Xbox360 will cost $299, PS3 set for $500?

Totalvideogames may not be able to spell ´Walmart´ correctly, but they have had word from one employee working there. Let´s tune in:

Wallmart slaps an unsurprising price-tag on the 360...

Unconfirmed reports stemming from Walmart employees have today suggested a North American retail price for the Xbox 360 and its launch titles, allegedly set to arrive in shop stores on November 4th.

Naturally a smidgeon of sceptism should be maintained until Microsoft makes an official announcement, however the $299.99 price point hardly appears to be out of the bounds of possibility and suggests a pound/dollar equation when Microsoft's next-gen format is launched upon UK shores later in the month. As widely believed games appear to be slightly more expensive then many would hope with the likes of Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 marked at $59.99.

No surprise there. But still interesting to know exactly what the Revolution will be up against in terms of price tags. As we probably all know, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) is preparing everyone for the fact that their PlayStation3 may cost quite a bit. In an interview with Beyond3D, NVidia´s CEO writes:

Jen-Hsun Huang: My customers aren't concerned about my costs, but they are concerned about my price. I have to sell it too them at a price that makes sense, they care about power.

Beyond3D: But [GeForce] 7800 [GTX] has now firmly exceeded the perceived $499 price barrier...

Jen-Hsun Huang: I'm not even too sure there is a perceived barrier at $499. We need to price it at a level the enthusiasts will buy it at, that's the way that we think about pricing. We think about the pricing of this in the same way that Sony thinks about Playstation 3's - its not about how much is costs, its about what is the price it needs to sell at, and we need to figure out how to make money underneath that.

Downtalking the $499 barrier while mentioning the PS3 is quite something, I must say. To recap: In July, SCE president Ken Kutaragi said (according to GameSpot): "I'm aware that with all these technologies, the PS3 can't be offered at a price that's targeted towards households." Only a month before that, IGN quoted Kutaragi as saying: "Our goal for PlayStation 3 is for consumers to think to themselves, 'I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."

After all, Merrill Lynch Japan Securities was quoted (by GameSpot) as estimating the initial production costs per console to be around 54,000 yen, which comes to $494.