Looks like X1 will get November

[Landguy]

arcaneguyver said:

Landguy said:

I doubt that M$ is losing anything at $349...

I'm fairly certain (but not 100% positive) MS is taking a loss at $349. The reason MS is putting the basic system price back up to $399 in January is either an attempt to put pressure on people to buy now rather than later (further buffing up their 2014 holiday sales), or they really are taking a loss on these systems and are only willing to eat that loss for the holiday season.

Not that MS couldn't just shrug off a $50 loss per system sold, but the Xbox loses enough each year that they probably don't want to add much more onto it for the 2014 fiscal than they have to.

(Just my take on the situation - could be entirely wrong, but I don't think I'm too far off.)

Problem is, the first article you quoted is from a year ago and it included the Kinect at that price.  Even then, they claim the cost to be $350 at that point for the system and a cntroller.  It is still a guess, because no one outside of M$ really knows what they are paying to have TENS of millions of something made.

The second article (also a year old) is just an analyst guess.  It is not based on any actual facts released my M$.

Add to that, M$ fiscal years don't match the calendar.  I think theirs ends at the end of Feb or March or even June.

I agree that they are trying to push the sales into the holiday quarter, but I disagree that the price will go back up.  It is common to say that a product is "on sale" for a certain time, it creates a sens of urgency and forces people to make a decision to take advantage of the "deal".  After the holidays, you will see M$ release a statement that because of the great consumer feedback or some other BS, they have decided to keep the price at $349 going forward.