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

[Lord N]

madskillz said:

Lord N said:

madskillz said:

Lord N said:

madskillz said:

MS is a very patient copy. The Xbox was just a trojan horse to get the 360 to the table. If it worked, cool - if not, they were expecting that too.

The big difference between the Xbox and the 360 is - the appeal and its dominance over Sony - for the time being. Sure, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Bioshock are out, but don't for once think MS has used its big guns yet. MS was the one who pushed for a later GTA IV date. Remember?

I am looking at this from a purely business standpoint. MS rarely - RARELY makes mistakes. That's my plan if I was running the MS entertainment division show.

For Sony to win, take the loss and force MS to counter. I would also sign tons of exclusive games to the system and get the games out, not delayed. One delay and our contract is null and void. Time is of the essence. I would rather win and leave on top or a close second than win by default.

 

I'd hardly call a lead that's only because of a headstart any kind of dominance.

MS doesn't make any mistakes?

-RROD, disc scratching, and various other hardware design flaws that were ignored and allowed to fester and worsen until they turned into PR nightmares.

-360 priced at double mass market price point from the beginning.

-Failure to drop the price in a timely and effective manner.

-Failure to make sure that the game library of the 360 was more diverse instead of the majority of its high-profile titles being shooters, racing sims, and sports games.

-

And yet, they are sitting close to 17M consoles sold, and easily overshadowing the progress of the original Xbox.

As far as MS mistakes, let's compare:

MS - RROD, disc scratching (which happens a lot when you turn your Xbox vertical or horizontal while the disc is playing), Windows Vista and ME - though in defense of MS, I never buy an OS until Service Pack 2 hits - and a few gaming misses

Sony's greatest hits - BetaMax, UMDs, Minidisk, ATRAC® music format, exploding laptop batteries, PS2 disk read errors and Super Audio CDs

Funny that you'd mention the 360 pricing ... it still got a ton of sales, even while being supply constrained for several months. There was also no need for MS to do a price cut - they were comfortable with sales for nearly 2 years and making profits, so why cut into those profits with a price cut? Sony did it within 6 months of launch because they were desperate for sales. And the lineup is very diverse - shooters, sports games, RPGs, driving games - even casual games.

Sony has to find a winning formula to make this race put them into the black ...

Citing Sony's failed proprietary media formats doesn't mitigate that MS does indeed make mistakes(big ones in some cases), which was my point to begin with.

Your second paragraph is so absurd that I don't even know why I'm replying to it. Tons of sales? That's real funny. After a year on the market, it had all of 6 million sales. Even this year, with a price cut and the release of its biggest franchise, it still only managed 8 million sales, and from the looks of things, it's never going to sell much more than that in a given year as the sales rate of a console is pretty much fixed after its second year. Its sales are moderately decent in one market while poor in the others. They weren't making any profits either, and I don't know what's going on in your head to make you post that. They had one profitable quarter, which was most likely due to Halo 3. The Xbox also had a profitable quarter when Halo 2 launched. Like I said, that lead it has over the PS3 is only there because of the earlier launch. The difference in sales between the two since the PS3 released is rather insignificant. Anyway, the point is that MS has really fucked up with the 360's pricing. The fact that it's still above mass market price point after more than two years on the market should tell you that.

As for the software line-up, like I said, the 360's most prominent titles are shooters, racing sims, and sports games. It has titles in those other genres, but they're really nothing to write home about. Basically every RPG attempt on the 360 has been an unmitigated failure as far as sales are concerned, and after two years on the market, it hasn't a single prominent platformer, action game, fighting game, or offstyle racer to its name.

MS has not improved its standing in the market at all. The 360 will end up in the same position as the Xbox, a distant, unprofitable second.

 

What I find most interesting about your entire post is - the lead between the 360 and the PS3 is growing. And to think the PS3 will claw back from being 7M+ down and overtake it is laughable. Can you tell me when in history was the Xbox ever have a lead over the PS2? Didn't happen, did it? Now that MS has the lead, it took Ninny less than a year to overcome MS. Why? It is a new way - well, actually old - for people to play video games (Nintendo had the Glove back in the 80s). It's lower price is attractive, and WiiSports sucks people into the world of gaming.

The PS3 offers nothing more, except an HD player built in, that will attract the average gamer. Maybe they will see the PS brand, but Sony has to find a cure or it will not rebound. Look at the numbers. Folks were claiming the PS3 was making the comeback - that will send the 360 packing ... but I don't think selling 12K really is sending someone packing.

You can say what you want - MS isn't perfect, nor am I a 360 fanboy because I see flaws in it too - but I just get a kick out of reading not only your posts, but diehard PS3 supporters who are totally convinced in blind devotion that it's the best thing since slice bread. Sorry, but I see this situation for what it is. The PS3 had better hope and pray brand and Solid Snake and GT5 will save their hides.

When Sony is beating MS by gobs, wake me up. Then I'll believe the PS3 is gonna hit second place. And oh yeah - wake me up when they are within 3M consoles of the 360. Until then, I'll leave you to your (and your partners) delusional state. Have a great day.

Why are you arguing against points that I never made? I never argued that the PS3 was going to come back, as a matter of fact, I've suggested that the 360 probably would remain in second place. Even if the PS3, it really wouldn't matter, because it would just be a distant second and hence wouldn't mean much. That's what the PS3 and 360 are fighting over this generation, basically. Who's not going to have the worst-selling console of the generation.

The gap between the 360 and PS3 is growing? Please. It increased by all of 1 million because of Halo, but for the rest of time, the sales difference has been negligible. For the rest of 2007 including the holiday season, the sales of the two were virtually the same. Both of their sales have been pretty slow across the world with neither one having strong sales across all regions. There's nothing very impressive about the sales of either. Honestly, if the 360 and PS3 had the market to themselves, it would be in serious trouble right now due to extremely slow sales.

Seriously, I'm not even going to reply to you anymore. You haven't directly addressed anything I've said. You've done nothing but make ridiculous claims such as "the 360 has tone of sales", "the 360 was making profits for 2 years", and "MS doesn't make mistakes", and then when I refuted them, you brought up points that I never made and argued against them.

But as far as delusions, you go right ahead and keep up yours about the 360 "selling tons". Get back to me when MS has a console sell well outside of N. America or when the 360 can move ten million units in a calendar year.