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"Money Matters"

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Thu 02/05/02 at 22:14
Regular
Posts: 787
March 14th saw the release of Microsoft’s X-box in Europe, the most powerful games console and sold awesome in America. And that is where it should have stayed because other than that country it has been a commercial flop. In Japan it retails at a price around £185, the cheapest worldwide and yet it has sold a pathetic 114,000 copies and that really is amazingly poor. But the X-box had a third segment of the globe to conquer, Europe. Again there was a difficult task ahead but judging on the success of the Playstation and with a £100 million advertisement campaign it was sure top succeed right? Right?

Well despite knowledge of the console and acknowledgement that there are many good games on the system the public was not interested. Fobbing the X-box off as a PS2 for rich kids and to be quite honest they’re right, and so the console throughout the entire of Europe sold 48,000 in their first week compare that to the Pre-orders of the Gamecube, which is in excess of 50,000 in the UK alone. So what we have here is the Cube smashing the X-box once again and so begs the question, why? Considering the relative disaster the N64 had in Europe surly it shouldn’t be beating a PS2 clone. Well as much as you may disagree the price is probably the most important factor around. Gamers will see that the Gamecube is at such a low price they decide to look at what the console has to offer and in turn get one, anyone who can’t afford one even at this low price of £160 + will simply say the price says it all, then again Nintendo fans said exactly the same thing about the Playstation two years previous so are in no position to complain. And that is the point, why dish out £300 for a console when they can get one almost half the price with that all cool exclusive Star Wars title just in time for the movie. And so Microsoft panicked, aware the console is selling badly compared with the Gamecube and aware why, it was too damn expensive. And so they did the only thing they could do, cut the price just a month after release.

And it would have worked too if the response from Nintendo hadn’t been so swift to silence the American big boys. Nintendo said “We always planned to price it lower but we were going to see how much the advertisement campaign would set us back”. One word for that and SR won’t let me print it, I do agree with half of that statement the “We always planned to price it lower” bit but the rest was utter codswollop. No manufacturer in their right mind would tell every shop the price so they can produce posters and flyers etc… only to change it so they have to change all the posters. Also Nintendo knew full well advertisement needed to be large but thanks to George Lucas advertising his next movie that it need not be too high. In the normal cube advert we see Star Wars as well as an advert all to itself so no wonder Gamecube exclusive Star Wars: Rogue Leader is the biggest selling launch title. So I don’t think Nintendo planned to see how much advertisement would cost them, after all there is still no need to drop the price, as it is much lower than the competition. But I do believe Nintendo planned that if Microsoft dropped the X-box price then the Gamecube one would drop too, and it did. Whilst Microsoft hastily cut £100 off the console Nintendo were far more cunning cutting the price of the cube by just £40, still a hefty drop but I’m sure you’ll agree that it is by no accident that the Gamecube price has dropped exactly the same amount, as it would cost you to buy a game.

And so here we have it, Microsoft’s price drop did nothing with only a slight increase in sales whilst the Gamecube’s pre-orders increased by 12,000 in the UK after the announcement, and it also made shop owners decide to keep the cube at a price as low as Nintendo said, whereas at £150 it rose to £170 the £130 price tag stuck and so Microsoft’s plan to rain on Nintendo’s parade has failed, with a launch party set to take place at HMV in London tonight and an advertisement campaign bigger than anything the N64 ever offered, I can finally say “Thank you Nintendo for noticing me and my fellow Europeans!”

Here’s to the future

Dringo.
Fri 03/05/02 at 23:35
Regular
Posts: 18,185
Or†ega wrote:
> Dringo, both them Xbox figures for Japan and Europe are wrong.
>
> The Xbox sold that figure in Japan at the launch. Sure, sales have
> been slow since but it has increased from that figure.


Nope it sold that by the end of march.

> The 48,000 Xbox figure you said for Europe is the figure for the UK.

That is 100% correct i went to several sources and they both confirm how the cube is selling better in the UK than the X-box did in the entire of Europe.

> Although it is still hard to find any hard evidence of sales as
> Microsoft havnt really released any figures.
Fri 03/05/02 at 13:10
Regular
Posts: 9,848
Ah, Dringo.

Remember that MSN argument we had about Metroid?
I've taken it into the Nintendo forum.

It explains why a true 3D incarnation of Super Metroid on the Snes could not have a predominant First Person Veiw Point.
You won't have trouble finding the topic.
Thu 02/05/02 at 23:00
Regular
Posts: 15,579
Dringo, both them Xbox figures for Japan and Europe are wrong.

The Xbox sold that figure in Japan at the launch. Sure, sales have been slow since but it has increased from that figure.

The 48,000 Xbox figure you said for Europe is the figure for the UK.

Although it is still hard to find any hard evidence of sales as Microsoft havnt really released any figures.
Thu 02/05/02 at 22:14
Regular
Posts: 18,185
March 14th saw the release of Microsoft’s X-box in Europe, the most powerful games console and sold awesome in America. And that is where it should have stayed because other than that country it has been a commercial flop. In Japan it retails at a price around £185, the cheapest worldwide and yet it has sold a pathetic 114,000 copies and that really is amazingly poor. But the X-box had a third segment of the globe to conquer, Europe. Again there was a difficult task ahead but judging on the success of the Playstation and with a £100 million advertisement campaign it was sure top succeed right? Right?

Well despite knowledge of the console and acknowledgement that there are many good games on the system the public was not interested. Fobbing the X-box off as a PS2 for rich kids and to be quite honest they’re right, and so the console throughout the entire of Europe sold 48,000 in their first week compare that to the Pre-orders of the Gamecube, which is in excess of 50,000 in the UK alone. So what we have here is the Cube smashing the X-box once again and so begs the question, why? Considering the relative disaster the N64 had in Europe surly it shouldn’t be beating a PS2 clone. Well as much as you may disagree the price is probably the most important factor around. Gamers will see that the Gamecube is at such a low price they decide to look at what the console has to offer and in turn get one, anyone who can’t afford one even at this low price of £160 + will simply say the price says it all, then again Nintendo fans said exactly the same thing about the Playstation two years previous so are in no position to complain. And that is the point, why dish out £300 for a console when they can get one almost half the price with that all cool exclusive Star Wars title just in time for the movie. And so Microsoft panicked, aware the console is selling badly compared with the Gamecube and aware why, it was too damn expensive. And so they did the only thing they could do, cut the price just a month after release.

And it would have worked too if the response from Nintendo hadn’t been so swift to silence the American big boys. Nintendo said “We always planned to price it lower but we were going to see how much the advertisement campaign would set us back”. One word for that and SR won’t let me print it, I do agree with half of that statement the “We always planned to price it lower” bit but the rest was utter codswollop. No manufacturer in their right mind would tell every shop the price so they can produce posters and flyers etc… only to change it so they have to change all the posters. Also Nintendo knew full well advertisement needed to be large but thanks to George Lucas advertising his next movie that it need not be too high. In the normal cube advert we see Star Wars as well as an advert all to itself so no wonder Gamecube exclusive Star Wars: Rogue Leader is the biggest selling launch title. So I don’t think Nintendo planned to see how much advertisement would cost them, after all there is still no need to drop the price, as it is much lower than the competition. But I do believe Nintendo planned that if Microsoft dropped the X-box price then the Gamecube one would drop too, and it did. Whilst Microsoft hastily cut £100 off the console Nintendo were far more cunning cutting the price of the cube by just £40, still a hefty drop but I’m sure you’ll agree that it is by no accident that the Gamecube price has dropped exactly the same amount, as it would cost you to buy a game.

And so here we have it, Microsoft’s price drop did nothing with only a slight increase in sales whilst the Gamecube’s pre-orders increased by 12,000 in the UK after the announcement, and it also made shop owners decide to keep the cube at a price as low as Nintendo said, whereas at £150 it rose to £170 the £130 price tag stuck and so Microsoft’s plan to rain on Nintendo’s parade has failed, with a launch party set to take place at HMV in London tonight and an advertisement campaign bigger than anything the N64 ever offered, I can finally say “Thank you Nintendo for noticing me and my fellow Europeans!”

Here’s to the future

Dringo.

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