By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Squilliam on 08 January 2009
Edit Thread
Groucho said:

Cutting the price of the arcade to close to that of the PS2 and handhelds would also raise "too many questions" in the consumer's mind at retail. Price is far from everything, even if it is a major player in consumer purchasing (esp. around the Holidays).

A manufacturer pricecut below $199 going to happen for the X360 Arcade in 2009, go ahead and quote me -- I won't be the one eating crow. MS has said it over and over and over again, and there's not a single good reason to do so, really, that wouldn't cost them far too much income.

Even if the 80GB PS3 drops to $299, MS will do fine with the arcade at $199. The Pro will likely have to drop some, to compete, though -- the 80GB PS3 is worth a fair bit more than the 360 Pro, from any perspective except a blind 360 fanboy's.

All Sony really needs to do, to step up the competition in the short term, is put, on the box (in bold letters) "NO ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION FEES, unlike some competing products". Tada. Buyer perceived value of the XBox goes down, and the PS3 goes up... by a lot. This same sort of disruption changed the entire credit card industry, ATMs, etc. eons ago.

Cutting the price of the Xbox 360 too low will raise questions, questions like why is the PS3 so expensive? Any price cut Microsoft makes, the PS3 looks even more expensive than in currently is. The consumer understands the concept of a "price war" and they understand value when they see it, which is why the Arcade is currently so popular. Furthermore if say the PS3 80gb dropped in price to $300 and the Premium 60GB to $200 the value equation shifts to the Xbox 360, not only is $200 on that mass market price, but instead of being 33% more expensive the PS3 is instead 50% more expensive.

Btw the reason why Microsoft is so keen to maintain the lead is because it maintains their advantage over PSN. Its not features really that differentiate the two services its which service most your friends use. If they maintain their advantage in userbase then they will also retain their advantage with Xbox Live and the massive revenue stream it brings them.

 

 



Tease.