Azzanation said:
The specs of the Series X say otherwise. Its a premium product and i predict the console to be way higher than what many assume here. It will cost more than the XB1X easily. This is why MS are releasing 2 products instead of one because they know the Series X will be too much for the majority. If its $499 or $549 they wouldn't bother making a Series S so early in my opinion. |
Could be. MS may think SNY will shoot for $399 again with a single SKU, and won't dare go over $499, meaning if they create a premium XB for $599, that they will be guaranteed to have the most powerful console. It would also allow them to announce it really early and feel confident proclaiming it'll be the most powerful console next gen, which is exactly what they've done.
This would also allow them to more legitimately launch a weaker $299-$399 base version, simply for those who can't afford the premium edition. At the same time, this allows them to try and play "monkey in the middle" with PS5. To try and keep sales away from PS5 as much as possible. Take the non dedicated PS fans away at the cheaper and more expensive end of the spectrum. Don't even bother with Pro if it's still on the market, get Lockhart, it's next gen!
While a $299 and $499 next gen XB would also probably work with a $399 PS5, it leaves the door open to PS5 potentially being $499 as well and being the most powerful console by some margin. MS at that point wouldn't really be able to drop the price of the XBSX because it makes Lockhart less and less worth it. SNY could even subsidize PS5 a bit and make the XBSX price drop useless in comparison, while also making PS5 more and more appealing compared to Lockhart. Dropping the price of Lockhart is not going to happen for quite a while either.
MS likely realizes that price can convince many people, if the hardware is deemed worthy enough by the masses. They also seem to realize that premium items sell well enough in general if they are clearly "the" premium product. They no doubt understand that the PS brand is extremely strong and that going head to head with PS5 at the same price would still be an uphill battle, even with somewhat stronger specs.
This type of approach will also either force SNY to "cheap out" somewhat on PS5 to keep the price right in the middle, possibly closer to Lockhart to make PS5 seem like a value deal, or heavily subsidize PS5 early on to offer amazing performance for the price, or launch two consoles of their own. SNY could try and market PS5 at $499, even if it's a clear value at that price, and hope they can make Lockhart look like a lost cause in consumers eyes. That could backfire though. This is also why Lockhart priced around $299 makes sense, because at $399, a 9TF-10TF PS5 at $499 would seem like a steal of a deal, with XBSX only being slightly more powerful for another $100 more. Lockhart wouldn't be as useful at $399 from a marketing perspective here, even though from a dev perspective it would be more worthy.
Lockhart can't be any cheaper than $299 if it's going to play 1080p/60 high settings for the entirety of the gen, so the only way to make a big enough gap is to make XBSX quite expensive. The closer together the two XB prices were, the easier it would be for PS5 to counteract. Mind you, $299 and $599 for a next gen console has never been attempted before and is a gamble in itself. There's no guarantee it would work, or work well for that matter, but at least it wouldn't seem like they're playing SNY's game on SNY's terms.
PS3 at $499 and $599 was not smart and just asking for trouble. XBS consoles at $299 and $599 would be risky, or "bold", but has more thought behind it. Whether it would work or not, we'll see?
