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Xbox price cut on Sept 23rd for USA? | |
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| Time: 15:30 EST/20:30 GMT | News Source: XBox Evolved | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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With the ECTS just taking place MS let the proverbial cat out of the bag earlier this week, indicating to retailers and analysts that the company will soon slash the U.S. price of the Xbox console to $149.99. The price drop is expected to take effect on September 23, 2002. “The price drop for the Xbox isn’t going to be a shock to anyone in the industry,” said Edward Williams an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison. The price cut also make sense considering that MS announced a price cut in Europe just last week , MS predicting a sales surge in Europe because of the price cut, with a corresponding increase in software sales. | ||
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| #1 By 2960 (156.80.64.132) at 9/5/2002 4:00:06 PM |
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At this price, even I'LL have to get one. And I hate consoles :)
TL |
| #2 By 3 (62.253.128.4) at 9/5/2002 4:49:04 PM |
| Sony will just drop the price too - they have nothing to worry about just yet as they have sold nearly 30 million PS2's |
| #3 By 4379 (66.54.164.122) at 9/5/2002 4:50:20 PM |
| First the dvd kit rebate now this. I should have waited another month. |
| #4 By 116 (66.69.198.173) at 9/5/2002 5:35:39 PM |
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Thats probably true Byron but you know it has to piss Sony off.
Sony is toast. |
| #5 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 9/5/2002 6:09:13 PM |
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Hmm, might have to buy a second XBox. :-)
Naw, I should just buy a couple of games. |
| #6 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 6:33:27 PM |
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I'm just curious--since it was well know that Microsoft was taking the largest hit on the pricing and that Nintendo and Sony were actually profiting way before this pricing war started, why do a bunch of you believe that Sony and Nintendo cannot now match the price cut?
After all, Microsoft still hasn't sold it's original shipment to Japan of 250,000.... maybe approaching 5 million worldwide, but it's expected that Sony is closer to 40,000,000 (they were already at 30 mill a couple of months ago Byron). And will hit 50,000,000 before PS3 comes out probably a year before XBox2 again. So why the sudden optimism and ignoring of facts? |
| #7 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 9/5/2002 6:36:09 PM |
| It is my understanding that none of the three were making money from the consoles. I don't believe Sony or Microsoft have published numbers regarding the overall profitability of the PS or XBOX business units. If either of them have, I'd like the see the numbers if anyone has a link. |
| #8 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 6:46:16 PM |
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Bob, there had been a few good articles explaining how Nintendo and Sony like to keep it a secret. But in the very least, you are aware of the fact that MS was originally losing more money than either one of them, yes?
So if Nintendo has about the same sales figures and substantially less dev costs and Sony has astronomically superior sales figures and lower dev costs, why this silly notion that somehow MS has leapfrogged both of them in their ability to cut the price? |
| #9 By 3653 (63.162.177.140) at 9/5/2002 7:03:34 PM |
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Exactly baarod!
MS could give these things away for fifty bucks. Doesn't matter. They have ALREADY changed the dynamics of the console industry FOREVER. No longer will Nintendo and Sony be able to reap a 50% margin. The wedge is IN, and NOBODY and i mean NOBODY does this as good as MSFT. Hey naysayers, I don't hear you claiming they muscled into this industry by using their monopoly power. C'mon, try your best to make that case. YOU CAN'T. IMO, Nintendo will lose the most as Microsoft's strategy unfolds. But don't be fooled, their target is NOT Nintendo. Their target is the untouchable Sony! Watch it happen! |
| #10 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 7:21:07 PM |
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macross, you could at least do a little research. Sony is a 40 Billion dollar company with 35.8% earnings growth this year. I don't think you are all that correct to say the PS2 is the only profitable division.
As for lowering prices, how does MS force other developers to lower prices? By denying them XBox licensing if they don't? Sure, that'll work. |
| #11 By 3 (62.253.128.4) at 9/5/2002 7:52:47 PM |
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#9 - I think it will all depend on what happens when the PS3 arrives and the Xbox 2 is announced, its still all down to the games.
Byron Hinson ActiveWin: http://www.activewin.com Designer Dream: http://www.designerdream.co.uk |
| #12 By 3 (62.253.128.4) at 9/5/2002 7:52:59 PM |
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#12 - I might buy a third! j/k
Byron Hinson ActiveWin: http://www.activewin.com Designer Dream: http://www.designerdream.co.uk |
| #13 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 8:19:04 PM |
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Macross, you are playing in your own dream world. What incentive can MS give to EA to give up 22.2% of their profit. Right, $10 cut is 20% of 50 yes?; MS gets about $5 so actually that's 10/45 which is 22.2%. If MS dropped that to zero, there is still not enough incentive to drop the price ten bucks. Is there? That's only 10%. And MS isn't going to make it free to produce for their platforms are they? No. Game Developers can't afford to give up 22% of their profits just to help MS out either, especially when they've only got 10% of the market (5 mill; 5 mill; 40 mill), can they? No.
And you've got some bizarre logic--how have you proven Nintendo loses money on hardware? By stating that they make videogames? In what world does that constitute logic? The chip they uses is about 1/2 as much as the chips used in the others, and the whole system has fewer and cheaper parts. They've been in manufacturing for over 10 years... hence, they produce substantially the cheapest console. This post was edited by sodajerk on Thursday, September 05, 2002 at 20:22. |
| #14 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 9/5/2002 8:21:35 PM |
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I hate to say it, but, um, jerk is looking at this sensibly. For the record, I don't know and never have known how much any of the three are/were/will be losing on consoles. I also never made any claims about the financial success of the any of the three companies with respect to video gaming.
That said, I think macrosslover has a very dim understanding of what Sony does. Sony is not only an electronics company. They are also a content company. At one time (sorry, my numbers aren't current, but I doubt much has changed) they owned at least as much of the record industry as did TimeWarner. The also do movies and television. They not only own hundreds of record lables, they also own distribution channels like Columbia House. As far as their electronics go, they do far more than just computers. From the smallest devices - MD players, MP3 players, PDAs, digital cameras to the largest devices 1000 disk juke boxes, HDTVs, and so forth. Sony is an extremely large and powerful company. I quite enjoy the fact that they and Microsoft are competing. |
| #15 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 9/5/2002 8:24:31 PM |
| Dang, I took too long typing my last post. You two responed before I could. |
| #16 By 94 (209.77.48.6) at 9/5/2002 8:53:16 PM |
| #2, did you know that there is a Robotech game coming out this month? Pretty sweet too! |
| #17 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 9:05:05 PM |
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Please macross, you're going in circles and no one agrees with you. I wasn't attempting to prove that Nintendo does make money on hardware but I think it's clear that if anyone does it is them--and, yes, I do believe they both do (Nintendo and Sony), but I also know that this information isn't available for any of them. But seriously, you say idiotic stuff like let's enumerate what Nintendo makes, and you go: VIDEOGAMES; there I proved they lose money on hardware. Are you for real? How bout consoles, how bout electronic components for Japanese manufacturing, how bout worldwide licensing of Pokemon and their own cast of characters, how bout the licensing to develop games for their platform, how bout the sole worldwide leading handheld videogame (but I bet you'll tell m they sell GameBoys at a loss too)...
As for your idea that MS can somehow coerce the whole market to lower its prices thereby requiring EA to step in line, that's about as ridiculous as your Nintendo proof. As to your short-term/long-term scenario, how long before MS catches up? If a PS3 comes out a year ahead of anything from MS, don't you think it's likely that a fair percentage of that 40 million will stay with their chosen and compatible platform? How much money does MS have to lose to incense consumers to buy the Box instead of PS2? Not only that, how much cheaper than the PS does it need to be (since I think Sony can keep step in the price game), and they obviously haven't convinced consumers that they are vastly superior to the PS2 on specs and games alone?... So what is going to cause them to catch up? And you do realize that MS has to partly play fair, right? Don't know where the line would be drawn but their is a point where subsidizing a lossleader with other revenues will actually become predatory pricing, you understand? At which point, they could end up in court again... |
| #18 By 3339 (65.198.47.10) at 9/5/2002 9:26:43 PM |
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Oh, macross, as for different pricing, that's simple. For one, the big guys like EA, Konami et al don't give MS $5 per game; MS is lucky to get $2 or $3 from them, I was just being generous before. It's the smaller developers that are likely to pay a 10% fee to MS. But again, why would a game be 49.99 or even 34.99? Simple: they are cheaper, crappier games. They can't sell for higher because the consumer won't pay and the developers don't put as much resources into them or they recycle elements from other games to reduce costs.
But all the Rand-loving capitalists out there will tell you the real reason you are paying $50 bucks a pop: Because you will. It's the consumers setting that cost--the great big interaction of the consumers, the developers, the small developers, the console makers, the aftermarket, the rental market, etc... So where's MS's leverage... even if MS themselves and a few others reduced the costs--why would EA develop titles for MS that it can only charge 40 for when it can sell the same game for Sony for 50? See! You don't realize how little power MS has still--I would say they won't have much power at all for at least 2 more years... if then. But for you, just you, MS will work its magic and sell consoles for $50, games for $5, and kill Sony and Nintendo and all the game developers too and all by next week. You happy? |
| #19 By 3339 (67.116.253.190) at 9/5/2002 9:57:12 PM |
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yeah, it says they will roughly break even... meaning they will make a small profit they don't want to acknowledge. Since then, the process has gotten cheaper so they make a bit more.
"i know my videogames" okay, don't cry. |
| #20 By 3339 (67.116.253.190) at 9/5/2002 10:13:17 PM |
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And note, AlmostFamous, what serious gamer would want MS to start gobbling up quality game developers, or hurting Sony and/or Nintendo... All that means is that there would be fewer and lower quality games. Why not keep a diverse and competitive ecosystem of high quality games. The game dev market is huge and growing, but it's an insanely difficult biz with tight margins--if the games drp to 30-40 bucks, where will the quality go?
But whatever, you and I are wrong because macross "knows HIS games" |
| #21 By 3339 (67.116.253.190) at 9/5/2002 10:19:51 PM |
| You don't get your videogames if you don't understand this is the key secret in the industry. Not one of these companies wants to say exactly what they make or lose on a console at any given point. That would tell the competition exactly what they need to know for a year or so's worth of pricing/strategy. |
| #22 By 3339 (67.116.253.190) at 9/5/2002 10:25:38 PM |
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woops.
but seriously macross... This post was edited by sodajerk on Thursday, September 05, 2002 at 22:35. |
| #23 By 2960 (68.100.157.191) at 9/6/2002 9:10:26 AM |
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If Sony drops the PS2 price, then I don't know what I will do.
I don't _really_ want a console, but at this price I'll go ahead and get one. If the PS/2 and the XBox are both $149, the decision will be tough. The XBox is slightly in the lead due to it's Ethernet Port. Get a couple of those PhoneEx PowerLine adapters and you're all set! TL |
| #24 By 2960 (68.100.157.191) at 9/6/2002 9:12:05 AM |
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#7,
A lot of places, like Best Buy and Circuit City, have 30 day price protection policies. If the official drop happens fast enough, and you bought it from a place that has this, you should be able to get the difference refunded. TL |
| #25 By 2960 (68.100.157.191) at 9/6/2002 9:21:02 AM |
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A Message for the WebMaster...
There is a new formatting problem going on here... The text boxes for message posts aren't sizing properly, and text is flowing off to the right of the display. I have to scroll sideways to be able to read a full posting. This is a new problem that I've never noticed before. It looks like either you guys changed something, or XP SP1 has. I'm running at 1280X1024 on a 22" display. Thanks! TL |
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