The "Xbox Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
By now we all have heard about Microsofts decision for the Xbox's price plummet. It was a wise idea, in both their opinion, my opinion and everybody else's opinion. I mean, £300 is a lot compared to the competition, even if the machine offers better technology and extra peripherals and the like. Now Xbox is in with a very good chance to win these supposed console 'wars', and the choice between the PlayStation 2 and Xbox is a much easier decision to make. I know which one I'd choose, thats for sure.
This price drop shows that, unlike many companies (Nintendo, I'm looking at you) Microsoft are both willing and able to act upon consumer opinion. It says on their site that the price drop is due to strong public opinion, so I guess that they realised having a console double the price of the next best thing isn't the wisest of decisions. What stumps me, is that while Microsoft's initial excuse for the £300 price was due to the technology costs, I'm amazed that these costs can drop so much in little over a month. This price drop also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But I suppose that Microsoft's consolation to the people who paid full whack is justified. Two games and a controller would cost quite a bit in a shop, which is what its worth to the consumer. Since giving away two free games would cut out both the publisher's cut and the retailer's slice, it means that Microsoft will only be a few quid out of pocket for each Xbox. Considering they're making an extra hundred out of us, I guess that this offer wouldn't do too much harm for the company.
But is this whole Xbox thing just a big flop. It does smell a lot about the case with Nintendo, and while they are offering consolation and 'A Big Thankyou' to their 'loyal' customers, I don't think that their marketing strategy is very efficient. The initial price tag put off many potential customers, who by now would have probably invested in a PlayStation 2.
While I'm not knocking Microsoft for this strategy; £200 is a much better price than £300, They really should have done some public survey to find out what we really want. After all, there must be many people out there who bought a launch console and doesn't want these 'free' gifts. I think at least an £80 rebate should be on offer to those who would otherwise be significantly out of pocket.
So what is the overall effect of this pricing slash. For the non-xbox owning public, it surely should be good news, but for investors in the company (shares dropped by 8p [!] ) and current Xbox owners, this is a both annoying and perhaps smile inducing.
For myself, I couldn't really care. I bought my Xbox for just over £200 in Australia in duty free, which means that I've already gotten a great deal without these free goodies. A slight problem is that I don't really want; I wouldn't buy them otherwise, but if this deal had come into effect before I bought the three games and extra controller I have, I'd be bouncing with joy.
Its really then not our call to determine whether Microsoft's decision is genius or pure stupidity. No doubt countless topics, discussions and magazine articles will ensue, but only will we find out in full essence and truth when it inevitably enters the columns of Redeye...
This price drop shows that, unlike many companies (Nintendo, I'm looking at you) Microsoft are both willing and able to act upon consumer opinion. It says on their site that the price drop is due to strong public opinion, so I guess that they realised having a console double the price of the next best thing isn't the wisest of decisions. What stumps me, is that while Microsoft's initial excuse for the £300 price was due to the technology costs, I'm amazed that these costs can drop so much in little over a month. This price drop also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But I suppose that Microsoft's consolation to the people who paid full whack is justified. Two games and a controller would cost quite a bit in a shop, which is what its worth to the consumer. Since giving away two free games would cut out both the publisher's cut and the retailer's slice, it means that Microsoft will only be a few quid out of pocket for each Xbox. Considering they're making an extra hundred out of us, I guess that this offer wouldn't do too much harm for the company.
But is this whole Xbox thing just a big flop. It does smell a lot about the case with Nintendo, and while they are offering consolation and 'A Big Thankyou' to their 'loyal' customers, I don't think that their marketing strategy is very efficient. The initial price tag put off many potential customers, who by now would have probably invested in a PlayStation 2.
While I'm not knocking Microsoft for this strategy; £200 is a much better price than £300, They really should have done some public survey to find out what we really want. After all, there must be many people out there who bought a launch console and doesn't want these 'free' gifts. I think at least an £80 rebate should be on offer to those who would otherwise be significantly out of pocket.
So what is the overall effect of this pricing slash. For the non-xbox owning public, it surely should be good news, but for investors in the company (shares dropped by 8p [!] ) and current Xbox owners, this is a both annoying and perhaps smile inducing.
For myself, I couldn't really care. I bought my Xbox for just over £200 in Australia in duty free, which means that I've already gotten a great deal without these free goodies. A slight problem is that I don't really want; I wouldn't buy them otherwise, but if this deal had come into effect before I bought the three games and extra controller I have, I'd be bouncing with joy.
Its really then not our call to determine whether Microsoft's decision is genius or pure stupidity. No doubt countless topics, discussions and magazine articles will ensue, but only will we find out in full essence and truth when it inevitably enters the columns of Redeye...
Beanz said:
>>yeah i've heard that all consoles are sold at a loss...money is made back by selling software....
now that the gc has also dropped in price it could mean another price drop by ps2...and then maybe another by xbox?!
--Your right Beanz, apparently it cost about £500 to make the xbox and MS are selling it at a loss. It might be a bit less than that. However big consoel companies get their profit from games, imagine how much profit comes with a game, its advd which costs about 50p on its own. The price tag is £45!!! So there is a hell of a lot of profit with one disk! However some of the money goes to teh developer and some to mircosoft. Even though a lot of profit is made with each DVD sold, the cost of the game has to be paied off.
BY THE WAY....... I READ ON A NEWS SITE THAT PLAYSTATION 2 HAS BEEN REDUCED IN PRICE TO £149.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THINK ITS RELIABLE!
>>yeah i've heard that all consoles are sold at a loss...money is made back by selling software....
now that the gc has also dropped in price it could mean another price drop by ps2...and then maybe another by xbox?!
--Your right Beanz, apparently it cost about £500 to make the xbox and MS are selling it at a loss. It might be a bit less than that. However big consoel companies get their profit from games, imagine how much profit comes with a game, its advd which costs about 50p on its own. The price tag is £45!!! So there is a hell of a lot of profit with one disk! However some of the money goes to teh developer and some to mircosoft. Even though a lot of profit is made with each DVD sold, the cost of the game has to be paied off.
BY THE WAY....... I READ ON A NEWS SITE THAT PLAYSTATION 2 HAS BEEN REDUCED IN PRICE TO £149.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THINK ITS RELIABLE!
½pint wrote:
> Well, whoever or wherever told you that consoles sell at a loss is
> very, very stupid.
Well in that case my A-Level examination board was quite stupid, as one of the questions asked why large firms opted to sell consoles at a loss. They make a loss on the console, but this is nullified by the profits they make on peripherals, games, licences etc
> Well, whoever or wherever told you that consoles sell at a loss is
> very, very stupid.
Well in that case my A-Level examination board was quite stupid, as one of the questions asked why large firms opted to sell consoles at a loss. They make a loss on the console, but this is nullified by the profits they make on peripherals, games, licences etc
Well, whoever or wherever told you that consoles sell at a loss is very, very stupid. Would you sell a potential 20 million consoles (PlayStation) at a loss, whether it be £10 or £200 for EACH console. For only a £1 loss thats a total of £20 million. Not very clever. In mass production, it would only cost about £50 to make a console. Plus, shops have to take their cut as well, as do distributors and all the pay salaries etc. The overall price is just everything added together. Only somebody with bucketloads of money which they're willing to blow, or somebody extremely stupid would sell consoles at a loss. Remember, parts are much, much cheaper to buy in mass production.
yeah i've heard that all consoles are sold at a loss...money is made back by selling software....
now that the gc has also dropped in price it could mean another price drop by ps2...and then maybe another by xbox?!
now that the gc has also dropped in price it could mean another price drop by ps2...and then maybe another by xbox?!
£300 wasnt too bad a price for the box if you consider what you are getting.
With the 8GB hard drive alone you will end up saving lots of money if you buy loads of games. No need for memory cards.
The official PS2 memory card is £25 (8MB).
Say you buy 4 memory cards. Thats £100 (32MB).
Now thats not even near 1 GB and already the £100 extra for the X-Box has been evened out because you dont need a memory card.
Now imagine you have every game for the PS2 and have them all saved and it takes up 96MB. Thats 12 memory cards. Thats £300. The cost of an X-Box. While with the X-Box you have to buy no memory cards and youd still have loads of space left for no extra money.
Short version for the gamecube.
The gamecube is £170. Official memory cards are only 4MB and cost £15.
The gamecube games suck up a lot of memory especially with the extras such as saved movies and screenshots.
Your games take up 88MB. Thats 22 memory cards. Thats a total of £330.
Now that the X-Box is £200 its a good deal.
With the 8GB hard drive alone you will end up saving lots of money if you buy loads of games. No need for memory cards.
The official PS2 memory card is £25 (8MB).
Say you buy 4 memory cards. Thats £100 (32MB).
Now thats not even near 1 GB and already the £100 extra for the X-Box has been evened out because you dont need a memory card.
Now imagine you have every game for the PS2 and have them all saved and it takes up 96MB. Thats 12 memory cards. Thats £300. The cost of an X-Box. While with the X-Box you have to buy no memory cards and youd still have loads of space left for no extra money.
Short version for the gamecube.
The gamecube is £170. Official memory cards are only 4MB and cost £15.
The gamecube games suck up a lot of memory especially with the extras such as saved movies and screenshots.
Your games take up 88MB. Thats 22 memory cards. Thats a total of £330.
Now that the X-Box is £200 its a good deal.
I read that they lose money on the actual console, and rely on the games to make their profits (and of course the rest of the world consuming mega-corporation)
And, as a Nintendo player, they do reward their idiocy with the best games ever made, so Nintendo are not all bad.
And, as a Nintendo player, they do reward their idiocy with the best games ever made, so Nintendo are not all bad.
Well, in interviews I've read in various magazines and websites, Microsoft justified the price of £300 because of the hard drive, and development costs. Nobody would reduce the price to one which would make losses, that's total stupidity, even Microsoft knows that. The fact that Microsoft tried to justify the high price, then were able to lower it shows that technology costs weren't the reason for the £300 price tag. They did tell a small lie, because they said it cost the full £300 whack for manufacturing costs etc.
½pint wrote:
This price drop
> also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little
> white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But Microsoft havent dropped the price because they have been over charging for the Xbox. There dropping it to try and get more sales. The Xbox has done ok in the UK, but else where in Europe and Japan its doing bad. The £200 price will mean alot more people will think about getting it as a 2nd console or maybe getting it instead of PS2 or GC. Alot of people have said, "i'll wait till it drops to £200, before I buy one".
Reports say that it costs Microsoft £400 to get one Xbox made and into the shop. Selling them at only £300 is losing them money. But now they are selling them even less. Microsoft are losing money on the consoles sold, so we are actually getting a pretty good deal. Microsoft hope more people will buy the Xbox and therefore, the sales for games e.t.c will increase.
This price drop
> also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little
> white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But Microsoft havent dropped the price because they have been over charging for the Xbox. There dropping it to try and get more sales. The Xbox has done ok in the UK, but else where in Europe and Japan its doing bad. The £200 price will mean alot more people will think about getting it as a 2nd console or maybe getting it instead of PS2 or GC. Alot of people have said, "i'll wait till it drops to £200, before I buy one".
Reports say that it costs Microsoft £400 to get one Xbox made and into the shop. Selling them at only £300 is losing them money. But now they are selling them even less. Microsoft are losing money on the consoles sold, so we are actually getting a pretty good deal. Microsoft hope more people will buy the Xbox and therefore, the sales for games e.t.c will increase.
By now we all have heard about Microsofts decision for the Xbox's price plummet. It was a wise idea, in both their opinion, my opinion and everybody else's opinion. I mean, £300 is a lot compared to the competition, even if the machine offers better technology and extra peripherals and the like. Now Xbox is in with a very good chance to win these supposed console 'wars', and the choice between the PlayStation 2 and Xbox is a much easier decision to make. I know which one I'd choose, thats for sure.
This price drop shows that, unlike many companies (Nintendo, I'm looking at you) Microsoft are both willing and able to act upon consumer opinion. It says on their site that the price drop is due to strong public opinion, so I guess that they realised having a console double the price of the next best thing isn't the wisest of decisions. What stumps me, is that while Microsoft's initial excuse for the £300 price was due to the technology costs, I'm amazed that these costs can drop so much in little over a month. This price drop also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But I suppose that Microsoft's consolation to the people who paid full whack is justified. Two games and a controller would cost quite a bit in a shop, which is what its worth to the consumer. Since giving away two free games would cut out both the publisher's cut and the retailer's slice, it means that Microsoft will only be a few quid out of pocket for each Xbox. Considering they're making an extra hundred out of us, I guess that this offer wouldn't do too much harm for the company.
But is this whole Xbox thing just a big flop. It does smell a lot about the case with Nintendo, and while they are offering consolation and 'A Big Thankyou' to their 'loyal' customers, I don't think that their marketing strategy is very efficient. The initial price tag put off many potential customers, who by now would have probably invested in a PlayStation 2.
While I'm not knocking Microsoft for this strategy; £200 is a much better price than £300, They really should have done some public survey to find out what we really want. After all, there must be many people out there who bought a launch console and doesn't want these 'free' gifts. I think at least an £80 rebate should be on offer to those who would otherwise be significantly out of pocket.
So what is the overall effect of this pricing slash. For the non-xbox owning public, it surely should be good news, but for investors in the company (shares dropped by 8p [!] ) and current Xbox owners, this is a both annoying and perhaps smile inducing.
For myself, I couldn't really care. I bought my Xbox for just over £200 in Australia in duty free, which means that I've already gotten a great deal without these free goodies. A slight problem is that I don't really want; I wouldn't buy them otherwise, but if this deal had come into effect before I bought the three games and extra controller I have, I'd be bouncing with joy.
Its really then not our call to determine whether Microsoft's decision is genius or pure stupidity. No doubt countless topics, discussions and magazine articles will ensue, but only will we find out in full essence and truth when it inevitably enters the columns of Redeye...
This price drop shows that, unlike many companies (Nintendo, I'm looking at you) Microsoft are both willing and able to act upon consumer opinion. It says on their site that the price drop is due to strong public opinion, so I guess that they realised having a console double the price of the next best thing isn't the wisest of decisions. What stumps me, is that while Microsoft's initial excuse for the £300 price was due to the technology costs, I'm amazed that these costs can drop so much in little over a month. This price drop also demonstrates that mega-corporations can, and will tell little white lies to justify extortionate prices and the like.
But I suppose that Microsoft's consolation to the people who paid full whack is justified. Two games and a controller would cost quite a bit in a shop, which is what its worth to the consumer. Since giving away two free games would cut out both the publisher's cut and the retailer's slice, it means that Microsoft will only be a few quid out of pocket for each Xbox. Considering they're making an extra hundred out of us, I guess that this offer wouldn't do too much harm for the company.
But is this whole Xbox thing just a big flop. It does smell a lot about the case with Nintendo, and while they are offering consolation and 'A Big Thankyou' to their 'loyal' customers, I don't think that their marketing strategy is very efficient. The initial price tag put off many potential customers, who by now would have probably invested in a PlayStation 2.
While I'm not knocking Microsoft for this strategy; £200 is a much better price than £300, They really should have done some public survey to find out what we really want. After all, there must be many people out there who bought a launch console and doesn't want these 'free' gifts. I think at least an £80 rebate should be on offer to those who would otherwise be significantly out of pocket.
So what is the overall effect of this pricing slash. For the non-xbox owning public, it surely should be good news, but for investors in the company (shares dropped by 8p [!] ) and current Xbox owners, this is a both annoying and perhaps smile inducing.
For myself, I couldn't really care. I bought my Xbox for just over £200 in Australia in duty free, which means that I've already gotten a great deal without these free goodies. A slight problem is that I don't really want; I wouldn't buy them otherwise, but if this deal had come into effect before I bought the three games and extra controller I have, I'd be bouncing with joy.
Its really then not our call to determine whether Microsoft's decision is genius or pure stupidity. No doubt countless topics, discussions and magazine articles will ensue, but only will we find out in full essence and truth when it inevitably enters the columns of Redeye...