The main attraction at Microsoft's E3 keynote yesterday was the company's upcoming Xbox One, and while Redmond certainly devoted an awful lot of time and attention to its new horse in the console race, the company also took a little time for the Xbox 360.
Despite the fact that the Xbox One is due out later this year, Microsoft yesterday announced a new version of the Xbox 360 as well. The new console takes its design cues from the Xbox One but is exactly the same under the hood.
"Xbox 360 offers unrivaled value — with more great games, an Xbox Live community with 48 million members, and a compelling lineup of apps, sports, movies, TV and music," said Yusuf Mehdi, marketing and strategy, Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft.
"We’ve taken all we have learned these past eight years and engineered a new Xbox 360 console that is elegant and accessible to anyone. There’s never been a better time to experience everything Xbox 360 has to offer."
The new Xbox 360 will be priced at $199.99 for the 4GB console, $299.99 for the 250GB edition or $299.99 for the 4GB Kinect Bundle and is available to buy now. In addition to the new Xbox 360, Microsoft is offering new and existing Xbox Live Gold members two free Xbox 360 game downloads per month starting July 1 and continuing through until December 31, 2013. The offer will include popular titles like Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed II. To celebrate E3, XBL Gold members will receive a free download of Fable III in June.