Microsoft Offers Free Xbox 360 with Win7 PC

Microsoft is gearing up to help university students get homework done while also getting their game on by offering a free Xbox 360 game console with the purchase of a $699 Windows 7 PC. It's a very good deal, indeed.

In its recent announcement of the offer, Microsoft revealed that between May 22 and September 3, 2011, students with a .edu email address confirming their student status will be able to get an Xbox 360 if they buy a computer running Windows 7 priced at $699 or more through Microsoft.com, Dell.com, HP.com, or a number of brick and mortar retail locations like Best Buy. (Source: gamasutra.com)

For those students without a .edu email address, getting an Xbox 360 with their computer only requires making the purchase at an actual retail store and presenting the cashier with a valid student ID card.

The Xbox 360 in question is the new, slimmed-down 4GB version, which usually sells for around $200.

U.S., Canadian, French Students Targeted by Deal

For now only American students have access to the deal, but it's expected that Canadian and French junior scholars will soon get their own versions of the bargain.

One might think this kind of a deal was intended to revive flagging sales of a video game console, but the fact is that the Xbox 360 has been doing very well of late.

Besides winning over PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners frustrated with recent hacks of Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN), overall sales of Microsoft's system have continued to improve all on their own. For instance, last month Microsoft sold almost 300,000 units of the Xbox 360, beating both the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii. (Source: cnet.com)

According to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 has been the best-selling video game console for 10 of the past 11 months. That's even more impressive when considering that it's also the oldest console, shipping more than a year before the PS3 and Wii.