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Forums - Sales Discussion - Why doesn't Microsoft drop the price of the Xbox?

Iraziel on 29 March 2007

mrstickball said: 2 main reasons: In NA, the 360 isn't selling bad to require a price drop. MS is making around $70 per premium 360, and is recouping alot of their launch costs. In Europe, its selling well enough to not "need" it, but did drop to 199 euros for the prem in Germany (a poor selling market). The 360 core in Japan as well as premium are also cheaper than any comparible market. So MS has dropped the price, just not majorly in the US.
The price of 199€ isn't set by Microsoft. Their official stance is still 299€ for the core and 399€ for the premium version. Retailers dropped the price on their own because Xbox 360s sell pretty bad in Germany. Several shops don't order core packages anymore because they have troubles selling them. They're collecting dust on the shelves, even at a discount of 100€. The regular price for premium 360s among retailers seems to be 359€ to 379€ now. For 399€ most of them include 1 to 2 games (the best offer I found at my local retailer was a 379€ package including NfS: Most Wanted, PGR 3 and Kameo). The lack of interest is not surprising at all since best selling games like Gears of War and Dead Rising aren't officially published in Germany. And I doubt that an official price drop would help to get better sales.



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HappySqurriel on 29 March 2007

I think most people will agree that good graphics can drive game sales, but what I think people have missed is just how far we have come and that many people are still very happy with the quality of graphics that the PS2 can produce. One way to think about is to consider the special effects in Television (even 5 to 10 year old television) and compare it to new movie special effects; certainly, in big budget movies the effects are much nicer both because of the extra time to perfect the effect and the newer technology but few people complain about the quality of effects in Television. I could be wrong, but I believe we hit a point on the Dreamcast/PS2 where an artists abilities matter far more than the processing power of the system the game is running on; that (in general) a game produced by good artists on the Wii will look amazing and a game produced by awful artists on the PS3 will look terrible.



Lynn on 29 March 2007

Lingyis said: instead of asking why doesn't MSFT drop the price of the xbox, ask yourself why should it? as we've seen with the halo discriminatory pricing, this is an analogous case. let the fanboys go out and buy the elite version or whatever, and after the dust settles, MSFT will act.
QFT Exactly what is going to happen. Expect a price drop on all 3 this October. If the do what I think they are going to do then all 3 will see $100 price drop. Core at $199. Premium at $299. Elite at $399. If they can afford that much of a price drop then WOW. Sit back and watch the sales skyrocket.



johnlucas on 29 March 2007

HappySqurriel said: I think most people will agree that good graphics can drive game sales, but what I think people have missed is just how far we have come and that many people are still very happy with the quality of graphics that the PS2 can produce. One way to think about is to consider the special effects in Television (even 5 to 10 year old television) and compare it to new movie special effects; certainly, in big budget movies the effects are much nicer both because of the extra time to perfect the effect and the newer technology but few people complain about the quality of effects in Television. I could be wrong, but I believe we hit a point on the Dreamcast/PS2 where an artists abilities matter far more than the processing power of the system the game is running on; that (in general) a game produced by good artists on the Wii will look amazing and a game produced by awful artists on the PS3 will look terrible.
Happy Squirrel, you've hit upon one of my biggest points I've made about graphics in videogames. There ARE no more leaps 'til Virtual Reality. No sleep 'til Brooklyn. The 6th gen took care of all the issues in display that were important. All they do now is refine what has already been achieved. Well, why clutter up another thread rambling on. Here's my viewpoint on it here: "Why Graphics Don't Mean As Much Anymore" http://www.popzart.com/?page=view&topic=73 John Lucas



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johnlucas on 29 March 2007

They won't drop until they see sales seem to grind to a halt. I'm interested to see the price play between the PS3 & 360 this generation. Making no predictions on this one. Who KNOWS what'll happen here. What IS that Elite all about anyway? Pricing HIGHER in the middle of a gen? Microsoft's kind of innovation in the gaming market I guess. John Lucas



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kars on 29 March 2007

johnlucas said: Making no predictions on this one. Who KNOWS what'll happen here. What IS that Elite all about anyway? Pricing HIGHER in the middle of a gen? Microsoft's kind of innovation in the gaming market I guess. John Lucas
No it is in fact a sign that they learned the rules of the High End Market: In this market you have to earn with every console. Simply start with a high price and the decrease it gradualy till you earn the money you like. The PS-3 on the other hand went to the market with the concept for the mass market but the price and features of the High End market. These demands contradict each other. The PS-3 has one problem: No concept how to earn money. Everybody should recognize that the Elite is too expensive. But it has one advantage: You can drop the price and still earn money.



Kwaad on 29 March 2007

I just wanna say this. Power matters. A game like Crysis... Will never run on the Wii. But it does on PS3/360. That is not art style. It is physics/realism.



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kars on 29 March 2007

Kwaad said: That is not art style. It is physics/realism.
Sorry, but for real physics and realism you need good backtracking Algorithms and the Xbox 360 and the PS-3 were never made for these kinds of problems. That's pure marketing, nothing else.



Kwaad on 29 March 2007

kars said: That is not art style. It is physics/realism. Kwaad said: Sorry, but for real physics and realism you need good backtracking Algorithms and the Xbox 360 and the PS-3 were never made for these kinds of problems. That's pure marketing, nothing else.
Wanna name me off a machine that can play games that is made for that? Because the processor on the 360 is better for everything than a home PC. So dosent that mean... the 360 is the closest thing to coming to that?



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kars on 29 March 2007

Kwaad said: Wanna name me off a machine that can play games that is made for that? Because the processor on the 360 is better for everything than a home PC. So dosent that mean... the 360 is the closest thing to coming to that?
No. It is decent for streaming (in this aspect the PS-3 could even work better) but it is bad for branching/task switching (and in this aspect the PS-3 is even worse). In these cases all newer PC processors fly loops around the Xenon. The Xenon was only designed for two aspects: price and streaming but never for general power. That's the problem with most benchmarks. They don't show you the normal behaviour but selected cases i8n a setting where the processor can show speed. But in normal programs you can't rteally work in these problems. It is rather easy to optimize certain functions, but you have problems to design a processor that can work for every possible problem. And in these cases the PC processors have no reason to be afraid of the Xenon. That's not its kind of game.