You can tell summer is coming to an end because the video game industry is actually doing interesting things again. Namely, cutting prices on consoles as visions of sugar plums sucking the scant few dollars out of holiday shopper's wallets start dancing in retailers' heads.

Following Sony's recent price cut of the PlayStation3 to $299 USD and Cdn. - and the availability of the slimmed down, same-priced PS3 coming September 1st, no less - Microsoft has followed suit with a price cut of its own.

Effective tomorrow, the "high end" Xbox 360 Elite will cost $299 USD or $329 Cdn. (in keeping with Microsoft's unapologetic love of over-shooting the exchange rate, while Sony munificently ignores it altogether), which represents a $100 drop for Americans, a $70 cut for Canadians (and about $20 worth of cross-border shopping considerations).

Microsoft's mid-range Xbox 360 Pro, meanwhile, will undergo a $50 USD cut and a scant $20 Cdn. price reduction to $249 in the US of A and $279 in the Great White North.

The under-achieving Xbox 360 Arcade, Microsoft's "entry level" console which lacks a relatively essential hard drive, will remain fixed at its $199 USD and $229 Cdn. price point.

Microsoft is expected to discontinue the middling "Pro" model (the announcement's "while supplies last" caveat confirms as much) while the "Elite" becomes the direct competitor to Sony's only console, the new PlayStation3 Slim.

The Xbox 360 "Arcade" remains as is, i.e. the least expensive console on the market, even less than the other under-achieving console in the three horse race, the Nintendo Wii - which also happens to be the best selling console of the current generation.

Nintendo's Wii retails for $249 in the US and $279 in Canada. Nintendo has been mum about a price reduction despite recession pressures and the competitions' new price war. Otherwise, Nintendo has long claimed to be satisfied with Wii's pricing, which hasn't wavered since its incept three years ago.

Interestingly, seeing as Microsoft is merely matching its high-end Xbox 360 Elite price with that of the high-end PlayStation3 - actually over-pricing it in Canada -, direct hardware comparisons would now heavily favor the PlayStation3.

The PlayStation3 comes with built-in Wi-Fi for wireless internet access, whereas Microsoft sells a proprietary Wireless Network Adapter for a head-shaking $100, making the Elite a much more expensive console for those who keep a home networking wireless router in some other room and otherwise don't want to snake Ethernet cables up to and around the TV set. And that's to say nothing of Elite's lack of Blu-ray movie playback, though it does offer high definition movie rentals/sales directly via streaming/download (not that you can take those to a friends house to watch).

But what's most interesting is the fact that Microsoft is actually offering Canadians the better deal, which is unheard of.

As it happens, Microsoft also announced a "limited time" Canada-only Elite bundle to include a Wireless Network Adapter and a copy of the best-selling Halo 3 game, free. So though the Xbox 360 Elite now costs more than a PS3 in Canada despite the so-called "price cut," it will include an overpriced wi-fi dongle at no extra charge, and even toss in a new copy of a popular game you could otherwise pick up used for about $30.

Net gain: zero, so consumers are left to fret the quality of each system's content only. On the hardware side of things, pound for pound, they are equals in Canada while PS3 has the edge in the US market.

Wii remains in a perplexingly popular pound-for-ounce class by itself, of course.
 
 

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