eww, guess ill wait on the 360 for awhile longer.

Why? The premium is a decent price. It's the OTHER two that should be avoided like the plague.

well.. 199$ sounded nice, for a cheap ass like me. :P sure it doesnt have the HD.. but that could be added later.

The core was never a viable solution or a worthy purchase due to the requirement to add either a 50 dollar memory card or a more expensive hard drive to the final purchase. Assuming you'd want to save any of your progress in ANY game or want to access Live, you'd need a storage solution and that just makes the Core pointless on it's own.

The Core is commonly called the "'tard pack" for a reason. Any savings you get from purchasing it is negated in the near or immediate future.

Why would they want to get rid of the Core? That's the one they probably make the most money on. The price to hardware ratio is more in favor for Microsoft here, and I'm willing to bet that a large number of people accesorize the Core up to near what the Premium is anyway.

What I posted was obviously wishful thinking and hope, not business sense. I'll make a note to point that out next time so it's a bit more obvious.

This first price cut is definitely to sweeten the deal just in time for Madden and Halo 3. I'd wager after all that excitement has dried out, they'll do a second price cut right before the holiday season kicks off. Consider it a clearance sale like Sony's doing with 60 GB PS3s, to make room for the 65 nm SKUs!

The 65 nm's have been too long in coming. They need to crank those out soon before. Intel is already set to release their 45 nm process chips soon. 65 nm is old news...

uh most retailers refuse to carry the core unit... I haven't seen a core in a store in a year or two... no one wants the tard pack.

I'm really wishing the Core dropped by more. $20 is crap, and while the Premium is a better deal directly, you can actually get used 20GB hardrives for pretty cheap at Gamestop if you do it right (combine the harddrive with a Buy 2 get 1 free offer, and you could get it along with 2 new games for around $110). For $250, the Core would've been a good option to look at, especially if you don't need the component cables/headset or preferred a wired controller.

They should just clearance off the Core for $200 and discontinue it though, then everyone would be happy.

What do they mean by "free table tennis game"?

I'm pretty sure it means you get a free Table Tennis game.

The game is called Table Tennis. Its actually pretty highly rated, but I never played it personally. http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/9...table%20tennis

It's probably that Table Tennis game by Rockstar. Titled "Table Tennis" (oh shit oh shit) and features tennis on a table.

I've played it and it was seriously terrible. Possibly the worst 360 game I've ever seen and one of the unfortunate experiences of gaming I've had in my entire lifetime. You'll never see any bundles with good games which are "free" unless they're compensating for the cost of the game somewhere in the overall price.

That Eurogamer review fucking rocks, you should read it!
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64906

(they rated it 9.0 btw)

But but, the game's a riot in two player! All the ultra creepy attempts at realistic looking people make a confusing "I'm in the process of shitting my pants" expression when they hit the ball.