First Japan and now North America is set to enjoy surprisingly massive price cuts across the full range of Xbox 360s.

How surprising, you enquire? Try a whopping $80 off the price of the basic Arcade model. Other Xbox iterations have enjoyed similar but not quite as sizeable strimmings too, with 50 bucks off a piece for the Core and Elite units – down to $299 and $399 respectively. It all kicks off from tomorrow.

So the 120GB Elite and the newly launched 80GB PS3 are now on an equal footing. That’ll be a scrap worth watching, however we reckon the battle will be most keenly fought at the cheapest end of the spectrum. Put another way Microsoft has cracked a crucial $200 barrier with the Arcade. More importantly the Arcade is now a full $50 cheaper than the Wii. “...That makes things interesting,” says gamesbiz analyst Billy Pidgeon, understatedly.

He’s not kidding either. In these credit-crunched times $50 buys a lot of potatoes, plus there’s the bald fact that one of these consoles plays breathtaking next-gen games whereas the other resolutely doesn’t to consider. We’re intrigued to see whether US consumers do the math and start lapping up the 360 in huge numbers this holiday season.

So that’s nice for our US gaming chums, eh, but when’s it going to be our turn for a price cut? Hmm, with bundles on offer such as the Arcade console plus Viva Piñata, Forza 2 and a wireless controller for a frankly unbelievable £125 – delivered! – it looks like we’ve already had it.