The Xbox 360 is getting really tempting for me... 3 year warranty, price cut... damn!

The 360 core is the 360 with no Harddrive, Also it does not bring the wireless controller. Nor brings the headset. It is rpiced at $299.99, but isnt worth the money since it has no Harddrive.

All this carrot-dangling reminds me of one of the best salesmen I've ever witnessed pitch his wares:

I was riding a bus, and this guy with a duffel bag full of chocolate jumped on and started his pitch.

"Buy four chocolate bars at $1!"

A couple of people on the bus bought the bars.

Then the guy said, "Ok, well, I notice that some of you are hesitant to buy this exquisite chocolate. Just so you don't miss out, I'm now offering five chocolate bars at $1!"

Other people bought it, more than the first round. A couple of those who bought in the first round complained, but there was nothing they could do once they parted with their hard-earned cash.

This went on for about four rounds, with the guy offering something like 7 chocolate bars for 1$. He sold about 90% of his stock on one bus ride, all within 15 minutes.

I didn't buy any, because he left after the fourth round, and I thought he was going to do a fifth. Seems Sony and Microsoft were on the same bus ride...

Actually, it kind of does. Sony lost $2.4 billion on PS3 through fiscal 2006, and the entire company only posted a $608 million operating profit for the same time period. A huge loss for the gaming division in that type of financial environment is a lot harder to swallow than in a company like Microsoft, who makes $12 1/2 billion dollars a year in profit.

Neither company losing money for their consoles is a good thing -- but Microsoft is in a position to absorb a hit much easier than Sony.

Hrmm, I wanted the 360 cut to be to $300 for the premium so I could afford it. If this is true I'll be sorely disappointed. I may have to wait a little longer I guess.

 same here, a 300$ premium would have gotten me tempted, but now I´d rather wait and see what this new "mystery machine" is going to be, if its true, but it´s not the first time I heard MS was making a cheaper more reliable 360, so we can ceep hoping it will be good, cheap and have a hard-drive. :) 

While I believe a 360 pricecut is in the works, I'm not convinced it'll be immediate nor do I fully believe Pachter's estimations. While the near future is a great way to fight against Sony's pricecut it still seems to be like a bad idea if they want to be profitable for the year, while a pricecut post-Halo 3 would get them a large amount of profit yet keep them competitive in the months that actually matter.

Additionally, I do believe that MS wants to hit the $200 mark with the Core unit given their own comments on the matter. I can buy $349.99 for the Premium. They can't dip too far on it or they lose too much money, since they still need to try to be profitable for the year, but they know that $200 is the sweetspot for sales and that at that mark the people who could care less about online and HDDs will finally see a product that hits the notes they care about.

The Elite, however, is too new to move isgnificantly if at all. Frankly, since the Sony price is still higher they have less to worry about and since it's still a very new product they'd probably create as much public distrust and unhappiness as the warenty deal eliminates. A cut to $450 makes sense, though not changing it at all would likely be best, but anything below that point sounds self-destructive to some degree.

@scotland yard:

>>Neither company losing money for their consoles is a good thing -- but Microsoft is in a position to absorb a hit much easier than Sony.

@Bodhesatva:

>>Who said Microsoft's pockets were bottomless?

leo-j said:

>>marcus1979 said:
>>what is the xbox 360 core anyway?
>>if its priced similar to wii how would that not be competing with wii?

>The 360 core is the 360 with no Harddrive,
>Also it does not bring the wireless controller.
>Nor brings the headset. It is rpiced at $299.99,
>but isnt worth the money since it has no Harddrive.


I argue it is not competing with the Wii, since the vast majority of people looking for the Wii would not settle for any form of XBOX360 (where's the Wii-mote? Where's the Wii Sports?).

I would also argue that 99.99% of XBOX 360 owners who grumble about the CORE system would far prefer owning a CORE system than a Wii, since the CORE will run the games they like (Gears of War, etc).

This is why I say they are not really competing..

>but isnt worth the money since it has no Harddrive.

But it could so be worth the money!

I think a 360CORE packaged with a memory card and GTA (and another pack with HALO3) would sell really well, as the market it would address would be the large clump of people who want these games and probably not much more.

What would be gained by this package?: 

 - easy purchase/all included in one box


A side benefit of high 360CORE sales is that it would really put pressure on 3rd party developers not to bother with supporting the PS3 HDD (and perhaps they aren't anyway), if the 360 total sales stay much higher than PS3 sales, thereby removing a PS3 advantage.

And oh, I have a PS3 (and a Wii) and not a 360, but I really would like it if all three companies would really stir the pot hard!  Competition brings us more fun!