http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2008/07/rothbarts-rant-104-im-already-dizzy-from-the-spin.html
Spin, spin, spin! The E3 hype machine is starting a bit early this year with some mighty spin coming from Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft announced a few things “officially” this morning, including the “temporary” price drop of the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro model… I say temporary because this is nothing more than a clearance sale to purge those models from the pipeline. The only way to get rid of those in any speedy fashion is to lower the price and entice retailers to add their own incentives to them in the form of “bonus” gift cards. For someone wanting an Xbox 360 and not minding the hard drive is only 20GB* (*barely over half that is usable by you,) then yeah, your deal just got $50 better.
If anyone thinks I’m going to let a move like this “slide by” as a “price drop” after all the crap everyone gave Sony about the 60GB PS3 price drop being a clearance sale, well… that’s just not going to happen. This is 100% “turnabout is fair play” and 0% related to my dislike for the 360. I love tossing Xbot logic back in their own faces. They usually resort to ALL SORTS of hilarity when that happens.
In addition to lower the price (temporarily, remember) of the 20GB model, the announcement from Microsoft also brought some more information with it. With the push(es) for various forms of digital content, apparently Microsoft has deemed it “acceptable” to expand on the “bend over if you want more than 20GB” plan of theirs, now offering a new 60GB Pro model (at $349 or as they say “no extra charge.”) No extra charge? Holy crap Microsoft, you’ve reamed us FOR YEARS on the price of that hard drive… $99 for 20GB of storage space is what you felt was an acceptable and justified price (not to mention $179 for the 120GB model.) “No extra charge,” wow… how blatantly rose tinted that half-full glass of water must be at your mid-day “pat yourself on the back” luncheon.
There are still some recently rumored details that were left out of the official announcement such as the price for a stand-alone 60GB drive, or a reduced price for the stand alone 120GB drive, but as of this morning, the contents of the announcement are all we know “for sure.” Don’t get me wrong, this is a relatively positive move, but if the rest of the rumors pan out to match what was announced today, the reaming we’re taking over hard drive prices for the 360 is only marginally better (but still overpriced.) I liken it to someone being tortured every day… they look up to see someone heading toward them with a scroll proclaiming they’ve just been offered some leniency and will now be whipped 10 times a day instead of 30 times. You’ve got to feel somewhat better, but at the end of the day, someone’s still beating the crap out of you.
Microsoft… here’s my advice (and this is from someone very critical of you… someone that went in with an open mind and got shafted seven ways to Sunday by you, your console, your customer service, etc.) Drop the frickin’ arcade SKU completely… make EVERY Xbox 360 ship with a hard drive. Stop pricing hard drives like they’re made out of solid gold. Release a hard drive “kit” that ships with just the shell and allows people to add their own 2.5″ drive like Sony has… they’re making you look “redonkulous” (as Frawlz would say) by charging what you are for hard drive solutions. You should be able to price your models ~$50 cheaper than Sony’s PS3 models and do well with that.
Bend over backwards to appease the millions of customers that are begrudgingly sticking with you in spite of the crap you’ve shoveled their way this generation. It’s not something to be proud of that your customers are sticking with you after 2, 3, or more failed consoles. They’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars invested in their 360 systems and libraries… of course a lot of people will still keep going through the send in for repair, wait for refurb that’ll probably fail cycle. They’ve got no other choice! If you keep screwing around, the competition’s going to catch up and you’re probably going to wish you’d done more to erase the bad memories some folks have. Your company mission right now should be to “undo” all the screwups you’ve made and to not only erase the memories of hassles people have had to endure, but to OVERCOMPENSATE to the point that a level headed person would say “Wow, Microsoft’s customer service and policies are really impressive.” Nobody’s ever said that sentence without a healthy dose of sarcasm or a 4 foot long wooden nose, I can assure you.
Keep in mind that all these changes and updates to your SKUs do exactly NOTHING for your existing customers… well, except the ones that tire of sending in their failing units and getting refurbs back, selling them off cheap to buy brand new 360s, hoping to get a newly revised model that will be less trouble. You should be ASHAMED of the fact that people do that. I’m not talking 1 or 2 people, I’m talking thousands of people. I could give two sh*ts that you’re bringing new customers into the fold at slightly higher hard drive capacities or lower clearance sale prices… what are you doing for the EXISTING customer? If you mumble anything about expanded install base or software attach ratios, I’d smack you upside your head with a large log… if you were, well, a real person. Nobody cares about those things but you and developers…
Wow… this is going to be a great week (in terms of material) if today’s any indication.
Dno says: As per Naz i got the go ahead to do this the right way. I have got the linkand the name of the person who wrote it all above.
Now my insights on this is i think he is correct and mostly everything he says. M$ HDD is such a high price, im a little upset there is no price drop but there is a give away sale for $50 less (for a limited amount of time). I love my xbox but people its my 3rd xbox. All i was asking is to discuss your views on:
A. New Sku
B. No new price drop (as far as we no.. i mean they could be waiting for E3)
C. The fact that sony did this a year ago and this site blow up on how they would fail but M$ does it and i dont see anyone ranting (cept this guy and me lol)
Discuss!
