As anticipated Microsoft has announced price movements within its Xbox 360 lineup but does the currency fluctuation excuse stand up to statistical analysis?Today Microsoft announced that it will be slashing the cost of the Xbox 360 Elite in the UK from £230 to £199.99. In conjunction with the the Xbox 360 Pro model which until today sat as the middle of the road between the hard drive-less Arcade and the Elite will be phased out so expect some good prices whilst stocks last.

It has been speculated for some time that whilst the price of the Elite would be coming down the price of the Arcade unit would be going up in response to fluctuations in the value of the pound. Well today this rumor was also confirmed with Microsoft announcing that the Arcade unit’s price will be hiked to £159.99. Tell me why you wouldn’t just spend the extra £40 on the Elite? That is however besides the point as Kotaku illustrated today by analysing the value of the pound against the top threee gaming currencies, the Euro, the Yen and the US Dollar. The official line from Microsoft is that the price of the Arcade unit has been increased “largely based on exchange rate fluctuations”.

Thats right, no statistical trickery here, over the past six months the pounds has steadily been increasing in value against all three other currencies making overseas purchases cheaper rendering Microsoft’s excuse a no-go. So if the price point has been raised largely due to these fluctuations, the little reasons had better be damn good.

via Kotaku