I have no idea

MS has been particulary quite this year... so I'm waiting for the E3 annoucement.

Note: I'm not very enthousiast with the motion control rumor...

XBox sales are plumetting and I suspect that is what is behind this thread. Everybody knows what a PS3 price cut will do. Another XBox price cut will lead some consumers to wonder why they are giving the machine away for so little. When there is a PS3 price cut XBox owners are going to resent paying for online play more too. They will never admit it but it must be annoying. If you play the console online for 10 years you are paying for the console a few times over. The Japanese are no mugs. They don't want to pay for online gaming on a console that is going to make very few games for their own particular tastes.

^Yay, so the expectations that the PS3 will be half the launch price 3 years after launch will be greeted by cheers and laughter followed by the ringing of many tils. Whilst the expectation that the Xbox 360 would have been cut in price at a slower rate would be met with general dirision by consumers. Yay for logic, logic wins the day!

Its annoying buying games and controllers too, I mean if you bought an Arcade at $200 and then bought 10 new release games and one extra controller over the life of the machine you would have paid $650 or more than 3* the price of the machine.

@ squill: that last one is a huge stretch, isn't it? O_o

Difference between paying for something that the other one is giving for free (internet gaming) and games / controller...

Why is it a stretch? People only pay for things that they value, if they didn't value online gaming then they wouldn't pay for it.

What have we learned from this thread? That ignoring some regional sales will lower world wide sales! OMG Squillium is genius! Lets try ignoring NA sales and see what happens, this is so exciting. O, and by the way, if you're going to look at "western" sales, you would have to cut a large chunk of the "others" sales out.

Guess I don't value online gaming then, since I don't pay for it ... Seriously, Squill...

M$ needs America more than any one else

I don't value breathing air since I don't pay for it! Oh no! Who do I give money to before I suffocate?!

Your point is ridiculous Squill.

Logic is failing you here, Shall I call for some fresh supplies?

Seriously now, there are so many different avenues. If suddenly people in general stopped caring about online gaming, their internet connection at home would be worth less to them, wouldn't it? (As an exampe)

Also theres another point, the price someone pays for something has nothing to do with the amount of satisfaction they get from using it. If someone paid $600 on Ebay for their Wii they could enjoy it as much or as little as someone who paid $0 for a stolen console.

And another point, the price someone is willing to pay for something is its value in the strictest economic sense. This isn't how much they pay, its how much they value something. Some people value XBL at $0 per year, some at $50 and others at $100 per year. The people who are willing to pay $100 for a $50 service are getting a bargain, they get much more value from the service than someone who is willing to pay only $50. The person who isn't willing to pay any money for the service simply wouldn't pay. Therefore you could say that only people who are willing to pay for the service are actually paying for it.