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?

Comments

i could finally get a gamecube...

[zors]

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.

console vs. PC, torn between 2 worlds

[tankdilla]

Console games were cool in high school and college, mainly for the multiplayer games. But unfortunately I've grown up now and discovered the joy of PC games, which has taken the place of console games for me. Consoles do offer one thing that the PC doesn't, and that is the ability to have 4 (or more) players playing on the same machine at the same time.

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).

Re:console vs. PC, torn between 2 worlds

[Daetrin]

Oh yeah, the PC geeks are _so_ much cooler than the people who own consoles.

2 games for your console

[asumaboy]

cheap consoles are good, but when two games equate to the hardware i begin to worry...

Re:2 games for your console

[skermit]

Three letters...

S-N-K.

Each game cost half the console, and when the system died out, the games that were still coming out were MORE EXPENSIVE than the console itself. JOY!

Buy one, yeah, but not for games...

[Joel Rowbottom]

...I'd probably buy an Xbox just to mess around with, and see if I could make a cheap server out of it!

It will, but it shouldn't make any difference...

[herrlich_98]

$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

Games prices need to drop

[StellarEX]

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.

Re:Games prices need to drop

[analog_line]

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.

Re:Hmm!

[edwdig]

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.

Gamecube vs. *

[gr3n]

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

This ignores..

[Inoshiro]

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 :)