Xbox 360: Price cuts confirmed, Core disappearing?

A new Circuit City flyer appears to validate earlier rumors that the prices for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console will soon drop permanently. Now dated to August 12th, cuts should see the Premium system drop $50 to $350, with the Elite falling $30 to $450, and the Core model sliding just $20 to $280. As an incentive, the Premium bundle includes Rockstar's popular Table Tennis. The cuts are most likely aimed at Sony, whose rival PlayStation 3 was recently discounted by $100 to $499.

The Core 360 may in fact be on its way out, as an anonymous Best Buy source has indicated that at least one store is no longer ordering any more units, choosing instead to sell its remaining stock and focus on Elites and Premiums. The Core has typically been the least popular of Microsoft's options: the console comes with a wired controller rather than a wireless one, and has no hard drive, making it difficult or impossible to take advantage of features such as Marketplace downloads or backwards compatibility. [via Joystiq]