Xbox One Drops in Price in UK Market, US To Follow?

Today the Redmond, WA-based Microsoft grew some teeth and announced a price drop for the Xbox One from £429 to £399 in the UK.  The price drop doesn’t seem to have much rhyme or reason, but it is likely attributed to Microsoft needing to succeed in Europe to keep pace with Sony’s PS4 console.  Does this mean that the United States and Canada will also see a price drop?  Not likely.  North America is big for Xbox, and despite reports that the PS4 outsold the Xbox One in the US during the month of January, Microsoft will be thumping Sony (barring a freak sales surge of the PS4) in March and perhaps the rest of 2014.  This will be attributed to TitanFall, the first must-have game for either console and is an Xbox exclusive.  Sony will not be picking up this game ever, and they will have to rely on the lesser-hyped Infamous: Second Son to try and move a few more consoles.  TitanFall is so heavily promoted and raved about, Infamous doesn’t stand a chance even if critics were to love it more than TitanFall.  But seeing how Call of Duty was once the dominant figure in gaming and moved millions upon millions of games per release, TitanFall stands to greatly pump some good lifeblood into the Xbox One games library and get consoles off the shelves faster.

As a result, the US and Canada will likely not be high-value targets for a price drop in 2014.  This is Microsoft’s home field advantage and they don’t have to rely on price drops to move consoles.  In reality, Microsoft need to get past their limited 13 market release as Sony is drastically more available across the world with their 50+ market availability.  The Xbox One is expected to launch in many more markets in 2014, but it remains undetermined as to when that global expansion will happen.  Initially we thought it would be early 2014, but the lack of any information from Microsoft on the issue seems to lead us to believe that a late-spring or summer timeframe will be the earliest we see the Xbox One expand its reach.  If they haven’t already caught up with Sony in sales, doubling or tripling their market availability will certainly help make up significant ground.  But for Xbox One owners, rejoice – you have the coolest exclusive and a guaranteed-nomination for Game of the Year title on its way on March 11 (for the US and Canada).