Microsoft Corp. plans to drop the price of its Xbox videogame system by $30 to $149 next month according to a story in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Citing people familiar with the company's plans, the Journal said Microsoft may also start selling a limited-edition Xbox packaged with its Halo shooting game, for $169. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
Publishers and retailers have clamored for a price cut for the Xbox and Sony Corp's rival PlayStation 2 this year, to either $149 or $129. Reuters has cited senior industry executives saying they expected price cuts by May this year.
Reshuffle of games execs
Also on Friday, Microsoft announced a reorganization of its game unit. Longtime industry executive Peter Moore was promoted to a job overseeing global game production and marketing. Shane Kim was formally named to head Microsoft's video game development studios, after holding the job on an interim basis since mid-January, when veteran studio head Ed Fries resigned.
Moore ran the U.S. games arm of Japan’s Sega Corp.’s before joining Microsoft in January 2003 to oversee its game sales and marketing efforts in Europe and Japan. His new title is corporate vice president for worldwide content and marketing, heading the game studios, global marketing efforts and relationships with third-party publishers. Microsoft’s games content and marketing previously operated separately.
Moore will also retain oversight of the Japanese market in his portfolio. Microsoft’s Xbox has struggled for acceptance in the Japanese market since the video game system’s launch in February 2002, and Moore said that market was his “pet project.”
As head of Microsoft Game Studios, which oversees game titles like “Age of Mythology” for the personal computer and “Halo” on the Xbox, Kim will report to Moore.
The reshuffling comes less than a week ahead of the Game Developers Conference, an annual industry gathering in San Jose, California, where game designers and industry leaders meet to discuss trends and technology.
