Slashdot Mirror
Xbox Price Drops to $200
ProfBooty writes: "Just two days after rival Sony Corp. cut prices on the PlayStation 2, Microsoft has announced they are cutting Xbox pricing by 33% to $200. Nintendo still has no plans to cut pricing on the Gamecube. Now is definitely a good time to be a gamer with all 3 next-gen systems at $200. Too bad i just bought a Playstation 2 yesterday." I'd like to know if anyone has succeeded in porting a Free operating system to the Xbox.
Hmmm... Microsoft vs. Sony
This is like rooting for The Empire to wipe out The Borg...
Sony isn't quite as blatantly evil as Microsoft, IMHO, but they are one of the major forces behind both the RIAA and the MPAA. When you buy a Playstation, you're contributing to a pool that eventually helps to lobby for laws like the DMCA and SCSSA
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
The video game wars usually seem to have only two combatants, though.
The original warriors were the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. There were others, including Colecovision and other Atari systems, but these two ruled the roost.
In the 8 bit times, the NES and Sega master System ruled.
In the 16-bit world, you had Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
In the 32/64 bit arena, you had Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. The Sega Saturn floundered and died an early death.
Now, we have/had four competitors, the two dominant being Nintendo Game Cube and Sony PS2. The Dreamcast crashed and burned and it looks like the XBOX might be heading in the same direction.
Yes, the people enjoy choice, but it's only big enough for two main systems.
I am the evil aardvark!
Keep in mind that M$ needs the retailers way more than they need M$. Retailers don't make a lot on the consoles themselves, and if M$ tries to eat into their already slim margins by foisting part of the price cut on to them, then they could balk and simply use the shelf space for PS2, which they know will sell. The absolute last thing that M$ needs now (since sales are under estimates and there is a perception that they are on their heels) is to have any of the major retailers drop the xbox. This would hugely undermine confidence in the platform, and in this market, perception is everything!
M$ will absorb the loss, because they must. They have more than enough in the warchest to fund the thing for as long as they want to. That's the "beauty" of M$, with such huge resources behind them, they have play in the sandbox until _they_ decide it's time to get out (anyone here old enough to remember the early days of cdrom and who championed the format for years until everyone else caught up?)