Retail Radar: Xbox 360 bundle

Canadian Future Shop accepting preorders for a premium 360 with free Project Gotham Racing 3, three months of Xbox Live Gold, and 1,250 Marketplace points.

Earlier today, part of Microsoft's strategy to counter the launch of the PlayStation 3 became clear. The company announced that it will release Gears of War just before Sony's console arrives in the North American market.

Canadian retailer Future Shop is suggesting another aspect of the company's plan to have the Xbox 360 flying off shelves in a season with new consoles from Sony and Nintendo. The store's Web site is taking preorders for an Xbox 360 bundle that will include the premium edition of the console, a copy of Project Gotham Racing 3, three months of Xbox Live Gold, and 1,250 Marketplace points. The bundle will contain the premium edition of the system and will retail for the same price the premium unit fetches on its own right now (CA$499.99). Future Shop is expecting the bundle to be available August 9.

Those details match up closely with a rumor from last month that originated on a gaming message board. The post's release date is off by a week, it mentions a price presumably in American dollars ($399--again, the same amount the premium sells for now) instead of Canadian, and it doesn't specify which version of the hardware is included, but the rest of the details line up exactly.

If this bundle is real (keep in mind Microsoft has not officially announced a bundle of any sort just yet), expect to hear more about it very soon.

122 Comments

  • generallee01

    Posted Aug 5, 2006 6:53 pm PT

    how long will this deal last? I'm getting a 360, prolly sept 12th and iunno how long this deal last. plz help. oh and, I... AM... CANADIAN!

  • Deriko

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 3:20 pm PT

    There was one bundle already on the store shelf here in Montreal. Only one left so it looks like it was already put on sale.

    Pretty good deal...

  • drk2hdw

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 11:14 am PT

    I would like to say that this same bundle is in stores already, but I'm from Mexico not Canada. This is something that MS is doing in other places besides USA. It retails as the same as the regular premium does here in Mexico(that is $4,999 MXP) in the main retailers of the country, with the same extras(PGR3, MSL Points, etc).

  • mazzhar

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 10:44 am PT

    Its for real. I saw it in futureshop

  • gmrscore-addict

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 10:16 am PT

    At least Canada is getting some deals lately!

  • faizali86

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 9:54 am PT

    thats some great news, but it would be better if microsoft announces it.

  • alberto2045

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 9:01 am PT

    ok man i know thats awsome and more bull, but dont say it was a Microsoft strtegy cause it wasent, it was just some people who thought they own part of Microsoft and could help them, well i got news for u guys they r not

  • Alexandre_Palma

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 8:36 am PT

    When is the XBOX360's new processor coming up? That's when the war begins!

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 8:02 am PT

    Great strategy!

    Go, MS!!

  • anschutz00

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 8:01 am PT

    the bundle is a pretty good deal. Depending on how the bundle is packaged, you might be able to take the game back to a store and trade it in for credit towards another game if it is unopened.

    On the idea of bundling Gears of War, and how it wouldn't be any different than the old Halo bunlde. yes both games are rated Mature, but I also see a difference in the level of the mature content. Take a look at the videos for GoW, there is a lot of blood and gore in the gameplay. How much blood was in Halo? I kind of see it as taking a child to go see a Terminator or Matrix movie which has lots of gunfre and explosions, or taking them to see Hostel which has a very graphic type of violnce.

  • FOO_JY

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 7:20 am PT

    Here in Montreal we're already selling those bundle at the same Price as the Premium is (499.99$CDN) We received them august 3rd !!! Those are selling like hot cakes !!

  • Mr_Bodywave

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 6:35 am PT

    See, this is a great move by MS. It costs them basically nothing to make this bundle. PGR3 is in-house so no real cost (maybe you could argue some lost revenue from fewer purchases), Xboxlive certainly costs them almost nothing (maybe a tad more in bandwidth charges, if that), and the marketplace points which might cost them some if the people buy non-first party stuff (but costs them nothing if they buy PGR3 stuff). It will definitely help with the number of downloads.

    I think MS knows that PS3 will sell out as will the Wii. What they are hoping for is that they get people who definitely want a 360 AND those that are on the edge. "I could get a PS3 (or more likely a PS3 order, delivery in Feb-Mar) for $600, or I could get that xbox360 bundle now and get a PS3 next year when the price drops $100".

  • maximo1

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 6:27 am PT

    Riverwolf007,
    You are severely misinformed. HDMI is used for an uncompressed digital signal. You say, "an hdmi port in a 360 its only used to show 1080p." That's funny I have a HDMI port on the back of my standard DVD player that only produces 480p. Why is that? It's because component cables don't offer a true digital signal. Please don't make comments in regards to things that you only assume you know about.

  • Riverwolf007

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 5:20 am PT

    why would u put an hdmi port in a 360 its only used to show 1080p and there will be no 1080p 360 games, they r almost all already 720p or 1080i, if they need a hdmi port it will get put in the HD-DVD drive. Ive seen developer interviews that state there will be very few ps3 games in 1080p there not enough bandwidth to make the games run correctly or something like that, the hdmi port in the ps3 will be used almost exclusively for blue-ray movies.

  • bxgt

    Posted Aug 4, 2006 4:11 am PT

    now im getting a 360

  • fredyrox214

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 10:55 pm PT

    You could just buy the bundle and trade or sell the game.

  • DeltaCommando07

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 10:37 pm PT

    well...360 bundle for my birthday, ps3 for christmas

  • Decoy123

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 10:37 pm PT

    should alow a game of choice sorta thing that walmart did with cube, it would be better, and what they should do to make sure we dont get gears of war outta that is to make a price of 40$ limit i would that would go well with an ebgames or gamespot.

  • Zonage007

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 10:33 pm PT

    this is really good for first time users to put them right in the 360 world but there should be a different kind of game like COD2 just cause pgr3 is not for everyone and a larger percentage of people would enjoy COD2 more (not by known standards).

  • Chainblast

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 10:01 pm PT

    This doesn't really help anyone that has not interest in PGR3. If MS dropped the price of a X360 by 100$ I'd probably bite.

  • gamer_10001

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 9:50 pm PT

    Already own a 360, don't care (yawn)

  • nintendorocks

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 9:05 pm PT

    Why doesn't Mircosoft just confirm the bundle already? I mean, everyone knows it's coming by now.

  • wenbin09

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 8:58 pm PT

    how about having games bundles?

  • TooDamnRaw

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 8:57 pm PT

    Microsoft should throw in two games instead of one. Though it may make them look desperate in the wake of the PS3 and Wii, they shouldn't care much if they can laugh first and possibly last at the bank. I elect DOA4 and Perfect Dark to be those games. Microsoft is losing money on the system not necessarily the games, so why not just throw them in at no charge and pay down some of those high development costs before the PS3 comes along. The PS3 is going to sell based on the fact that it's the PS3, so Microsoft should do something to combat though. Nintendo doesn't really need to be mentioned, because it has the same effect as the PS3 theory, but at a much cheaper/instant purchase type price.

  • jared81799

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 8:51 pm PT

    eh, no sell, ill wait for price drop.

  • adijan

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 8:26 pm PT

    yay i am only 10 minutes away froma future shop, boo ya ka sha

  • gamepunk86

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 8:05 pm PT

    man, i just want a price drop not a new bundle.

  • krisr2005

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 6:39 pm PT

    Whoever says that Xbox wouldn't package GOW because it's mature is ignorant. Halo+Xbox= 1 of the best gaming bundles ever. There is only one reason that MS would not bundle GOW, and that's because they don't know how the sells will be for GOW in a long term scale. PGR3 has suprisingly already proven itself as a the best FIRST party game sold. Gears of War may be hyped up garbage. CoughCough*Fable*CoughCough. If I were MS, I'd just drop the price 50 bucks, but I can see why they are bundling a 1st party game with the system. It gives consumers more, and microsoft doesn't have to pay much in the process

  • Valen_Ca

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 6:39 pm PT

    Don't say that Futureshop is Canadian, they lost the right to call themselves that when they sold out Best Buy without fight.
    Now onto the article, this would be great if it was true, but something tells me this is coming from Best Buy and not Futureshop, simply because the story states that the prices are most likely in American currency, unless of course a price cut is rolling through town.

  • RottenSandBox

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 5:42 pm PT

    Sorry I'm Allergic to BS

  • RottenSandBox

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 5:41 pm PT

    CoughCough*Fable*CoughCough

  • RottenSandBox

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 5:28 pm PT

    "The won't package Gears of War for two reasons. It's a brand new game, and it's rated Mature. Has anyone EVER packaged an M rated game with a console? No way. It would not sell as well. "

    CoughCouch*Halo*CoughCough

  • XtremePhsyco

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 5:10 pm PT

    its cool if its true, i already have a 360 and PGR3 though

  • vaejas

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 5:09 pm PT

    Wait for the HDMI port? Pfff, DVI VGA monitors all the way baby.

  • chikahiro94

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:55 pm PT

    @Teh_Blind_Guard
    Bummer.

    @ElementalFire
    I'm pretty sure when that came out Halo had paid for itself, and was purely profit. GOW is too new, and undoubtedly cost more to make.

  • icemancell

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:55 pm PT

    its a smart move, personally i woulda just drop price by 30 or 50 though. screw the game pack ins

  • Teh_Blind_Guard

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:42 pm PT

    @chikahiro94

    I know but I know 3 other people with Xbox 360s and they diffently would not want this game. So either I Ebay it or trade it in and I don't have an Ebay account so trade-in is my only option.

    @ElementalFire
    That was not a free Halo. You had to pay extra for the Halo bundle, so it was not technically a free game.

    I had to pay extra for my Crystal Fable/Crimson Skies one. Which was my second Xbox, glad it works fine still, unlike my first Xbox *shudders*

  • lalex2

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:36 pm PT

    Smart M$, but to fool their fans. Everybody knows that they're planning a X360 with HDMI port included so they NEED to get rid of the older X360 version before the new ones comes out....(sight)...poor M$ fans.

  • ElementalFire

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:33 pm PT

    "Singletrac
    You guys are stupid who keep saying bundle Gears of War with the 360. Think about the rating, it'll be a Mature rated game. You'd have to bundle a game thats suitable for everyone, like PGR3. Hope you people dont go into marketing, you'll fail hard."

    Halo+Xbox bundle. Enough said.

  • gonzalezj1

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:26 pm PT

    Singletrac:
    "You guys are stupid who keep saying bundle Gears of War with the 360. Think about the rating, it'll be a Mature rated game. You'd have to bundle a game thats suitable for everyone, like PGR3. Hope you people dont go into marketing, you'll fail hard. "
    ---------------------------------------
    Thank you Singletrac. I totally agree. In fact I made this same point earlier today on a different news board. Those noobs'll never learn.

  • carl2tan

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 4:21 pm PT

    YAY! Go Canada!! represent!

  • chikahiro94

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:58 pm PT

    @Teh_Blind_Guard
    Usually when a game gets bundled its trade-in value drops dramatically. You'd be better off finding a friend to trade/sell with.

    @Imavnas
    timothyt might be telling the truth - if you're in good with a store's staff or managment, you can sometimes get favors. If that store is doing reservations, it's just that store doing it (which could get them into big trouble if corporate finds out).

  • Teh_Blind_Guard

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:53 pm PT

    They better have this bundle in September cause I can get one then. If not, poo. Even though I don't want PGR3, free game is better then no free game. I'll probablu just trade it in for a game I want like say Oblivion, GRAW, DOA4, or Kameo.

  • Imavnas

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:49 pm PT

    timothyt :
    ""I have a friend that manages a Gamestop and he said that almost nobody is reserving PS3s;""

    ---------

    Thats utter BS. I know three Gamestop/EBGames Managers and they told me that Nationwide, EB and Gamestop are not taking reserves for neither the Wii nor the PS3. The reasoning was that they don't want to be held responsible for pre-ordering systess that they just won't receive, like what happend with the 360.

  • samekila

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:34 pm PT

    I wish I could of got that bundle

  • hemakm3

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:23 pm PT

    Good bundle-go xbox 360

  • Singletrac

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:19 pm PT

    You guys are stupid who keep saying bundle Gears of War with the 360. Think about the rating, it'll be a Mature rated game. You'd have to bundle a game thats suitable for everyone, like PGR3. Hope you people dont go into marketing, you'll fail hard.

  • shasam712

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:18 pm PT

    This is cool, if this bundle becomes available in Europe then I will get it, so thats surely a reason to release it!

  • LexLas

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:05 pm PT

    Yeah PS3's will be first come first serve as nobody knows how many units well be available and how many people will line up to buy it. The smart thing to do is to call in sick and line up.

    SF

  • PaulB_318

    Posted Aug 3, 2006 3:02 pm PT

    I agree with timothyt. I have also talked with the people at my local Gamestop and they say pretty much the same thing. I've already pre-ordered a Wii (technically). Basically I'm on a first call list to get on the pre-orders when they happen. I like the idea of a Gear’s of War faceplate too. That would be sweet!

    I'll also be getting an XBox 360 around November. As Peter Moore said it (paraphrasing); "Why would anyone buy a PS3, when you can buy both a 360 & a Wii for nearly the same price?!”

    I too was a Sony fan-boy. They've just completely dropped the ball though! The system itself and Sony’s announcements are just getting ridiculous! I think it was their arrogance because they've dominated the market for the last two generations. Look what happened with Sega and the Dreamcast, and with Nintendo and the N64.

    Lesson of the day: Don’t get overconfident or you’ll beat yourself out of the game.

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