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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - How much/when will Microsoft drop the price of the 360?

Lord N on 20 January 2008
thekitchensink said:
Lord N said:
madskillz said:
Lord N said:
madskillz said:


MS is a very patient copy. The Xbox was just a trojan horse to get the 360 to the table. If it worked, cool - if not, they were expecting that too.

The big difference between the Xbox and the 360 is - the appeal and its dominance over Sony - for the time being. Sure, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Bioshock are out, but don't for once think MS has used its big guns yet. MS was the one who pushed for a later GTA IV date. Remember?

I am looking at this from a purely business standpoint. MS rarely - RARELY makes mistakes. That's my plan if I was running the MS entertainment division show.

For Sony to win, take the loss and force MS to counter. I would also sign tons of exclusive games to the system and get the games out, not delayed. One delay and our contract is null and void. Time is of the essence. I would rather win and leave on top or a close second than win by default.

 


I'd hardly call a lead that's only because of a headstart any kind of dominance.

MS doesn't make any mistakes?

-RROD, disc scratching, and various other hardware design flaws that were ignored and allowed to fester and worsen until they turned into PR nightmares.

-360 priced at double mass market price point from the beginning.

-Failure to drop the price in a timely and effective manner.

-Failure to make sure that the game library of the 360 was more diverse instead of the majority of its high-profile titles being shooters, racing sims, and sports games.

-


And yet, they are sitting close to 17M consoles sold, and easily overshadowing the progress of the original Xbox.

As far as MS mistakes, let's compare:

MS - RROD, disc scratching (which happens a lot when you turn your Xbox vertical or horizontal while the disc is playing), Windows Vista and ME - though in defense of MS, I never buy an OS until Service Pack 2 hits - and a few gaming misses

Sony's greatest hits - BetaMax, UMDs, Minidisk, ATRAC® music format, exploding laptop batteries, PS2 disk read errors and Super Audio CDs

Funny that you'd mention the 360 pricing ... it still got a ton of sales, even while being supply constrained for several months. There was also no need for MS to do a price cut - they were comfortable with sales for nearly 2 years and making profits, so why cut into those profits with a price cut? Sony did it within 6 months of launch because they were desperate for sales. And the lineup is very diverse - shooters, sports games, RPGs, driving games - even casual games.

Sony has to find a winning formula to make this race put them into the black ...

Citing Sony's failed proprietary media formats doesn't mitigate that MS does indeed make mistakes(big ones in some cases), which was my point to begin with.

Your second paragraph is so absurd that I don't even know why I'm replying to it. Tons of sales? That's real funny. After a year on the market, it had all of 6 million sales. Even this year, with a price cut and the release of its biggest franchise, it still only managed 8 million sales, and from the looks of things, it's never going to sell much more than that in a given year as the sales rate of a console is pretty much fixed after its second year. Its sales are moderately decent in one market while poor in the others. They weren't making any profits either, and I don't know what's going on in your head to make you post that. They had one profitable quarter, which was most likely due to Halo 3. The Xbox also had a profitable quarter when Halo 2 launched. Like I said, that lead it has over the PS3 is only there because of the earlier launch. The difference in sales between the two since the PS3 released is rather insignificant. Anyway, the point is that MS has really fucked up with the 360's pricing. The fact that it's still above mass market price point after more than two years on the market should tell you that.

As for the software line-up, like I said, the 360's most prominent titles are shooters, racing sims, and sports games. It has titles in those other genres, but they're really nothing to write home about. Basically every RPG attempt on the 360 has been an unmitigated failure as far as sales are concerned, and after two years on the market, it hasn't a single prominent platformerThis is true, action gameWhat's an 'action' game? Are shooters and fighting games not action games?, fighting game Dead or Alive 4. That game has its' own World Cyber Games event. 'Nuff said, or offstyle racer to its name.It's got plenty of big racing games--Forza 2 and PGR 4 to name two

MS has not improved its standing in the market at all. The 360 will end up in the same position as the Xbox, a distant, unprofitable second. You say it's coming in second? So it IS going to beat the PS3 after all...

 


 


 An action game would be Devil May Cry, God Of War, Shinobi, Heavenly Sword, Ninja Gaiden, Onimusha, get the gist? Shooting games and fighting games are not action games. An example of an adventure game would be Uncharted or Zelda. That's why they're called shooters and fighting games. Forza 2 and PGR4 are racing sims, not offstyle racers(or kart racers). A better example of that genre would be Mario Kart, Wipeout, F-Zero, or Motorstorm.

 

Like I've been saying all along. It doesn't matter who comes in second. It would just mean that your console didn't sell quite as poorly, but the sales were still poor overall. The sales of neither console will have been anything to celebrate over at the end of the generation considering that neither will have sold well in all markets, will have struggled to turn a profit(if they do at all), and will be no less than twenty million behind the next console(which would be the Wii if its just the home consoles or the PSP if you include the handhelds).

Sony and Nintendo have switched places while the 360's standing in the market hasn't changed, and that's really a shame considering that they had a year headstart in hardware and software.

 

 

 



 

Consoles owned: Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PSP, DS, PS3

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Steve 3.2 on 20 January 2008
starcraft said:

We now know that Microsoft did extremely well in 2007, however they could have done better. It's fair to expect that the low-end 360 will start getting down towards mass-market prices towards the end of 2008, so now its time to call price drops.



When will Microsoft drop the price?  I don't think it will be as soon as most people think.  Maybe E3 or later.  Why not?  Because GTA IV will sell systems anyway.  No reason to prime the pump if the water is going to flow.

How much will the drop be for each SKU?  Sadly, only about $50 for each sku.  Maybe a bit more if the systems drop the packed in games.

Will Sony follow with the same price drop for the PS3?  Absolutely, though they may wait up to a month so MS doesn't steal their thunder or make them look like a follower.

Does anyone have an educated guess as too how much Microsoft are clearing on each 360 sold?  Good question.  I'd guess just about break even at this point.  Sure there may be a bit of money made on the hardware, but that's currently being offset with advertising, warranty repairs, and other expenses.



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NJ5 on 20 January 2008

Steve 3.2 said:

When will Microsoft drop the price? I don't think it will be as soon as most people think. Maybe E3 or later. Why not? Because GTA IV will sell systems anyway. No reason to prime the pump if the water is going to flow.


That worked for Halo 3, but GTA4 is multiplatform and Microsoft must want to increase the gap with the PS3, especially in Europe. You could be right, but your explanation doesn't convince me.

 



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libellule on 20 January 2008

+10 for NJ5,

IF the GTA4 experience is similar between the PS3 and the Xbox360
(let's assume it), it is the moment, THE TRUE moment to drop the price for MS

if they dont do this, too many people will prefer buy a PS3 over an Xbox360



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Slimebeast on 20 January 2008

So am I the only one here who believes in a $100 price drop during the first half of the year?



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kirby007 on 20 January 2008

no it is likely



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madskillz on 20 January 2008
Slimebeast said:
So am I the only one here who believes in a $100 price drop during the first half of the year?

I can't see more than $50 based on the fact they only dropped the price $50 in close to 2 years. MS isn't that generous, but we'll see soon ...

I do think the Elite will drop to $349, though - and that's $100. 



rocketpig on 20 January 2008
Slimebeast said:
So am I the only one here who believes in a $100 price drop during the first half of the year?

I think we'll see an $80 drop for the Arcade, a $70 drop on the Pro, and a $100 drop on the Elite.

$199/279/349 price points. 




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Steve 3.2 on 20 January 2008
libellule said:
+10 for NJ5,

IF the GTA4 experience is similar between the PS3 and the Xbox360
(let's assume it), it is the moment, THE TRUE moment to drop the price for MS

if they dont do this, too many people will prefer buy a PS3 over an Xbox360


-10 for libellule :P

The experience won't be the same.  Only the 360 will be getting future expansion packs  And even if the experience was exactly same, the 360 already costs less than the PS3.

Otherwise, why would people suddenly prefer the PS3 over the 360?  No game that has been on both systems has sold more on Sony's platform.  None.



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