In his latest article Storm Shadow gave us the low down on his recent trip to CES. One of the items he mentioned in passing in that article was a possible new price and design for the Xbox. Here is the excerpt from his article:
Xbox is also rumored to be under a design change, to a smaller package with the same capabilities. Microsoft plans on bringing the price to $99 US. This is also a clue that they will make consoles a subscription product soon, which I pretty much hate the idea of. The only things I like subscribing to are Maxim Magazine and a high opinion of myself. You see, to bankers everywhere, the words "reoccurring revenue stream" sound just like "Anna Kournikova naked"…
Since Stormy delivered this article I have talked to a few other people in the know who have confirmed this scenario. If I was a betting man I'd put money on a new smaller sleeker Xbox by next Christmas along with a new $99 price point. The catch of course being that you will need to sign up for a few years of Xbox Live along with it.
I don't really see this rumor getting much play at any of the other news sites so I figured I'd mention it here. Since I see Xbox live as being an integral part of owning an Xbox it seems to me like it's probably a pretty good deal. I mean, as far as I'm concerned you are gonna need to have Live anyway, so why not get your box for $99. It will be interesting to see if this turns out to be true and if so what kind of reaction it gets.
-Gabe out
