johnsobas said:
alephnull said:
FishyJoe said:
alephnull said:
This is all true, however one should expect MS to start a whisper campaign implying Sony is going to drop the PS3 any day now if it hasn't already. This is one of their favorite strategies. The Lotus guys at IBM hate it as MS has successfully been using it against them for more than a decade now.
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I wouldn't be surprised MS wants to start a price war. They know Sony is in no financial shape to take further losses. In a war of attrition, the side with the most resources (money) wins.
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There's no question that if MS actually wanted to it could sell every xbox360 for $100. However, they are under extreme pressure as well to increase margins. So the question becomes, how high a priority do you think the xbox division is at MS? From ex-Managers at MS I've talked to, their financial organisation is very similar to that of the Soviet economies complete with their own fake currency to facilitate the meeting of planning targets.
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You could easily argue that Microsoft will never have a better chance then they do now to put the dagger in Sony. They have an unfair advantage right now because they are not as affected as Sony by the exchange rates and they have far more resources.
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I don't think Microsoft has to take any exceptional steps to really hurt Sony though ...
For the holiday season 2009 they can drop the XBox 360 Arcade to the $175 range, the XBox 360 premium to $250 and the XBox 360 elite to the $325 range; and in the holiday season 2010 they can drop the Arcade down to the $150 range, the XBox 360 premium to $200 and the XBox 360 elite to $250. While this is not as agressive as it could be, the price reductions will be balanced out by the cost reductions of the systems.
