This winter the Xbox 360 will finally have some new console competition on the scene. How will Microsoft attempt to protect its first mover advantage? One thing the company won't be doing is slashing prices. Microsoft put the kibosh on price-slashing rumors in May, and it should be no surprise why: the company loses money on the Xbox 360 hardware, perhaps as much as $126 per console. While we estimated that Sony will initially lose even more per console, Microsoft is in no hurry to widen their loses on the hardware. The Redmond giant reportedly hopes to be turning a profit on the hardware before the close of its fiscal year 2007, approximately 11 months from now; to meet that goal, significant price cuts can't be part of the short-term roadmap.
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