The Xbox 360 price drop is so very past rumor it's not funny, heck even the Wall Street Journal has reported on it. But the deals that come with that price drop? Now that's news. We've heard of a $25 gift card that will come with the $300 Xbox 360 at both Wal-Mart and Radio Shack, and today a Circuit City employee leaked us their deal.

According to the Circuit City employee focus newsletter people who buy the $300 Xbox 360 will get a free $30 gift card and a copy of Athlon Magazine. The catch? It's a doozie, you also need to buy a copy of NCAA Football 09. Boooooooo!

Update - We originally thought this was a Target Ad, but have since confirmed it is indeed Circuit City. Sorry for the confusion.

Just in case all of those retailer circulars from Best Buy, KMart, et al, wasn't enough proof of an Xbox 360 price drop coming on Sunday, here's one more tidbit of proof.

A GameStop employee has sent us cell pics of the internal announcement for the coming Xbox 360 Pro price drop announcement. They also included pics of the shelf art all of which will go on display on July 13, the day before E3 kicks off with Microsoft's press conference.

So, while still not official, it seem pretty clear that come Sunday you'll be able to pick up an Xbox 360 Pro (aka Premium) for a penny shy of $300.

If true, I can't help but think that this means that Microsoft wanted to clear the decks of pricing news to make room for something more interesting, or at least they want more attention on, come their press conference. Motion controls? Minority-Report-like interface? Who knows.

Pachter: Rumored Xbox 360 Price, Feature Set Sprucing Could Squeeze Sony

Evidence suggests that the mid-level Xbox 360 might soon see a price drop to $299, and we've seen rumors suggesting that the imminent cut would make way for a new, 60GB Xbox 360.

With price cuts possibly on the horizon that could bring console prices closer to the Wii's territory, should Nintendo worry? "The Wii audience is not choosing between 360 and Wii," said Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. "Either they will buy a Wii only, or they will buy both a Wii and either a 360 or PS3. So Microsoft is right to consider the PS3 as the competition and to ignore the Wii."

Sony is the one, says Pachter, with more to be concerned about regarding possible pricing and feature set changes for the Xbox 360:

$299 Price Drop Xbox 360 Is Refurbish? (Bwah?) [Updated]

Previously, we posted a Kmart ad indicating a price-drop in the Xbox 360 line-up. The ad, purported to hit July 6, shows that the model that comes equipped with a 20GB hard drive, formerly known as the 'Pro' version, will be priced at $299 US. That's a $50 price drop from its current MSRP. A Gamestop employee has tipped us with what looks like further confirmation that the lower priced Xbox 360 is hitting. Pictured is the $299.99 Xbox 360 SKU in the Gamestop inventory screen. While the tipster isn't sure what the bundle contains, we imagine it will be everything that's in the "Pro" version. Here's the kicker: Apparently, this cheaper Xbox 360 is a refurbished console as the product description reads:

Microsoft Xbox 360 Pro, Refurb 299.99

Update: Several Gamestop employees have altered us that the retailer has been running this refurb deal for the past month or so, thus negating anything it has to do with the rumored price-drop Xbox 360. Nothing to see here! Move along, move along.

Retailer Ad Shows Xbox 360 Price Drop Hits Before E3

A user on the High-Def Digest forums has posted a scan of what is claimed to be an upcoming Kmart weekly ad, one that indicates a price drop will hit the Xbox 360 line-up the week before E3. The ad, purported to hit July 6, shows that the model that comes equipped with a 20GB hard drive, formerly known as the 'Pro' version, will be priced at $299 US. That's a $50 price drop from its current MSRP.

The ad scan doesn't indicate further price adjustments for the 'Arcade' or 'Elite' models, but with the lower end SKU currently priced at $279, we would assume that it will have to be adjusted somehow. Consider it rumor for now, but we'll be getting in touch with them to learn more.

Xbox 360 price cut is coming around July 6th, price will be $299.99 [High-Def Digest Forums via NeoGAF]

Interview: Pachter Says Console Sales Still OK, But Expect Holiday Price Drops

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that Nintendo's lead over its competitors in hardware sales is no cause for alarm for Sony and Microsoft, even though console sales in the recent month saw declines Xbox 360 and the Wii declining over the month prior. Even though console sales are still within expectations, the analyst said the Xbox 360 and PS3 will see at least a $50 price reduction by the Holiday.

"I don't really think that Microsoft and Sony are doing badly - just doing badly in comparison to Nintendo," Pachter said. "It makes sense that PS3 and 360 are doing about the same... instead of saying 'what's wrong with Sony and Microsoft,' we should be looking at Nintendo and saying, 'how the hell do they keep doing this?'"

It's easy to peg the answers on the price discrepancies, but Pachter said that's not all there is to it, pointing to Nintendo's success in a mainstream market most gamers are less aware of. "There really are people who play games that don't read Kotaku - I know it's hard to believe," he said. "There are people out there who don't even know how to spell Kotaku, and don't even know that there are websites dedicated to games."

Calling the typical console-fanboy attitude "extremely myopic," Pachter added, "There are actually people out there who have sex. The people on Kotaku, other than their parents, they've never met anyone who's had sex."

UK 360 Sales Spike 40%

What a surprise! Turns out that Microsoft's tactic of dropping the price of the Xbox 360 a significant amount resulted in more sales! Who'd have thought? According to Chart-Track, sales of the Xbox 360 were up 35-40% over the weekend, starting on Friday when the price drop kicked in. With such a short lead time between the official announcement and the price drop, UK retailer HMV spokesperson Gennaro Castaldo is convinced that the sales surge will continue.

"That's obviously fairly significant, given we didn't have too much time to communicate it to our consumers. So with a lot more of the marketing kicking in now we expect it to grow even more in the coming days and weeks."

UK Xbox 360 sales up 40% [GamesIndustry.biz]

Euro 360 Price Cut Coming?

Come this Easter, buying an Xbox 360 in Europe could be cheaper than picking up a Nintendo Wii. News from various industry sources over various web sites suggests that the Xbox 360 is getting a €50 (around £40) price cut across the board come March 14th. Such a move would put the Xbox 360 Arcade system at a price of £150 - less than the price of the £180 Nintendo Wii in the UK. TechRadar attributes the rumor to several well-placed industry insiders, and has also claimed to have gotten confirmation from several retailers in the UK, while several other sites contacting UK retailers have failed to elicit any comment whatsoever. Still, Microsoft recently dropped the price of the 360 in Canada, so I'd say this is one rumor that will more than likely come true. Happy Easter Europe!

Rumours suggest Xbox 360 price cut this month [GamesIndustry.biz]

Wal-Mart Canada's 80GB PS3 Sale

FCC Filing Reveals New PS3 Model

40GB PS3 With Spider-Man 3 For Christmas?

* 80GB PlayStation 3: $499.99
* 40GB PlayStation 3: $399.99
* Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie pack in with one, or both
* PlayStation 2: $99.99

Analysts Predict PS3 Price Cut Again

As the holiday season approaches, video game analysts' thoughts go to their holiday bonuses, and there's no better way to get a bonus than to be an internet famous analyst like Michael Pachter, which is exactly what Michael Pachter has done. This is why we listen to him when he predicts a price cut for the 80GB PS3 in time for the holidays.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in his latest report, "We note that Sony recently acknowledged that it will no longer produce its 60Gb PS3, and we expect the price of the 80Gb PS3 to be reduced to $499 before the holidays, maintaining a premium SKU at that price point."

Analysts: 80GB PS3 to Drop to $499 This Year [GameDaily BIZ]

While Microsoft lowered the Xbox 360 Premium by $50 in the US, Canadians will see a $100 (CDN) price drop on both the Premium and Core systems.

Oh, but that's inflated Canadian money, you say? Not the real, green, American, smells-like-Wendy's money like we have here? But actually, $100 CND equals $97 USD by current exchange rates. Yeah, the difference isn't anywhere near that miles vs. kilometers standard that always makes their speed limits sound so high.

So why the price drop? Canadians had been paying almost $100 more for each SKU. Their Premium is actually running $378 USD after the drop. No worries, America still rules!

Thanks Steve!

The rampant speculation, the endless images of circulars, the bogs of "insider emails" are all correct: The Xbox 360 is getting a $50 price drop starting this Wednesday, Microsoft announced tonight.

As of Wednesday the Elite will be $449, the Halo Limited Edition Xbox 360 (when it hits) will be $399, the standard will be $349 and the core will be $279.

The price drop is meant to be timed to the upcoming release of Madden 08, said Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, as a way to grab up all of those Playstation 2 Madden fans who haven't yet upgraded to the Playstation 3.

"Madden is the number one selling game, and we felt like that was the right title to lead with," he said. "We know Madden will bring a lot of PS2 owners into the store and that's a specific reason for this timing. We feel we have the showcase platform for Madden this year and with this drop we hope to be the home for those gamers this season."

Greenberg said that the decision to time the price drop with the release of Madden has been in the works for a very long time and that the 360 price drop has nothing to do with the recent PS3 pricing flux.

"We've had this on our plans for a long time, an extremely long time," he said. "We did not make this decision even heading into E3, this is all based on before hand. We had the first media briefing (at E3) so we could have been the first to announce it, but it was never on our calendar. The benefit of pre-planning, of having this time, outweighed being one-upped, perhaps, at E3."

Greenberg pointed out that the 360 has been the same price for 21 months, the longest any console has maintained their launch price.

Too bad Microsoft didn't drop the core down a bit more and make it competitive with the Wii. I think $249 would have made things very interesting for Nintendo.

We've already run price drop scans from Best Buy and Toys R Us, so this is just (extra) confirmation on the Xbox 360 price reduction. However, this ad tells us a bit more than we've heard before. The Premium will drop $50 to $350, with the Core going down $20 to $280 and the Elite dropping $30 to $450—starting August 12th. In other words, we'd recommend waiting a few days before going shopping for you shiny new 360.

Xbox 360 Price Drop...Confirmed [neogaf]

The notorious Cheapy D brings even more proof that the rumored Xbox 360 price drop is indeed for real. Yesterday he had a Wal-mart ad showing the cut and now he has procured another (blurry) photo of an ad showing the 360 being priced at $349. This time the ad is from Toys R Us stating a "price break" and slated for an August 12 street date. As more and more information comes in it's becoming more difficult to brand this one as rumor, but of course without an official word from Microsoft on the subject it will have to remain as such. Still, I think we all know what's coming...

Walmart & Toys R Us Ads Confirm $50 Xbox 360 Price Cut [CheapAssGamer]

Wal-mart Ad Shows 360 Price Drop

The interwebs are a-buzz with the posting of a blurry image of a Wal-mart circular that shows a $50 price drop on the Xbox 360 taking it down to $349. It's unclear as of yet if this is an across the board cut for all three SKU's, bringing truth to the price cut rumors that have been floating around, or merely some kind of one timeWal-mart sale. But, we can all cross our fingers and hope for the best.

XBOX 360 $50 price drop - walmart ad [CheapAssgamer]
[Thanks, OGHowie]

More Moles Confirm PS3 Price Drop

Sony President Ryoji Chubachi may be denying any Playstation 3 price cut, but that's not stopping the retail moles from saying that they're true.

The $100 price drop started yesterday when a Circuit City ad surfaced saying the PS3 was going to be selling for $499. Then GameDaily confirmed with "a merchandising manager at one of the world's biggest retailers" that the price drop was true.

Today we've received word from moles at both Best Buy and Target that they too have word of a price drop. Our Target mole reports that the retail chain's inventory tracking program is listing retail for the 60GB PS3 at $499.99. And a mole at Best Buy tells us they just received their upcoming ads and that they all list the PS3 price at $499.99 as well.

Great conspiracy? Lots of lying moles? A fact-spinning Sony president? Only time will tell.