How Microsoft Can Take Over the Living Room

As all eyes look toward Microsoft's announcement of the next generation Xbox and its bid to take on the PlayStation 4 in the gaming space, the company also has an opportunity to broadly take over the burgeoning connected device space. How? By continuing to sell the Xbox 360 — but for a flat $99.99.

Yes, Microsoft has toyed with $99.99 Xbox 360 bundles in the past — but those bundles include a monthly Xbox Live Gold subscription that adds another $120 to the purchase. Instead, Microsoft should lower the price of its Xbox 360 starter pack to $99.99.

Think about it: At $199.99, the Xbox 360 is already one of the better deals out there. Yes, the console is seven — almost eight — years old, but it still plays great games. More importantly, Microsoft has access to some of the most compelling set of services for the living room. Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Vudu, Comcast, HBO Go, Verizon, The CW, YouTube, Slacker, iHeartRadio, Vevo, Rhapsody and Crackle are just some of the services available for the Xbox 360 — not to mention the official Xbox Music and Xbox Movies & TV apps for buying or streaming content.

That puts the Xbox 360 in Roku territory as having the most broad cross-device support and slightly ahead of the PlayStation 3 (to be fair, the PS3 also has a Blu-ray player but apparently I'm the only person who still likes to buy optical media for the picture, sound and extra features). At $99.99, the Xbox 360 could compete head-to-head with other connected devices for the living room, with the added benefit that it can play games.  Read more…