Xbox Price Drop Doubles Sales, Sony To Follow? 83
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its story mentioning Microsoft's indication that dropping Xbox's price to $149 has caused sales to double for the week immediately following the announcement. However, the piece muses: "The question, however, is just how long the sales boost will last - with some analysts suggesting that the 'bounce' isn't sustainable. Certainly, there are many factors which suggest that Microsoft will cut the Xbox price again before Christmas 2004." In addition to this, there's speculation about competition: "All eyes are now on rival Sony, with sources close to the Japanese giant suggesting that it plans to drop the US PS2 price point to $149 later this month - and will add two games (as yet unnamed) to the bundle as well, bringing the effective price of the hardware below the Xbox."
Doubles their sales!! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
I don't know what is so idiotic about pointing out that they failed to include sales numbers in this "report".
Do you have those numbers for me oh wise AC?
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
The question still stands...doubled from what?
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:1)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:3, Informative)
Does this mean that they have sold 20 last week as opposed to 10 the week before?
Well - I bought one, a friend bought one and I saw 3 others sold while we were there, that was Monday.
Fairly impressed - Hopefully it won't be replaced too quickly, but it beats having to keep a windows partition around to play games on.
Unfortunately, I broke one of my rules on things not to do during exam week.
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:2)
Rob
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:1)
Re:Doubles their sales!! (Score:1)
This is all fun and games but... (Score:1)
Not that I don't have all the current consoles already, but a second machine for chipping would be nice.
139 price point? (Score:1)
I'm a European too, and I've no idea what you've just said.
Or, actually I do, but that one thing is out of context...
Re:139 price point? (Score:1)
Sony's price drop (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:3, Informative)
(can you smell the burning Sega fanboyism?)
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:2)
The great thing about the DC is that it left with a great legacy, although it couldn't fight with the big bully on the block it will definitely have it cherished space in video game history. Definitely one of the most innovative machines to ever come out. I remember looking back at first gen PS2 titles and comparing to my DC, and thinking to myself - why spend all that cash for something only marginally better?
Funny thing is, I finally broke down and got a PS2 last December (damn exclusives)
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:2, Interesting)
I bought it for 20 bucks with 3 games, 4 controllers(including guns) and memory card.
www.dcemulation.com
I have an nes still, yse, but isnt it just that much better to turn on dreamcast and have entire nes game library on ONE disk, with all the perks associated with a pc emulator?
Cant beat that, and the first party games are also good, hold their own with most ps2 games graphically.
PS2's not in the same class. (Score:2, Flamebait)
The PS2 and Dreamcast are of the same generation.
Primal (Score:2)
You can do a lot.. (Score:2)
The PS2 just isn't easy to program, while the DC was very easy to program. You could do Primal level graphics on the DC with way less developer experience, which was why a lot of the later DC games still look pretty good when stacked up against the games of the past couple of years.
However, the GCN and Xbox are very eas
Re:You can do a lot.. (Score:2)
Yes, because it was a dump port; they didn't do anything Xboxy to it.
Want to see the difference? Play Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast (blows away DoA2 on the PS2) then go play DoA 3 on Xbox. Seeing the T&L on skin, the bump-mapping used on the costumes to create embroidery and what not...damn.
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed, but one has to wonder : Will that translate true with the PS3?
IMO, the PS2 outdid the Dreamcast with backward by shipping with backward compability and shipping with a DVD system. However, a shipping with a DVD system isn't going to help anymore since the market is saturated with them, and backward compability won't help since they've saturated the market with PS2 units (when PS3 hits, I wouldn't be surprised to find pre-owned PS2s going for $50.) So what does Sony have going for them with the PS3? Maybe some linkage between the PSP and PS3, and its huge third-party developer support.
But even thats weak. SquareEnix, unarguably Sony's biggest help with FFVII and FFX, isn't staying 100% dedicated with them to buddy up with Nintendo. Capcom and Konami are also beginning to cross-develop on other systems as well, not to mention Sony failing to buddy up with Sega after defeating their Dreamcast. The PSP also doesn't have much going for it other than technological overpowerment over Nintendo's Gameboy Advance, considered to be an unenterable market. Unless Sony reveals some serious, serious backage at this year's E3, I'm gonna have to say Sony is in trouble. Between Nintendo's tried-and-true franchises and Gameboy Advance, as well as Microsoft's power-leading Xbox and a treasury larger than some third-world countries, Sony is in a tight spot. Yesterday's success is today's overconfidence and tomorrow's defeat.
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:2)
Hardware is not the issue.... (Score:2, Insightful)
BC
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:1)
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:1)
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:2)
I don't. It's supply and demand. History is full of stories about technically inferior products dominating. It's the best where it counts. Game selection.
Re:Sony's price drop (Score:2, Funny)
PS2 Bundle (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe the rest of you have cash reserves the likes of which I can't imagine, but I don't have $300 to blow on sedentary entertainment. Do you know what I could get for $300 across the river in Windsor?
Re:PS2 Bundle (Score:2, Funny)
Re:PS2 Bundle (Score:1)
No, what? I thought the casino there was closed due to a strike. Is prostitution legal in Windsor?
Re:PS2 Bundle (Score:1)
What I find even funnier is that the tagline says that the effective price will be below the Xbox because of the two games. Of course, that conveniently neglects the memory card, when my Xbox came with a free hard disk, and the network adapter (inc
Heh... (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be interesting to see what the internal financial impact analysis of including games is, compared to public statements of loss due to piracy.
This might be bad news for the Xbox modders out there. If Microsoft takes the cue and no longer lowers the price, but instead includes more games, then they will increase the perceived value of their system while not making it any more attractive to people who want to take advantage of their loss leader.
Re:Heh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
Re:Heh... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
Were Zelda and MP still 'hot' games at the time or had everyone who wanted to play them more or less already bought them? Most game sales would appear to happen right at the release with sales quickly tapering down after a few weeks or so and if that's the case here, bundling 'old' games would have a low percieved value in the eye of the customers.
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
Sorta like the point I made about the eMac in the Apple story the other day. Sure it costs more, but the value of the software it includes/doesn't need (has photo, video, MP3, doesn't need AV,
It's not bad news yet. (Score:1)
The point of selling consoles: (Score:3, Interesting)
Charge extortionate license fees from the producers for every gamecopy produced or sold.
Why else can you get consoles for the same price as three games?
The point of lowering prices to bleed even more is to get consumers locked onto _their_ machine, so that they will buy _their_ games. It's the games that pay their bills, not the machines. A machine can hold for years (I'm pretty sure my NES still works), but new games keep coming _all the time_.
W
I got yer reason right here (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I got yer reason right here (Score:2)
PStwo ? (Score:1, Interesting)
If they made the PlayStation 2 small, sleek and sexy ala the PSone, you would have to wonder if the hard drive peripheral would fit as easily.....
Anyhow, my PS2 is starting to make real funky noises when I open the slide tray and I've had mine since 2001, so I woul
Thanks to Thompson? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
Thats too true. I bought one the second week they came out (for $300 USD), and the DVD drive crapped out. I wasn't too thrilled about the platform, but I've bought about 15 games and didn't want to sell them back for pennies on the dollar.
Long story short, I ended up buying yet another one at the $180 price.
By contrast, I got a GameCube for $100: the controller is better, the games are as good or better, and the hardware is alot more solid. (I'm a Cube fanboy, I suppose)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
One question though. Have you seen Resident Evil 4 in motion? Hot-Damn.
Viewtiful Joe (Score:2)
Re:Viewtiful Joe (Score:3, Informative)
The game is fairly hard on the adult difficulty (and there are 2 harder difficulties), but there's also a kids mode which is pretty easy.
Re:Viewtiful Joe (Score:2)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
Rob (Currently has a sore left index finger due to the springy shoulder buttons)
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:2)
Of course, I'm a fan of the original XBox controllers (not the dinky S style). I suppose me and this guy here [penny-arcade.com] were seperated at birth.
Re:Thanks to Thompson? (Score:1, Offtopic)
My take (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My take (Score:2)
That's the best reason to decide on a system. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard people say stupid shit like "but the XBOX is just a crappy PC!" and "I don't want the XBOX because my Microsoft mouse broke! I can't trust that company!"
Of course we can trust that company! (Score:2)
Re:My take (Score:1)
The XBox may be more powerful than the PS2, but who cares about the hardware if the game you want to play doesn't run on it?
One more console (Score:3, Funny)
Going Shopping (Score:1)
Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:2)
(note to moderators: read the whole thing before moderating "off-topic")
I remember reading (linked from SlashDot) a year or two ago that MS loses $100 on each X-Box sold, this was before the LAST price drop...
This reminds me of the moron my sister works for... he was pricing something they sell below their cost, so they lose money on each sale. When she pointed this out to him, he said "We'll make it up in volume!"... and he was dead serious!
Anyways, back on topic... since Linux runs on X-box [sourceforge.net], we should
Re:Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:2)
Re:Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:1)
The specs of the Xbox include (But not limited to the following): Intel Pentium 3 733, Nvidia Geforce 2 (Equvalent), 64 MB of Ram, 8 GB Hard drive, standard dvd drive, and motherboard with onboard NIC.
Notice how these specs seem to be a bit outdated by modern PC standards. Go to any PC store and get prices of this type of h
Re:Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:1)
Re:Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:2)
Dood, do some research... it won't take much.
It was all over the news with the end-of-year filings that MS lost over $1B on the XBox production.
I also read an interview with one of the engineers who developed the thing... in which he said that MS will NEVER make money on the 1st-generation X-box, and in fact won't make any on the hardware until the release of the 2nd-gen units.
All of these articles had slashdot stories, in case you don't like google (do you REALLY need me to hold your hand and walk you r
Re:Considering MS loses money on each one... (Score:2)
oh come on... (Score:2)
Re:oh come on... (Score:2)
$99 price is what I am waiting on (Score:1)
Curious... (Score:1)