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Are you sitting down for this? Microsoft just cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.

I know! Who saw that one coming, huh?

The current worst kept secret in gaming is now out in the open. The Elite will fall from $399 to $299. The entry-level Arcade will stay at $199. And the Xbox 360 Pro will drop from $299 to $249 until Microsoft gets rid of the existing inventory. (The mid-level machine is being phased out.)

Officially, it’s a price cut. And officially it has been long planned. The fact that the announcement comes just as Sony launches the slimmed down PS3 is purely coincidental, says the company.

Right.

Cynicism aside, Microsoft had a lot of luck when it cut prices last September. Sales soared 78 percent the next month and in 2009, Xbox 360 sales are up 17 percent – the only console hardware to see a sales increase.

Now the industry turns to Nintendo to wait and wonder. The answer there is a bit more uncertain. We’ll have to see how many hardware units “Wii Sports Resort” has moved before a clearer picture emerges.