Insisting its prices are competitive, Microsoft Corp.'s Japan unit announced Monday it has no plans to reduce the price of the Xbox 360 game console.
Microsoft Japan President Darren Huston said at a news conference in Tokyo that the Xbox is already sold at "very competitive prices" and the company will "continue to assess market dynamics."
The console retails for about 39,000 yen in Japan, about 10,000 yen less than rival Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3.
Instead of cutting prices, Microsoft said last Thursday it aims to boost sales through the Oct. 11 launch of an advanced version of the console, called the Xbox 360 Elite, which will retail for about 47,800 yen. The new version will have a 120-gigabyte hard drive, six times bigger than the current model.
Sony has also said it has no plans to cut the price of its game machine on the domestic market, although it is reportedly reducing prices in the U.S.
Microsoft failed to take advantage of its one-year jump on the launch of Sony's PS3 and Nintendo Co.'s Wii in Japan.
As of July 1, it had sold 417,350 units since its December 2005 launch in Japan, according to estimates by Enterbrain Inc., a Tokyo-based game magazine publisher and research firm.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has sold 2.84 million Wii consoles since December.
