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The Almighty Buck XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

Xbox Price Cuts Confirmed 196

Posted by Soulskill from the nice-timing dept.
Kotaku notes that the suspected price cuts to the various Xbox 360 systems have been confirmed. Xbox Live's Major Nelson posted the new prices ($199 for the Arcade, $299 for the Pro, and $399 for the Elite) and pointed out a BusinessWeek story discussing the changes. The price cuts will take effect on September 5th.
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Xbox Price Cuts Confirmed More

Xbox Price Cuts Confirmed

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  • Place your bets... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:21PM (#24866741) Homepage Journal

    ...the Wii will still sell better.

    Even at $199, the majority of consumers feel like they're getting half a system when they get the 360 without a hard drive. As a result, they're going to be looking at the higher $299 price tag. The Wii doesn't have that problem (at least not yet) because the system has the exact same fixed storage on all systems. What you get is what you get. You do not miss out on anything because you purchased the cheaper model.

    (Anyone reminded of Henry Ford's, "You can have any color you want as long as it's black"? ;-))

    • Re:Place your bets... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cathoderoytube ( 1088737 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:25PM (#24866811)
      I'm not so sure this is a shot at Nintento so much as it is a shot at Sony. Just a guess though.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) *

        In the case of Sony, I don't think that price is Microsoft's problem. Sony is finally starting to see some of the titles that they've been developing (or waiting on developing) come to fruition. Since a few of those are still PS3 exclusive (e.g. MGS4), consumers are looking at the two consoles and deciding based on whether they want Little Big Planet, MGS4, and Resistance 2 or Viva Pinata, Halo 3, and Gears of War 2.

        Sony's hype train is pushing the PS3 as the perfect HD entertainment center for your home. I

        • Quite frankly, it must be horrendously embarrassing for Sony to be unable to compete against their own last-gen console

          I don't know how embarrassing this is considering history. The original playstation was sold for a long time after the PS2 was released, and in a way it's still selling as the PSP. Having its last generation console going strong while its next generation console is still competing strongly against the XBox is a position I'm sure the sony executives are glad to be in. At the $120 price point that the PS2 sits at right now, it's not cannibalizing a significant number of PS3 sales, and it keeps developers and

        • Re:Place your bets... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb&gmail,com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @09:18PM (#24868007) Homepage
          I get that /. is home to those who might be considered (or even consider themselves) "hardcore," but I'm still perplexed by the characterization of the Xbox 360 Arcade as "stripped down." That version includes everything needed to start playing 360 games including a memory card (256MB), and they've even been packing in a wireless controller; the original no-hard-drive unit had no memory card and a wired controller. And this price cut isn't insignificant - the drop from $280 to $200 is 28.6%, which is huge and makes the 360 - even if one goes out and buys new video cables for high-definition - cheaper than the Wii. So, Microsoft is including more stuff than they used to and charging significantly less money. That seems more like "a good deal" than "stripped down."

          Disclaimer: I love the Wii, respect the value of the PS3 for those who want Blu-ray and sold my 360 last year. :)

          • Don't you need the hard drive to run Xbox games? (Don't get me wrong, I know many of the PS3s are not backward compatible anymore either.)

            • Yes, the hard drive is required to play Xbox games. This, of course, is because Xbox games were often designed to use the hard drive for caching. Some games wouldn't even allow the use of memory cards to save games (Knights of the Old Republic, for example, saved a snapshot of memory instead of designing a proper save structure).

              • Also, I believe the hard drive is required because it contains game profiles used by the emulator.

        • Re:Place your bets... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by gfxguy ( 98788 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @11:46PM (#24869263)

          Sony's hype train is pushing the PS3 as the perfect HD entertainment center for your home. It not only plays highly-anticipated games in 1080p, but it also can play Bluray movies. Those features manage to convince a lot of customers that the PS3 is the quality console, and not the XBox 360.

          I think this is more important than you are giving it credit for...

          Most of us still have not moved on into HD. For those of us looking into it (like me), we know it's more than simply buying an HD TV; without a useful HD source (over the air is nice, but I doubt it's compelling enough to invest in the television). In other words, what's the point unless you get a blu-ray player?

          Sure, you can upscan your old DVDs, which we'll do a lot of, I'm sure, but when I'm adding up the total to buy a complete HD system, I'm including the blu-ray player as well as the TV and a I know I'll need a new entertainment center to fit it all.

          The reason I'm going on about it is because every review of blu-ray players seems to come to the same conclusion: the PS3 is a better blu-ray player than the standalone units, and it's cheaper, and on top of that... it's a PS3, so you get a gaming system, too!

          I wasn't even considering it; I'd have gone right ahead and sunk $300 or $400 on a standalone player when I can get an 80GB PS3 for that amount (plus $20 for a remote) and people are saying it's actually a better player than the standalone units (starts up faster, for one thing).

          So it's not just gaming; people who might not otherwise have gotten one (me) might end up getting it just for bluray; and since I do play games, I'll use it for gaming, too.

          Win-win.

    • Microsoft's Xbox Fiasco (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @08:00PM (#24867261)

      Slashing the price of the 360 to below Wii levels isn't going to do anything.

      The first Xbox sold around 24-25 million between November 2001 and June 2005 when it went out of production.

      The Xbox 360 has sold just over 19.5 million worldwide(sorry vgchartz fake sales numbers) with about 9 months left before it reaches the same point in the Xbox's life where Microsoft pulled the plug on the console.

      The Xbox and Xbox 360 are selling at a virtually identical rate.

      Microsoft only shipped 2.3 million new Xbox 360's worldwide for the first half of 2008.

      The Xbox 360 is selling at a virtually identical sales rate in the three major console regions, Japan, US, and Euopre.

      Dead in Japan.
      Dead in almost all of Europe outside the UK
      Almost all the remaining sales coming from the US.

      The Xbox 360 is selling to the exact same people who bought the first Xbox. Cutting prices isn't going to do anything. The demand simply isn't there. Just like the first Xbox there already is talk of the next Halo on the next Xbox being the savior of the platform.

      Microsoft is letting PC gaming die from neglect while they waste their time getting nowhere in the console market. The 7 billion dollars Microsoft wasted in the console market could have been better used to revitalize they dying PC game market and keep PC developers from jumping to the console market.

      • Why is parent modded troll? It's really informative to say the least.

        Remember kids, troll isn't "I hate you", it's "You're cruising for a bruising!".

      • Re:Microsoft's Xbox Fiasco (Score:5, Insightful)

        by philspear ( 1142299 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @09:22PM (#24868031)

        That's some shoddy logic there. Extreme oversimplification. The 360 has lost a lot of money due to the technical problems. The logical conclusion there is to fix those problems and not make the same mistakes, yet you seem willing to declare a microsoft console as fundamentally a bad idea that can never work. Tell me it's not just because you're upset about the state of PC gaming.

        PC gaming is dying out because people like to play games rather than wasting time on computer maintenece. I know what your opinion of us must be, but I get no joy out of installing new software or hardware so I can play the latest game. I could definitely learn how to do that, but I much prefer plugging my console into the TV, putting the disc in, and playing immediately. I play games to relax, not to do work. MS spending money on the PC market would be a waste.

        I also have to point out that the PS3 is not doing great either. You'd have me believe that the next console is going to be just nintendo out there alone?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ivan256 ( 17499 )

          PC gaming is dying out because people like to play games rather than wasting time figuring out why the DRM won't let their game run.

          Fixed that for you.

    • Of course it will. It's been selling like hotcakes since it was introduced. The trouble is, third party support is pathetic, and Nintendo seems to be content with selling gadgets for the system and not games... (Not pre-announcing the enhancement to the Wiimote to 3rd parties? LucasArts is pissed...)

      I like my Wii and am not here to bash it (in case anyone was ready to throttle me over that), and I've a few things from virtual arcade that bring back memories (some more fond than others...heh), but I'm
    • I'm actually thinking about getting the 360 Arcade just to replace my current, constantly acting up console and just hooking my current hard drive up to it. I *could* spend the money to get it repaired, but that'd be a lot like buying a refurb to replace it. I'd rather just have a new one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by afidel ( 530433 )
      I also can't believe they charge $100 for such a teeny drive, I've been able to buy quality (Seagate) 500GB SATA drives for well under $100 for over a year now. In fact last week I saw them for $69 without any rebates.

  • Alright (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dunezone ( 899268 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:22PM (#24866761) Journal

    "Here's to hoping that helps Microsoft's recent hardware sales woes." - Kotaku

    Hardware sales woes? Its the summer season, a time that has historically shown a decline in sales due to the fact not many publishers release at this time. September through December are the hot months for releasing a game and a perfect time to lower a console price to make the system more appealing.

    • So you drop price when demand is higher? That is something I have a hard time believing.

      • So you drop price when demand is higher?

        Yes, you make the console a loss-leader. You make it back on the consumer buying software titles, xbox live service, downloadable content, and peripheral sales.

        • Riiiiiiight.

          That's why we see Nintendo rushing in to drop the price on Wii.

          You also believe that even though you lose money on each unit, but you can make it up on volume, right?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jaxtherat ( 1165473 )

        And that's why there's people smarter than you running businesses.

  • I'd feel better if there was a hardware revision along with the price cut... are people still experiencing the red ring of death? I have held off on next gen consoles to this point due to low availability and high price points. I have held off on the 360 specifically due to hardware quality issues.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Eponymous Crowbar ( 974055 )
      I think the RROD started being much less common with the HDMI-equipped models, but then again I have a first-gen that has been fine since day one. They have been updated a few times since they were introduced, and each generation has been more reliable.

      • Yet it still doesn't erase the legendary 33% failure rate ths 360 still has going.

        I hear from an anonymous coward claiming to be a walmart higher-up that this is the biggest failure of a product without being recalled...

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by maglor_83 ( 856254 )

          I hear from an anonymous coward claiming to be a walmart higher-up

          I'm not sure who I trust less - an anonymous coward or a Walmart higher-up.

    • Re:Red Ring of Death Now Cheaper! (Score:4, Informative)

      by kcbnac ( 854015 ) <kcbnac@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:39PM (#24866999)

      Microsoft already switched to 65nm parts from the original 90nm parts quite awhile back.

      http://www.google.com/search?q=Xbox+360+goes+65nm [google.com]

      From what I remember, after that people were liking how cool the systems ran. There also were some obvious ways to check your system, to identify which it was. (I think this was aimed at those getting potential refurbs from the RRoD)

    • The problem seems to be with cheap hardware, something you'd be hard pressed to avoid while trying to build what's basically a computer for under $300. I'd be skeptical of any claims that these issues are totally resolved without a price hike of $200+. However, Microsoft is offering extended 3 year warranties for hardware failures. I've owned an xbox for about two years and a Wii since launch day. I've had no problems with my xbox, but have returned my Wii to Nintendo for repair three times due to hardware

    • Don't believe everything you read on Slashdot. I have a launch-day 360 that I've played at least 10 hours a week for the last few years, and it's never given me a second of trouble. Obviously, there have been hardware problems, but it's not even close to as bad as people make it sound.

      • ... because your anecdotes are so much more scientific than other peoples?

        I don't own a 360, but everyone I know who has one is on their second or third 360. Talked to the guy at the local game shop, he's on his 5th.

        I hear the real number is about 1 in 3 consoles will red ring of death during the first year.

  • Finally, I am going to buy it.. and am sure so do many of you!
    But red ring of death might still be a concern.

    • Don't waste your money on the $199 version. You'll find out very quickly that you need a hd to get any real use out of the system.

      If you really don't need the hd on the xbox, you'd have more fun with the Wii anyway.

  • Noooooo!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:38PM (#24866973)
    ...did I mention I work in XBox Support?

  • $199 model (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Enderandrew ( 866215 ) <enderandrew@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @07:52PM (#24867161) Homepage Journal

    I'd never buy one without a HDD, but that is just me. Even with the new avatars and dash, the XBox is aimed at a different audience than the Wii. I don't think they honestly compete directly. The real competition here is Sony. Microsoft still has a larger install base, though Sony was catching up.

    Now if Sony wants to honestly compete in this generation, they need to drop their core model to $300 before Black Friday. Microsoft is losing tons of money on the hardware because of RROD problems (which continue to persist, even on new Elite models) but Sony is also losing quite a bit.

    The difference is that Microsoft has other business models to produce plenty of profit. Sony's other divisions are doing decent, but they aren't producing Microsoft-type revenues.

    They're both shooting themselves in the foot to see who will lose the most money before the other one pulls out of the race. Why?

    Because next generation, if only one competes, they don't have to lose so much money. Nintendo is competing for another segment, and either Microsoft or Sony could in theory run away solo with the high-end, hardcore console market.

    Then again, neither see the true solution. Sony has BluRay, and Microsoft doesn't want to pay to license it. Microsoft has DirectX, which Sony doesn't want to utilize, even though it makes development easier for PC/Console games. Microsoft also bought the rumble patent that Sony didn't want to pay for. Neither have incredible first-party titles, and both end up shelling out money to bribe third-party developers for console exclusives, killing potential profits.

    The solution really is one console. Developers would love to have a larger install base to develop for, and not worrying about porting to two platforms.

    Imagine a console that could be developed for easily (DirectX), that had BluRay, and featured both Halo and Metal Gear Solid? Both Sony and Mirosoft could turn a profit on the venture. They both put their best technology in the box, with their combined patent portfolios and also combine console exclusives. Together they'd reclaim some of the market share they lost to Nintendo, even though most of Nintendo's market really is a different audience.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by WDot ( 1286728 )
      While I'd agree that more similar hardware would be good, do we really want "one console?" What if that one console forces an Xbox live-style subscription service? Then I don't have a choice. What about competition? They can charge whatever for their combined box because there's no alternative for that demographic. PC gaming? Too difficult (not true, but that's the general thought). The Wii2? Nintendo's focus isn't on the 360 and PS3 crowd anymore. If this happens, Sony/Microsoft can push whatever

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Enderandrew ( 866215 )

        I didn't say best for the consumer, I'm saying best for Sony, Microsoft and game developers. Frankly either one loses and leaves the market, or they consolidate. However, they're losing so much money I don't see both in the market indefinitely.

        As far as DRM goes, every console maker uses DRM. The PS3 is the most open console in history, and Sony's online service is free. All three companies (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) have done some shitty things in their day, so I won't claim any is good and/or evil

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tbannist ( 230135 )

      I don't think either Sony or Microsoft would want that. On Microsoft's part, they simply want to drive Sony out of the console market like Sega was driven out. Why? Because they see winning the console market once for all as the first step in establishing a monopoly on all home networking.

      If you're running Windows on your home computer and Windows on your TV, what are you going to use in the rest of your house? No, this isn't a conspiracy, just the marketing seminar I had to sit through that was essenti

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SoopahMan ( 706062 )

      One console would harm competition though. For example, Sony briefly was deluded into thinking that Blu-Ray and the PS3 were going to conquer all. As part of the Blu-Ray standard at the time, there were serious, serious limitations on existing HDTVs when playing Blu-Ray content - basically you got near-SD picture because you had an unapproved device. It sucked, and HD-DVD could thump it for that. Just before the PS3 was released, Sony dropped that limitation.

      Without that competition that wouldn't have happe

  • I'm lazy but still kind of care about what this article is talking about. Anyone care to let me in on what the various levels of xbox denote?

    • Re:Lazy (Score:5, Funny)

      by Samantha Wright ( 1324923 ) on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @08:23PM (#24867465) Homepage Journal
      Think of it in terms of how much porn they can store.

      Arcade: public place; most people don't keep their porn stashes in public. No HDD.
      Pro: somewhat private; maybe you've spent one or two afternoons entertaining yourself on company time. Small HDD.
      Elite: parent's basement; pretend this is spelled "1337" and everything falls into place.

  • Upgrading basic version? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by c_forq ( 924234 ) <forquerc+slash@gmail.com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @08:48PM (#24867737)
    Now I'm tempted. Is there a way to upgrade the basic version (paying less than $100) to put a harddrive in? And the basic play GTA4 without a HD?

    • Re:Upgrading basic version? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb&gmail,com> on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @08:54PM (#24867799) Homepage
      To answer your first question, I found a refurbished 20GB hard drive on Gamestop.com for $60. To answer your second question, no, GTA4 does not require a hard drive (the box says it requires 1 MB of space to save). AFAIK, the only boxed 360 game that requires a hard drive is Final Fantasy XI.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by burgundysizzle ( 1192593 )
        The extension to Oblivion (assuming you had the original version and not the game of year edition) needs to be installed on the hard drive to use it as well.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Babbster ( 107076 )
          Fair enough, and that probably goes for a lot of post-release content. Still, the games are playable without the hard drive, requiring only a place to save one's game(s). It's worth noting, too, that many of the Xbox Live games are also compatible with memory cards and don't require the hard drive.

          When the 360 first came out with its two versions, I was like many who considered the non-HD version to be "lame." Since then, considering the price reduction and the improvement of the package (wireless contr

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by ragethehotey ( 1304253 )
        Burnout Paradise City also requires it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by pavon ( 30274 )

      I was wondering the same thing so I did some looking around. It is easy to find used drives (especially 20GB) - look on ebay, amazon, your local game shop, etc.

      If you want a larger drive, you can hack one in. I don't think anyone has had luck getting any SATA drive to work, but you can buy the exact same model that MS uses and flash the firmware [xbox-scene.com] to make it compatible. Then you can either swap out the case [xbox-scene.com] with another 360 hdd, or solder up a cable [rbjtech.net] to use the drive internally.

  • Paying $179 for the 120GB drive seems funny if the Xbox itself is only $199.

    Btw Wii was a $99-$149 product from the start. Time to lower the cost Nintendo.

  • Microsoft Japan is already actually paying people to take the machines [today.com], with little success. "We hope more people will be able to enjoy Xbox 360," said marketing marketer Takashi Sensui, "and we can stop enjoying quite so many of them. We also have this fine pile of HD-DVD drives ... Wait! Come back!"

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