What was originally meant to be a regional price cut for the Xbox 360 has extended to the United States, where the console enjoys its widest adoption. With this, the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle will now be sold for $199, or $50 less than the Nintendo Wii, which is still seasonally hard to get. This also makes the Xbox 360 the cheapest console of the current generation, go figure.

The standard Xbox 360 will now cost $299, and the Xbox 360 Elite bundle has been set at $399, the same price of Sony's PlayStation 3 base bundle in this market.

Even though the Xbox Arcade bundle doesn't carry a hard drive, industry analysts say once a console breaks the $200 psychological barrier, the system is set for massive adoption. With Xbox Live becoming an ever more important monetization tool for Microsoft, the software giant is certainly hoping its console to become the next PS2, which saw millions of sales after the eventual price drop.

Needless to say, it will be interesting to watch how Sony and Nintendo play their positions come the holiday season.