By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales - Showdown: is the Xbox 360 price cut desperation or boldness?

greenmedic88 on 05 September 2008

In all fairness, I don't recall hearing anywhere that MS was denying potential price adjustments to their hardware line up. It was inevitable; I just think it would have been better had they not introduced the 60GB SKU prior to clearing out inventory of the 20GB.

In other words, they should never have sold the 60GB SKU at $350 in the first place. Especially not if they were planning on dropping price 6 weeks later. I just hope most of those people are within the window to get their $50 back.

As for Sony, if they do announce a price drop before the end of 2008, the explanation had better have the mind/perception altering effects of some serious medications or risk losing any credibility when it comes to future price announcements.



Around the Network
badgenome on 05 September 2008
DMeisterJ said:
badgenome said:
DMeisterJ said:
badgenome said:

I can't tell if you're being ironic or not, but I do believe it was planned. I seem to remember at least a few people suggesting this is how it would go down, too. The 20 GB pricing clearance price seemed to fit, but that was only $20 more than a $279 Arcade. So $199/$299/$399 makes sense.

I guess every time a company slashes prices, it's screwing over customers. What illogic.

 

No, every time a company launches a system at a price, then price drops weeks later it is screwing over customers.  It's complete and utter BS that it was planned.  And yes, the pro was priced close to the Arcade, but what you have to understand was that was supposed to be a limited time.  So those who rushed out to buy a 300 dollar 20 gig pro, thinking they got a deal, are screwed out of forty extra gigs of space by what?  Six weeks.  And those that bought a 350 60 gig pro are screwed out of fifty bucks for a price drop on an item they bought six weeks ago.

Unless M$ planned on screwing it's customers over, it was desperation.

So how were they supposed to price things in the interim? $279 Arcade/$299 20 GB/$299 60 GB?

I guess when $ony (lulz) drops prices after denying it in the run up, they're screwing the customer. Except they're not, because those people have decided the PS3 was worth the buying price. If the price drops soon thereafter, they might feel unlucky but they shouldn't feel ripped off.

And if you don't think it was planned, I don't know how to convince you. But if you read their statements over the past year, you'll see a lot of stuff about $200 being the magic number. This has practically been telegraphed to anybody who's been paying attention.

200 being the magic number doesn't mean anything.  They can say it all the time, but that doesn't mean a price drop is on the horizon.

And like someone else said, what should have been done was scale back shipments of the 20 gig until the 60 gig came out, so it could have been a smoother transition, much like Sony did with the phasing out of the sixty gig, and the introduction of the 40 gig.  And much like Sony just got done doing phasing out the 40 gig and releasing the 80 gig.  You see they didn't introduce the 80 gig for more money than the 40 gig, they just phased it out smoothly. 

That's how it should have been.  The lack of planning shows in that instead of phasing it out, they just dropped the price on it, then introduced something new, and price dropped that too.  And this is something that MS did fine last year, when they introduced the Arcade, and Phased out the Core.  They did it perfect last year, so it's weird that this year they didn't phase this out, which makes it seem less planned.

Except it did mean something, because they ended up cutting the price to $200.

I don't think that was coincidence. It's definitely targeted at the kind of person who would buy an Arcade... somebody who's more "casual" and doesn't care about Live. The so-called Madden Player, for instance.

And what you're saying doesn't quite make sense to me. They still launched the 60 GB without phasing out the 20 GB. That doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not this price cut was planned before or after Sony won handily in July despite the sale.



ookaze on 05 September 2008

I see several things in this thread :
- People discovering the true face of MS, sth people keep on warning them about for years
- MS still has thsi wonderful faculty of being able to induce selective memory in people, which makes them forget everything that might prove they were screwed by MS
- MS shills doing their job in downplaying MS (yet again) screwing its consumers over

Goog job !
And this move is clearly desperation, but because of the selective memory inducing (or is it brainwashing), people can't clearly remember why it is desperation.

MS brainwashing doesn't work on me, I'm used to it now, so I remember clearly when they said that from now on, their division would be profitable, and so they won't cut the price of their console.
But last quarter their game division lost money. Again, they did a good job to hide it. It was after they cut the price in Europe. Now, with price cuts in the two region left, they will earn even less money.
There's no reason for this price cut except to keep ahead of Sony like they said.
Now, are "keeping ahead of Sony" and "keeping the division profitable" compatible?
We'll know in their next quarterly fiscal report. But if they are incompatible and they are posting a loss, it will be pretty clear that it was a desperation move.
BTW, I believe it is a desperation move.
They can pretend they had shortages when the year begins, they can even pretend they had shortages in holidays while selling poorly, and you will see people making excuses for them. But the difference is that "shortages", true or not, in holidays, will be very bad for the bottom line.

Nintendo started destroying 3rd parties confidence in MS software, because MS went too far in its lying about Nintendo and 3rd parties. Serves them right! Now, they must prove to developers that they can still sustain their expensive games... without money hats. It is an all other kind of story though.
Thus they're forced to drop prices: desperation.



http://www.backloggery.com/main.php?user=ookaze

colonelstubbs on 05 September 2008
bbsin said:
Bold = Going into the holidays without a price cut, confident the software and marketing is more than enough to sway consumers.

Desperate = Becoming cheaper than the Wii

With that being said, sometimes it takes desperation to succeed.

 

 This is the answer i most agree with



I hope my 360 doesn't RRoD
         "Suck my balls!" - Tag courtesy of Fkusmot

jagenjg on 05 September 2008

The price cuts are not only to get ready for the holiday season, but the 360 is also cheaper to make now. Soon if not already they will be shipping with "Jasper". Which is a motherboard for the Xbox 360 with the new 65 nm GPU as well as a 65 nm CPU.

They are just passing some of the saving along in an effort to keep the lead they built over the PS3.



Consoles: Atari 5200, NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3

Around the Network
Darc Requiem on 05 September 2008

Bold? No. Desperate? No. Long overdue? Absolutely.



whatever on 05 September 2008

It's only viewed as desperate because M$ is still losing money in their gaming division. This will likely pull them deeper into the red and make it impossible for the 360 to be profitable in its lifetime.



Jordahn on 05 September 2008

If a price drop isn't needed, why have one?  The Wii was making a profit from day one and it's the best selling console this gen.  Do we see a price drop with the Wii?  Nope, and it's easy to understand why when you face the reality of sales and trends.  Using this logic is the 360 price cut desperation?  Yes.  And for those who claim the price cut was "long overdue,"  please explain when the price drop should have occured and why.  Otherwise "long overdue" is just a politically correct way of saying "desperation."



Hackers are poor nerds who don't wash.

dbot on 05 September 2008

The price reduction is long overdue. The only reason it looks desperate is because Microsoft's sales have lagged behind the PS3 for much of 2008. Sony was in a similar situation last year and the price reduction was a large part of their current success. I think it is bold, desperate and necessary.

Edit: Grammar correction.

 



Thanks for the input, Jeff.

 

 

Jordahn on 05 September 2008
dbot said:
The price reduction is long overdue. The only reason it looks desperate is because Microsoft's sales have lagged behind the PS3 for much of 2008. Sony was in a similar situation last year and the price reduction was a large part of their current success. I think it is both bold, desperate and necessary.

 

 To paraphrase: desperate.



Hackers are poor nerds who don't wash.