Microsoft recently lowered the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $300 to combat the new equally priced PS3 Slim. Now Microsoft is taking it a step further, offering buyers a $50 mail-in rebate for buyers of the console until October 5.

You can get the rebate form here.

Well that didn’t take very long — Just hours after an Amazon.de listing showcased the unannounced 250GB hard drive touting Xbox 360 a South African advertisement has appeared showing the same hardware.

This time it’s up for R4,199, or about $542 as opposed to Amazon’s €280/$379 and from the looks of the ad, it doesn’t even include Forza Motorsport 3. Looks like South African gamers are getting screwed.

via engadget

Tech news outfit ArsTechnica claims to have a reliable tip from an insider, who suggests that Microsoft will do away with the Xbox 360 Pro SKU and replace it with the Elite, while still retaining the same $299 price point. The Elite is essentially the same SKU, but with a 120 GB hard drive instead of a 20 GB one.

This is supposedly to counter a move by Sony, which will indeed release a PS3 Slim (everyone knows this), which will be cheaper than the current PS3 SKUs.

Both of these rumors make a lot of sense, if you’re looking to buy either a PS3 or an Xbox 360, we’d suggest holding off for a few months and get a better deal.