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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?
I recommend patience, and preowned games.
If you can wait a few months to pick up a particular game, the price usually drops to $25 or so, used. I've bought a lot of preowned games, and never had a problem with them, save N64 cartridges, which have issues that disc games just don't have.
I don't buy nearly as many games preowned as I should, because I'm just plain impatient. Any of the major stores that sell used games have a trade in policy if the preowned you bought is damaged and won't play on your machine. Yeah, the case may be banged up, and the directions may be missing, but that usually means you can get it even cheaper.
And rent games before you buy. This isn't the PC world. You can try before you buy. The only person at fault for you buying a game you hate is you for giving in to the hype and buying it before you'd kicked the tires a bit.
The PS2 has been making money for quite a while. Remember, its less powerful than the other systems and has been in production a lot longer, so the costs are low on it. The only thing that's been stopping Sony from cutting the price is the fact that people have been perfectly willing to buy the system without a cut.
As to the Xbox, yes, everything indicates they've always been losing money on it.
The last I heard on the GameCube was Nintendo was getting them made for about $105 +/- $5-10. So Nintendo may or may not be taking a loss with the new pricing.
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