Microsoft To Increase Price Of Xbox 360 Arcade To £160

Microsoft has informed its retailers that it will be increasing the price of its Arcade Xbox 360 bundle by a throat-choking £30 to £160 whilst at the same time removing the five XBLA games that used to come with the gaming console.

The price increase appears to have been made in anticipation of the discontinuation of the Xbox 360 60GB bundle otherwise known as Premium. This means that only two Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) will survive with the cheaper one becoming more expensive.

The Xbox 360 Elite with the 120GB hard drive retails for around £220 while the premium version costs significantly less at £170.

Microsoft has also confirmed that many of the official accessories for the Xbox will increase by a couple of pounds due to the low Pound-to-Euro ratio. There were also unfounded rumours that the Xbox 360 Elite would drop in price as Microsoft prepares for a major push with regards to online content.

All these announcements come against the backdrop of a soon-to-come release of a slimmer and cheaper version of the Sony PS3 gaming console.