selnor said:
Sony have done a grand job of reintroducing PS3 in the Slim model. Whilst cutting the price. Here in UK you can find it for £229 at Toys R Us with a game. Considering it was £299 without a game, thats impressive.
Microsoft haven't really answered Sony at all. So are Microsoft keeping the low entry system point the same waiting for Natal release? We know Natal will come with the 360 out of the box, which will bode well for adoption rate and third parties creating games for it. I guess it depends on whether M$ inhouse games really show what sort of experiences are possible and if they are a fun as they look like they can be. If Natal launches in October period of 2010, we should see a wealth of third party games to. The mrketing has to be spot on. Already the media love it, so the hard part is essentially done.
So is M$ letting Sony have it's time this holiday, cutting it's losses and pinning it's console sales increase on Natal's arrival. If Natal captivates the casual gamer they could have a great sales increase on their hands. They seem to not be rushing it which is good for buyers ( RROD :) )
What do you guys think? Are M$ just biding their time? So when Natal relases the 360 is not cheap as chips?
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I think this is true. MS are not going to want to take Sony on this holiday period with aggressive price drops as it would make it very difficult for them to bundle Natal with an even cheaper arcade model and remain profitable. The 360 is still in a healthy position so there doesn't seem to be any point in taking unnecessary steps this year to keep market share from Sony when Natal is round the corner.
What Natal will do for sales I have no idea. At E3 I was fairly impressed with the demo but then realised that it was still just motion control and for the near future I just don't see anything other than casual games working well with it (same for Sony's wand). The problem for both MS and Sony is that the casual crowd has already been captured this gen by Nintendo and I think the Wii brand is too strong for Natal to really gain much market share. It's going to be very interesting though as the success of both Natal and Sony's wand could have large implications on the direction both companies take with their next console offering.
