Microsoft Blames The Pound For Arcade Price Hike News

You can blame the UK's currency for a lot of things: the anti-EU sentiment of the Conservative Party during the 90s, inaccurately minted 20p coins, and now apparently Microsoft's decision to raise the price of its Xbox 360 Arcade SKU in the region.

"We are making modest increases on the Xbox 360 Arcade console as you can see," said Chris Lewis, Microsoft EMEA's VP of Interactive Entertainment Business. "The reality now is partly to offset currency exchange rate fluctuations which have impacted us in local market conditions - particularly in the UK."

The Arcade's price hike from £129.99 to £159.99 (officially announced this morning) actually equates to a 23% price increase for the SKU, which would more accurately be described as substantial rather than "modest".

"And you've seen other consumer products operate in the same way," Lewis continued. "But I think even with that we still offer the most affordable console in the marketplace out there.

"So we've reset the price point largely based on exchange rate fluctuations, but are still very happy we offer great value through the Xbox 360 Arcade."

Microsoft's decision to keep selling its Arcade unit rather than discontinue it (as it's doing with the Pro SKU) could well be for the reason subtlety underlined by Lewis above, which is retaining the marketing clout of having the cheapest entry level console on the market.

After all, the Xbox 360 Arcade makes very little economic sense for the consumer, who would have to fork out around £100 for a 120GB Xbox 360 hard drive should they ever wish to expand their Arcade unit, but could now easily avoid this by simply purchasing an Elite for £40 more than the Arcade in the first place.

Source: MCV.