Prediction on the Scorpio price

[EricHiggin]

squibbfire said:
Scorpio is going to be sold as a "premium" device.

And Microsoft is definitely gonna set the price accordingly for those hungry early adopters.

These are people willing to pump out an extra 150 to 50 then normal for a few months before a price drop.

That extra lets say 100 bucks...times 500k if they sell that many...is 50 million. Thats easy cash for them and i think they are going go for as much as they can as soon as they can.

This /|

Phil has stressed "Premium" and has said they are going to sell it for what they think its worth. Eurogamer says it'll definitely cost more than Pro to build. XB knows that even with their crazy DRM,AOL,KINECT, ideas that they still sold a boatload of XB1's at $499, even knowing a lot of those people knew they were paying $100 extra for the Kinect which they didn't want anyway, yet still paid for it. Lastly, after dropping the Kinect and the price by $100, the backlash for that was minimal.

Phil also said that they know XB1S is still going to be the majority of sales even after Scorpio launches. If Scorpio was announced to be $399 at E3, I think the roar of the audience wouldn't be all that much different than the earthshaking roar of the PS4 $399 announcement. The sales for Scorpio I think would end up far exceeding those of the Pro, during their respective launches that is. $499 however, would still make it a buy for the tech heads and hardcore XB fans, but nothing to praise in terms of pricing.

This is why I think Scorpio will initially be priced at $499 with a November launch. I could see an immediate price drop to $399 at E3 2018.  6-8 months at $499 should also keep the launch buyers from feeling ripped off.

I also don't think Pro will be anymore than $100 less than Scorpio, and not just because PS has the lead and momentum, or because the PS4 (Slim) price remained on par with XB1S regardless of the extra features the XB1S had. While everybody wants cheaper stuff, there is an important marketing strategy when it comes to casual buyers. They don't understand the difference between the Pro and Scorpio hardware. They won't really understand the difference between slightly upscaled 4k and true native 4k. A lot of them won't be able to see much difference either, since they don't really know what to look for. 

All these casual consumers really know, is that better stuff costs more, so the larger the price gap between the Pro and Scorpio, the more the casuals will ask themselves, why such a big difference? This will lead them to the conclusion that Scoprio must be that much better and worth the extra money. By keeping Pro's price within $100, most people will understand there is some difference in visuals, but getting a similar enough product, for a cheaper price, is almost always going to be more tempting. Its also why XB may want a $499 Scorpio to try and more clearly show the benefits of their console through its higher price.

Yes, the Pro and Scorpio are not made for the casuals, and are directed at the tech heads and hardcore fans, but the hardcore are going to care more about the specs, games and services more than the price. This allows for the Pro price to remain high, because its still cheaper than the competition, and will sell to the hardcore and some casuals.

This is why I could potentially see a $199 PS4, $349 Pro, and $449 Pro 4K BD Edition. With the SNY BD player being $299, a $449 Pro 4k BD makes sense. It would go up against a $199 XB1S, and $499 Scorpio. This gives XB the advantage in terms of newer more capable hardware for the tech heads and XB hardcore fans, but PS would have an advantage in the fact that they had more options, and better pricing (other than the base $199 consoles).

If PS only wants two sku's, then I say they bite the bullet and add the 4k BD to Pro and charge $399 against Scorpio at $499. If you want a PS console and your a tech head or just want the best, having to still pay $399 for Pro because it has a 4k BD player shouldn't really be a big deal. That 4k BD player will draw in many more casuals than it would otherwise though.

Console sales overall this holiday season are going to be friggin nuts. With this being Switch's first holiday, and Scorpio's launch, plus $199 base models, the sales battle is going to be absolutely epic.