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GameCube (Games) PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

US Console Price Drops Widely Rumored 98

Posted by simoniker from the how-long-before-they-pay-us? dept.
After being rumored on newsgroups and messageboards for a while, larger news sources like IGN.com are reporting the likely imminent price drop for all 3 major consoles in the US. This would make the Playstation 2 $149, the Xbox $149, and the Gamecube just $99. If true, will this spur you into buying one or all of these consoles?
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US Console Price Drops Widely Rumored More

US Console Price Drops Widely Rumored

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  • I will have to buy an Xbox, and a PS2, if these price drops prove to be true. MS and Sony are probably losing huge amounts of money on the equipment, but they can afford to, as MS is the biggest software company and Sony is one of the biggest electronics companies in the world. Woohoo for HALO!

    • Re:Hmm! (Score:3, Informative)

      by edwdig ( 47888 )
      The PS2 has been making money for quite a while. Remember, its less powerful than the other systems and has been in production a lot longer, so the costs are low on it. The only thing that's been stopping Sony from cutting the price is the fact that people have been perfectly willing to buy the system without a cut.

      As to the Xbox, yes, everything indicates they've always been losing money on it.

      The last I heard on the GameCube was Nintendo was getting them made for about $105 +/- $5-10. So Nintendo may or

      • This ignores.. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Inoshiro ( 71693 )
        the console tie-in rate, which is the average number of games purchase for a console. Since Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all get a percentage of every GCN, Xbox, and PS2 title sold, they want the tie-in rate to be high.

        The tie rate for each system so far this year is 9.8:1 for GameCube and 8.5:1 for Xbox. The overall tie ratios since launch are 12.1 for GameCube and 10.0 for Xbox. This means that GameCube owners are buying more games for their system. Since most of the "good" GCN titles are made by Nint
        • The problem with the tie-in number, at least as applies to Gamecube, is that it includes the games given away with their systems. Removing those games would give them a number more comparable to the Xbox. Of course, the fact that you can get another game with a GC for the same price as an Xbox doesn't hurt either. :)
          • As I said, overall tie ratios since launch are still higher. MS has given away 2 games with every bundle of their Xbox system (JSRF/Sega GT 2002, Andrenaline pack, etc); Nintendo has only given away one, and that only started in April (MS has had bundles since October 2002 in NA, as well as many other bundles in other regions).

  • i could finally get a gamecube... (Score:3, Funny)

    by zors ( 665805 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @05:39AM (#5851276)
    then play windwaker for an hour, metroid prime for an hour, then never use it again, like my PS2 and Dreamcast. i'm more for computer gaming myself.
  • about $162 (including tax 8%) for an XBox

    so if i were to get 10 733Mhz (IIRC) machines running linux and beowulfed (drool) for my little compile farm (i run gentoo, and am impatient)

    $1600 for a freaking fast little cluster.

    i can't wait to compile XFree86 in 2 minutes.

  • console vs. PC, torn between 2 worlds (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tankdilla ( 652987 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @06:00AM (#5851301) Homepage Journal
    Console games were cool in high school and college, mainly for the multiplayer games. But unfortunately I've grown up now and discovered the joy of PC games, which has taken the place of console games for me. Consoles do offer one thing that the PC doesn't, and that is the ability to have 4 (or more) players playing on the same machine at the same time.

    While PC games allow many more players to connect to a server and play against each other, each player is on their own PC and the comradre isn't the same as with the console. Lan parties remedy this to a certain extent, but they don't reach the level of multiplayer console games. Tension can get higher, the thrill of victory and agony defeat is stronger, and the excitement level is higher. If you don't know what I mean, go door-to-door or to a college campus and find a group of guys having a Madden 2003 tournament, or get 4 people on Super Smash Bros. It's a different dynamic than say Quake. Don't get me wrong, Quake is fun too. But PC multiplayer games are enjoyable in a more distant fashion than console multiplayers.

    I've had my fun with the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 in the multiplayer realm, but now that it's the real world and it's not possible to get 4 friends in the room for a good session of Goldeneye, Turok, or Quake, a good session of UT2003, Battlefield 1942, or Wolfenstein are just as good right now. Who knows, if I find 3 or more grown-ass kids like me, an X-box or PS2 might be in order for Madden or Soul Calibur 2 (this might be the only reason I get an Xbox or PS2).

    • Hehe, you have never had 8 people in a room, all playing Dark Age of Camelot and hunting on the frontier. The tension is amazing sometimes, and once battle is joined, you get a group dynamic that is awesome. There is nothing like it. :)
    • Console games were cool in high school and college, mainly for the multiplayer games. But unfortunately I've grown up now and discovered the joy of PC games...

      I didn't realize that you couldn't own a console if you were a "grown up".
    • I've been there and back again. My friends and I grew up on consoles through high school, then we shifted to PCs during college, and now we are back on consoles again.

      One big reason is finances. Our parents wouldn't invest in bleeding edge machines and games when we were kids, but my friends and I would when we had enough disposable income to chase after tech toys. Now, we are starting our own families, and it's a lot cheaper to invest in a console instead of the latest video and sound cards.

      Another bi
    • Wow - I've gone in the exact opposite direction. PC Games were great in High School and College when I had lots of time to track hardware upgrades (video cards) and mess with DirectX and game patches.

      When I got a job I found it hard to find time to play PC games. I was into strategy games like Warlords Battlecry and CivIII and occasionaly an FPS. A year ago I broke down and got a GameCube and that's where I get my gaming fix now - pop in a CD, listen to the cute loadup music and I'm good to go.

      The conv
      • --It's a tossup for me. I finally have a "decent" computer (went from P100 to P233MMX to AMD Duron 900MHz) and spend more time doing Linux stuff on it than playing games...

        However:

        o Console games are Hardware Compatible by definition. You buy a game for your platform, it runs. Plug in and go. No patches, no driver upgrades, etc.

        o BUT: Console games are much more LIMITED than PC games. Only certain controller configs per game, save functionality limited to nonexistent, and with the Xbox - NEXT TO *ZE
    • When you're not in a room to have hot'n'heavy multiplayer action, Xbox Live! is the only way to go. No PC game has 100% support for buddy-lists and voice chat the way Live! does. None of the PC games have an easy update way for new content like the console Live! games do. And, most of the PC games are way, way buggier than the console games.

      If you still like the idea of a LAN party, Xbox has system link. GCN is also getting a form of system link support if you have the BBA and apropos games for it (cur
      • Has MS figured out what they're going to charge for Live once the first year is up? I'd like to think it'd be free with payments only going towards added content, but it's been a while since I've heard anything.

        Some assurance on Live pricing and a $50 price drop on the system could certainly have an influence on me.
        • MS hasn't finished its decisions yet, but the early beta people will be up in a couple of months. I hope they don't do anything stupid, like over price it. Live! kits are 69.99 CDN at most places. So, if they don't want to make it so that people just buy new live kits every year, MS will have to price Live at less than 5.80$ CDN a month.

          I like my gamertag, but I don't like it enough to pay more than a new live kit. Besides, their cheap, shitty Live headsets break so easily, I'll need a nice supply of t
          • The fact that they've announced a new Xbox Live subscription kit (with one year, Tetris and new demos) pretty much guarantees that the yearly price will be $50 or less, probably at LEAST until December, 2004 (when the first original subscribers have their second expiration). Doing it any other way would simply increase by 50% or more the number of "unique" users on their service (when people run out and buy new Live kits with the "free" year for $50).
      • But for US, thoughtful MS haters, that is not an option.

        My Broadband provider mandates that if you connect a console, you connect only an Xbox.

        I mean, how much do MS need to annoy people for people to begin to deny them their business?
      • "one of the PC games have an easy update way for new content like the console Live! games do."
        Take a look at Valves new content delivery system 'Steam'. You download the game from it, Caching a local copy. Every time you want to play you are forced into a current version. The downside of course is once this goes out of beta, I'm sure they'll just start charging monthly to play. The few banner ads isnt enough to cover the estimated 500mbit+ that they were using when the beta went public. Steam also has a gr
        • Muting is global and works both ways, so if you do run into some trash-talking 12-yos, muting them will stop you from hearing them (and them from hearing you) in every Live! game you own. You can also send bad feedback, as well as visible bad feedback via www.gamertagdatabase.com [gamertagdatabase.com].

          If you don't like voice stuff, there's no requirement you play with your voice communicator in. Unless you're playing PSO (currently the only game that has serious non-verbal communication support via soft keyb, shortcuts, emot
  • i think i'll trade in my PS One for store credit now, whatever they'll give me for it, before the price drop, and use that as a down payment on a refurb'd PS2 once the price drop in happens, thank you very much. keep my library of games and backwards compatibility, plus pick up a semi-decent backup DVD player for probably $109 @ gamestop (not counting the trade in credit for the PS One).

    good god does this color scheme suck.
    • Enjoy your 12 bucks. Seriously, that's how much I got for mine. Not even enough for one game. Guess that's the price you pay for backward compatability; the market gets flooded with the older system.
      • that's still a 12% discount for somthing that plays more media and has a wider selection of games and accessories. i don't lose the ability to play PS1 games, i just pay $90 to play PS1 & 2 games.... not a bad deal, considering the fact that used PS2 games are dropping into the $15-25 range, plus all the PS2 games i can borrow from my friends; not a bad deal overall from my standpoint.
  • cheap consoles are good, but when two games equate to the hardware i begin to worry...

  • Well... (Score:2, Redundant)

    by analog_line ( 465182 )
    ...seeing as I already own a GameCube and a PS2, and the only way I'll ever own an Xbox is if someone gives it to me, I'd say no, this won't get me to buy one of these consoles. (However, if the price drop happens on PSOnes as well, I very well may pick one of those and the Sony screen up. Good way to chop away at those insanely long RPGs I've collected when I'd otherwise be tossing and turning trying to get to sleep.)

    Though this _will_ likely spur the entire console gaming industry to get far bigger. W
  • See, now it's actually going to be economical for the insane Soul Calibur II player to buy all three consoles (and all three versions of the game) so as to play each of the three different "special" characters.

    Not that I know any such people. Ahem.

  • I want to play a few of the Xbox games and have hope for Xbox live. I love my PS2 and Gamecube, but you always can have more.

    I mean it's not like I didn't buy everything else [giantrobeast.com] (games not included in picture).

    But than again maybe not, I still buy games at the rate I used to when I was single and had less of a life, but I don't play them at anywhere near the same rate now...

  • Buy one, yeah, but not for games... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Joel Rowbottom ( 89350 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @06:53AM (#5851423) Homepage
    ...I'd probably buy an Xbox just to mess around with, and see if I could make a cheap server out of it!
  • I think I must be the only Xbox fan on this site. I've owned one for a while now and I love it. The main reason I like it is that I can get quality titles for like $10 - $15 off of half.com. Sure, some of the titles suck, but for the most part they're all pretty good. I might get a PS2 because there's some games on that platform I'd like to play, but a Cube is definitely out of the question. There really aren't many good, quality games on the system to even justify the $100 price tag.
    • I love my Xbox to and I might probably get a PS2 if the prices drop. I bought the Cube but returned it, the controllers are ackward but I could've gotten used to them, the problem is the games, I didn't have fun playing them.
      • You can get an adaptor for the GameCube that lets you use Playstation controllers (either the Dualshock 1 or Dualshock 2.)

        It's not an offical piece of Nintendo hardware, but...
    • Really? My PS2 is a dust collector, as all the gaming time is clocked up on Animal Crossing, Monkey Ball or Mario. Which reminds me; I've still not got around to grabbing Metroid, Zelda and co.

      Actually the XBox is the only one I'm missing. I've even got a (cheaply grabbed) copy of Halo ready, from when I was about to get one from a mate, but the constant price cuts here in the UK (we just had our 5th since the launch a year ago), the release of a limited-edition model in a different colour, and the rumours
  • Wow, I can't believe that. That would make Nintendo's consloe of the moment the same price as a GBA SP!! I can't believe that its come to this. Hopefully, this will spur a purchasing surge to help Nintendo out.
    Total speculation, but what if they go the way of Sega and release their titles for other systems? I hope they keep the GBA, though.
    • *sigh* I remember when the systems started off near $99. Good old NES. Consoles starting off at $300 is nuts. I mean the graphics are prettier, but has the experience and gameplay really gotten so much better?

      And so I'm a hypocrite and have a PS2... at least I bought it when it was $200 and not when it was selling for $600 on ebay.

    • That would be impossible, considering they're still making a profit and have a $6 billion in cash in the bank.

      Sega was on the verge of bankruptcy. Besides, the Cube still sells more than the XBox worldwide and they currently only lose $20 per cube sold, and with a game-to-console ratio of 9.1:1, Nintendo has no problem whatsoever surviving.
  • $50 is so insignificant compared to what someone will likely spend on games in one of these devices.

    Here is a partial list of things that you'll spend more on the "media" than the device itself, although everyone focuses on the purchase price of the device.

    Game Consoles
    DVD Players
    CD Players
    Printers
    Razors
    • I don't think anyone's confused about CD Players though. The CD player is just a means to get to the CDs, where we think of the printers, razors, and game consoles as the devices themselves.

      As for my PS2, I bought five games for 40 bucks, and one more for 20, so i've still got 120 dollars to equal the console price. In my (specialized) case, I'd say say the opening cost of the PS2 was a good chunk of change.
      • I don't know of anyone who just buys a console and no games - that'd be like buying a CD player and not buying any CDs.

        Even shopping frugally, you will eventually spend more on the media (games) than the console.

        Even when I picked up a Dreamcast during its firesale, I easily spent $150 on games - even though most were only $5-15.
  • I've been waiting for the PS2 to drop for a while now, so yes. But on topic, I think they're forgetting that games are the big motivator not (just) the price. For example : NeoGeo when it first came out in the US. There were easily 3 games that would have done dances around the SNES's and Genesis's lineup (at the time) but the fact that the system cost more than a SNES/Genesis, and 4 games was a HUGE turn off.

  • Games prices need to drop (Score:4, Insightful)

    by StellarEX ( 626758 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:47AM (#5852012)
    The console prices haven't been that ridiculous, it's the $49.00 games that keep alot of people (like me) from getting/playing these new consoles. Sony had a nice deal with the PSone "Greatest Hits" for $20.00, but when you buy a couple of 50.00$ games that aren't very entertaining, you tend not to bother buying the ones that may actually be worth it and your $99 console collects dust.
    • I recommend patience, and preowned games.

      If you can wait a few months to pick up a particular game, the price usually drops to $25 or so, used. I've bought a lot of preowned games, and never had a problem with them, save N64 cartridges, which have issues that disc games just don't have.

      I don't buy nearly as many games preowned as I should, because I'm just plain impatient. Any of the major stores that sell used games have a trade in policy if the preowned you bought is damaged and won't play on your mac
      • If you can wait a few months to pick up a particular game, the price usually drops to $25 or so, used.

        After a year or so, even unused games drop to about US$20. I've never payed full price for a game in the last three years ($29.99 being the highest price I've paid for a slightly newer game). I've found that the local Toys'R'Us has a good selection of old games. Shopping malls are the worst, and flea markets are a mixed experience, depending on the vendor.

        And rent games before you buy.

        This is often
    • I agree. I have an Xbox, but only 4 games for it due to the price. $50 is just past some kind of pschological "line" for me - if the games were $40, I'd probably have many more, but for some reason, $50 just "seems" like too much. This is made worse by the fact that I can often get the PC version of the game (often with more/better features) for $40 by just walking a couple aisles over.

      Consoles are fun and appropriate for certain "kick back on the couch" games IMO. However, given the choice between a $
    • Only raving fan boys on eBay keep any prices high. They don't affect real market prices at a store for current games, which are dropped over time.

      Sony still has Greatest Hits for its PS2 line, and has had it since 2001. Microsoft just launched its Platinum Hits line, which follows the same pricing plan and sales goals. Nintendo has its Players Choice line, which is lame because they still cost 49.99 CDN (versus GHits/PHits 29.99 CDN).

      If you wait and it isn't sold out, most good retailers (EB, Gamestop,
  • I'm back and forth a lot between two places, and often miss my Cube while away. I carried it around for a while, but it got old.

    At $99, I'd be tempted to just buy another one for the second place, and as a backup. I put my discs in little 8cm jewel boxes with cover printouts, so they're a cinch to take around. That would be pretty nice!
  • I don't see a reason to buy any console save the XBox. The XBox can be used as a regular system and has a much higher lifetime than the other two. The only reason why I would buy a PS2 is to play Final Fantasy on, but now I am getting fed up with what Square is doing with the series (I mean sequels? What's wrong with them!). Then a GC has some of the worst selection of games I have seen to date. I hear Zelda: The Windwalker is a really good game, but I still can't get past the fact that link looks like a ch
    • Why buy them? Because they play really cool games. Thats the only reason. If (as appears to be the case) you don't like the games, then thats fine. Personally, I've got quite the hardware collection, because titles like Super Monkey Ball, GTA3 and Soul Calibur were all good enough for me to buy the machine to play them on.
    • Did you play the original Legend of Zelda? Got the manual for it? Pull it out and look through the cartoons in the manual. Windwalker is like playing that.

      Or an updated version of Link to the Past. It's the next step in the target games used to have. Cartoon-level realism!
  • For the home environment, Xboxes make great
    application servers. I've got a stack of 4,
    purchased used from Barnes & Noble, two running
    Apache, one running smtp and pop services,
    and one acting as a fileserver. The advantage
    of factoring out these services is that I can
    upgrade the fileserver without bringing down email
    or web applications.

  • With how cheap these are now, I'll probably have all 3 withing a year. Right now I have a PS2, which I paid $300 for. The drive is starting to make a lot of noise; it started after I moved, someone probably dropped it or something. With the price drops, maybe I'll just buy another console instead of buying more PS2 games, and hopefully finish the ones I have before this thing stops working.

  • Why not just go to eBay and buy the hardware there?
    • Too easy to get screwed.

      A used cartridge based system would be one thing - it either works, or it don't. If it works, it'll continue working (no moving parts.)

      A used disc based system, meanwhile, will eventually break down. Early model PS2s, for instance, seem to have problems with dust getting trapped around the drive mechanism, knocking the lasers out of alignment.

  • Gamecube vs. * (Score:2, Informative)

    by gr3n ( 670205 )
    I don't get all this hostility to the Gamecube. Its $99 fer chrissakes, and there are way more fun games than the XBOX has to offer.

    Zelda, Metroid, Smash Brothers, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil, Mario Sunshine...there are tons of fun games for the Cube. They look great, they sound great, and they are fun as hell.

    Not to mention all of the games that are coming out this year... I am just saddened to read all of this anti-Nintendo sentiment. Then again, I'm not bothered by the color palette Nint
    • Zelda, Metroid, Smash Brothers, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil, Mario Sunshine...there are tons of fun games for the Cube. They look great, they sound great, and they are fun as hell.

      Residet Evil may look great, but I played the hell out of that game when it came out 7 YEARS AGO.
      Mario Sunshine looks and plays just like the N64 mario, I'm not impressed, but I conceide that it may be fun to play.
      Animal Crossing looks horrible, I've heard its fun, but I can't understand why.
      Zelda looks stupid, mebbe
      • Animal Crossing. Okay, it's hard to explain why it's fun, it just is... You fish, and live a real alternate life and stuff, and it's kinda like a real life. And you can send notes to your friends and things..... in game! And modify the environment by planting trees. It has decades of events in it, and everything is real time. You can visit your friends' houses and see how they've done stuff, and you can play NES games in it.

        Play it, for 1 hour, and if you don't get it, you won't. If you do, it's in
        • I don't have a cube, I have a friend who has a cube and who showed me this butt ugly game and claimed it was fun. He also explained that to save a game requires one entire complete memorycard, for 1 game.

          You can understand why I nodded politely while not comprehending what the big deal was.

          I'm now addicted to Dark Cloud 2 on PS2, in wich you can also fish and plant trees and stuff, but it looks good and it doesn't eat up your entire memory card. Then again, I have to send notes to my friends using messeng
          • Animal Crossing is sort of a mix between "Sim Village" (you're not building a city here), The Sims, and Harvest Moon.

            If you don't like those games, you probably won't like Animal Crossing either.

            As for eatting a whole memory card...yes, Animal Crossing uses up an entire small memory card, however one is provided with the game, so you don't even need to buy one separately (besides, most folks buy the larger capacity card, which holds 4x the small one that comes with Animal Crossing.)
      • You haven't played Resident Evil 0, and even if you HAVE played the original RE, you haven't played the REmake for the cube. It contains areas that were never in the original, as well as vastly superior graphics and voice acting. It's like a whole different game. Sorta.

        Mario Sunshine was fun, and since I never played M64, I didn't feel I was getting the same thing all over again. I skipped the N64 completely, so perhaps my opinion is skewed slightly.

        gr3n
        • You haven't played Resident Evil 0

          No, I got to Nemesis and got fed up.
          Running zombies...pfft!

          and even if you HAVE played the original RE, you haven't played the REmake for the cube.

          I played around with it at my friend's place...

          It contains areas that were never in the original

          Big whupp

          as well as vastly superior graphics and voice acting.

          I liked the cheezy acting! It was a freaking B movie you could play in, the bad acting and dialogue went along with the bad story (all zombie movies have a
    • Animal Crossing probably gets the most play out of any game I've ever seen. I actually have friends come over simply to get 15 minutes in on it (I have two towns on my GB). It's ridiculous.

      People who don't like Zelda's look, haven't played Zelda. Graphically, Zelda is awe-inspiring. Yes, it looks like a cartoon, it looks like the cartoony graphics from the original's manual, it looks like the graphics from some of the older adventure games, it has the type of graphics that "hold" their impressiveness
  • At that price point, would it be worth it to buy an X-Box so I could get Halo, Extreme Beach Volleyball, and some of those other notoriously bouncy games?

    Hmmm... to bounce or not to bounce, is that the question? No, the question is are the game any fun? I currently have no games on my pc because they were too easily beaten and not super replayable (Freelancer). Will an X-Box treat me any better?
    • Bounce would certainly be one of the reasons I'd get an Xbox...

      I've heard that DOA4 and something called "DOA Chronicles" will be coming out this year as well. Chronicles is supposedly a collection of DOAs 1-3.

      I've heard very mixed reviews about the volleyball game in terms of "fun." They all agree that the bounce and skin is over the top though.

      And then there's Panzer Dragoon and Halo, of course...

      Heck, wait long enough and you can pick the titles up for $15-20. At that price, you'll get your mone
  • There's no point complainig about the respective costs of the systems when I can complain about UK prices.

    PS2
    US - $149
    UK - $270

    XBox
    US - $149
    UK - $206

    Gamecube
    US - $99
    UK - $206

    This is now officially beyond a joke.

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