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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.
I think their adverts are not that subtle either: one of them runs along the "nice way to die" line. Maybe a 240 volts escaping through a programming hole?
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
I wonder if the components are integrated inside, or can you start ripping things out. At $200 It might be worth it to start selling the stuff inside for money. Anyone out there know?
Arathres
stainless steel
I dont believe they were complaining that it wouldnt run Linux, they were saying that it would be a "killer app" so to speak if it HAD an OS; with it there would be no other computer equipment needed for a family-solution. Don't be so quick to flame. ;)
I thought I read that you can't dump a product on market in EU. That is, they can't sell it for less than the manufacturing costs. Apparently Xbox had at least an extra 100 on the price. For the new cost (299) it'd be almost worth it just for a DVD player.
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)
I appreciate the sentiment of your post, though I think the economics may not bear out. That box _IS_ a pc, and a formidable unit, at that price point. It is also quite interesting from an economic standpoint to see Microsft taking such a bath on a product to penetrate an evolving market. Fun to pour some oil on that fire, no?
Other posts have pointed out the fact that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. At ~$200 it is quite the temptation to redirect the ends of the original means.
How to kill Microsoft
Step 1) Earn $400 billion
Step 2) Buy 1 billion X-boxes and use them as computers, without buying any games
Step 3) Watch as Microsoft begins to collapse upon itself since it loses money on each unit!
Step 4) Tell all your buddies that Microsoft is dying and that they should switch to the superior Linux OS
Step 5) Play Tux Racer
Step 6) Repeat step 5
You have completed the six step program. Microsoft is now dead! Have a nice day!
This is $100 cheaper than the US version. What's to stop Americans from getting a PAL --> NTSC converter and ordering one from Australia? Are there any other differences? Is the DVD playback just region [AUS]? If so, maybe there's a mod to get around it?
c-hack.com |
you forgot the 10 gig hard disk, dvd rom, ethernet controller and 256 channel dolby capable soround sound.
2 sacks of pocket change should cover it.
> it would be a handy thing in the living room if it ran a real OS.
Why would it matter what OS it runs? If it used Linux instead, it wouldn't suddenly have more functionality. It wouldn't suddenly have the ability to open your curtains or turn on your coffee machine. It already does what it's supposed to do: play games.
No console game player should ever care what OS their game system uses.
(I wonder if the Indrema never came to light because they expected gamers to manually mount the DVD drive before playing each game.)
Scott McNealy has offered to do some time in the dunking booth, though. In drag, even!
This guy should know that if he has his receipt Microsoft will give him 2 XBox games and an extra controller for free. They're doing this for all early adopters who bought an XBox beore the price break in Austrailia and Europe.
A big Thank You to all Xbox gamers!
As a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who bought an Xbox before 26th April we are offering, until 1st July 2002, the chance for you to get 2 games and an Xbox Controller for FREE! That means you could be playing games like Halo, Rallisport Challenge, Project Gotham Racing, Amped, Oddworld or Dead or Alive 3 amongst other great games for free!
They must be desperate to make sales, their already selling these things at a huge loss. It seems like
microsoft is beating a dead horse with this one; nobody's really buying them, and their's shit all for games
compared to the competition, even fewer worth paying for. I for one am glad to see them failing, the more
markets left open to fair competition the better. But, like most other markets microsoft treads on,
they'll probably keep trying til they get it right, and if history has taught me anything.. they will,
eventually; IE was a piece of crap until version 3, windows 95 was terrible, etc. Afterall,
they have billions and billions of dollars to throw at the problem.
I really hope the justice department can get their shit together and do something soon.
I've been planning on buying a GameCube for quite a while now, infact I pre-ordered (May 17th launch in Australia, I don't want one enough to spend $AU1000 importing, blah blah etc) several months ago.
As far as I recall, the launch price for the GameCube in Australia is going to be $399. Whenever I've told people that price, then compared to the $799 Xbox, people would be shocked. Then they'd realise they could get a GameCube and a couple of games for the same price as a gameless Xbox. I know first-hand of a couple of people that have held back and waited for a GameCube because of this.
All well, there'll be two interesting things to observe from this: Nintendo's reaction, and early Xbox adopters' reactions.
I wonder if Nintendo will drop their GCN launch price now? To be honest, I don't think they have much of a choice if they want to remain competitive. As for the Xbox owners: They get what they deserve! Err, seriously though, I bought a Nintendo 64 on March 7th 1997 (a week after the launch in Australia) for $399. 3 months later, the price dropped to $299. Nintendo had a very quiet promotion of "free game for early adopters". It's where my copy of Mario Kart 64 is from.
I wonder if Microsoft will do the same now?
If I were Michael Dell or Ted Waitte (Gateway), I would be on 'red alert', so to speak. Microsoft are literally giving hardware away and establishing themselves with a box in every living room. An XBox upgrade kit in the future (with a USB keyboard and mouse, maybe throw in WindowsXBox and a lite version of XBox Office) and suddenly you have proprietry hardware running a proprietry OS. Future versions of desktop Windows will have terrible driver support or hardware crippling commands for Dells and Gateway, making them seem slower, while uncrippled Xbox drivers will run at normal speed (which will seem very fast for normal users).
Microsoft are positioning themselves to be a hardware company, muscling Dell and Gateway out the PC business. The next M$ monopoly will be on PC hardware. A one stop solution, so to speak - Microsoft will supply the OS, hardware and software.
Revolution = Evolution
Microsoft are going to give $250 of Xbox "products" as a "gift" to early adopters. How nice of them.
I wonder if "products" are going to be full games/controls/accessories...
A few more killer apps wouldn't hurt, either.
*nod* They should port Office to it!
--
Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
This price drop has brought up something that always made me curious as an aussie gamer. The hypothetical "what if" is about to be answered..
The problem for the average aussie gamer, is that titles/consoles that are sold here are basically sold in USD prices, converted to local currency.. i.e. That $40US game will be released here at ~$80AUD. However, the average aussie wage is the same (or less) in AUD than an equivalent job in USD..
So the aussie gamer is effectively paying "twice" as much for games with his hard earnt cash..
i.e. Two kids working at mcdonalds say, are bringing home their $8/hr local currency for 20 hour week.
The US kid, $160 USD buys them 4 games. The Aussie kid, $160 AUD buys them 2 games.
Of course the best solution for the aussie gamer would be if they sold the title for an equivalent local amount.. But if that was the case, then wouldnt everyone overseas just turn around and import/mail order stuff from these countries where the local dollar was weak. You'll already see people pondering about doing this exact thing in the comments.
Will this establish a driver for more "affordable" gaming prices in Australia, or will it just provoke a massive mail order business by US folks looking to score their gaming at cheap rates..
I'll be looking on with interest
Microsoft will start shipping xbox's with every copy of Windoze sold and claim that it is an integral part of the operating system and that it is to the users benefit to have xbox functionality be a part of the OS. A bunch of states will whine about it, but when push comes to shove, they'll "force" M$ to donate 1 million xbox's to schools ensuring a bountiful supply of users in need of software (which actually does show a nice profit).
.dll extension, changing the path seperator to the backslash, and creating home, professional, server, advanced server, way super duper advanced server, and ludicrous speed server versions of the OS (though through some packaging magic, all versions of the OS will ship on a single cd).
Also, M$ will announce that the next version of xbox will use their new operating system called Unix# (that's Unix Sharp, not Unix Pound, or Unix Waffle, or Unix Tic-Tac-Toe, or Unix Number). Unix# will be just like Unix, but much better for end users and developers as it will make their lives much easier. Differences include forcing all shared libraries to have the
In the meantime, Bill Gates, who is personally funding xbox from his personal "play" account, is forced, due to weak sales, to postpone the purchase of the country of Belize until the next fiscal quarter.
The price drops in the UK and Europe are the most important... there's like 300 million people here and like what, 5 in Australia?
This announcement comes only a few days after news reports came out saying it was obvious that Microsoft wasn't going to make their sales targets. I don't know WHAT the hell they were thinking at first putting the price up so high in Europe, the economies here are much, much weaker than in the U.S. Almost no one can afford 450 for freakin' game machine.
There was no real reason for the prices to be that high, especially since they're making the XBox's in Hungary, not a place known for its high labor costs, hey?
I read that Microsoft wasn't probably going to lower prices in the U.S. until Sony does, but it seems that Microsoft is looking at the numbers and not the competition (at least in the rest of the world) so maybe they'll get a clue.
Has anyone hacked this bad boy with Linux yet? Then to me it would be worth the price of letting a Microsoft product into my home.
-Russ
Me
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
What the reviewer meant is that at those prices the Xbox could be used as a really cheap computer (or maybe even a webserver). for those uses OS matters.
How can you be bound by a EULA at the time you buy something? (I'm honestly just curious. It would seem that the EULA could have no effect on where you buy something, because you hadn't agreed to it at that point. Am I wrong?)
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Anyway, M.A.M.E. is in the progress of being ported.
(In desperate search for a cool
Why did he buy one if he hated it?
They have sufficient cash in the bank to practically give them away. Reports indicated that they expected to lose, what, a billion or something in the first year?
.NET and check "build XBOX exe"?
All it's gonna take is a couple really GOOD games, not Halo-good, but 'Legend Of Zelda' good. If they can hit that sweet spot, things will change.
The hardware is certainly there, as if the software/OS. What I think is holding them back is that developing for a PC takes a slightly different mindset. I doubt some companies already heavily invested in Playstation gaming want to move over to XBox. Given the length of release cycles in PC games, I doubt the big PC game makers (Blizzard, etc) can even reasonably expect to get the game out. Besides, most PC companies don't have the mindset, either; they seem to sell lately on the idea of multiplayer, and expansions. The console market seems small, I would suspect.
Dunno. What's it take to develop on the XBox? Can I just pick up a copy of Visual Studio
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
I've had two spam faxes in the office today (we never get spam faxes here, so thats significant in itself)
The gist of them is that if I sign up for an MSCE course I'll get a free X-Box
It shows every sign of a truly desperate company trying to shift stock, and certainly makes it look like the X-Box is a tacky trinket.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Microsoft couldn't do anything else.. it has to fight it's way up to Sony which is number 1 overall. People who own PS1 consoles now will probably not buy the Xbox just because their current games aren't compatible with it. If they buy the PS2 they have a new gaming console, new games AND they can still use their old games without having their old console.
Microsoft can only aim for those who do not own a console allready or those who want a new console and their is no "upgrade" for their current cosole and it's games.. and those are few. The people who did not buy a gaming console in the past are most likely not going to buy one now just because Microsoft is the manufacturer. Those who do will most likely ask around their friends to see what they use so they can swap games etc..
Microsofts best bet is "giving away" the console at very low prices hoping that people with less money to spend will choose their Xbox. Not because of the games, not because of the Microsoft tag and certainly not because of the fact that it is "superior" to other consoles..
"With a fast CPU, wizzy graphics card, ethernet, DVD and TV out"
A game console with tv out? Amazing, it's bound to sell like hotcakes with innovation like this.
1.) The idea that the Microsft would turn the Xbox into a PC? Do you know how hard they have worked to make sure people _DONT_ perceive the Xbox as a PC? Not only would this piss off hardware vendors but it would land them in legal trouble instantly. I don't care what arguement you may have - you will _never_ see the XBox performing as a PC.
2.) XBox as a DVR (or TiVo type device). Well, considering there currently isn't a TV input for the XBox I dont think this will happen. I suppose they could feed video via ethernet over broadband but this would be insane. Again, the changes of MS doing something like this is next to nothing.
3.) Chances are if the XBox does fail - its dead. Yes Microsoft has put tons of money behind the Xbox but that doesn't mean they have to keep supporting it if its a loser. Look at UltimateTV - Microsoft put a lot behind that and while they are still providing support for their existing customer base they certainly aren't pushing the product anymore.
I own an XBox, a PS2 and a Dreamcast. In every market some products win, some fail - not everyone can win. The Xbox hasn't even been out a year yet and everyone is expecting its demise - I would have to give the product at least a year from now to more properly speculate what its life will be like. Only time will tell. The best we can hope for if the Xbox fails is that by some grace of god M$ gives regular users what they need to 'hack' the box. Fat chance.
As for the MS Hate talk:
While Slashdot is website built for a community -the boring, redundant "M$ Sucks, M$ is Evil" rhetoric gets really boring, redundant and repetitive. Yes everyone has an opinon but the "Me too!" posts suck - Everyone knows you hate them so shut up already.
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
Many of the console games in development at the moment are planned for release on all three consoles. The launch titles for the X-Box are pretty uninspiring, but it's early days yet.
Microsoft are in a much better position than they'd have been in if Sony had used their extra year of time with the PS2 on the market effectively.
Personally I'm leaning toward buying a Gamecube. This change in price brings the X-Box down to the same price, but I just prefer Nintendo's style (and franchise characters).
Having 3 consoles on the market is doing great things as far as I'm concerned, as a gamer. When you can develop a game for one of two systems, often you'll only do one. But if sticking to one system cuts you out of a large portion of the market, you're more likely to develop for them all.
..and I'll form the head!!
Hoorays for lowering the price of the Xbox unit itself, but what about the games? As a PC gamer enthusiast, the relatively high price of Xbox games at around 100 euros makes me think twice before buying this...thing into my living room. Sure, it's also a DVD player, but most of all, it's a game console, obviously.
I mean, what fun is it, if I have to think about my budget for the whole month when buying a game? I don't want my game buying decision to be a well-thought, rational financial decision, but instead I just want to think whether this game will be entertaining me enough in order to justify the amount of money I'm giving away for it.
The high price of the games takes that fun away, and atleast for me, the Xbox remains on the shelf at the local store, waiting for those game prices to come down.
And really, don't start with that piracy thing and how it really justifies the high price. It doesn't.
__
Zarathustra.fi
Modern man has no goal, no aim, no ideals.
According to this news report, Microsoft expects to sell 3.5 to 4 million units of Xbox, instead of previously planned 4.5 to 6, by end of June this year:
Microsoft said on Thursday it expected to ship a total of 3.5 million to 4 million Xbox video consoles by the end of June, a drastic scaling back of previous expectations of 4.5 million to 6 million units, due to weak sales in Japan and Europe.
Sigged!
To save your $100 youd have to get around region coded games, incompatable tv color standards, different voltage, lack of locally redemable warranty and the cost of international shipping.
Actually why don't you go ahead and do that. It sounds like the smartest thing you'll ever do in your life, you damn karma whore.
_________________
EBAY SAFETY TIPZ!
If the also brought the price of the games down to A$29.95 then I'd cave in and buy one. It's easy to resist a cheap console when the games are so damn expensive. I think I'll drop by a pawnbroker on the way home from work and see what the average price for a secondhand Xbox game is at the moment...
"1.) The idea that the Microsft would turn the Xbox into a PC? Do you know how hard they have worked to make sure people _DONT_ perceive the Xbox as a PC? Not only would this piss off hardware vendors but it would land them in legal trouble instantly. I don't care what arguement you may have - you will _never_ see the XBox performing as a PC."
;)
Of course they don't want it percieved that way, there OS distributers(getawat, Dell, etc...) would drop a brick. No tts a game console. that will, coincedently, be turned into a computer, once it is in a few million homes. MS will be like "Hey we sold a game console, now are customers want a more robust operating system, we're just meet customer demand..."
Even if this wasn't there original plan, In a desperate move for somebody to save their ass, I can see it going that way.
"2.) XBox as a DVR (or TiVo type device). Well, considering there currently isn't a TV input for the XBox I dont think this will happen. I suppose they could feed video via ethernet over broadband but this would be insane. Again, the changes of MS doing something like this is next to nothing."
I wonder if they could use the USB 2.0 port to do that(with adapter, of course)? I tend to agree with you, but if your a company, and your contracted to produce a million units, and your not successful you:
a)go out of business. Not going to happen with MS
b)Buy out the contract
c)Find another use for those products sitting in warehouses costing you money.
If then X-Box failes, which it is, I would think thet'll go for C.
As for the MS hate talk, hate talk, if you don't ignore it, it will just ruin your day. Beside someone has to tell the newbies that MS sucks.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It will be interesting to see what Sony does in response. It's seems clear that they will drop prices in response but the question is how much. The way I see it Sony basically has 2 options. First they can drop their price a bit. Keep their profit margins and try and wait it out hoping the X-box doesn't get too big. Or they can respond with their one big price cut and try and hurt MS bad enough to force them out of the market for good. If Sony is able to force MS out of the consol market that is a huge boon for them because that destroys their major competition, right now Sony is very established in that market and I dno't see them giving any ground without a big fight. MS on the other hand has a lot of cash in the bank (I heard someone say it could run for another 10 years without another dime of revenue?!?) and they have a lot of other interests involved with the sucess of X-box (MS in the living room), it will be interesting to see how far MS decides to stick it out. I think the question is how far will this price war go, I can't see MS dropping the price much more but they are ruthless. If Sony doesn't do something big I think X-box is here to stay, MS ain't cashing in their chips at this point and there will be some very heavy competion in the consol market. It will be very interesting to see what kind of response Sony makes to this price cut. We could end up with anything from a Sony-MS split in consols to a corporate game of chicken.
I stole this Sig
How come sony dropping the price to edge out microsoft is a huge boon, but microsoft dropping them to beat sony is them being ruthless? You see this constantly on slashdot. Sure MS dont stick to standards, dont have the most superior product, etc etc. In the end though their loyalties lie not to "the industry" but to the share holders. I dont think at any stage microsoft should be sitting back going "what is the best thing I can do for the IT world today? oh not release a new OS because this one is just dandy!" they should be going "get a new OS out faster, we need to keep our share holders happy". Yes it's not ideal, but it's simply intelligent business practice and they deserve every cent they can squeeze out of people. Nobody has any right to complain, we drive the market. Dont like the product, dont buy it. If it's a success, bad luck you were in the minority. Want to do something about it? All the whining flaming trolls on here who hate MS should buy up as many shares as they can and influence the direction of the company. I sincerly doubt many of you would maintain your stance were the outcome going to affect your own back pocket* *please dont take as a dig to the initial poster, just a criticism of the ever increase MS hate fud on slashdot of late.
Glenn
The Smrt way to trade CFDs on the ASX
Now you get their systems too. 3 systems for 200 dollars... Score!
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
People who have already bought an X-Box (or won one in my case - I'm not that stupid) can get two free games plus an extra controller (see http://www.xbox.com/uk/news/0025.htm)
Trouble is, of the games on offer, you're certain to already have at least one and the others might not really appeal (speaking as someone who took Amped back to the shop and got his money back).
The games are:
Halo
Rallisport Challenge
Project Gotham Racing
Amped
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Dead or Alive 3
Bloodwake
Fuzion Frenzy
Still, it's probably worth getting them just to use as coffee mats - it costs M$oft money and that can only be a good thing...
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
I am quite certain that you are not allowed to sell for less than manufacturing costs in the EU.
A few weeks ago, I read an article about MS wanting to cut the prices on xbox, but that EU threatened to take them to court if they did. Now, just a few weeks later, they do it anyway and not a single word about that law is heard. I smell some heavy lobbying.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
Well for every xbox sold MS loose money -it 's the games they make money at - so buy one for all means! Just don't buy the games. ;-)
Making it run linux would be a nice littel project and quite a funny thing to do to MS
if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
There's been something of a gap in the market since the Amiga evaporated, that gap being 'the home computer'
a Gamecube on steroids with something like BeOS on it for around $450 would be vaguely doable, and there's a killing to be made IMO
Dumb flamer. We're supposed to run Linux on everything. Just yesterday I successfully ported KDE 3.0 to my shoelaces. Still working on the doorstop distribution. Soon I'll be able to sed my lawn. Ph34r.
Microsoft signed an agreement not to bundle IE with Win9x. That's why bundling it with Win9x is illegal, while bundling a webbrowser with WinNT, KDE, MacOS etc. is not.
The complete and utter lack of any sense of justice is astonishing in the pro-MS department.
They really think that MS doesn't have to fullfill their agreements, they think that laws apply to everybody except MS and they also think that when MS just breaks the agreement with a vengeance (like bundling it in a way that it's hard to unbundle it again), the agreement ceases to exist.
If I manipulate my Ferrari to not go slower than 200, I also can't say later in court that they have to allow me to go faster than 200.
You're wrong :-)
Well, you could refuse the EULA and get your money back. Same with Office, when you read the EULA you can disagree with it and return the product for a full refund -- but it's a hassle and a half.
I'm sure you could also inspect the EULA before you purchase if you wanted to.
I am not an English Major. I did poorly in it at school. Still, I have made a concious effort to improve my English since leaving school.
English majors, as a class, are not writers. Just as in programming, "writing good language", and "writing things that people will get excited about" are quite different properties.
Poor journalism is more to do with corporate image. The ABC and the BBC put a lot of effort into grooming their on-line people.
I have 50 karma as well. But then, I care about this.
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
Are you suggesting MS's biggest (only?) competition is underwear gnomes?
Hm, Gnomes...perhaps it's time for an underwear theme for Gnome...
GNU/Linux to run on this thing?
I'm not super programmer, but I'd be quite happy if some kid (or adult) somewhere figured out how to make one of these a nice little computer system.
After all, a $200 computer for the parents and a happy smile (for taking the cost out of Gate's pocket) would make a happy, happy man. (Is there something wrong when you feel joy at another man's loss?)
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
That's strange: every mobile phone shop in the country must be breaking the law by selling phones for less than their manufacturing cost. You are talking absolute nonsense. Why would the european union sue MS for selling Xboxes cheaply? What european industry would be protected by such a move?
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
"Killer app" means "killer application," which in turn implies some use of a technology that is desired by a lot of people, and not easily satisfiable otherwise. Even if you did install a general-purpose OS on your video game console and hooked it up to a TV, what do you have? Pretty much just a PC hooked up to a TV, which in itself is not all that exciting; it certainly doesn't demonstrate a "killer app." TiVo has a killer app, IMO, but the important part there is the monthly directory service and the software interface.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
It's still the best gaming experience money can buy, and the graphics hold up quite well in the face of PS2 & xbox (with the only regret that Sega never released a proper soccer game). Shame that these wretches who call themselves game distributors don't get it and stop taking kids for complete morons with lame games (yes, that's you, Oddcrap) when for a fraction of the price of that 1970's VCR with a green X on it, you can play 4 player Power Stone 2 or Rez or Bangai-O. Ah, but you have to like games more than ripping people off... tough choice!
Microsoft is looking at long term goals with the XBox, I don't think anyone thought the XBox would overtake teh PS2 for more reasons then I care to name here but if Microsoft were to release a backwards compatible XBox 2 and 3 with revamped hardware and additional network features they may have a chance to gain market share.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Clearly the Xbox is not doing so hot. Mindshare reigns supreme in such things. From my own (long, sordid, embarrasing) experience with console gaming, all it takes is for gamers to start with the 'ConsoleX is dead' talk. Which is infuriating from a certain point of view (just ask a DreamCast owner), but that's the way things go. The game market is like the stock market - perception is everything.
So now we have MS losing over $100 US on ever Xbox, and Sony has announced PS2 on a chip, which will significantly, drive the cost down. This has got to drive MS nuts, as they're not used to competing on these terms (i.e. brutally efficient hardware manufacturing. Really, who wants to compete with the Japanese here.) They know they need control of the living room. It's the beachhead for the next battle. And Sony is entrenched like a mntherfncker.
Didn't Microsoft's slogan used to be "a computer on every desk and in every home in America", or something to that effect? Always thought that was odd for a software company... well, before they started putting their OS into phones, consoles, and Things With Buttons.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
quite correct. In which case I point to inkjet printers and razors as other examples of products that are sold as loss leaders in order to gain a captive market for the refills. Which is the same as the Xbox - MS want market share so they sell the hardware as a loss leader in order to create a market for the games and accessories, and to get people used to MS hardware.
"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?
When the things sit on shelves unsold, they cost Microsoft still more.
This is because not giving Microsoft any money to offset their costs, hurts them more than giving Microsoft money that doesn't completely offset their costs.
But if you want to organize people to go out there on a large scale and give Microsoft money, why, you go right ahead there. I'm sure they'll find things to do with it! Maybe they'll use the money you give them to come up with a plan to really hurt the (GPL) software license I like best and use. After all, it is not okay with them that I should just mind my own business and write code without paying attention to them. If you give them money maybe they can develop and fund programs that FORCE me to deal with them, such as using Passport for US national ID.
Okay, so I spoke too soon. When I said 'why you go right ahead there', cross that out and write 'are you fscking crazy?????' :P
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.
& Have dual input 110v/240v powersupplies, where you just need one of those travel-mate adaptors that just change the physical plug layout.
Its simple economies of scale.
Doing it that way is cheaper than doing different runs for different countries.
I assume that on the back there'd be a tiny hole that you can fit a screwdriver through that lines up with a tiny sloted mini-switch for switching PAL to NTSC, etc. Or some other switching method.
My brother's DVD player has a little hole that lines up with a sloted mini-switch on the circut board - you just stick a swrewdriver in & turn it different notches for different DVD regions, or all the way arround for the region free setting. His DVD player auto switches between PAL & NTSC (it has 3 settings - 'PAL', 'NTSC' & 'Auto')
Of course I'm just assuming this, but from my experiance here in Oz, it seems all the contempory electrical gear seems to be world compatible.
If the XBox was going to be custom made for different countries, you'd be looking at 5 or 6 different regions of DVDs, 2 different powersupplies (110v for Nth America, 240v for everywhere else, & about 8 different powerplug types) & PAL, SECAM & NTSC video outputs.
Now just about every telly, VCR, DVD & TV card in Oz outputs all 3 types at the flick of the switch ('PAL', 'NTSC', 'Auto', I assume SECAM can work under either the 'PAL' or 'Auto' setting). I don't see why the XBox would be any different.
While just about every DVD player in Oz can be set to change regions & 'region-free' (earlier ones), or change regions & 'multi-region' (later ones). Either via an internal microswitch that's oftern externally accesable (as ealier mentioned), or via a coded button sequence on the remote, or by the salesman working some magic on the guts at purchase time. I don't see why the XBox will be any different.
Now with powersupplies, it gets more complicated. There's no reason the XBox can't have 110v/240v dual imputs, however there's the problem of about at least 8 different mainstream wall-plug formats across the world.
The XBox could deal with this problem in 2 ways -
- It could have a dual input 110v/240v built-in powersupply with a standard cassette-radio type 2 pin plug on it, or a 3 slot PC powersupply plug on it, & MS just supplying it with different powercables for the different countries.
- The other option is for MS just to sell the XBoxes with external briquette type powersupplies that match whatever country its sold in.
Which means using a Oz XBox in the US would hopefully be as simple as either changing the powercable or the briquette powersupply (whichever is applicable).
One thing I find interesting is that I've repeatedly heard the argument that Microsoft can just throw money at XBox until it succeeds. The whole first-iteration-sucks but the third-one-will-be-good thing Microsoft is famous for.
I don't buy it.
The XBox looks likely to fail. It's getting its ass whipped everywhere but America, and even here the GameCube has started to outsell it despite no strong releases on the GameCube side. When Resident Evil, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Eternal Darkness, and Star Fox Adventures hit the GameCube (supposedly all this year), Microsoft will need to have some damned strong support on their side to survive just in North America. And, barring some big surprises being revealed at E3, it doesn't look like they have too many great games coming, at least not that will stand up to Zelda and Mario. In any case, no matter how they do here, I think it's very likely that Japan, Europe, and Australia are lost causes.
Suppose they do fail utterly -- they have to discontinue the XBox because people aren't buying it. Now, this is Microsoft, so of course they go back to the drawing board and release the even-more-powerful XBox 2. Twice as powerful as the Playstation 3, say, and a bit cheaper. Sounds great, right? Microsoft can just keep shoveling these things into the market until one of them sticks, the same way they've done with everything else.
Well, no. Firstly, Microsoft's first-party games won't support the XBox 2 by itself. Nintendo is the only game company in the world that can pull that trick off. So the XBox 2 will need third-party support in order to have any games at all, and without games nobody will buy the system, no matter how powerful it is.
Even after the XBox failure, many PC game companies might be willing to port their stuff to the XBox 2 for a quick buck. But can you imagine *anybody* developing exclusive software for the XBox 2, after the complete and utter failure of the XBox? Well, it's not impossible, but the XBox 2 would have to have a lot going for it in order to attract any third-party game companies. The Japanese third-parties, in particular, would be unlikely to touch the thing after the obvious failure of the first. They're leery enough dealing with the first one, and only tremendous work on Microsoft's part got any Japanese support at all.
I'm well aware that Microsoft has deep pockets and can afford to buy game companies outright in order to force them to develop for the XBox 2 -- but that's not the point. They've already bought Bungie, and shovelled money at others, and it doesn't seem to be making a hell of a lot of difference. They need to fix the problem *now*, or it will be far, far more expensive to try to salvage the XBox 2. Microsoft isn't stupid -- they are perfectly well aware that unless they succeed now, it will be *really* expensive to try to make a comeback.
In my view, if the XBox fails, it's all over for Microsoft's game console business. It will be really tough to buy back consumer and third-party confidence after the fiasco that looks to be shaping up.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
I've read many allusions to this all over the web and I have one question: What the h3ll are you talking about?
It's a GAME CONSOLE! Here's what you do with it: 1) plug it in, 2) turn it on, 3) insert a game disk and 4) start playing.
Exactly what is it that you want to do with this thing that requires a 'real OS'? If your answer goes beyond steps 1 through 4 above then I think you're a bit confused; you don't want a game console, you want something else entirely. It's called a computer.
Actually, Y/C is luminance (black and white part) and chroma (color part). I don't know why luminance is Y :)
And component video is Y/Cb/Cr--luminance, and two color difference channels (Blue - Y and Red - Y).
...MS knows it's gonna take heavy losses to get the market penetration required to start making serious money on the software.
It is amazing to me how much money Microsoft is bleeding out with the XBox. It's an insane strategy if making money off game software royalties is their goal. However, I don't think that they ever intend for XBox to turn a profit, at least in this generation. Rather, they are protecting their monopoly.
Microsoft has the monopoly on the PC OS. But what if, 5 or 10 years from now, nobody used a PC? What if everyone used a TV set-top appliance that played games and DVD's, was a PVR, surfed the web as an internet appliance, wrote letters and resumes and balanced the checkbook. This theoretical "convergence box" is the direction that many pundits see the industry heading. So if, in the future, everyone uses this box instead of a PC, Microsoft would be out of business.
Unless that box had a Microsoft logo on it instead of a Sony one. I think that this is the real reason Microsoft got into the console business, and the reason they are willing to lose so much money. They want to protect the monopoly, plain and simple. If they lose a billion dollars on X-Box over 4 years, but keep the industry stranglehold that earns them tens of billions of dollars annually, then it was money well lost.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
On the other hand, the other console was released a hair over 6 years ago, has no advertising, is essentially overpriced considering the 100 million! previous sales are heading to the used console market, is way past the tapered end of the sales curve, and people are buying it knowing that it has no future and may in fact be best suited for use as a lawn ornament.
With that in mind, I would say, YES for the love of bug-fuck 3000 for an end-of-life box is more than 1800 for a new, hyped, growing box. What, you're complaining about the totals? Bah. Look at the sales curves: normally, you see the opening week spike, sales fall to a fraction (but still sizeable) for the next month or two as the early adopters get their gear; as they taper off everyone else gets around to buying. Slowly the sales figures grow and level off at 1/4 to 1/3 of the launch, where they stay for another 3 years or so. The Xbox curve: opening week spike, gradual fall, complete plummet following broken hardware snafu; their curve is now below a relic and still falling. And for a finale, there is little to no historical precedent to show that a company can pull out of a dive like that.
ciao, Xbox. See you in 5 years.
That's what we would call 'a freakish divergence of plotted sales figures'.It was a huge steaming pile of crap for several releases, but they kept throwing money at programmers, buying up competitors, and generally forcing it in places it did not fit. Well it is the de-facto standard now and quite nice. Whether this was the strategy M$ intended or not, it is the road they generally take. Give them another year for game developers to catch on and I see a real competion. That said I am NOT buying a console, that can't interface into my PC system, period.
:)
As to you "PC gamers"...My PC system BLOWS away any console system for overall gaming experience, no contest, plus it has the added value of being useful for a mryiad of other tasks, and UPGRADEABLE to boot
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I said the PS1 is outselling the XBox, not that the PS1 has outsold the XBox, although that is also true depending on the timeframe; the statement you are making is that since the beginning of 2002, more XBoxes than PS1s have been sold, which has a very different meaning. The rate at which PS1s are being sold in Japan right now is much higher than the rate at which XBoxes are (is refers to the present tense).
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Look- Microsoft Office, Word etc. have long been copied. Really large people have 'stolen' these products, not EVEN paying Microsoft money for them, much less paying hundreds of dollars. So, since Microsoft clearly lost money on all those Office copyings, and weren't even paid AT ALL, clearly it's done them loads of damage, and that is why Word and Office never became successful products and we have the thriving office-software competitive market we have tod..
doh!
Get it?
Anyhow, see the point? Let's not be doing this with game consoles. Consoles are about having fun, and nothing about Microsoft is fun. Unless you're into BDSM, I suppose :)
Nintendo responded by dropping the GameCube's launch price to $AU329.
Hurrah, etc.
Also, a lot of Japanese made TV's support a multitude of TV formats, including both NTSC and PAL. So if the manual says that your TV supports PAL-B/G (as well as the local format) it would work. I suspect that PAL capable TVs would be more expensive in NTSC countries, since NTSC requires less hardware. Feeding 240V into the X-box may be a pain, if you don't already have a transformer that will do this you will end up spending more than you would save. If the region coding of the games is true then that would suck mightily - I suspect that the only region problem would be PAL games vs NTSC games.
As for importing a TV from Australia, it would be cheaper to get one from a country where there actually make the things.
I find the lameness filter annoying.