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Over the past few months we have seen the announcement of the GC's UK release, the x-box launch, the x-box lower it's price by £100 and now, Nintendo are reducing the GC's price to £129.99 before it's even released! This is all good and fine but i think it all boils down to one simple point that gamers these days dont want to fork out more than £200 just for a console so they can play the latest games, or indeed pay more than £40 for a new release.
And thanks to a highly competititve market and cheaper manufacturing costs we are seeing the lowest priced range of new consoles and games Ever in gaming history, even the GBA is a snip at only £59.99!
If you can think back to around 1985 when the first REAL home based consoles were released (namely the NES and Master System) consumers were happy to pay the full whack for the latest consoles and even up to a staggering £59.99 per game!
But now as gaming is more of a mass market and companies such as Nintendo are trying to reach a wider audience whilst trying to compete with competitors, the only real option is to sell the hardware for the cheapest possible price, this is good as it means nearly everyone can afford to buy the games console of their choice and still have money left over to buy all the AAA titles that are inevitably released about a month later, rather than having to fork out extortionate ammounts just for a basic package with 1 or 2 launch titles and then having no money left over to buy some of the best titles that get released sometimes weeks after the launch and usually resulting in boredom and frustration as a lot of laucnh titles fail to last more than 1-2 weeks in some cases.
But how low can games companies afford to go in terms of pricing their consoles whilst still making a profit at the end of it? I mean look at Microsoft they released the X-box at £299 and then weeks later reduced the price to a mere £199 whilst compensating those who bought the console at £299 with 2 games and an Official controller, that adds up to £115! why would Microsoft make it so that they were slighty out of pocket? you might ask, well basically to attract a larger audience and get as many people to buy the console as possible so that they will be hooked and therfore buy all the games etc.
Microsofts price drop may have had something to do with slightly below par sales as well but the main purpose was to attract more potential consumers. Nintendo on the other hand have gone to the other extreme, not only is their console due to be the cheapest on the market, but they have lowered it even more even before releasing it! this is most likely down to two factors 1. they want to attract more "casual" gamers whilst at the same time appealing to the hardcore audience and 2. because of microsofts price drop, even though many of Nintendos spokes people (e.g shelley friend) claim that they are not threatened by either the X-box or Ps2 as they say that they are just "multimedia set-top boxes" it is clear that competition does play a key role in the price drop as they probably would not have done it otherwise.
I personally think this is a wise move on Nintendo's part as what better time to announce a price cut then just before launch, as when you think about it, it pays to do it now rather than a few weeks after the launch thus annoying a percentage of games who would have bought it at the full price, (even thought it is only around a £30 difference)
So, now that both Microsoft and Nintendo are almost officially at each other throats, where is Sony going to come into all this? will they follow in the footsteps of their competitors by announcing a subsequent pricecut? or will they announce a suprise early launch for their next console the PS3? or maybe they have something completely different in mind? but rest assured they will probably announce it in the coming weeks or the next month, but for now it seems they are quite happy in the position they are in right now, but come May 3rd and in the following weeks they will quite probably have to do something quite dramatic in order to maintain pole position.
But for now i guess we'll just have to see what happens in the coming weeks and rest assured there will probably be a few more suprise marketing ploys and shocking reductions, but one things for certain, whatever console you choose it's a great time to be a gamer!
slik ~_~
And thanks to a highly competititve market and cheaper manufacturing costs we are seeing the lowest priced range of new consoles and games Ever in gaming history, even the GBA is a snip at only £59.99!
If you can think back to around 1985 when the first REAL home based consoles were released (namely the NES and Master System) consumers were happy to pay the full whack for the latest consoles and even up to a staggering £59.99 per game!
But now as gaming is more of a mass market and companies such as Nintendo are trying to reach a wider audience whilst trying to compete with competitors, the only real option is to sell the hardware for the cheapest possible price, this is good as it means nearly everyone can afford to buy the games console of their choice and still have money left over to buy all the AAA titles that are inevitably released about a month later, rather than having to fork out extortionate ammounts just for a basic package with 1 or 2 launch titles and then having no money left over to buy some of the best titles that get released sometimes weeks after the launch and usually resulting in boredom and frustration as a lot of laucnh titles fail to last more than 1-2 weeks in some cases.
But how low can games companies afford to go in terms of pricing their consoles whilst still making a profit at the end of it? I mean look at Microsoft they released the X-box at £299 and then weeks later reduced the price to a mere £199 whilst compensating those who bought the console at £299 with 2 games and an Official controller, that adds up to £115! why would Microsoft make it so that they were slighty out of pocket? you might ask, well basically to attract a larger audience and get as many people to buy the console as possible so that they will be hooked and therfore buy all the games etc.
Microsofts price drop may have had something to do with slightly below par sales as well but the main purpose was to attract more potential consumers. Nintendo on the other hand have gone to the other extreme, not only is their console due to be the cheapest on the market, but they have lowered it even more even before releasing it! this is most likely down to two factors 1. they want to attract more "casual" gamers whilst at the same time appealing to the hardcore audience and 2. because of microsofts price drop, even though many of Nintendos spokes people (e.g shelley friend) claim that they are not threatened by either the X-box or Ps2 as they say that they are just "multimedia set-top boxes" it is clear that competition does play a key role in the price drop as they probably would not have done it otherwise.
I personally think this is a wise move on Nintendo's part as what better time to announce a price cut then just before launch, as when you think about it, it pays to do it now rather than a few weeks after the launch thus annoying a percentage of games who would have bought it at the full price, (even thought it is only around a £30 difference)
So, now that both Microsoft and Nintendo are almost officially at each other throats, where is Sony going to come into all this? will they follow in the footsteps of their competitors by announcing a subsequent pricecut? or will they announce a suprise early launch for their next console the PS3? or maybe they have something completely different in mind? but rest assured they will probably announce it in the coming weeks or the next month, but for now it seems they are quite happy in the position they are in right now, but come May 3rd and in the following weeks they will quite probably have to do something quite dramatic in order to maintain pole position.
But for now i guess we'll just have to see what happens in the coming weeks and rest assured there will probably be a few more suprise marketing ploys and shocking reductions, but one things for certain, whatever console you choose it's a great time to be a gamer!
slik ~_~
seeing as I explained POP to you the least you can do is comment on my post, dont you agree? :)
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
0-MessiaH-0 wrote:
> whats POP
>
> -M-
it's when you want to put a particular topic to the top of the list, in my case i POPed my topic in the hope that someone would leave a comment about it? hmm so what did you think of it? or have'nt you read it? :D
slik ~_~
> whats POP
>
> -M-
it's when you want to put a particular topic to the top of the list, in my case i POPed my topic in the hope that someone would leave a comment about it? hmm so what did you think of it? or have'nt you read it? :D
slik ~_~
whats POP
-M-
-M-
Hmm, it would apear that no one has read my post :( ah well i'll jus post some mindless crap in here that usually gets peoles attention :D hmm muuuuuh! spaker! muuuuuuust stop posting mindless crap now it's getting rather boring...
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
*POP*
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
Over the past few months we have seen the announcement of the GC's UK release, the x-box launch, the x-box lower it's price by £100 and now, Nintendo are reducing the GC's price to £129.99 before it's even released! This is all good and fine but i think it all boils down to one simple point that gamers these days dont want to fork out more than £200 just for a console so they can play the latest games, or indeed pay more than £40 for a new release.
And thanks to a highly competititve market and cheaper manufacturing costs we are seeing the lowest priced range of new consoles and games Ever in gaming history, even the GBA is a snip at only £59.99!
If you can think back to around 1985 when the first REAL home based consoles were released (namely the NES and Master System) consumers were happy to pay the full whack for the latest consoles and even up to a staggering £59.99 per game!
But now as gaming is more of a mass market and companies such as Nintendo are trying to reach a wider audience whilst trying to compete with competitors, the only real option is to sell the hardware for the cheapest possible price, this is good as it means nearly everyone can afford to buy the games console of their choice and still have money left over to buy all the AAA titles that are inevitably released about a month later, rather than having to fork out extortionate ammounts just for a basic package with 1 or 2 launch titles and then having no money left over to buy some of the best titles that get released sometimes weeks after the launch and usually resulting in boredom and frustration as a lot of laucnh titles fail to last more than 1-2 weeks in some cases.
But how low can games companies afford to go in terms of pricing their consoles whilst still making a profit at the end of it? I mean look at Microsoft they released the X-box at £299 and then weeks later reduced the price to a mere £199 whilst compensating those who bought the console at £299 with 2 games and an Official controller, that adds up to £115! why would Microsoft make it so that they were slighty out of pocket? you might ask, well basically to attract a larger audience and get as many people to buy the console as possible so that they will be hooked and therfore buy all the games etc.
Microsofts price drop may have had something to do with slightly below par sales as well but the main purpose was to attract more potential consumers. Nintendo on the other hand have gone to the other extreme, not only is their console due to be the cheapest on the market, but they have lowered it even more even before releasing it! this is most likely down to two factors 1. they want to attract more "casual" gamers whilst at the same time appealing to the hardcore audience and 2. because of microsofts price drop, even though many of Nintendos spokes people (e.g shelley friend) claim that they are not threatened by either the X-box or Ps2 as they say that they are just "multimedia set-top boxes" it is clear that competition does play a key role in the price drop as they probably would not have done it otherwise.
I personally think this is a wise move on Nintendo's part as what better time to announce a price cut then just before launch, as when you think about it, it pays to do it now rather than a few weeks after the launch thus annoying a percentage of games who would have bought it at the full price, (even thought it is only around a £30 difference)
So, now that both Microsoft and Nintendo are almost officially at each other throats, where is Sony going to come into all this? will they follow in the footsteps of their competitors by announcing a subsequent pricecut? or will they announce a suprise early launch for their next console the PS3? or maybe they have something completely different in mind? but rest assured they will probably announce it in the coming weeks or the next month, but for now it seems they are quite happy in the position they are in right now, but come May 3rd and in the following weeks they will quite probably have to do something quite dramatic in order to maintain pole position.
But for now i guess we'll just have to see what happens in the coming weeks and rest assured there will probably be a few more suprise marketing ploys and shocking reductions, but one things for certain, whatever console you choose it's a great time to be a gamer!
slik ~_~
And thanks to a highly competititve market and cheaper manufacturing costs we are seeing the lowest priced range of new consoles and games Ever in gaming history, even the GBA is a snip at only £59.99!
If you can think back to around 1985 when the first REAL home based consoles were released (namely the NES and Master System) consumers were happy to pay the full whack for the latest consoles and even up to a staggering £59.99 per game!
But now as gaming is more of a mass market and companies such as Nintendo are trying to reach a wider audience whilst trying to compete with competitors, the only real option is to sell the hardware for the cheapest possible price, this is good as it means nearly everyone can afford to buy the games console of their choice and still have money left over to buy all the AAA titles that are inevitably released about a month later, rather than having to fork out extortionate ammounts just for a basic package with 1 or 2 launch titles and then having no money left over to buy some of the best titles that get released sometimes weeks after the launch and usually resulting in boredom and frustration as a lot of laucnh titles fail to last more than 1-2 weeks in some cases.
But how low can games companies afford to go in terms of pricing their consoles whilst still making a profit at the end of it? I mean look at Microsoft they released the X-box at £299 and then weeks later reduced the price to a mere £199 whilst compensating those who bought the console at £299 with 2 games and an Official controller, that adds up to £115! why would Microsoft make it so that they were slighty out of pocket? you might ask, well basically to attract a larger audience and get as many people to buy the console as possible so that they will be hooked and therfore buy all the games etc.
Microsofts price drop may have had something to do with slightly below par sales as well but the main purpose was to attract more potential consumers. Nintendo on the other hand have gone to the other extreme, not only is their console due to be the cheapest on the market, but they have lowered it even more even before releasing it! this is most likely down to two factors 1. they want to attract more "casual" gamers whilst at the same time appealing to the hardcore audience and 2. because of microsofts price drop, even though many of Nintendos spokes people (e.g shelley friend) claim that they are not threatened by either the X-box or Ps2 as they say that they are just "multimedia set-top boxes" it is clear that competition does play a key role in the price drop as they probably would not have done it otherwise.
I personally think this is a wise move on Nintendo's part as what better time to announce a price cut then just before launch, as when you think about it, it pays to do it now rather than a few weeks after the launch thus annoying a percentage of games who would have bought it at the full price, (even thought it is only around a £30 difference)
So, now that both Microsoft and Nintendo are almost officially at each other throats, where is Sony going to come into all this? will they follow in the footsteps of their competitors by announcing a subsequent pricecut? or will they announce a suprise early launch for their next console the PS3? or maybe they have something completely different in mind? but rest assured they will probably announce it in the coming weeks or the next month, but for now it seems they are quite happy in the position they are in right now, but come May 3rd and in the following weeks they will quite probably have to do something quite dramatic in order to maintain pole position.
But for now i guess we'll just have to see what happens in the coming weeks and rest assured there will probably be a few more suprise marketing ploys and shocking reductions, but one things for certain, whatever console you choose it's a great time to be a gamer!
slik ~_~