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greenmedic88 on 12 November 2010
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Squilliam said:
disolitude said:
Shadowblind said:

So MS is profiting $100 from each peripheral sold?

And I paid $150 for mine? . . .

Not cool.


As it was said before, no one is forcing you to buy it at that price. After buying it myself, I believe 149 is more than a fair price for Kinect.

It may cost 60 bucks to make when looking at components but R&D and man hours spent on getting this thing to market were not free.

People are starting to expect everything to be sold at a loss when it comes to consoles and that is the only thing that is...

Not cool.

I had that impression too. Although it does feel we're moving a little past that stage. I think a large part of it had to do with a protest at how Nintendo sold so many units at a profit. However im sure when the next generation rolls around we'll have consoles sold at a profit with additional services also sold at a profit on top of that. Sony pioneering and then succumbing to their own razor/blade model will see to that.

I'm of the notion that the entire razor/blade business model for game consoles is essentially obsolete. Yes, it worked in the past, but there is simply too much risk for potential late cycle payoffs unless a given platform has an overwhelming marketshare percentage.

Nintendo's success this generation is basically responsible for the shift that I fully expect to see carry over into the next generation for all platform manufacturers if anyone has actually learned anything this gen.

I still don't see this as applying to Kinect though and I expect MS to drop the price to $99 by this time next year despite the low probability that the $56 component cost will be cut under $40 in that time frame.

It's just a simple matter of what type of adoption rate they want to see. As it currently stands, there is no point in selling kits to current 360 customers at cost (factoring in manufacturing costs, packaging, shipping, etc.) since they are highly unlikely to have much floating stock through the holiday season due to high demand.

If MS wanted as many current 360 owners as possible to adopt Kinect, they would go with a $99 standalone price. Only they can't due to lack of stock/production capability relative to current demand.

But when you think about it, that $99 price is currently there in the bundles for new consumers.