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Forums - Microsoft - Microsoft: We Keep Selling The Hard-Drive-Free Arcade Xbox 360 Because 'Consumers Like Choice'

brute on 23 July 2008

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/07/23/xbox-360-arcade-consumers-like-choice/

Microsoft didn’t exactly drop the price of the Xbox 360 the weekend before E3. They merely lowered the price on the discontinued 20GB Pro version to $299 in order to make room at $349 for a new 60GB Pro model.

Why do that?

And why not use this opportunity to kill off the hard-drive-free Arcade version of the machine?

Don Mattrick, head of Xbox at Microsoft, broke it down for me at E3:

 

“What we’ve made a decision is that we can deliver three times the amount of storage to consumers with our Pro [version of the machine]. We wanted to work with our retail partners to manage the channel. And whenever you have a transition like that you need to develop a program against it. I think what we’ve done is over-deliver value to consumers. … We wanted to announce it and have a lot of clarity. That’s why we did it on the Sunday before the show so there wasn’t ambiguity. Because if you remember last year’s E3, others maybe did it in such a way that it created a whole bunch of confusion in the industry.”

He was referring to Sony’s switch to 80GB PS3s last year that had initially been reported as a price-drop until it was clear older models were being discontinued. But why not kill that Arcade machine off?

Mattrick: “What we’ve learned is that consumers like choice. So we’re providing a choice in flexibility to consumers. There’s different entry points. There’s different types of experiences people want to use. That program is working for us. Retailers like it. Consumers like it. So that’s why we have it.”

***



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badgenome on 23 July 2008

I guess it's handy if your box dies and you already have a hard drive and are out of warranty/don't wish to fool with MS customer service.

But their policy of no mandatory HDD for any game because of the Arcade? Pretty lame.



Goddbless on 23 July 2008
badgenome said:
I guess it's handy if your box dies and you already have a hard drive and are out of warranty/don't wish to fool with MS customer service.

But their policy of no mandatory HDD for any game because of the Arcade? Pretty lame.

 

I thought their policy was the opposite. That's why there are games that require a HDD.



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badgenome on 23 July 2008
Goddbless said:
badgenome said:
I guess it's handy if your box dies and you already have a hard drive and are out of warranty/don't wish to fool with MS customer service.

But their policy of no mandatory HDD for any game because of the Arcade? Pretty lame.

 

I thought their policy was the opposite. That's why there are games that require a HDD.

I think it is in the process of being changed, or maybe it has already changed. But it has been their policy at some point, at least.

 



chenguo4 on 23 July 2008

"over deliver value to consumers"

really?




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Zucas on 23 July 2008

Sounds like an alright decision. Some people maybe don't want the HDD and want to have a cheaper price because of it.



colonelstubbs on 23 July 2008

I enjoy his little dig at Sony lol



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akuma587 on 23 July 2008

Worst decision MS made except for rushing their hardware out the door.



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HappySqurriel on 23 July 2008

I think that it is a reasonable strategy to provide the base XBox 360 without a hard-drive ... The mistake Microsoft made is that they're overcharging for accessories.

When you look at what Microsoft charges for 512MB of flash memory, or a 20GB hard-drive, you have to wonder who came up with this pricing strategy. Since day one, Microsoft has been selling their accessories at a priemium that is far above retail price for similar products; and as time goes on it seems more and more insane that anyone would pay $100 for a 20GB hard-drive when you can buy 200 GB in the same basic lap-top hard-drive for a similar price.



swyggi on 23 July 2008

Depends what they mean by choice. The more sku's=more confusion and less sales due to people deciding whether or not to get one version of a system or another. Then there's a possibility of people predicting when a combination of a system will arrive that would give them the best of both worlds, thus they don't buy it yet. Over time, they may never buy that particular system when something on another system seems more appealing.



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