I've read a couple articles in the press now wondering why game consoles don't increase their prices at launch, when the answer is extremely obvious.  First, most companies that make consoles intend to be in the business for more than just that release, If they want to sell the console for a very high price at first they either have to announce that they intend to drop the price significantly in a short period of time, in which case no one will buy, or they will alienate all the early adopters as Apple did with the iPhone.  If that happens they'll either have to refund most of the difference, or risk having no one buy their next console when it's released.

Secondly, and more importantly, raising the price of the console would cut into game sales.  If game developers know that people buying one console will have significantly less money to spend on games, they will develop for another console, leaving the higher priced console no games being made for it and ensuring that it fails.  No console manufacturer would risk alienating the developers that it depends on to make the actual entertainment that sells the console by raising the price of the console so high.  Instead, they would prefer to have the system be sold in a bundle with lots of games, ensuring a high attach rate at launch which will attract more developers and make developers more likely to have launch titles ready for the next console.