X360 Price Drops Now Official on 8/8

LinkificationThis is something that is intended to spur excitement, but somehow this just leaves me feeling indifferent. Too many SKUs and too little of a price drop. Sorry if I sound too smug, but can a $50 price drop on the ''XBOX 360'' really make that much of a difference?I wonder if the Core will actually draw more attention because it will give the appearance of the X360 being below $300? Just a thought.X360 Price Drops Now Official on 8/8
[QUOTE=''MarcusAntonius''] LinkificationThis is something that is intended to spur excitement, but somehow this just leaves me feeling indifferent. Too many SKUs and too little of a price drop. Sorry if I sound too smug, but can a $50 price drop on the ''XBOX 360'' really make that much of a difference?I wonder if the Core will actually draw more attention because it will give the appearance of the X360 being below $300? Just a thought.[/QUOTE]I think $50 sounds about right. To be honest, I don't think they really needed a price cut at all this year with the software lineup coming up for the Holiday. This will probably help to massage a few of the cheapos into jumping in this year though.X360 Price Drops Now Official on 8/8
It'll generate some excitement for those that have been on the fence and sales will definitely increase somewhat. And maybe some of the software will help maintain that bump as the fall season arrives.I personally still think its too much, though, for a bump to Wii-like sales numbers. I wonder what the hold-up is on dropping the prices significantly ($100 for each)? I know there are people that make a lot more money than me that do market research on these things endlessly, but I'm of the opinion that THIS would be the perfect season to make a significant price drop like the below ...Core: $229Prem: $299Elite: $39920 gig HD: $50With that, they can claim a price cheaper than the Wii and the HD added to the Core would still be under $300. With the software lineup planned (assuming no more major delays; hello GTA), they would all but be assured to start 2008 with possibly an 18-20 million install base worldwide. That would do wonders to interest even more 3rd parties to bring their top titles to the 360 and likely be worth the revenue hit they would take for the entertainment division.Then again, with neither the Wii or PS3 (especially with the loss of GTA) holiday line-ups as universally appealing as the 360's, maybe they feel content with these meager price-cuts for this season ...
[QUOTE=''Darth_Tigris''] It'll generate some excitement for those that have been on the fence and sales will definitely increase somewhat. And maybe some of the software will help maintain that bump as the fall season arrives.I personally still think its too much, though, for a bump to Wii-like sales numbers. I wonder what the hold-up is on dropping the prices significantly ($100 for each)? I know there are people that make a lot more money than me that do market research on these things endlessly, but I'm of the opinion that THIS would be the perfect season to make a significant price drop like the below ...Core: $229Prem: $299Elite: $39920 gig HD: $50With that, they can claim a price cheaper than the Wii and the HD added to the Core would still be under $300. With the software lineup planned (assuming no more major delays; hello GTA), they would all but be assured to start 2008 with possibly an 18-20 million install base worldwide. That would do wonders to interest even more 3rd parties to bring their top titles to the 360 and likely be worth the revenue hit they would take for the entertainment division.Then again, with neither the Wii or PS3 (especially with the loss of GTA) holiday line-ups as universally appealing as the 360's, maybe they feel content with these meager price-cuts for this season ...[/QUOTE]I dunno if they necessarily want to approach Wii price levels. It would likely negatively impact the image of the X360.
This is too little of a cut after 21 months. I don't see this helping too much.
One thing that's kind of frustrating about this is how there's to be essentially 4 SKUs (granted, one being really temporary) at 4 different prices:Core - $279Premium - $349Halo - $399Elite - $449But whatever...for me, personally, the Premium is still a tad out of my range for a system at this time, though I hope that the price settles down further by the winter holiday season, if not shortly thereafter.
[QUOTE=''MarcusAntonius'']LinkificationThis is something that is intended to spur excitement, but somehow this just leaves me feeling indifferent. Too many SKUs and too little of a price drop. Sorry if I sound too smug, but can a $50 price drop on the ''XBOX 360'' really make that much of a difference?I wonder if the Core will actually draw more attention because it will give the appearance of the X360 being below $300? Just a thought.[/QUOTE]That's probably the main reason why the Core still exists, so that they have a console in Wii price range that can maybe lure some people in when they can't find the Nintendo console. As for the drop itself, you've pretty much summed up my thoughts. They should've waited a bit and have a big bang with a 100$ drop in my opinion, and they definitely should drop at least one SKU. I don't like this world of multiple versions of consoles, gimme back the old times with only one, with maybe an optimized version somewhere down the line (a la PSOne).
[QUOTE=''Darth_Tigris''] Then again, with neither the Wii or PS3 (especially with the loss of GTA) holiday line-ups as universally appealing as the 360's, maybe they feel content with these meager price-cuts for this season ...[/QUOTE]I'm the last guy in the world anyone would accuse of being a Nintendo fan, but in the interests of fairness, the Wii doesn't seem to be having problems selling with its current line-up. Right now Wii has the casual market (hello Mario Party 8 ) to itself whereas the X360, PS3 and PS2 (quality games keep hitting for it, the latest of which will soon be Persona 3) are competing for hardcore gamers. And the software gap inbetween the PS3 and the X360 will be a heck of a lot narrower than it was last Christmas. So I don't think the complacency the minimal price-cuts signals is wise (X360s aren't exactly flying off the shelves though they are outselling the PS3 by a comfortable margin according to the last NPD numbers released). The PS2 led the Xbox in sales almost every month the two systems coexisted, but that didnt' stop Sony from being the first company to pull the trigger on price cuts.MS's love of multiple SKUs is starting to get a little weird (the Halo 3 SKU has a HDMI port previously only found in the Elite). Given that there will soon be games which require a hard disk, now would have been a great time for MS to phase out the Core.On the upside, small price cuts are better than no price cuts, and at least MS's cuts are clearly permanent, which is more than one can say of Sony's.
[QUOTE=''AlwaysSoft'']I dunno if they necessarily want to approach Wii price levels. It would likely negatively impact the image of the X360.[/QUOTE]A system's image is defined by its games, not its price. With past games like Gears of War, Rainbow 6: Las Vegas and Dead Rising, and upcoming games like Virtua Fighter 5, Mass Effect, Bioshock and Call of Duty 4 no one this side of Stevie Wonder is going to equate the X360 with the Wii. The PS1 and PS2 are the biggest selling consoles in history, and that is in part due to a willingness to steadily cut prices (some gamers won't or can't spend a lot of money on hardware).
That just doesn't cut it for me. It's been almost 2 years. $50 price drop is nothing. Call me back when you've got a real offer, Microsoft.
Yeah it's a pretty lackluster price drop and the different sized cuts across the packages seem puzzling. I guess we'll just have to wait for the 65nm machines to hit before we see any real price cuts.
[QUOTE=''AlwaysSoft''][I dunno if they necessarily want to approach Wii price levels. It would likely negatively impact the image of the X360.[/QUOTE]Yes, dropping the console down to mass market levels like every successful console ever made, so the majority of people could actually buy it and grow the userbase, would indeed impact it negatively. :
|[QUOTE=''CarnageHeart''][QUOTE=''Darth_Tigris''] Then again, with neither the Wii or PS3 (especially with the loss of GTA) holiday line-ups as universally appealing as the 360's, maybe they feel content with these meager price-cuts for this season ...[/QUOTE]I'm the last guy in the world anyone would accuse of being a Nintendo fan[/QUOTE]Don't listen to him, this man is such a big Nintendo fan hesleeps with Link pajamas and has a Mario plushie. :P
The Premium droped $100 in Canada. Its still not enough to get me to buy it. I don't want to buy it, pay $60 for online play and have it break on me.
According to Amazon that price drop helped X360 sales substantially. Increase in salesTake from it what you will.