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.

Comments

Cost Question

[Carbonite]

What are the current production costs for the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube?

Which companies will be making money ate the reduced prices and which will be losing on each sale?

Re:Cost Question

[scott1853]

I can't remember what site I read it on, but it sounds like Sony can now make a profit on their boxes due to better manufacturing processes.

Re:Cost Question

[sammy baby]

The X-Box is definitely losing money on each sale. I don't have any hard numbers, but I'd be very surprised if they were even breaking even under the original pricing scheme.

I read an article somewhere that said that Michael Dell, upon hearing Microsoft's offer to build X-Boxes for them, essentially laughed it off. "So, let me get this straight: you want me to build these boxes and sell them at a loss? And make up the difference in software - which I don't sell?" Does anyone else have a reference for this?

Re:Cost Question

[deft]

at the initial retail price of $299, Microsoft has been losing anywhere between $76 and $105 on every Xbox sold.

thus, they are now loosing from $176 to $205 bucks each box!

Re:Cost Question

[nat5an]

It was in Wired when the XBOX was the cover story I believe. I believe his quote was "I don't want to be in the razor business if I can't get in on the blades." Or something.

The story is here http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.11/flex.html? pg=1. It also discusses how much Microsoft was initially losing on the boxes ($100 - $110 I believe).

Re:Cost Question

[ryanr]

There's no reason to think that they would be losing the same amount of money of each box now. Production costs will drop as they improve the process, parts get cheaper, etc..

It's common for clone makers when doing a school contract for a couple of years to price the machines at a loss up front. The first several months that they sell them will be at a loss. However, they know that the prices will quickly catch up by then, and they'll be making a nice profit.

Re:Cost Question

[binaryDigit]

Keep in mind that while other component prices have decreased, memory has sharply increased in this time frame (and keep in mind that all the xbox's sold at launch were obviously produced before the launch, some even months before, so memory was even cheaper). So while I'm sure it's cheaper, it's probably not as cheap as you might think. Good thing for M$ that they didn't put an lcd in the thing, then they'd really be hosed.

Re:Cost Question

[dtfarmer]

The X-Box is definitely losing money on each sale

Microsoft loses money on each Xbox sold.... therefore, they really aren't losing much money now, are they? (at least not in Japan or Europe)

Re:Cost Question

[NeMon'ess]

Prices have been $50 since about 1990. The first 16megabit cartriges were expensive to make, or at least used as a justification for charging fifty bucks. Prices have stabilized, though. Sure DVDs are cheaper to make than carts, but development costs are much higher. A game that took eighteen months to make in 1990 would now take two years. I hope you bought a few computer games instead of pirating every single one just because you could. The music analogy is simple, support the artists you can afford to. Otherwise you're just a scummy pirate enjoying himself at the expense of others.

Re:Cost Question

[binaryDigit]

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?)

Re:Cost Question

[Hoser McMoose]

I don't know that Microsoft's costs would have changed all that much.

Both Intel and nVidia sold MS some fairly low-production-cost chips. In the case of nVidia, they don't even make these chips, so they've got to pay whatever TSMC or UMC charge, and given that these were relatively low cost chips to begin with, the cost that TSMC/UMC charges isn't going to decrease too much. Even if the price does decrease, nVidia may decide to keep the extra profits for themselves, and keep charging MS the same amount. MS is pretty much locked in to using nVidia chips for the lifetime of the X-Box, so nVidia isn't really forced to lower their prices.

As for Intel, they were producing a dirt-cheap chip (a low speed Celeron processors built on a .18um fab line). They could (and possibly already have) decreased costs easily by switching to a .13um fab line, but that's only going to be a marginal decrease in costs given that it was a pretty cheap chip to produce in the first place. Further cost cutting measures are going to help less and less. To top it off, while the original chip was a run-of-the-mill Celeron die, which Intel was making in HUGE quantities, soon this chip will be a low-volume specialty part as Intel moves all it's Celerons first to a .13um fab process (they may or may not be able to use a standard .13um Celeron die for the X-Box, I dunno), and now they're moving to a completely different architecture (Celeron's will become semi-castrated P4s).

Same thing pretty much goes for the hard drive and DVD drive. These producets were all fairly low-cost models ot begin with, and cost cutting just isn't going to trim too much off the bottom line. What's more, in all of these cases MS is outsourcing production of each part to different OEMs, each of whom are going to look for a piece of the pie. I'd even hazard a guess that many of these OEMs took the contract with virtually no margins in the hope that this would turn into a very large volume deal, which it hasn't.

The one area that they can probably really cut costs down is memory. The memory that they're using is DDR400 memory, which used to be a pretty rare specialty part only for graphics cards, but now is becoming a LOT more commonplace and would probably have decreased in price significantly.

So, long story short, production costs probably have decreased somewhat since the initial release, but I doubt that they've dropped very significantly. My guess is that the drop in production cost is quite a bit less then this new drop in retail price.

Re:Cost Question

[clontzman]

Memory costs have increased somewhat, but the Xbox only has 64MB of RAM. 64MB RAM chips are still less than $10, so I doubt that's hurt them at all.

Bottom line is, in the quantities they're buying, costs of manufacture should be substantially less than eight months ago.

Re:Cost Question

[symbolic]

What's the difference between what M$$$ is doing and a non-US company that dumps their products at below cost? The legislators scream when non-US companies do this, but seem to offer nothing more than a wink and a handshake when a company like M$ does it. Granted, Sony and Nintendo are both non-US companies, but they provide competition, and with respect to M$$$, short of any real punitive action for its monopolistic practices, competition is the next best thing.

In the short run, consumers are getting a good deal when MS sells the Xbox for less than it costs to produce. In the long run, however, if it leads to the demise of competitive alternatives, everyone loses (except M$$$ of course).

Re:Cost Question

[denshi]

You probably read it here:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/06/133725 0&mode=thread&tid=127

And to develop your argument, I point out that 'better manufacturing processes' here means "fit everything onto a single chip". The importance of that cannot be understated -- moving from a multi-chip board to a single-chip design means you no longer have to design, build, and test all the wire traces between chips, which is the large repeatable cost per unit (chips are essentially free once designed). And the single-chip integration means the yield comes way up, as you have only one point of fab failure, as opposed to n chips and a connecting board....and yield is *everything* in electronics.

A basic history of electronics demonstrates, repeatedly, how process changes like the above makes and breaks market share. For example, C&T, after IBM released the PC, figured out how to condense the 13 chips that ran the motherboard into 1 (the 'chipset'). As a result, C&T could build IBM PC boards cheaper than even IBM, and lo and behold, the PC clone market was born.

The only funny thing here is that Sony didn't drop the price sooner. They can probably make PS2s for $40 now; the DVD Consortium licensing might be one of the largest costs in the machine.

Now is definatly a good time ...

[dbretton]

Now is definatly a good time to be a ...

Spellchecker?

Re:Wonder who shot first?

[CynicTheHedgehog]

According to Penny Arcade, Sony accelerated their price drop plans leaving Microsoft with no choice but to follow suit. This is a real kick to the groin for Microsoft, whose consoles haven't been doing as well as they thought and cost more to produce. Sony's probably recouped their initial losses, but I doubt Microsoft has.

Yay Sony, I guess.

Still waiting for game price competition

[WillSeattle]

While all three box manufacturers are stuck at $199 USD (while Japan, the EU, and Canada sell them for less) - one wonders when the game price competition will start?

My son said that two kids at school are waiting to buy xBox games when the price drops below $40 USD, since they have to use their own allowance money.

By my calculations, MSFT has to sell 10 games at $50 USD to break even on the price subsidy of the xBox. Nintendo still has a profit on both box and games, and Sony is just at breakeven due to manufacturing efficiencies on the 2.5 yo PS2 with clear profit on the games.

-

Xbox Linux

[Bob9113]

The Xbox Linux Project is currently working to port Linux to the Xbox. It appears that the primary hurdle is getting past the hardware based authorization system, which does not allow unapproved software to run.

Re:Xbox Linux

[Bob9113]

I pulled the trigger on the submit too quick - here's some more good info:
Quick overview of an ideal use for the machine.

Only $199 a pop and every unit I buy costs Microsoft money? Most excellant! How long till they begin firing volleys of lawyers at The Xbox Linux Project? Any bets on which 4 letter law starting with "DM" and ending with "CA" they'll invoke?

Re:Xbox Linux

[bob_jordan]

Surely the primary hurdle is getting microsoft to sell you an Xbox minus OS for less then $199.

Bob.

Re:What?

[Marx_Mrvelous]

I don't know if you realize this, but MS loses at least $200 per unit that they sell. So, porting say, Linux to it and use it as a desktop, you just cost MS $200. Bad troll!

40 billion in the bank

[Donut]

Amidst all of the discussions about how much money MS will lose on this, y'all might want to remember this discussion and ponder whether or not they can afford it.

Donut

Nintendo and Toys'R'Us

[FortKnox]

Quick FYI - Toys 'r' us is giving the consumer back their $100 if they bought an XBox (or PS2) within 30 days of the price drop.

Also, when do you expect Nintendo to drop their prices? If the N-Cube was $100-$150, I'd pick one up in a heartbeat...

Where did you buy it?

[Wind_Walker]

Too bad i just bought a Playstation 2 yesterday

If you bought it at Toys 'R Us, you can get back $100 if you kept your receipt and bought it within 30 days.

I think it's a great move by Toys 'R Us to keep people happy.

As for Nintendo, they're going to drop their prices at E3, I guarantee it. They stated back in April that if Sony dropped their price, Nintendo would follow suit and drop their price as well. I'm predicting a price drop down to $150 or $125. But, if they really wanted to make a splash, Nintendo would release a combo package of the Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, and the link cable that goes between them for $200 (a feasable price).

It won't matter, though. Nintendo is going to 0wn this E3, and this whole year. With new games coming out for all these franchises...

• Super Mario Sunshine
• Legend of Zelda
• Metroid Prime
• Star Fox Adventures

...as well as newcomers like Resident Evil 0 and Eternal Darkness for the "mature" ones out there, this will be the year of Nintendo.

Re:Where did you buy it?

[srvivn21]

Gee. Read Penny Arcade much?

And I quote:

It was said that we'd see [Nintendo GameCubes] at around the one-fifty mark, but who knows if they'll be satisfied with a fifty dollar difference between themselves and their competitors, which cuts their prior advantage in half. You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see 'Cubes sell at one-fifty or one-seventy-five, and include a GameBoy Advance with that little cable thingy that hooks them together. I mean, I'm just talking. I have no idea if something like that would even be feasible, but it seems like a fantastic way to differentiate themselves.

Perhaps it was just a good idea that multiple people came up with simultaniously. Perhaps "Tycho" stole your idea. Who am I to say?

XBox Hacked (and Linux)

[nherc]

I submitted this info days ago... but there are at least 3 mod chip makers who have just released chips to open up the xbox. The mod chips allow unsigned code to run off of any media dvd-r,dvd-rw,cd-r,cd-rw.

More xbox mod chip info.

This will (very) soon lead to a xbox linux distro.

Losing money never hurt Bill

[b.foster]

It is a testament to the arrogance and sheer power of the Microsoft Corporation that lowering the X-Box price (and thus, losing any semblance of profit they would ever make on the device) will hardly make a dent in their bottom line.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and think about all of the other money-losing ventures that the pundits thought would be the death of Microsoft:

• Microsoft Bob. An absolutely horrible idea with an even worse execution. M$ spent millions developing and promoting it, and didn't sell more than a handful of copies.
• Internet Exploder. Originally intended to be sold at a profit, the IE group has cost Microsoft tens of millions of dollars in development and support costs. What they have created is a money pit crafted from insecure, non-modular spaghetti code. Many observers (such as ESR) expected IE to implode under its own weight around the release of version 4.0, but it never happened.
• UltimateTV. Microsoft's lame attempt to make a Tivo and sell consumers a crappy version of the Tivo service at the same high monthly price as Tivo somehow didn't pan out. Go figure.
• Mac support. As it stands, Microsoft has not recouped its development costs on any release of Office for the Mac. This should not come as much of a surprise, as they offer steep bulk/site discounts to educational institutions on these products.

As you can see from the above examples, Microsoft's sole goal is to dominate the computer industry by creating products that lose vast sums of money, but "hook" the consumer into their services and upgrades. This is why we need more than Linux and OpenOffice to compete against them; we need government action. We're already beating them in the marketplace, but that doesn't matter when they have infinitely deep pockets from which to draw funding.

And that, my friends, is why Sony and Nintendo have a formidable enemy in Microsoft. Neither company has the cash reserves to compete with Microsoft on such an unlevel playing field, and neither one seems likely to survive in the video game arena for long without help from Uncle Sam.

Re:Losing money never hurt Bill

[IronTek]

I think you're wrong. First, to keep my cred, I don't like Microsoft and I'm a Linux user. However, I hate ignorant people that spout of incorrect assumptions without thought of what they're speaking of even more than I hate Microsoft.

Microsoft Bob: While it was a horrible failure as a product, it did teach Microsoft much about human computer interaction, what their customers want, and how to market products better. End the end, it was probably a pretty cheap "failure."

Internet Explorer: Probably saved Microsoft's ass. Had they not given it away, and made the user not have a choice whether or not to have it, they could have lost ground on the desktop as well as on the internet. They would not be the company they are today if it weren't for a free IE. Further, IE is not under danger of an implosion. It's not that horrible of a browser...while I prefer Mozilla, IE does feature stability in key areas that I wish Mozillla would (and it will...eventually)

Ultimate TV: This was a premature release and not well thought out, no doubt...but it will pave the way for their takeover of the home entertainment center when the XBox 2 (or whatever) combines the XBox with UltimateTV. The product itself may be a failure, but the next incarnation of the XBox would not have been/will not be possible without the work done on Ultimate TV

Mac Support: Not only have they made money on the Mac (what have you been smoking), but they're the largest seller of applications to Mac users! Further, at least up until the last version of Office for the Mac, programs like Excel and Word used the same core as the PC version, so the development costs consisted of wraping up the engines that drive the programs to work with the Mac.

Now shutup, go get a helmet, and hope that other companies out there can keep them in check.

Re:Losing money never hurt Bill

[lysurgon]

Go forth and compete. Stop jerking off to porn and reading your little comic books, how about working 100 hours a week on what you think the market wants -- Microsoft won't prevent you from taking out a loan, running an ad campaign, and shipping a better product, so why aren't you doing it?

No, that's where you're wrong. If you were actually to compete with M$ on any of their many playing fields, you would inevitbly face some of the anti-competative business practices which the company has already been convicted of implementing. Extortion-like pricing, custom-crufted code and underground whisper campaigns are only a few of their dirty tricks.

I'm all for free enterprise and entrepeneurialism. In fact that's why I dislike M$, because they discourage these things. But if you don't have any checks and/or balances, two bad things occur:

1) Only that which profits will survive. This is an ok (though not great) way to run a business, but it's no way to run a society. The maxim that "everyone in pursuit of their self-interest generates the best common good" has been roundly disprooved in history. This is because all people are not created economically equal, and hence many people's self-interest trumps that of others for highly arbitrary reasons. Furthermore, there are a great many things that a society should have that should not be profit motivated. Roads are a good example. The interstate highway system makes no money, but without this vital infrastructure commerce would fail. Defence is another example. You don't want your army going out to the highest bidder. This is why citizens collectivize to mutually provide funds (aka taxes) so that these social institutions can be run in absence of profit motivation.

2) Without checks and regulations on a market, you're likely to have a highly unstable situation. Die-hard lesse faire advocates will tell you that things will eventually even out, and this is true, but it would take many generations for a stable global economy to emerge (if it ever did) from the chaos of an unregulated market.

Look, anti-trust law was instituted for a couple of good reasons. On the one hand, it prevents monopoly companies from abusing consumers (e.g. selling tainted meat or fixing the price of oil). It keep's them honest. Secondly, it forces them to innovate, since they cannot retain market dominance by controling the market. A monopoly market occurs when one player controls the entire game. Therefore it make a lot more sense to have a player who is (at least in principle) working in the best interest of citizens, aka the government, in control, and let this player make sure everyone plays fair. We have a teacher watching the kids play at recess, and the teacher steps in to tell bullies to play nice.

The truth is that right now M$ is more economically powerful than you, I, or perhaps even the entire aggrigated slashdot community. Ergo, should they decide to focus their wrath on me for whatever reason, I'd like someone to be there to keep them off me.

In the end, the fatal flaw of free market idealism is the incontrovertable fact that the most important elements of life bear only a tangential relationship to the profit motive.

Re:Finally, a market not easily....

[Bonker]

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

It's a first for Microsoft...

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

...dropping the price on anything. Here we see the effects of competition. Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on game consoles, and PS2 isn't susceptible to FUD attacks, so MS has no choice to actually compete in the proper way. By lowering price.

The question is, what will be MS's strategy for the Xbox2? They can't beat PS2 (and maybe not even gamecube). So they will go back and come up with the marketing strategy to win the console monopoly in the next round. They could give their Xbox2 away for a pittance, and hope to get such a large user base as to strangle PS3. But to really kill it, they also need developers to not develop games for the PS3. If they can accomplish both of those they have a shot.

Re:Finally, a market not easily....

[Black Aardvark House]

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.

Nintendo = no price drop land (good)

[GweeDo]

People seem to assume that the Gamecube is an inferior piece of hardware, therefore it should be cheaper than the Xbox or PS2. I personally own a Cube and think the exact oppisite. Sure it doesn't play DVD's (but according to recent market survey's people are buying game system to play games, not watch their movies). It is also very important to not that Nintendo doesn't appear to be out to win the "console war". They are out to make a lot of money. This is something they have done successfully for years and years and years. Even in the time of the N64 they where raking in millions. Heck, last year was their most profitable year ever and they expect to only gain on that this year. Nintendo (and their shareholders) don't care if the Cube has the most sales worldwide (though I am sure they wouldn't mind). They want money...and they do that better than any console maker out there!

It's the games, not the console

[Otter]

For me (an adult who fires up a game of Doom or Tomb Raider every so often but is hardly a 'gamer'), what kept me from buying a console for years wasn't the up-front cost but the prospect of dropping $50 a pop on games. When the Dreamcast fell to $50 last Christmas, I bought one and picked up some $5-10 games on E-Bay, probably from kids running out to buy an X-Box. Given my general no-longer-young suckiness (it took me three nights of trying to finish the last stage of the Jet Grind Radio tutorial, the rail to over the mailbox to rail to rail over the overpass to the top of the bus shelter sequence), that's plenty for me.

The $200 price caught my attention for a second but it's back to the $50 games. Besides, how would I decide which of the 34 snowboarding games to buy?

Re:Finally, a market not easily....

[EnderWiggnz]

If you consider 25 million vs. 1.5 million units deployed "even", I've got some great shares in this energy trading company to sell you.

Top five lamest arguments of the console war

[Toddarooski]

1. You shouldn't buy a GameCube because it's a kiddie console! (Only kids like fun games, apparently...)

2. Micro$oft is evil! Therefore you should support Nintendo! (Unless it's being said with irony, then it's clever.)

3. Don't buy an Xbox becuase it's just a stripped down PC! (Oh, no! It's got a CPU and a graphics chip! Run!)

4. MGS is a great game! (Okay, just my own personal opinion here -- 20 minutes of excellent gameplay surrounded by 18 hours of crappy dialogue is a good game? Give me Ico any day.)

5. I'm throwing my loyalty behind (Sony / Nintendo / Microsoft) because they care about me as a gamer.

PS2 Linux Kit dut to ship on 5/22/02

[DeadBugs]

The PS2 Linux Kit is coming out next week. For $199.00 you get:

Linux for PlayStation 2 version 1.0 software

Monitor Cable Adaptor

Internal 40GB Hard Disc Drive Network Adaptor

Ethernet 10/100 Base-T

USB Keyboard & USB Mouse

Since when is MS more evil

[WildBeast]

Since when did MS become more evil than Sony? Many people here seem to be getting a PS2 because MS is evil yet we all know how much more evil Sony really is. Copy-protected CD's, RIAA, DMCA, etc. But suddenly nobody cares.

Slashdot is a weird crowd. I also remember the day when people were favorable to a RedHat acquisition by AOL/TW. Go figure.

XBox security is tough

[Animats]

The XBox's firmware is in a 1MB mask-programmed ROM. It can't be changed without replacing it physically.

Physical replacement of the firmware chip is possible, but requires soldering 29 wires.

See a summary of XBox vulnerabilities here.

Join the Evil Empire here and make security even tighter.

It's worth understanding how the XBox locks out non-Microsoft approved software. We might see a lockdown like that in mainstream PCs someday. The MPAA and the RIAA would like that.

Sony Vs. Microsoft Gaming = Sony Victory

[Razzious]

I have watched this whole X-Box PS2 war rage for some time. Its amazed me that the X-box has done as well as it has actually. However I have watched Microsoft make a trend of "follow the leader" in the gaming industry and yet stay behind.

Everquest...Love it or Hate it, its been a higher success than Asherons Call. AC2 is excpected out at the end of this year just in time for the Starwars Galaxy release from Sony. We know the SWG release will pull gamers that have never considered a MMORPG before. Not to mention the "Planes of Power" release coming in November from Sony

Then wait a year and get the EQ2 and once again you have the makings of a Sony Victory.

Should Microsoft think they can kick Nintendo out of the Market, they are going to have to work harder than they did to get Netscape off of the desktop. Nintendo has continually shown it can hang in the market, and if they start pumping out new releases of the OLD SKOOL NES games, the nostagia alone will make us buy it. I have not paid attention to the GameCube really, but reading Metroid info has me ready to buy one tonight! Add to that "UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, B, A, SELECT, START. and I have the makings of a CONTRA PARTY!

Sony needs to send Microsoft an e-mail that states clearly "You're in OUR world now"

Re:Sony Vs. Microsoft Gaming = Sony Victory

[Razzious]

I knew that sounded wrong...Thanks!

Rebates

[Sasquatch666]

My girlfriend just bought a PS2 about a week ago from Circuit City and was able to get a hefty rebate back. CC's policy is if you can find it cheaper 30 days after you buy it, they'll refund the difference + 10%. Since the price dropped by $100, she got $110 in cash back from the store. Not a bad deal :-)

Actual Price Difference

[donnacha]

The difference isn't that great, you're forgetting that Americans have to pay an additional sales tax, varying depending on which state they make the purchase.

The British VAT (Value Added Tax) of 17.5% is built into the British price.

American Price: $200 = £138

True British Price: £199 - £35 VAT = £164

The Price Difference: £164 (British) - £138 (US) = £26

That extra £26 is necessary for two reasons:

1. As a buffer for the downwards adjustment that the British Pound will have to make before joining the Euro.

2. To compensate for the lower number of expected games sales per unit sold in the UK as opposed to the US; Americans find happiness and personal worth by buying things they don't need and are less discerning about the quality of the games they buy.

So, not such a bad deal after all.

the dreamcast has great game selection

[AtaruMoroboshi]

What crack are you smoking?

I bought a Dreamcast late last year and I've aquired all of these games for under $30 each, most at $14.99 or less:

Chu Chu Rocket
Space Channel 5
Sonic Adventure
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Marvel vs. Capcom
Crazy Taxi
Jet Grind Radio
Resident Evil: Code Name Veronica
Sega Bass Fishing
Sega Marine Fishing
Shenmue
Soul Caliber
Virtua Tennis
Sword of Beserk
Typing of the Dead (hilarious! type at zombies to kill them!)
Dead or Alive 2
Power Stone (AMAZING 3-D fighter, a genre I'm only kinda into, this game is serious fun. I got it for $8.99 last week and have been playing it non-stop!)

There are a lot of seriously awesome games for the dreamcast that while you might have to search a bit, are worth the effort. Here's my list of games I'm currently tracking down (some are still easily availible, I just can't drop $300 on a dozen games right now.):

powerstone 2
seaman
sega bass fishing 2
skies of arcadia
granda II
shenmue 2
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
Marvel v. Capcom 2
Capcom v. SNK 1
Capcom v. SNK 2
bust a move 4
house of the dead 2 (and light gun)
samba de amigo (and special controller)
alone in the dark 4
sonic adventure 2
crazy taxi 2
tony hawk pro skater
tony hawk pro skater 2
fatal fury: mark of the wolves
Bangai-O
Bomberman Online
Giga Wing 2
Gunbird 2
Project Justice (rival schools sequel)
Dance Dance Revolution (and dance pad)

now, i realize hunting high and low for games isn't most people's idea of a good time, but if you're up for it, the dreamcast is WELL worth the effort. Not to mention all the neat hax0r things you can do with it, like boot linux, burn your own boot discs and play nes emulators...

the fishing controller and keyboards are easily availible, as are memory cards and additional regular controllers. Aracde stick controllers are a bit rarer.

the dreamcast is well worth the investment.

I do plan on getting a used ps1 to play metal gear solid, final fantasy 7, and dance dance revolution (easier than tracking down the import only DC version), so I see your point about if you're only going to buy one console, but I think for me, that one console would be the dreamcast. I'm starting to be fond of it in the way I am fond of my iBook, which says a lot.

.

NetBSD on XboX -

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

Link to NetBSD Hack for XboX

How-to included with loads and mods.

Re:Linux on the XBox

[Fat Casper]

What sort of license comes with a piece of hardware? I agree not to reverse engineer this box so as to build my own and sell them at a lower price... Except that we already know that you can't sell it for less. The only problem is that once the OSS community gets itself in gear to really take advantage of MS' subsidy, MS will stop shipping boxes. They're already losing money anyway, what're a few warehouse fires added to that? I loved this article, though. That's real pretty.

Re:Oops. Try again.

[CynicTheHedgehog]

I'm in the gaming biz and I can tell you that this is not the case.

Perhaps, but do you have a link to a purely speculative article written by an obscure web comic scriptwriter to back up your statement?

That's right. Who da man.