Xbox 360 Price Drop Confirmed in Europe?

Reports coming from across the channel suggesting that a price cut is coming for the Xbox 360 in Europe have been backed up by the emergence of the advert pictured to the right.

The advert (first cited in Neogaf), which comes from Dutch retailer Intertoy shows a price cut of a substantial as €79 (£60) will come to the Arcade version of the console. It is being reported that the Arcade will drop from around the €280 (£213) mark to €199 (£151), while the Pro will drop from €349 (£265) to €299, with the Elite dropping from €449 (£342) to €399 (£303). The prices for the Pro and Elite, it should be noted, are not confirmed by the advert.

As expected, March 14th (this Friday) is confirmed in the advert for the price cut.

While the advert could indicate an isolated retailer dropping its prices, Germany's Financial Times^† reports that the price drop comes from Microsoft. It also claims that an official announcement will come today. Contrary to the €299 price floating around for the Elite, however, the FT claims that Microsoft is yet to make a firm decision on what the top-end 360's price will be.

SPOnG has contacted Microsoft to find out if the rumours are true and whether we can expect a sterling price drop, but no comment was available at the time of press.

If the price cut is bona fide, it will put the Arcade at a whopping €50 (£38) below the €250 (£190) price tag of the Wii, while the Pro will be within a €50 (£38) spitting distance of it. The Elite, meanwhile, will cost around the same as several PS3 bundles currently available.

^{†Source: Financial Times}