Microsoft Europe VP explains how Xbox 360 big price drop became possible

As much as the newly announced Xbox 360 price cut for Europe is a very welcome move from Microsoft, one has to got to wonder what are the real reasons behind it.

Is it, as some would like to believe, a precursor to the rumored 60GB SKU? It's a good thing, though, that Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Europe Vice President Chris Lewis gave a few statements explaining why such price drops have become possible.

"We had to reach and surpass key milestones before we dropped 360 s UK price," Lewis said. If you're wondering what specific milestones Microsoft is talking about, Chris Lewis provided as well the following outline:

• We ve taken 42 revenue share of next gen-games market - including hardware, peripherals and software, as well as the stunning performance of Live.
• We re consistently attaching games at high level - we re now at north of seven games to every console. That s considerably more than our competitors and something we re immensely proud of.
• On top of that, we ve worked our way to a 17.7 million units worldwide installed base - and Europe is a critical geography within that figure.

Lewis also commented that the "ability to continually drive cost through the console" is also a big factor to the price cut. The new prices will take effect in Europe this coming March 14.