http://www.computerandvideogames.com/

Analyst: 360 needs more than a price cut

Thursday 10-Jul-2008 9:56 AM 360 "has lost significant momentum" to its rivals...

One analyst believes that Xbox 360 "has lost significant momentum" to its rivals, and suggests a price cut alone isn't enough to win over the mainstream consumer.

On Wednesday, Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald said in his E3 preview note, "We think the 360 has lost significant momentum to both the Wii and PS3, especially in Europe, and is in need of both a price cut and new features to bring in mainstream gamers beyond the Halo/Call of Duty/GTA crowd.

"Hopefully, Microsoft will have something else up its sleeve [at E3], such as a new motion-enabled controller (to better compete with the Wii)."

A motion-enabled controller had been rumoured for Xbox 360, although it's unclear whether or not such a controller will come to fruition.

A $50 price drop to $299 for the Xbox 360 Pro model also looks likely later this week.

As the Xbox 360 moves closer to the $199 mainstream sweet-spot, Microsoft Game Studios is concentrating on delivering more mass market-friendly titles. Internal studio Rare is developing the mainstream title Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, and very convincing rumors say that the singing game Lips will soon be announced, on top of (also rumoured) Xbox Live customizable avatars.

Microsoft is slated to deliver its E3 conference on Monday, July 14.

Greenwald also commented on other game makers, such as EA, whose E3 line-up, he says, is "promising yet unproven." Upcoming EA games include Spore, Mirror's Edge, Mercenaries 2, Dragon Age, Dead Space, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and others.

He added that a playable Saints Row 2 could ease investors worried about THQ's prospects.

------------------------------------------------------------

do you think microsoft copied the wiimote to bolster its gaming console sales? i think a wiimote copy could do well but imo family/child gamers would prefer a wii instead. what do you think?

wiimote type games with a hd grafix imo would be much better than wii based grafix.

I think this is pretty clear since the EU pricedrop . The 360 needs IMO a brand new image . A redesign/pricedrop/a half dozen AAA exclusives could help a lot , but Im not seeing all of them coming at once ...

They are wrong. What is the 360 missing beside being a little expensive?

1. the 360 has a much better game library
2. Live has no competition yet
3. In Europe it's more about brand name than anything else.


Furthermore, a 360 price cut is going to hurt the PS3 more since Sony wont be able to answer MS at least this year if we believe their profitability PR.

America is still microsoft land, i think a price drop will do it some good, in europe nothing can save it, nobody really likes microsoft around these neck of the woods

This is more or less true.  In Europe, it's cheap.  In Japan, it's cheap.  It's just not popular outside of the US and the UK, and even in the UK its popularity isn't all that great.

Sony's saving grace so far is Europe where Microsoft's is America.  The problem Microsoft has is that Sony has been picking up a lot in America and Microsoft hasn't picked up enough in Europe, even after their recent price cut.  Mostly because sales were dysmal before the price cut in Europe.