Microsoft Corp. has announced price drop on its Xbox 360 game machines in the European region, particularly in the UK. In addition, the company promised to slash the price on its latest game machine in middle-East, which emphasizes that the company is cutting the Xbox 360 price worldwide ahead of back-to-school and well ahead of holiday season.

The most basic version of the Xbox 360 will cost £179.99 starting this Friday, whereas the premium version of the machine will retail for £249.99, which is a £30 reduction from the previous manufacturer suggested retail price in the UK. Microsoft will also start to sell its Xbox 360 elite flavour of the machine for £299.99, providing gamers a slightly better choice.

The world’s largest software maker still has to cut the price of the Xbox 360 in mainland Europe, as the “core” version of the machine is still listed for €299 on Microsoft’s web-sites in Germany and France. Nevertheless, according to media reports, starting August 24, core version of Microsoft Xbox 360 will cost €279, premium will retail for €349, whereas the elite flavou will be sold for €449. Given that several web-sites in the middle-East reported about Xbox 360 price slash there, it may be a matter of days before Microsoft cuts the price down in the whole EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, Africa) region.

Microsoft is decreasing the price of the Xbox 360 following the same move in North America as well as the scandal with malfunction game consoles that need repairs. It remains to be seen whether a lot of end-users will actually jump on the Xbox 360 bandwagon right after the scandal. On the other hand, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has not reduced the cost of its PlayStation 3 in other regions than North America, meaning that Microsoft has just extended the gap between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 price. The most affordable Sony PlayStation 3 costs £425, more than two times higher compared to the most affordable Microsoft Xbox 360 and over 40% higher compared to the elite version of the arch-rival.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine provides a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games.