Evidence for Console Price Cuts

Next Generation offers up an exhaustive analysis of previous console generation price cuts, and concludes that we are definitely due for some cheaper next-gen action sometime in the near future. The piece includes charts of lowering system prices, as well as a breakdown of how many consoles sold at various price tiers. "Certainly we can use history as a guide, but there are limits to its use for prognostication. The price drops this generation may happen in ways entirely different from what has been suggested above. Maybe the $300 console this generation will be what the $200 console was last generation. Maybe Microsoft will forge ahead with its current price structure until after Halo 3 has come and gone. Maybe Sony will bless the PlayStation 3 with a 33% price drop sometime this year. And maybe Nintendo will give the Wii a small price drop by removing Wii Sports from the package. Those could happen, but don't bet on it."

in all honesty

[Pojut]

Only the PS3 feels overpriced to me. The 400 dollar price point of a 360 premium or 250 for the Wii seem very reasonable and fair to me...I had no buyers remorse spending that much on either system.

I simply cannot justify, however, spending 600 on a PS3. I don't care if it is a Blu-Ray player, I still cannot justify it.

If the PS3 were 400, I would likely buy one. If there were more than two games I was highly anticipating (God of War 3 and Lair) I would be willing to pay 450.

But 600? No fucking way.

Wii Sports

[Erioll]

Considering one of the main "pick up and play" games for the Wii is Wii Sports itself, I see it as highly unlikely that they'll de-bundle that anytime soon. Eventually it'll happen, but not soon IMO.

Sun will shine tomorrow.

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Of course we will see price cuts, everyone but Nintendo are in urgent need of a larger sales base because the Wii is raping them six ways from Sunday. These predictions are ridiclous and on a long enough time line cannot fail to be correct.

Why was an article even wrote and why is it on Slashdot?

Re:in all honesty

[Pojut]

Number 1. you cannot buy the 20 gigger in many places anymore since sony stopped production, and number 2. 500 is STILL overpriced for a system that quite honestly doesn't really have anything out yet that I can't find on other systems....at least nothing worth spending 500 bucks on a system for

Re:Wii Sports

[eln]

The game IS a tech demo, and that's why it's so vitally important that it remain bundled with the console. This console has a totally new control mechanism, it needs a simple bundled game to serve as a tutorial for that mechanism. Removing that game in order to cut the price of the one console that has no one complaining about the price would be ludicrous.

Re:Non-sensical

[Erioll]

Why would they de-bundle a piece of software that costs them nothing to re-produce (bundle) in the first place? Customers are eating it up at the current price point as is.

I guess that's true. It's not like the old days of cartridges where each one was a non-trivial amount of money (the electronics itself inside the cartridge). With dvds (which is what Wii games are printed on) it's literally pennies per game. I wouldn't be surprised if it cost more to print the manual and sleeve than to manufacture & press the DVD itself.

Re:The PS3 as BluRay player

[JMZero]

I don't really understand this perspective, though I hear it a lot. I understand not everyone has an HDTV, but it's not like they're exclusive toys for the insanely rich. For years I've been using a $900 720p projector. In my last house I had it in a theatre style room (in the basement) together with probably $500 worth of stereo equipment.

Does the fact that I had $1400 worth of theater equipment mean that $600 is chump change?

Where oh where are the Wii's?

[Pontiac]

Ya know I'd be happy if i could find a Wii to buy at the current price.
I saw one at Wal-mart 2 months ago.. I haven't seen one since.

Blue Ocean Says No

[Anonymous Coward]

Under Blue Ocean thinking, Nintendo is actually unlikely to cut the price of the Wii, especially as a response to a PS3 or 360 price cut. The "blue" is supposed to mean that they're in a non-competitive market.

Of course, such markets don't really exist, but the Wii IS differentiated. They walked the price cut path with the Gamecube, staying $50 - $100 cheaper than the PS2 and Xbox, and the market share slide that snowballed during the N64 days continued. Pricecuts don't always follow the Econ 101 S-D curves -- being the least expensive can make you seem the least worthy. "Cheap" is not a compliment, even when consumers are always asking for lower prices.

Whether you really believe the "blue" business or not, I think Nintendo believes it. The PS3 is going to drop first, and it's not even a lock that MS will respond, much less Nintendo. It's hard to imagine a $499 PS3 concerning anyone. MS ($100 less + Halo 3) and Nintendo (Let's play!) will just stay the course and see how the Christmas war goes with the big software releases.

Sometime in late Spring 2008, all 3 will pricedrop and MS will discontinue the Core. So if you wait until May 2008, you'll probably be able to choose from a $399 PS3, a $299 360 (Elite version), and a $199 Wii.

There's another scenario for the North American market in 2008. It's possible that Nintendo doesn't price drop. They may bundle Wii Health along with Wii Sports in the boxes. A disruptive "healthly lifestyle" non-game from the Big N may be humongous. Can you imagine that ad campaign targeted as casuals, including Moms with concerns about the dark side of gaming?

Re:in all honesty

[LKM]

As someone who owns both a PSP and a PS3, I can't see any practical use for the media streaming feature. I tried it once. In the local network, it's rather impressive, you barely see the compression artefacts. However, there is simply no reason why I would want to stream a movie to my PSP if I'm at home. Why not watch the movie on the beamer? That leaves the streaming using the Internet. I haven't tried that, but I guess it requires that the PS3 is in PSP connection mode, which means I have to leave it on just in case I wanted to stream a movie. Why not just copy the movie on the PSP instead of leaving the PS3 running all the time?

I honestly can't see when I would possibly want to use this feature.

No need for a 360 price cut

[grapeape]

I have both a Wii and a 360 and really dont understand why people are oblivious to the consoles being different enough to sell to two different markets. The Wii is doing great right now and will continue to do so, many people I know that have picked up a Wii would not have owned a console otherwise. My parents have a Wii and havent owned a game console since the Atari 2600 when I was a kid. One of the attorneys I work with gave them out as christmas presents. Its "the" hot gadget right now, the 360 could be $100 cheaper than the Wii and right now the Wii would outsell it for the novelty factor alone. The Wii is fun to play but is primarily a social gaming device. Hardcore gamers (the same ones who picked up the xbox and ps2 early in the last generation) are still going to be more attracted to the 360 and PS3. Currently the 360 is outselling its direct competition the PS3 so why bother with a price cut? Cutting the price now might bump sales a bit but really wont make a dent in Wii sales. The sales bump will come from those same xobx 360 and ps2 owners, the late adopters from last generation that tend to value a year or two of entertainment at about $100. They will buy it whenever the price reaches their breaking point whether thats now or next year so why rush it, cutting prices certainly wont increase profits since those that wait tend to also buy the budget titles as well.

Re:The PS3 as BluRay player

[buffer-overflowed]

I also have something in the neighborhood of $1600 in home theatre equipment(which was a budget purchase, 720p projector instead of 1080p60 saved something like $3200, DVD instead of an HD format saved $900, and 5.1 instead of 7.1+ saved $300), because I like film, and I like games. I also have an HTPC and some serious storage. Zero interest in a PS3 or next-gen media formats, because DVDs look perfectly fine(and are a fraction of the cost with an INFINITELY better selection) and wonderfully cinematic on my existing setup and there just aren't any games for the PS3. It doesn't provide anywhere near $600 worth of value to me, so I won't purchase it. When you total up the costs for the quality increase, it's just not worth it. I could afford it, sure, but I'd rather let that money work while others adopt it early and possibly get it later when that value proposition changes. I get the feeling the Ultra-HD will come out before then, with something approaching the actual information of 35mm film(which is WELL beyond 1080p).

I also have a *TON* of media that will never see release in EDTV, much less any HD format, and there's still stuff just now coming out on DVD that I've waited for for years. For instance I transfered a ton of MST3K eps onto an HTPC from VHS. A lot of these will never see release on DVD because of rights issues, so all we have are tapes. There's also older television shows that I enjoy that will never, ever, release on DVD at 480p, much less an HD format. And Shaw Bros films, because, well, you gotta kinda dig those, and even the DVDs of them are just straight VHS burns. Animated stuff that simply wasn't animated for anything beyond broadcast quality. There's also a huge back-catalog of film that simply isn't popular enough, or the source prints are too degraded, to remaster into DVD or higher resolutions. An example of that is the ORIGINAL Star Wars trilogy(which isn't even anamorphic), where all we have are the laser disc masters supposedly. So if I bought into the wrong-headed idea that anything not HD is inherently inferior, Greedo shoots first. You don't see AV enthusiasts really panning SDTV and EDTV stuff if they enjoy media unless the option for higher quality is there. There's just too much stuff out there that isn't available at a higher quality level, and if it makes your "eyes bleed" you're *really* missing out, and I really hope you don't have any home movies from the late 80s/early 90s because those might *kill* you. My projector throws an image big enough to fit several top-end non-projector televisions in it, and I've managed to survive thus far(9 feet).

And when we get into games, well, I have a slew of older titles I enjoy, and plan on continuing to enjoy. I hold that games are art akin to traditional non-transient media, and thus do not lose any value once the next thing comes out. I don't buy into the everything made before this sucks idea, that's a blockbuster-film style marketing ploy, and Sony has mastered it, but it's not true. I have no problem with the Wii for example producing "last-gen" graphics as long as the games are enjoyable, and I have no problem continuing to buy PS2 titles from it's massive library. Gameplay > Graphics, and fun factor trumps all. For instance, chess, tetris, visuals do not help there, and can actually detract from the experience(see Battle Chess).

What's happened is a bunch of people have found themselves stuck with a $600 poor purchase and are desperate to justify it. If they get others to buy into this HD is superior, all that has come before sucks idea, then maybe they can persuade just enough people to purchase it for it not to turn out like an overpriced Gamecube -quality first party titles. It has nothing to do with love of media, or value, or anything else, and everything to do with conspicious consumption and buyer's remorse. Plus, there's actually an organized cadre of presumably young fanboys who have formed a crack team of forum posters to defend the console by any means necessary. Look at the phrasing in a lot of "it's a great deal" posts, and the posting history of the posters. It's sad.