It could be both but I know Nvidia did the dirty on MS which forced them to accelerate their plans to launch the next gen. IIRC Microsoft were going to let Sony launch first and price their console accordingly, but they took a stab in the dark at pricing and got it right. The Xbox 360 was dirt cheap when it launched.
I mean, it wasn't, especially if you didn't want the gimped version. 400 dollars was way more than what the gen before cost, its only with the benefit of hindsight that we saw the PS3 costing so much more and the Switch being "only slightly less".
It and the pS3 had a multi-core CPU. For a short time, the 360 was more powerful than high end PC's. The kit that was in the 360 was top of the range.
I know it was a good deal at the time (if you could even find one, it was the first real case of a console just being out of stock for a long period of time and resellers doing deals) but it was definitely a price-shock.
You should look into the PS2 launch, that was completely nuts in terms of scalping.
I believe you but I was also like 13 at the time and can't remember launches that far back.
It's happened before. Xbox 360 core/arcade/elite, Xbox 360 Elite and xbox 360 slim were different consoles. Likewise, Xbox One, Xbox One S/SAD and Xbox One X were 3 different consoles.
