The Xbox 360 Elite console will be £30 cheaper from tomorrow as the Estimated Retail Price (ERP) will be dropped to £199.99. No doubt Microsoft is trying to persuade people to 'go large' with their Xbox 360 consoles due to the introduction of game installs and Games On Demand, and this is echoed with the phasing out of the Premium/Pro model. It looks like they won't be making any more white consoles with a 60 GB hard drive, so it's Arcade or Elite in the future!

Speaking of the Arcade console, the opposite has happened with that... it's getting a £30 price increase to an ERP of £159.99! Not only that, the 5 Arcade games that you currently get with the console will no longer be offered. How they can continue to call it an Arcade version of the console when it doesn't come with any Arcade games and only comes with 256 MB of storage is beyond me, but I suppose it's best not to confuse people with a different name. Still, it would've been nice if they kept the Arcade disc included, especially with a price increase. Apparently this is being done to combat the weak Pound->Euro exchange rate, although that's been rubbish since the recession started last year, so I have no idea why they're deciding to catch up on it now.

It's not just us UK folks that will see a change in prices, however. In the U.S., the Elite console will receive a $100 price cut to an ERP of $299 and the Premium price will drop to $249 until they run out. The Arcade price remains unaffected at $199 however it's possible that the Arcade games will no longer be included there too.

So it's good and bad news for UK Xbox 360 gamers... The Elite will now be undercutting the PS3 by £50 even with its recent price cut, and the Arcade is still undercutting the Wii by £20. However it seems like the Arcade is being slapped in the face a bit since there is less and less included with it now, and it's now more expensive.