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I already said the GameStop pre-order price may have a bit to do with that ($100 vs traditional $50), as well. Half the money down on a less expensive and (until now) less gimped system has cards stacked against Microsoft. Not saying Microsoft didn't shoot themselves in the foot already, but GS may have filed the bullet tips to spread the shrapnel a bit more.
The reason why I wasn't sure if it were a GameStop decision on the price or one by Microsoft themselves stems from the fact that I worked retail at the launch of the initial XBOX. THEY requred the bundle from ALL retailers (where you HAD to reserve 3 titles, one of which was almost guaranteed to be HALO because people were already planning on getting Madden, so they didn't want some unproven football title in NFL Fever, nor were they getting both Fever AND Madden- and one of the three choices HAD to be Fever or HALO). They might have dreamt up the price point as some sort of... compensation... for the "Day One" achievement, for whatever that's worth. They thought all the DRM so all the little game-stealing criminals could check in with their Parole Officer Microsoft was grand, so who am I to doubt THEY thought asking for more up front was a sensible thing to do.
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