You knew it was coming, but Microsoft has made it official: the Xbox 360 is officially going to drop to as low as $199 starting Friday, September 5 in the U.S. The three currently offered SKUs will get a price drop in North America, following multiple retail leaks and a similar pricing adjustment for the Japanese market. The new MSRP for the current line up is as follows.

- Xbox 360 Arcade (No Hard Drive): $199, down from $279
- Xbox 360 Pro (60GB HDD): $299, down from $350
- Xbox 360 Elite (120GB HDD): $399, down from $449

Yes, that makes the Xbox 360 officially the least expensive current generation console following an $80 price cut on the Arcade model. Here's to hoping that helps Microsoft's recent hardware sales woes. NOW the console wars can truly begin :-)