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Comments: 113 +-   Retail Ads Hint At $50 360 Price Cut on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:13PM

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:13PM
from the next-gen-gamers-rejoice dept.
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Following closely on the heels of Sony's $100 cut in price for the PlayStation 3, retail ads seem to indicate an upcoming $50 price drop for the Xbox 360. Gamespot investigates the rumour: "It's clear that a number of retailers are expecting an Xbox 360 price cut next week, so much so that they're willing to buy print advertising for it. If that's the case, Microsoft almost certainly told them to expect a price cut, and when it would be fine to start promoting it. When Microsoft actually decides to announce it remains to be seen, although sources close to the software giant are grousing through back channels that the discounting's cover has already been blown." This comes right on time for the annual release of Madden, Bioshock, and Blue Dragon.
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  • I'd pay $50 more if it meant I didn't have to send my console back for repair every four months. The RRoD rate for 360s is ridiculous.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'd pay $50 more if it meant I didn't have to send my console back for repair every four months. The RRoD rate for 360s is ridiculous.

      They've had eyes on a subscription model for software for some time, perhaps this is their entry into doing it for hardware

        • Re:How about you fix the problems instead? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Kazzahdrane (882423) on Tuesday July 31 2007, @04:16PM (#20063175)
          I work in games retail. Xbox 360s have some hardware problems which result in the RRoD. This used to be a daily occurrence where I work (people returning faulty units) but now it's much less regular (still a few a week, less than 4 usually). Obviously, this is still a bit crap. However, the clip-on nature of the 360 harddrive means we can give customers a new console and have them playing again without losing any data in less time than it takes to serve a grandmother who wants to know about that "double-u aye aye thing". The thing about the RRoD is that while it's a (diminishing, IMO) problem, it's pretty much the only real thing MS haters can complain about with the Xbox 360. It's not a piece of garbage - it's a powerful console with a shit load of games, and a bunch of pretty spectacular-looking ones out between now and Xmas. The PS3 seems to be a very robust machine, I guess MS rushed a bit too much to be first out of the gate.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Kazzahdrane (882423)
              35% failure rate is total bull. Where that number originally came from I have no idea but I've seen it thrown around online over the last couple of months. If I had to guess, I'd say it's closer to 7 or 8% (still dreadful for a consumer electronics product). I suggest you do some research into the history of the console market, you clearly don't remember anything before the Xbox. Not on the same scale but the early PS2s were pretty rickety, my flatmate had 5 in the first 2 years of the console. Dodgy disc

              • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                by grumbel (592662)
                ### 35% failure rate is total bull.

                That number comes right from Microsoft. They never said that number directly, but they did say that they are going to spend one billion to handle the defects, given that 10 million XBox360 are released into the wild, just do the math and you will see that the failure rate is between 25%-70%, the lowest end is when a repair cost as much as a brand new XBox360, $400, the high end assume that it cost them $140 to repair one, the price they charged for out-of-warranty repairs.

                • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

                  by Anonymous Coward
                  I think the 10 billion is supposed to be the total cost of the warranty extension, so they're also counting the expected cost of replacements for 360s yet to be sold plus things like customer service and shipping. Anecdotal data about 30% failure rates could be attributable to things like bad batches or statistical fluctuations (i.e. if the real failure rate were 10% the chance of a store experiencing a 30% failure rate would be non-negligible).

                  I'm a Wii fanboy and I want to see the 360 and PS3 fail, but le
                • You must live in fantasy land where shipping a console both ways and paying someone by the hour to fix something, all of this at the cost of Microsoft, doesn't cost a thing.

              • I thought it was bull too until I turned my unit on last month and saw the three lights. Now I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was true.

              • Microsoft put away enough money to fix 100% of all sold 360s. I have no idea what the failure rate is, but Microsoft clearly expects it to be higher than 7% or 8%.
                • You slipped up, troll. You almost seemed like a MS hater who just felt strongly about it until you denied the PS2 failures. You know nothing about consoles. Although it's supposedly impossible to win arguments on the Internet, I just did. *smug mode*
  • Exactly when Duke nukem forever is released.

  • Was I the only one... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Brian Gordon (987471) on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:19PM (#20061655)
    Who thought "$50,360 price cut? I didn't think it was that expensive"?

      • Who do they think they are selling something that expensive?

        How much does it cost to become an authorized developer of commercial Xbox 360 games? The devkit alone probably doesn't cost 50 kUSD, but the required business overhead to qualify for an official console devkit (forming an S-corp or LLC, leasing office space, etc) is expensive even if you have already developed titles for Windows DirectX.

  • Two separate stores, so it looks legit, but the price drop is only on the Premium, not the Elite.

  • I can't believe... (Score:5, Funny)

    by suv4x4 (956391) on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:29PM (#20061805)
    So it'll drop from $400 to 350? I can't believe they aren't taking the opportunity to sell it for $360.

    "XBox 360 - for $360"

    niiiiiiceee....

  • RRoD is sporatic at worst (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pojut (1027544) on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:31PM (#20061823) Homepage
    I know I know I know, "The 360 self destructs! The numbers don't lie!"

    True, but I think people exaggerate them a bit...I myself own 4 different 360's, and know of no less than 30 people that own at least one...out of everyone I know that has had one, only two people have gotten the ring (one of which is me)

    My one RRoD came after I cracked the case open on one of them to clean out the dust...unbeknown to me at the time, I had accidently loosened two of the CPU heatsink screws a half-turn, and within 2 hours I had the rings...the other 3 that I own have never had an issue. THe only friend I know that has had an RRoD had one on a launch unit.

    I'm not saying it's not a real problem. I'm saying people have exaggerated it a bit. (yes, I am aware that my 30 friends hardly constitute the entirety of the market, but those friends know people and those people know people and so on)

    Basically, what I am getting at is don't balk at buying a 360 simply because of all the red ring talk...I own all three next gen systems and my 360 by FAR gets the most play time out of the three (not to mention IMO the 360 has the largest lineup of exciting games on the horizon)
    • I think it's related to how defective units bunch up. It might be the 360's are less resistant to jostling due to how it was designed and it's heating issues. So a little violence on the way to the store and you have a eventually defective unit. Since they bunch up it may be that some groups are exposed to it more then others. So while in my social group we're 5/5 for defective 360's you may only be 2/30.

      In either case the exact failrue rate is undisclosed but speculated to be high.

      • 2 failures in 30 opportunities is a tragically bad failure rate. Even one failure in 30 is tragically bad. 1 failure in 30 is no better than a failure rate of 1 in 10 to a 95% confidence (if actual defect rate is 1 in 10, odds of 1 failure in 30 chances is 95%). If the actual defect rate is one in 100, the odds of one failure in 30 chances is only 26%.

        So, even though you think 1 in 30 is "good", it's horrendously bad. What you want is a real defect rate of around 1 per 10,000 or so, which would only have

        • Not saying it isn't bad, I'm saying it's sporatic... I have seen people on here claim that every person they know with a 360 has had to return it at least once, and then there are others (such as myself) that barely know anyone with any issues. Hence the phrase "sporatic".

          Ironically, those that tend to have issues themselves tend to have friends that also have issues with the 360...as others have mentioned, this is likely due to "bad batches"
          • Not saying it isn't bad, I'm saying it's sporatic... I have seen people on here claim that every person they know with a 360 has had to return it at least once, and then there are others (such as myself) that barely know anyone with any issues. Hence the phrase "sporatic".

            Ironically, those that tend to have issues themselves tend to have friends that also have issues with the 360...as others have mentioned, this is likely due to "bad batches"

            The PS2 was said to have a bad fail rate but the only one I saw "f
      • 4 of them...two are modified, two are not. one modified and one "vanilla" console are at my place, and the other modified/vanilla mix are at the ladyfiend's place.

      • Back before the spring update that allowed the unit to download in a low power state, there were two separate instances where I'd queue up a big demo, turn off the TV and receiver, and leave; only to find when I got home, that my wife, while cleaning up, had closed the doors to the entertainment center, leaving the 360 running, on full tilt, in a fully enclosed space about, oh, maybe two to three times the size of the 360 itself, with naught but a three-inch-diameter cable hole in the back for ventilation.

      • Apparently, I'm pathetic enough to garner the attention of the slashtrolls.

        I take it I should just go /wrists then?

      • How fucking pathetic do you have to be to sit around on Slashdot typing out damage control for the worst console hardware ever designed that has already had enough cash, 1.1 billion, set aside from the manufacturer themselves to fix ever single 360 ever manufactured?


        About as pathetic as one has to be to sit around on slashdot replying to such comments.

        At least he's not AC.
      • What you described is the exact reason I sprung for the 50 dollar replacement plan on all of mine.

        I've only had to use it on one of my 360's, but in the event that one of them did die I figured it better to get a brand new in box system rather than ship it out...that is worth 50 extra dollars to me.

        I do agree with what you are saying though, insofar as the replacement refurb units are concerned.
      • ::sigh:: the shills are out in force today...when are you fuckers gonna start posting under an actual username? Just for kicks (and because I have one more hour at work and I'm bored out of my mind):

        * Weeks to months of sitting around waiting for your 360 to be returned from Microsoft for its latest RRoD repair!

        ::shrug:: only had one of mine die on me, and I had the replacement deal from gamestop

        * Forking out 50 dollars every year just to be allowed to play games online!

        In my mind, the service that Live

        • > I would love to respond to more of these

          Honestly, why even bother? These aren't people out to be convinced, and the screaming matches just dumbs down the forum even more.
          • I enjoy defending any gaming system because they all can be defended...like I said, they all have their positives and negatives. As a person whose life centers around gaming, it is disturbing to even consider someone would be a brand whore as a gamer (well, I mean it does in general, but ESPECIALLY with gaming, a culture that needs as much cohesion as possible)

            More than any other reason though, it's because I'm bored at work and it amuses me:-)
          • How do you figure? Because I was rebutting a system that I love?
            Had you used the Wii or the PS3 in the same shill-like fasion, I would have defended both of those equally as well.

            I'm a gamer. I enjoy any system that lets me play games. Being "brand loyal" as a gamer is completely stupid and pointless...You miss out on all kinds of games if you limit yourself to one brand.

            It's especially depressing when you see people get payed to drill one console while applauding another. If consoles could shit, it wou
            • and by "rebutting a system I love" i meant "rebutting what you said about a system I love"

              Must be all that toner dust floating around in my office...
            • I'm not a 360 owner, but doesn't it seem like theres a flaw in saying that its okay your 360 broke, because you had a replacement plan? A defect is still a defect, I think.
              • In this instance, it broke due to my own stupidity (not tightening the heatsink back down again) Still, defects are to be expected...happens with everything. I'm not saying that they should be happening on a mass scale, but in my own personal experience with the 360, I haven't had any issues and as such I don't care. Good example is sushi. I love sushi. I have also never gotten sick from eating sushi. I would imagine people that get sick from it the first time just plain don't like it. At this point,
  • Price drop, that's nice, but it's not why I'm waiting. What I want to know is, how do I know for sure whether the units shipping (and the one in the store I'm getting) has the new 65nm chip? Less power consumption means less heat and less Red Rings. I know whatever I get will be warranteed anyway, but I don't feel like sending mine back.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by hudsonhawk (148194)
      You can be 100% positive about whether or not they will have it, seeing as they haven't made a single 360 with that process yet.

      For when they do, you can view the manufacturing date of the console by flipping up the little cardboard flap on the side of the box.
    • Wouldn't the "works" technically be the elite instead of the premium?

      Not that I mean to criticize the purchase, the wording just struck me as odd. I know there's not much difference between the two models so I guess technically they are close...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Applekid (993327)
      $50 represents a 2nd game for you. Return that console and pick up a reduced one in a week: they don't announce price drops until very close to when it happens. Unless your time in waiting in line to return it is worth more than $50, of course.

    • Re:ps3 did not have a $100 price drop (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ivan256 (17499) on Tuesday July 31 2007, @02:45PM (#20061997)
      Nobody with more than half a brain thinks the price of the PS3 is going to go back up to $599. Pretty much everybody accepts that they will start selling it for $499 but without the freebies after the 60GB models are sold out. (Which is almost everywhere now, though I personally have yet to see an 80GB model for sale in the US)

      • Nobody with more than half a brain thinks the price of the PS3 is going to go back up to $599. Pretty much everybody accepts that they will start selling it for $499 but without the freebies after the 60GB models are sold out. (Which is almost everywhere now, though I personally have yet to see an 80GB model for sale in the US)

        Nobody with half a brain? This IS Sony we're talking about...

        PS: The 80 gig version was announced for an August release.

        • /me hands you some reading glasses...

          It says "more than half a brain". People with only half a brain are expected to think whatever nonsense they'd like.

          • /me hands you some reading glasses... It says "more than half a brain".

            Thanks for the glasses. I'm getting old I guess....

            People with only half a brain are expected to think whatever nonsense they'd like.

            Stuff like "We will be the market leader by selling a $600 console?" for example?

      • I completely dissagree, as do most people around here. It's completely unecconomical for them to sell the 80GB version at $500. I saw this comming even before they announced the drop. It's basically a repeat of what happened at launch: as a publicity stunt, drop the price of one unit, but then sell 20x more of the expensive model. That way, you can CLAIM that the price is $500, but in actuality, 95% of the population is forced into paying $600.

        Honestly, I don't think anyone with half a brain thinks that the
      • I honestly don't expect it to be $499, but then again it's hard to predict console prices these days.

        I'm not sure it matters either. Anywhere between $499-$599 dollars is still too much. So long as the bar for entry remains that high the PS3 will remain where it is. Even when the exclusive titles hit, it's going to be hard to keep momentum rolling at that price point.

        As it stands, the PS3 is gaining slightly on the 360 (according to vgcharts.org). From approximately April to present, the PS3 sold 1.261m con
          • I believe you're confused with nexgenwars.com, which extrapolates based on previous trends and tends to have varying levels of accuracy in its numbers. Otherwise I'm not sure where you're coming from.

            Additionally, if you could link sources/articles relating to you statement that the 360 is dead in two regions it would be appreciated. I'm aware that it is doing very poorly in Japan, but haven't seen sales numbers for elsewhere that indicate a pronouncement of "dead".

            As for the "waggle", we will have to see.

    • Though I think a $250 core would have really given quite a lot more parents pause when buying a Nintendo wii for little Jimmy.

      Not especially. Look at the ESRB ratings on the boxes in the Wii section and in the Xbox 360 section. How many Xbox 360 games are rated E [target.com], other than sport sims and Piñata Crossing [wikipedia.org]? On the other hand, isn't the $280 Xbox 360 Core going to be in stock much more often than the $250 Wii?

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