ratchet426 said:
Oh my, that's quite a theory you've got there! So MS is purposely overpricing their bundles now so as to "increase the perception of value" when they cut the price later? M'kay, that sounds reasonable O.o I can just imagine how that master plan went down at Microsoft HQ... Microsoft CFO: "We've really got to increase sales for the remainder of the year. Let's set a competive price right now and then we can lower the price on Black Friday like everyone else does." Phil Spencer:" No!"...... (whips off his glasses and turns dramatically to glare into the camera). That's EXACTLY what they're EXPECTING us to do! |
That's not really an off-base concept at all, and is a pretty old hat retail trick. The X1 is seeing a markup with the 1TB units, but in all actuality, doubling the unit storage doesn't justify a 50 dollar hike. Maybe, I don't know, 20 bucks at the most. Slashing the prices on those shouldn't hurt them too badly. If they bring down the 500GBs to $299, yeah, that's going to set them back, but they probably figure it's better to burn some cash over too much cash.
MS knows that showtime is at the end months of the year, which is why they have called the months before October the "pre-season". They keep all the major releases ready for this period because they want to move a lot of units at once with the holiday crowd. How else to do that but offer the same perception that they did last year. Make it seem as if they're offering temporary price cuts to move an insane amounts of units this holiday since it worked TREMENDOUSLY well last holiday season.
It's very likely it's going to happen. MS has been working overtime to get the X1 try to keep pace with the PS4 in the US by offering a plethora of retail promotions every month. MS will burn cash to keep the Xbox brand alive, but, they're doing in a way that's not going to totally harm them this year.
