Gaming is a cut-throat business. Hell, any industry that consistently makes multi-billion dollar profits is going to be, by definition, competitive. With so much money changing hands, there is a need to stay one-step ahead of the competition. Usually in business, this refers to pricing. Lately in gaming, it seems like its all about the announcement of pricing. The PlayStation 3 pricing issues are already the stuff of legend. And then this week, we saw leaked flyers from Toys-R-Us and Wal-Mart showing that, in spite of corporate denials, the XBox 360 is going to be coming down in price. The ads showed that the regular system was coming down $50, but said nothing of the Core System or the Elite. Then later in the day, an insider at Best Buy leaked an invoice to joystiq showing that Best Buy was phasing out the cheaper XBox 360 core system. Still, nothing from Microsoft. And now today, a new flyer shows that, yes, the price is coming down on all three XBox models. This time the surreptitiously obtained flyer is from Circuit City. As we all knew, the price of the Premium is coming down by $50, but this is the first time we've heard about a drop on the Core (coming down $20 to $279.99) and the Elite (coming down $30 to $449.99). I have to question the logic of the kind of corporate mindset that leads to this culture of denial and lies, followed by unapologetic admissions. I wonder if all this corporate double-speak could eventually come back and bite Sony and MS in the ass, as consumers will be less likely to believe any announcement coming from these giants of the industry. Wouldn't it be better for all involved if once a manufacturer decided to lower prices, they told the consumer about it? What do you think? Source