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In case you haven't heard Microsoft have REDUCED the price of their home videogame console the X-Box, just 1 MONTH after its initial release. The X-Box, previously tagged with an RRP of £300 will now sell for £200. While this might be good news for the consumers, or moreso their wallets, it could send the X-Box to an early grave.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
The X-Box was launched on March 14th, and as I said earlier, with the hefty price-tag of £300. Now, while that isn't much for the most powerful video games console around, it is too much when you can get a brand new PS2 with MGS2, an Extra Pad, a Memory Card and GTA 3 for the same price! Added to which, Nintendo's GameCube will be released in exactly 2 weeks time at an even cheaper price of £169.99.
So, Microsoft decide that to shift X-Boxes, they're going to have to do something about the fact that you can get a BRAND NEW Nintendo console, with games that sport equally impressive graphics for little over half the price - And the fact that you can get the most popular Under-The-TV games console, with the two best selling games to-date, an extra pad AND a memory card. So what do you do? Reduce your console's RRP?! Microsoft seem to think so!
But this could tarnish the X-Box's reputation in a number of ways:
1. Consumer Perception of Quality - If, after just a month of going on sale, Microsoft decide to reduce the price of the X-Box, which they have, consumers have to wonder what's wrong with it. Only love is free in this world... not a thrid of an X-Box? What gives? It must be the quality... maybe they're prone to crashing... maybe they just suck... either way, it doesn't take a modern-day Einstein to speculate why Microsoft did what it did!
2. Consumer Perception of Pleasure - Maybe it's because the games are too expensive for what they are... after all, 3 of them are graphical updates of popular Dreamcast games which didn't live up to their legacy, the rest of them, with the exception of HALO, are quickly thought up 'basic games', which only have a few million polygons, some nice textures and impressive frame-rates to their name. If the games suck, people won't buy them...
These two are the biggest ways in which Microsoft could be hit.
While Microsoft might make a few more sales with the lower-price tag, there will be a lot of people who take the two aformentioned hiccups to heart and forget the console altogether. Plus, Microsoft have tried to reimburse consumers who purchased the X-Box at £300 by giving them 2 games and a free controller... but what if they've bought all the games... and what if they bought 3 extra controllers... there WILL BE people in that situation!
I just don't see how this will have helped... the PS2 has been at £199 for ages (Oct 2001), and has recently been blessed with a Platinum Range.. if this hasn't lost MS sales then the GameCube is £30 cheaper, with cheaper games which are actually BETTER than the VERY high majority of X-Box games. Microsoft are just digging themselves deeper into their hole. There isn't the demand for a Games PC... Children want GameCubes, Teenagers want Cubes and PS2's. 18-30's, predominantly want PS2's and older families want GameCubes. I'm not saying there is NO demand for X-Box... but it's flunked in Japan, BIG TIME, and sales in Europe have been below expectancy.
Microsoft should have thought-out their strategy, and stuck with it... as it happens, their plan is changing like the weather, and it's this weathering that's corroding the foundations of the X-Box's future.
It isn't a bad console, and if I had the money, I MIGHT buy one... but Microsoft have messed this one up, big time. They're aiming the X-Box at 25-35-Year-Olds who can afford an Extra £100, so they don't need to drop the price... the only thing it'll have done, is make people think that it's only as good as the PS2, and that it's going to start making crapper games and become commoners muck!
Maybe it's just me... but I think Microsoft have really messed up in the UK.
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Gnome, where do you get this rubbish from?
MS did NOT expect to get Xbox loses back in games. They expected to make HUGE loses right to the end of the Xbox's life...
Where's the sense in that you say? Well, the only point in the Xbox is to make sure MS have a foothold in the market- so that in the following console generations, MS can begin to make money.
Now, when you consider that a console as great as the DC failed, it's clear that it takes a LOT of effort to get a foothold in the console market- even for the most experienced manufacturers. For MS just to have racked up massive sales in America shows that they're doing a pretty good job.
Sonic
MS did NOT expect to get Xbox loses back in games. They expected to make HUGE loses right to the end of the Xbox's life...
Where's the sense in that you say? Well, the only point in the Xbox is to make sure MS have a foothold in the market- so that in the following console generations, MS can begin to make money.
Now, when you consider that a console as great as the DC failed, it's clear that it takes a LOT of effort to get a foothold in the console market- even for the most experienced manufacturers. For MS just to have racked up massive sales in America shows that they're doing a pretty good job.
Sonic
It may have a mixed outcome. It may sell more consoles, but there definately is a lack of decent games. Microsoft have said they are looking to make money on the games, but they are losing more money by reducing the price, a lot more, and there aren't enough decent games, or maybe even games in general, to make up for the huge lose they are going to get from this drop, they had a huge lose to start off, something in the region of £150 on each console methinks, put that up a hundred quid times by the amount of consoles they will make, take off profits from ones still on the shelves in Japan and I think you will see their problem. Good Ridance X-Box.
Considering its lack of sales in Europe at £300, the price drop can only be good - even if they are losing more money than before at £200 per console sold, if sales improve, than more of these will buy the games that will get the revenue back.
It can't be such a big disaster if it's made me consider getting an Xbox.
I wouldn't choose Halo and its wonderful save-without-memory-card, internet-ready, allow-16-players-at-once-by-linking-up-consoles over the likes of Smash Brothers, Monkey Ball and Mario Sunshine, but if I can dig up enough money for both within the next 8 months or so, especially as a fair few friends of mine are getting an Xbox so I can link with them...
It would certainly make up for Nintendo's complete lack of online plans.
I wouldn't choose Halo and its wonderful save-without-memory-card, internet-ready, allow-16-players-at-once-by-linking-up-consoles over the likes of Smash Brothers, Monkey Ball and Mario Sunshine, but if I can dig up enough money for both within the next 8 months or so, especially as a fair few friends of mine are getting an Xbox so I can link with them...
It would certainly make up for Nintendo's complete lack of online plans.
Cheers- although I doubt I'll be a notable too soon... with A levels coming and all...
Anyway, the worst thing to happen to the industry in the last decade is the lack of competition- last time aroun Sega dropped out with the Saturn, the N64 did sod all (let's be honest) and Sony dominated by a LONG way.
Not that this was a bad thing- the PSX introduced massmarket gaming, and thanks to that we now have the likes of MGS2 and other big-budget games.
However, we now need competition in the market. It's obvious that when the PS2 was announced and launched, Sony had become too complacent with their position. Competition means that manufacturers HAVE to invest in new games, small developers, and have lots of inovations...
It's good to see Ninty have upped their stake in the industry, but it's still not enough to make Sony quake in their boots. So surely every true gamers wants MS to get a share of Sony's market? That way we'll see far more innovation in the console market of the next generation...
After all, just look at the market this time around. Promised: Internet gaming, photorealism, handheld-console link ups etc. Delivered: Sequals.
Sonic
Anyway, the worst thing to happen to the industry in the last decade is the lack of competition- last time aroun Sega dropped out with the Saturn, the N64 did sod all (let's be honest) and Sony dominated by a LONG way.
Not that this was a bad thing- the PSX introduced massmarket gaming, and thanks to that we now have the likes of MGS2 and other big-budget games.
However, we now need competition in the market. It's obvious that when the PS2 was announced and launched, Sony had become too complacent with their position. Competition means that manufacturers HAVE to invest in new games, small developers, and have lots of inovations...
It's good to see Ninty have upped their stake in the industry, but it's still not enough to make Sony quake in their boots. So surely every true gamers wants MS to get a share of Sony's market? That way we'll see far more innovation in the console market of the next generation...
After all, just look at the market this time around. Promised: Internet gaming, photorealism, handheld-console link ups etc. Delivered: Sequals.
Sonic
Sonic, it seams you are one of the few people around here who remember the past and comment accordingly. I wonder somtimes why you arn't a notable.
Oh and you have an Xbox yet?
Anyway in regard to the original post, one things for certain. Any console price slach is ALWAYS a ood thing. History tells us this. I dodn't know anyone who had a PS2 within 3 months of its release. The PS2 going down to 199 is what sold alot of sony much overrated system aswell as a few good games.
The DC sold fantasticly when it went to £80 in Japan, but it was too late financilly for them.
In my view the xbox price cut is the most effective way steeling some of the GC launches thunder and ensuring good sales.
Oh and you have an Xbox yet?
Anyway in regard to the original post, one things for certain. Any console price slach is ALWAYS a ood thing. History tells us this. I dodn't know anyone who had a PS2 within 3 months of its release. The PS2 going down to 199 is what sold alot of sony much overrated system aswell as a few good games.
The DC sold fantasticly when it went to £80 in Japan, but it was too late financilly for them.
In my view the xbox price cut is the most effective way steeling some of the GC launches thunder and ensuring good sales.
Why? Ninty have done sod all to prevent Sony dominance
Sonic
Sonic
Hear, Hear!
I sincerely hope Microsoft fail in their attempt to get a foot in the console market.
The Xbox sales will now go rocketing!!!
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