Microsoft has been struggling to find it’s position on the NPD monthly sales charts. Today Polygon reported that Best Buy and Walmart are offering the Xbox One for $449, which could help Microsoft make a play at the top spot this month. Both retailers are also offering the new Titanfall bundle for the same price; so, essentially, you are getting a copy of Titanfall and a Xbox One for $449. I have seriously thought about going to Walmart four or five times tonight.
Walmart told Polygon that this $50 less price tag is “a limited time” offer, while Best Buy declined to comment on any specific end date for the price change. When Polygon reporter Samit Sarkar called Microsoft for comment he wrote this;
The $50 discount on the Xbox One isn’t indicative of a price cut from Microsoft, a company spokesperson told Polygon, saying, “This offer is available at Walmart and Best Buy retail stores in the U.S. for a limited time. Microsoft sets a suggested retail price, but specific pricing and offers vary by retailer.”
Microsoft has to give this kind of response to this news; whether they have anything to do with this or not. They want to distance themselves from this for whatever reason. The quote from Microsoft was written in such a way that it doesn’t mention “price drop” at all.
If they would have wanted credit for this they would have made this a huge announcement at CES, but a $50 price drop isn’t big enough news for that kind of announcement. I wouldn’t doubt though that Microsoft, an American company, went to Walmart and Best Buy, two of the biggest American retail companies, and asked them to be “test markets” for a cheaper price point.
I really do believe that Microsoft needs to lower the price for it’s console. I am sure that they will do it, but “When?” is the the biggest question. I am sure that this “limited time” offer will give Microsoft some good data that will help them decide what to do before E3 starts.
