Xbox Price To Shadow PS2, Not GameCube

Thanks to Reuters for their story indicating Microsoft won't necessarily act on Nintendo hardware price reductions. Xbox boss Robbie Bach, in a Tokyo news conference, suggested "...the company's main benchmark when it comes to pricing would remain Sony... and not Nintendo", and added "We've been selling at a price premium to GameCube since the first day and I don't think that's going to change." Elsewhere in the news conference, Bach talked about the long-term growth of consoles, estimating that "...video games have a penetration rate of about 40 percent, but that rate can grow to 80 percent over the next decade if games become more appealing to a wider audience."

Comments

No Surprise.

[Rudy Rodarte]

Esp. when you consider that Microsoft loses $$ on every console sold. Either way, I hope the new $99 price gives the gamecube some more US market share. I have never been an X Box fan, but if the XBox dropepd to $99, I may consider getting one.

Re:Gamecube losing relevance?

[JFMulder]

I generally I'm an Xbox supporter (especially since I own one, and bought Soul Caliber yesterday, best looking game ever), but now that Nintendo has a two or three hundred thousand lead over Xbox in International sales, I see this price drop as very bad for Microsoft. I hope they won't have Halo 2 and Project Gotham 2, two games that the first iteration sell a gazillion copies, rushed in effort to sell more boxes, since these are two games I'm been waiting for since I bought the console 5 months ago.

I bet that people who buy GameCubes don't give a rat's ass about Eidos or Akklaim ending their support for the CG. Hell, I know that if I owned a gamecube, I would be playing only the Nintendo games. I'd leave the cross-plaform games to my Xbox.

So I don't see Nintendo as being less and less a player. It has less and less games, but hey, who cares if Akklaim never makes another Mortal Kombat or Eidos never makes another Tomb Raider for the GC?

What market is Microsoft trying to get?

[cdneng2]

Assume that every single casual gamer has a system (Xbox or PS2). The console market is now mature, and PS2 dominates this market.
This leaves two markets left: the non-gamer, and the hardcore gamer.
The hardcore gamer would want to buy a second system. He'd select this base on game exclusives. As Xbox has a handful of must-haves (eg. Halo, and KOTOR)... A lot of Xbox Xmas releases have been delayed, and in addition to this, a lot of the titles are multi-platform for Xmas. With the Nintendo price at $99 and with the most original first party games (eg.Mario Party 5, Double Dash, etc.), who do you think will win as the second console?
Finally, the non-gamer would choose his console most likely based on price and broader appeal for his family... most probably the Gamecube.
The Xbox will never get market share as the PS2 (it's too late), so it compares itself against Nintendo constantly. Yet, in this press release, Bach wants a wider appeal of videogames from a penetration rate of 40% to 80%. Based on the above, how well does it look like the Xbox will fare this Xmas season?

Missing the Point

[Anonymous Coward]

if games become more appealing to a wider audience.

I found this funny coming from the company whose conole is most blatantly marketed at the 18-24 year old horny male market. How many people who weren't already gamers were brought in by Halo or DOA3? I'll admit right now that the GameCube doesn't have nearly the appeal to the same market group. However, everytime I meet a forty year old housewife or an eight year old boy that has just started gaming,it's usually on the cube. The XBox may be doing what they can at cornering the popular genres or fighters and FPS, but it's the cube which has been finding new markets with Pikmin and Animal Crossing. Whether or not the gamecube has become irrelevant (If the cube is really that unimportant, why do they feel the need to mention the price drop?), Microsoft's game library isn't going to get them market penetration with any audience that doesn't chuckle at penetration.

Wider audience

[tycage]

"...video games have a penetration rate of about 40 percent, but that rate can grow to 80 percent over the next decade if games become more appealing to a wider audience."

Which if it's anything like television means making simpler, blander games which require less thought to play.

*sigh*