How much/when will Microsoft drop the price of the 360?

[MrMafoo]

@slimebeast

I disagree. There is one big difference between Sony and MS at the moment. While MS feels what this console has done so far is a huge victory (taking market share from Sony), I do not know if they expect to turn a profit off the 360. That might be in the plans for the next console.

What I expect (and virtually every unbiased analyst), is for Sony to overtake MS in 2009. So, with the future looking bright for Sony, they can lower the cost and ride out the storm, making money on the console in the backed (like they are right now with the PS2).

MS has to consider that if they lower the cost of the console, they are taking a hit that they might never get back. Do they take that loss and tack it on to what the next console has to do in order to make this console thing profitable for MS.

I mean, there is no way this console is going to make the xbox brand profitable (the 360 started with a 6 billion loss from the original). so if the next one releases in 2011, that will be a 10 year effort with no profit to show for itself.

Also, due to better design, the PS3 in a year or two will most likely cost a lot less to produce. At some point in it's life, Sony will repackage it (like they did with the PS1 and PS2) to reduce costs. The 360 right now has reliability issues that make it much harder to deliver a cheeper, yet more attractive form factor. The long term ramification of this needs to be thought about before MS sets a price point.

I am not saying MS won't lower the cost, I am just saying there are a lot more factors they have to think about before they decide to take a loss, yet again.