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US Console Price Drops Widely Rumored
After being rumored on newsgroups and messageboards for a while, larger news sources like IGN.com are reporting the likely imminent price drop for all 3 major consoles in the US. This would make the Playstation 2 $149, the Xbox $149, and the Gamecube just $99. If true, will this spur you into buying one or all of these consoles?
well my sister has long wanted a ps2, while i find my computer good enough... she mainly wants it for the DVD, the cheap entertainment is a plus. i don't have the extra cash for it but i'm sure my parents would more likely consider it.
all i see are 1's and 0's
I will have to buy an Xbox, and a PS2, if these price drops prove to be true. MS and Sony are probably losing huge amounts of money on the equipment, but they can afford to, as MS is the biggest software company and Sony is one of the biggest electronics companies in the world. Woohoo for HALO!
then play windwaker for an hour, metroid prime for an hour, then never use it again, like my PS2 and Dreamcast. i'm more for computer gaming myself.
I would love to try modding the XBOX system to carry linux after I've heard all the stories. (DMCA my a$$)
www.lashen.com
about $162 (including tax 8%) for an XBox
so if i were to get 10 733Mhz (IIRC) machines running linux and beowulfed (drool) for my little compile farm (i run gentoo, and am impatient)
$1600 for a freaking fast little cluster.
i can't wait to compile XFree86 in 2 minutes.
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
W00t, now I can afford to buy another xbox and mod it with out worrying about switches and getting booted off of xbl
While PC games allow many more players to connect to a server and play against each other, each player is on their own PC and the comradre isn't the same as with the console. Lan parties remedy this to a certain extent, but they don't reach the level of multiplayer console games. Tension can get higher, the thrill of victory and agony defeat is stronger, and the excitement level is higher. If you don't know what I mean, go door-to-door or to a college campus and find a group of guys having a Madden 2003 tournament, or get 4 people on Super Smash Bros. It's a different dynamic than say Quake. Don't get me wrong, Quake is fun too. But PC multiplayer games are enjoyable in a more distant fashion than console multiplayers.
I've had my fun with the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 in the multiplayer realm, but now that it's the real world and it's not possible to get 4 friends in the room for a good session of Goldeneye, Turok, or Quake, a good session of UT2003, Battlefield 1942, or Wolfenstein are just as good right now. Who knows, if I find 3 or more grown-ass kids like me, an X-box or PS2 might be in order for Madden or Soul Calibur 2 (this might be the only reason I get an Xbox or PS2).
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
i think i'll trade in my PS One for store credit now, whatever they'll give me for it, before the price drop, and use that as a down payment on a refurb'd PS2 once the price drop in happens, thank you very much. keep my library of games and backwards compatibility, plus pick up a semi-decent backup DVD player for probably $109 @ gamestop (not counting the trade in credit for the PS One).
good god does this color scheme suck.
moox. for a new generation.
cheap consoles are good, but when two games equate to the hardware i begin to worry...
...seeing as I already own a GameCube and a PS2, and the only way I'll ever own an Xbox is if someone gives it to me, I'd say no, this won't get me to buy one of these consoles. (However, if the price drop happens on PSOnes as well, I very well may pick one of those and the Sony screen up. Good way to chop away at those insanely long RPGs I've collected when I'd otherwise be tossing and turning trying to get to sleep.)
Though this _will_ likely spur the entire console gaming industry to get far bigger. With a price point of $99 for a console, and quality preowned titles going for $25 or less on the Cube, it's going to be much easier for mom and dad to not ignore the cries of their children over the winter for the new digital nanny. The only real danger I can see is that the market actually becomes saturated quickly...every house where someone wants a console has a console.
Then I guess it becomes the car industry... "Ma'am, are you aware of the wonderful things an Xbox can do for your life?" "We offer great trade-in values...trade in your Xbox or PS2 and your old game library, and we'll give you a GameCube with 1 title for every two of the competing console!" "Does your household need a second console?"
See, now it's actually going to be economical for the insane Soul Calibur II player to buy all three consoles (and all three versions of the game) so as to play each of the three different "special" characters.
Not that I know any such people. Ahem.
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
2000: Making a respectable $28,000/yr doing outsource tech support for @Home back before collusion by Cox, Comcast and AT&T Broadband put them out of an American presence and financial troubles pushed them out of the Australian and Japanese markets.
2003: I'm a security officer. I'm now living paycheck to paycheck and have been eating at Taco Bell since mid-April because Taco Bell is cheaper than food and I still managed to owe...
Looking around Oregon, I'd say I made off pretty damn well with a paycheck that keeps a roof over my head and usually keeps me fed.
Help us build a better map!
I want to play a few of the Xbox games and have hope for Xbox live. I love my PS2 and Gamecube, but you always can have more.
I mean it's not like I didn't buy everything else (games not included in picture).
But than again maybe not, I still buy games at the rate I used to when I was single and had less of a life, but I don't play them at anywhere near the same rate now...
...I'd probably buy an Xbox just to mess around with, and see if I could make a cheap server out of it!
Smegma.
Why does the background of IGN get rendered over the text in Mozilla, making the page useless? It's done this for as long as I can remember.
I think I must be the only Xbox fan on this site. I've owned one for a while now and I love it. The main reason I like it is that I can get quality titles for like $10 - $15 off of half.com. Sure, some of the titles suck, but for the most part they're all pretty good. I might get a PS2 because there's some games on that platform I'd like to play, but a Cube is definitely out of the question. There really aren't many good, quality games on the system to even justify the $100 price tag.
Give it a look
Wow, I can't believe that. That would make Nintendo's consloe of the moment the same price as a GBA SP!! I can't believe that its come to this. Hopefully, this will spur a purchasing surge to help Nintendo out.
Total speculation, but what if they go the way of Sega and release their titles for other systems? I hope they keep the GBA, though.
What, me Tweet?
$50 is so insignificant compared to what someone will likely spend on games in one of these devices.
Here is a partial list of things that you'll spend more on the "media" than the device itself, although everyone focuses on the purchase price of the device.
Game Consoles
DVD Players
CD Players
Printers
Razors
I've been waiting for the PS2 to drop for a while now, so yes. But on topic, I think they're forgetting that games are the big motivator not (just) the price. For example : NeoGeo when it first came out in the US. There were easily 3 games that would have done dances around the SNES's and Genesis's lineup (at the time) but the fact that the system cost more than a SNES/Genesis, and 4 games was a HUGE turn off.
The console prices haven't been that ridiculous, it's the $49.00 games that keep alot of people (like me) from getting/playing these new consoles. Sony had a nice deal with the PSone "Greatest Hits" for $20.00, but when you buy a couple of 50.00$ games that aren't very entertaining, you tend not to bother buying the ones that may actually be worth it and your $99 console collects dust.
I'm back and forth a lot between two places, and often miss my Cube while away. I carried it around for a while, but it got old.
At $99, I'd be tempted to just buy another one for the second place, and as a backup. I put my discs in little 8cm jewel boxes with cover printouts, so they're a cinch to take around. That would be pretty nice!
-- http://frobnosticate.com
This might push me to pick up a GameCube. They have the most compelling games in my opinion and anything I could ever want for the PS2 comes out for my PC anyway.
I don't see a reason to buy any console save the XBox. The XBox can be used as a regular system and has a much higher lifetime than the other two. The only reason why I would buy a PS2 is to play Final Fantasy on, but now I am getting fed up with what Square is doing with the series (I mean sequels? What's wrong with them!). Then a GC has some of the worst selection of games I have seen to date. I hear Zelda: The Windwalker is a really good game, but I still can't get past the fact that link looks like a character from Pokèmon.
-illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
For the home environment, Xboxes make great
application servers. I've got a stack of 4,
purchased used from Barnes & Noble, two running
Apache, one running smtp and pop services,
and one acting as a fileserver. The advantage
of factoring out these services is that I can
upgrade the fileserver without bringing down email
or web applications.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Lets be honest now. Every console has at least one game worth playing. I for one own a PS2 and a Gamecube. To me, both of those half enough games to keep me constantly playing. An X-box has some great games. Halo obviously (though I am getting slightly sick of fps but thats just an honest opinion), Mech Assault, Sega's offerings (Panzer, toe jam, etc.) and X-Box live, which is a damn good concept. My only issue with the X-Box is supporting a company that is trying to use their wallets to be a monopoly in another industry. I mean, I'm sure you all heard the rumors of them shelling out big bucks to ID for Doom III rights. How would you guys like to never be able to play that with a mouse? Anyway, MS offering money to Sega, Capcom, et al. It just gets to me. I personally wouldn't mind sony and nintendo getting in bed together as long as nintendo has a good say in the hardware, cause i think the ps2 has too many issues, but thats a different story, but you KNOW that if MS had control we would start to get told what to play instead of this wealth of options. Based on their imperialist attitude (which I know most big companies have), their bottomless pocket, and their mindless followers, I find it hard to support them in any way. I don't want to be forced to buy overly powerful hardware to play the games I love at high prices. If it weren't for nintendo and sony, you know that the x-box would still be 300 if not more. And we know it makes great servers if hacked, but is it needed for games....not really...
PaleHour
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Why not just go to eBay and buy the hardware there?
Joe
http://www.joegrossberg.com
I don't get all this hostility to the Gamecube. Its $99 fer chrissakes, and there are way more fun games than the XBOX has to offer.
Zelda, Metroid, Smash Brothers, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil, Mario Sunshine...there are tons of fun games for the Cube. They look great, they sound great, and they are fun as hell.
Not to mention all of the games that are coming out this year... I am just saddened to read all of this anti-Nintendo sentiment. Then again, I'm not bothered by the color palette Nintendo games seem to stick to. People seem to harp on the cartoony look of the games, but only a few games actually look like this, and most of them are fucking incredible games.
You all don't know what you're missing. Get the Cube at $100, you won't regret it!
gr3n
the console tie-in rate, which is the average number of games purchase for a console. Since Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all get a percentage of every GCN, Xbox, and PS2 title sold, they want the tie-in rate to be high.
:(
:)
The tie rate for each system so far this year is 9.8:1 for GameCube and 8.5:1 for Xbox. The overall tie ratios since launch are 12.1 for GameCube and 10.0 for Xbox. This means that GameCube owners are buying more games for their system. Since most of the "good" GCN titles are made by Nintendo, they get double the money back (since they get the part that'd normally go to the 3rd party, as well as their cut). I don't have any PS2 numbers
Wether or not the systems are sold at a loss is not important: the system with the highest tie-in rate will win, at least for the company behind it
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Only raving fan boys on eBay keep any prices high. They don't affect real market prices at a store for current games, which are dropped over time.
Sony still has Greatest Hits for its PS2 line, and has had it since 2001. Microsoft just launched its Platinum Hits line, which follows the same pricing plan and sales goals. Nintendo has its Players Choice line, which is lame because they still cost 49.99 CDN (versus GHits/PHits 29.99 CDN).
If you wait and it isn't sold out, most good retailers (EB, Gamestop, etc) will drop prices on their items until they're no longer made, as a way of clearing out the inventory. Console games don't follow the same HUGE price drops that PC games do, but they do drop constantly.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
When you're not in a room to have hot'n'heavy multiplayer action, Xbox Live! is the only way to go. No PC game has 100% support for buddy-lists and voice chat the way Live! does. None of the PC games have an easy update way for new content like the console Live! games do. And, most of the PC games are way, way buggier than the console games.
If you still like the idea of a LAN party, Xbox has system link. GCN is also getting a form of system link support if you have the BBA and apropos games for it (currently only the Mario Kart game is annouced to support this). Console games beat the pants off of the PC for this, too, since you don't have to reinstall the OS and every game to get to the same patch level as everyone else.
Less maintenance, more features, more games -- I love gaming consoles.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
At that price point, would it be worth it to buy an X-Box so I could get Halo, Extreme Beach Volleyball, and some of those other notoriously bouncy games?
Hmmm... to bounce or not to bounce, is that the question? No, the question is are the game any fun? I currently have no games on my pc because they were too easily beaten and not super replayable (Freelancer). Will an X-Box treat me any better?
Has MS figured out what they're going to charge for Live once the first year is up? I'd like to think it'd be free with payments only going towards added content, but it's been a while since I've heard anything.
Some assurance on Live pricing and a $50 price drop on the system could certainly have an influence on me.
I don't think anyone's confused about CD Players though. The CD player is just a means to get to the CDs, where we think of the printers, razors, and game consoles as the devices themselves.
As for my PS2, I bought five games for 40 bucks, and one more for 20, so i've still got 120 dollars to equal the console price. In my (specialized) case, I'd say say the opening cost of the PS2 was a good chunk of change.
-josh
I heard on the news a while ago, that Microsoft is planning on showing a smaller and "slimmer" XBox at E3. Maybe this a good time for Microsoft to get rid of those big bluky ones. If anyone has a link to that news story, please post it.
I own an Xbox (since day one), and love it, although I am first and foremost a PC gamer. Soul Calibur II sucked me in more than any game since I played DooM II and WarCraft II. It is the first game in nearly a decade that I just couldn't put down and played morning to night until I beat weapons master several times. The PS2 will finally cure my RPG withdrawal FF9, FF10I, Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden III here I come! I might as well pick up Incredible Crisis and import some DDR games as well.
Aside from Rave: The Groove Adventure, the only games I am interested in for GameCube are games already released on the Dreamcast. Yes, I will pick up a Dreamcast and a PS2!
About the bouncy games. DOA3 isn't bouncy (not much... at least not compared to Mortal Kombat V and Soul Calibur II, or even previous DOA incarnations.)
I don't know of anyone who just buys a console and no games - that'd be like buying a CD player and not buying any CDs.
Even shopping frugally, you will eventually spend more on the media (games) than the console.
Even when I picked up a Dreamcast during its firesale, I easily spent $150 on games - even though most were only $5-15.
MS hasn't finished its decisions yet, but the early beta people will be up in a couple of months. I hope they don't do anything stupid, like over price it. Live! kits are 69.99 CDN at most places. So, if they don't want to make it so that people just buy new live kits every year, MS will have to price Live at less than 5.80$ CDN a month.
I like my gamertag, but I don't like it enough to pay more than a new live kit. Besides, their cheap, shitty Live headsets break so easily, I'll need a nice supply of them.
MS has talked about other ways of doing it up, like giving you a free game with your subscription (to make it worth not buying a new live kit). That would entirely depend on the game involved.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Too bad Nintendo has failed to produce a good lineup for the first time in their history. Nintendo has lost "the touch".
I certainly hope a price cut is in order; I've been saving up some cash to get a 'Cube for my sweetheart. An extra $50 to start saving for my own GC would be niftykeen.
I'll buy 2 PS2s before an xbox.
I'll buy 1 gamecube before an xbox.
I'll buy 1 gameboy before an xbox.
I'll buy 1 dreamcast before an xbox.
I'll buy 1 PS1 before an xbox.
I'll buy a new PC before an xbox.
The next person that saids xbox has halo... I am going to shove a PS2 so far up. Your sunshine will have to be released elsewhere.
As I said, overall tie ratios since launch are still higher. MS has given away 2 games with every bundle of their Xbox system (JSRF/Sega GT 2002, Andrenaline pack, etc); Nintendo has only given away one, and that only started in April (MS has had bundles since October 2002 in NA, as well as many other bundles in other regions).
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
But for US, thoughtful MS haters, that is not an option.
My Broadband provider mandates that if you connect a console, you connect only an Xbox.
I mean, how much do MS need to annoy people for people to begin to deny them their business?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Your ISP is Microsoft?
Your post is not complete.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Muting is global and works both ways, so if you do run into some trash-talking 12-yos, muting them will stop you from hearing them (and them from hearing you) in every Live! game you own. You can also send bad feedback, as well as visible bad feedback via www.gamertagdatabase.com.
If you don't like voice stuff, there's no requirement you play with your voice communicator in. Unless you're playing PSO (currently the only game that has serious non-verbal communication support via soft keyb, shortcuts, emot chat, and USB keyboard support), you'll be missing out on the whole playing-with-people experience. But that's only if you're so emotionally crippled that you can't talk to strangers or make new friends.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
There's no point complainig about the respective costs of the systems when I can complain about UK prices.
PS2
US - $149
UK - $270
XBox
US - $149
UK - $206
Gamecube
US - $99
UK - $206
This is now officially beyond a joke.