldn't be far off."

Gamesindustry.biz has worked out based on this information that the projected price would be around £336 in Europe.

Will you be picking up an Xbox 360 Elite, or is the whole thing just another attempt of Bill Gates' to fleece us of our hard earned cash? Comments in the forums, if you please.