The core system is so gimped that you gotta add 50 bucks for a memory card and 50 more for Live and the actual price is 100 dollars higher than the price you think you are paying...

Does it really matter? If we pretend that Blue3 never said any of that, does it make the words spoken any less valid? Heck, I'd even edit Blue's name out to error on the side of caution but its already been quoted so there's not much I can do.

They really should just can the Core.. frankly 3 SKUs will confuse costumers.

First of all, let's stop pretending the Halo fans who first played Halo 1 at LAN parties, and then picked up an XBox with Halo 2 for $250, are all going to buy a 360 with Halo 3 for $460. The bulk of people who bought an XBox for Halo had a $250 price barrier too, as MS dropped the price right away and Halo sales slowly picked up, not all coming in one shot like Halo 2. The same goes for GTA, which was largely bought with a $250 price threshold.

Second, there is no reason for Nintendo to stop the Wii Sports pack-in. People think of it as a $50 value, but the cost can't be more than $2. Why risk it, when it has obviously so far been the key to their success, and they probably get a better profit margin the way it is now? Furthermore, I can't imagine Nintendo cutting the price anytime soon, considering how high their sales are with continued supply problems.

Third, the immediate effect of a price cut is often overrated. I think it would be difficult for anyone to look at weekly or monthly numbers for any past system, and pick out the months where price drops occured. The 360, however, is at a unique point, where there may be millions just waiting to come on board with Halo 3 and GTA4--IF the price is right. If MS doesn't drop the price in time or at the right time, those could be lost sales. But a reactionary price cut could not counter that. Nintendo's big games won't get as much of their sales up-front, and Sony doesn't have any exclusive games with that appeal. A $50 Wii price cut or a $100-$150 PS3 price cut would have the same immediate effect as the recent $30 PSP price cut.

I somewhat agree, it really only seemed to be a necessity for a launch, though if a price cut in the core gets them enough publicity I suppose it could still be of some value to them.

One more thing: Halo fans came on board for Gears in the same way Mario fans came on board for Zelda. In both cases the audience obviously overlaps, but one audience is obviously bigger if you glance at the sales.

Here we go again, Microsoft crowing about unlaid eggs.

A price drop for the 360 this Christmas, after 2 years on the market is nothing special at all. 360 fans have been predicting price drops for both Christmas 2006 and spring 2007. That would have been something. Nothing happened, probably because even MS can't handle more than $1 billion in losses per year. A price drop this Christmas will help to keep 360 sales steady but it won't break any new markets.

The Wii is not a 100 % competitor of the 360, and I don't think Nintendo will have to drop the price this Christmas.

mrstickball,
You said that Japanese buy around 50 million systems per generation. Are you including both handheld and consoles in that? I don't think MS can get a hold of 30% of this combined market in Japan anytime soon.

Erik's most recent post = FTW.

People forget that the Gears audience isn't the Halo audience. People came on board (the few that did) for Gears weren't most Halo-ites. European sales confirm this.

H2 only sold 1.67 in others + 0.11 in Japan on *around* 15-16.5m consoles in 2004.

Gears of War sold 1.38 in Others + 0.08 in Japan on 6.5m consoles in 2006. Gears still has plenty of juice left (its still in every countries top 10 X360 lists).

So GoW has done 80% of what H2 did, on 40% of the consoles.

To me, this would show, and extrapolate the audience is different. Even though Gears is like a third person cousin of Halo, it's still important, as the userbase is far different. Heck, Gears outsold LOST PLANET in Japan. Thats just insane!

Nah the core doesn't really account for that much of the total 360 sales