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morpheusx on 01 January 2011
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Reasonable said:
BMaker11 said:

Not to nag, and this may only be anecdotal, but I love how before, a talking point for the PS3 was that it had built in wifi, which increased the perceived value, but the 360 (before) had to have an extra $100 dongle for wifi (you know....how people said if you were to get everything the PS3 had, on the 360, the 360 would be something stupid like $800).....and people would say "no one even uses wifi. Hardlined internet is always the best" as a weak counterargument

Now people giving their impressions of a newly owned 360 say that "wifi is a biggie" since it's built in finally.

Like I said, not to put you on the spot, just something I've noticed since the 360S came out, and not just on VGC

Well, for me it was always a biggie hence why I called it out.  Previously, the lack of on-board WiFi plus some other stuff held me back from a 360.  I definately see it as a huge improvement and something that should have been there from the start.

To be far to MS, though, they played a clever game and from a business perspective I can understand it.  Initially they knew their big market was US, would be more centric to a cable, etc. and they played to that and kept costs down.  They then relied on people who wanted WiFi to purchase it seperately.  I know a fair few parents who bought 360 consoles and where very unhappy when they realised they would immediately have to cought up for WiFi... but that's pester power combined with "too late" syndrome and MS know they could get by on that.

They picked the right moment to push the new 360s, just when sales were starting to dip and just in time for Kinect and just when - arguably - the PS3 Slim was really becoming a threat with its lower cost and feature set.

So personally this isn't any change of heart for me - I always critizied on a personal basis the lack of WiFi in 360, just as I felt the PS3 should always have included a cheap headset.

Personally I'd rather have hard wired for my 360, but it would have been nice to have the WiFi when carrying it over to a friends home. My biggest gripe about them not originally including it was the price they decided to charge for those who wanted to add it on, it should have been about $40 and at most $50 and at the near $100 they charged for it should have came with at least 12 months of live.