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Xbox Price Drops For Australia And Europe
wallitron writes: "Due to slow sales in Australia, Microsoft is looking to drop the price of it's XBox to $399 (around $200US). With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out, it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS. At that price it seems good value. Check out the article on the price drop." There are price drops in Europe, too.
Actually, J Allard the head of MS' digital entertainment division (in charge of xBox) stated in a wired interview prior to the unit's release that he wanted to move prices down fairly rapidly, "to get the retail price to $100 as quickly as possible."
This may be a little faster than they had hoped to lower the price, but MS knows it's gonna take heavy losses to get the market penetration required to start making serious money on the software.
The users that were overkeen and bought one before the price cut (I think there were eight of them) wil be compensated:
"Those who have already bought the console at the higher price will, luckily, be compensated. Anyone who already has an Xbox, or buys one before April 25th, will receive two free games and a free controller"
The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made. (Marx)
M$ was already selling at a hefty loss (for some reason $100-$200 dollars comes to mind, but I'm not certain). This is standard practice in the console industry, though: sell the console as a loss-leader to make up profits in software royalties. Sony does it. Nintendo does it (though to a lesser extent). They were already basically dumping the XBoxes, and now they're trying to avalanche them.
Hopefully they get sued, and are forced to sell at cost >:).
BlackGriffen
Week 4/8-4/14, Japan Hardware Sales
* PS2: 55,000 units (total this year: 1,323,000)
* GBA: 31,000 units (total this year: 969,000)
* GameCube: 10,000 units (total this year: 510,000)
* PS1: 3,000 units (total this year: 74,000)
* WonderSwan: 2,000 units (total this year: 11,330)
* Xbox: 1,800 units (total this year: 169,000)
* Dreamcast: 1,500 units (total this year: 12,000)
(from IGN)
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
The anti-dumping regulations are there to protect nascent european industry from foreighn competitors segregating markets and dumping excess capacity. Consequently your comment makes no sense at all. Europe doesn't have a console industry to protect, and the cost of Xboxes is now comparable with other geographical regions, so it is not possible to argue that the practise is dumping.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
The DVD is probably all proprietary stuff - since it supposedly can spin both ways.
This urban legend has been applied to several video game systems. It's probably not true. It originated from the fact that some of the systems start from the outside of the disc and go in, as opposed to regular CDs and DVDs that start from the inside and go out. The PS2 and Xbox both have their boot sectors on the second layer of the DVD, which is typically written starting at the outside.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I can tell you exactly why MS has dropped the price of the XBox here in OZ.
They are shit-scared of the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo has been running a HUGE marketing campaign here in OZ. There about about 4 or 5 commercials for the GameCube every night on all three major TV stations. Not to mention Print and Radio. I have seen a total of ONE TV commercial for the XBox. The GC isn't even due til May 17th!.
Guess how much the GC is going to be when it is released. Yep... AUS$399. Funny that.
(This is also completely ignoring the fact that the XBox is so damn big, and the controller is just wrong.)
To be perfectly honest, I would love to see Sony and Nintendo drop their prices to AUS$199. This would basically wipe the XBox off the face of the planet.
Ummmm ... okay.
The XBox is getting its ass kicked in worldwide sales. Even in North America it is being outsold by the GameCube (although the GC is still behind in terms of total NA sales).
If you like playing little kiddie games thats great. I'll stick with my Halo, Wreckless, Max payne for now. Also sorry to burst your bubble.
Well, I'm glad you enjoy those games. Good for you. I happen to enjoy Mario and Zelda, and I'm a married adult -- I don't think that makes me "kiddie". For the record, I'm also getting Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness, both of which are very bloody and horrific.
Xbox E3 lineup will be awesome.
Glad you think so -- you've made quite an investment in the XBox, and I hope you get games you enjoy for it.
However, names like "Mario", "Zelda" and "Metroid" are important to a lot of people. Nintendo is showing all of their best franchises at E3 this year, and I very much doubt that any journalists will see Microsoft or Sony as having a better showing this year. We'll see in a little over a month, though -- feel free to scream "I TOLD YOU SO!" if a significant number of journalists (as supposedly objective parties) think MS trounced the competition at E3. I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
However I dont think you understand that XBOX does have very good 3rd party support.
And I don't think you were listening to me. I didn't say the XBox has lousy third-party support now -- I was referring to a hypothetical situation in which the XBox has failed. Obviously, at that point, all third parties are out the window, and the XBox 2 would have to start rebuilding support.
Picture, if you will, how Sega would have fared had they tried to introduce the Dreamcast 2. The situation facing the XBox 2 will be the same, if the XBox flops.
The xbox price cut is a good thing.
I don't recall saying otherwise.
Before you make you doom and gloom predictions and start talking about xbox 2 please do a little
research. Just pulling out of your ass all these prediction about the xbox 2 is pretty weak
I was speaking hypothetically. IF the XBox fails, there will be no XBox 2 -- at least not a successful one. Yes, I also predicted that this situation is likely, but the main point of my post was the logical conclusion that an XBox failure all but forces an XBox 2 failure.
Go back to your GC fanboy message boards. I think thats where you belong.
Ooookay. I think we have an insecure college kid on our hands, folks.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Nintendo responded by dropping the GameCube's launch price to $AU329.
Hurrah, etc.