Slashdot Mirror
Xbox Price Drop To $149 Now Official
bpitzer writes "It's official - Microsoft is cutting the price on the Xbox to $149, effective tomorrow, according to CNET News. Now, will Sony follow suit on the PS2? And how long until the next price drop? Maybe at this year's E3, making three in a row?" We previously reported on rumors to this effect, and other readers point to the official Microsoft press release, sporting a quote from noted tech analyst P.Diddy: "[I] believe that the system's cultural
influence as a social entertainment brand has only just begun."
So what kind of loss is Microsoft taking now to ship these things?
If they already sold the X-Box for below cost, wouldn't this just hurt them further?
So we have an established monopoly with $50b in cash in the bank now selling their product way below cost to steal market share.
how is this NOT dumping? if Sony or Hitachi did this with TV's they would be prosecuted.
I think you missed the sarcasm in the article.
Noted tech analyst?
Your bus is leaving.
Let's restrict the "We'll bankrupt Microsoft by buying the $150 XBox and coverting it to Linux" topics to replies to this post. This includes all cheap PC quotes from pricewatch, as well as arguments to the real cost of the XBox (better graphics, small HD, working from TV instead of monitor, monitor cost, yadda-yadda-yadda.) Not meaning to be a troll, but it seems 3/4 of the conversation revolves around these topics. [Well, there goes the Karma].
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business. -Thackeray, William
yes
I don't want to see Nintendo pull a Sega because of some silly numbers being inflated. Nintendo needs to get over the gaming is for kids only thing, but they've made and continue to make some quality games.
Want to hurt Microsoft's interests here? Everybody rushing out and buying a cube (at $50 less than the xbox no less) and putting the big N into the number 2 spot again will have more of an effect.
If not now, when?
I thought that Sony dropped the price about 6 months ago, but then added in a subsidized modem and slightly increased the price to 170, so that the price effectively stayed the same, but the value of your purchase increased.
Bunch of marketing crap really.
With this new price point and the hacks for the XBox out there, is this worth purchasing as a MPEG, MP3 and PVR entertainment PC? I'm not really interested in the games for the thing, but if I can get a decent computer out of the thing for $150, I'd be game.
Thoughts?
Nice troll. The "selling the console at a loss" state is not unique to Microsoft. Most (or possibly all) of the consoles are like that. It's like cell phones -- sell the hardware at a loss, make it up on the accessories, services, etc.
I also recall hearing somewhere that they get the manufacturing costs ways down as the product matures, so later revs are as much of a loss, or possibly not a loss at all.
Complexity is Easy. Simplicity is Hard.
Doesn't this just end up as a war of attrition, where the company who is most able to sustain gigantic losses comes out on top?
i'm sure once the price reaches a certain point, it will be a war of who can produce the best system, in terms of graphics, games, features, etc... people won't neccessarily buy the one with the lowest price, the market doesn't work that way
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
Xbox live has been underway for 2 years now, from start to now approximately. If MS spends as much continuing it (and their startup costs probably won't need to be replicated, but for arguments sake take $1billion a year). At MS's current cash reserves that's another possible fifty years.
There was a quote from "Citizen Kane" that's relevant here, and unfortunately I forget anything but it's most basic meaning. In essence, a reporter asks Mr Kane about his businesses losing $X each year for the last few years.
Mr Kane replies that, with the amount of money he's worth and current losses, it looks like he'll be in real trouble in oh, 100 years.
I don't know how long it'll take MS to recover once they become profitable, but they certainly have a long time to get to the stage of becoming profitable.
And all the more ubiquitous
I have a strange feeling that they'll hold Halo 2 until Xbox 2
And the Sega 32X.. Lesson learned: Do not invest in Sega, but you can certainly buy their gear!!
Mod +5 Drunk
It's less of a "who's going to survive?" issue and more of a "how long are Microsoft's shareholders going to put up with this money pit?"
Of course MSN is still around and that's never even come close to proftiability.
Funny how immediately after blaming someone for falling for a myth, his sig proclaims that Bush already has Osama...
For a long time I wanted to play GTA3. I pondered buying a $199 PS2 and then said "Naah, I'll wait for the price to go down". That was a year and a half ago, and they are still $179. Last year I bought GTA3 for my PC and a game controller very similar to the PS2 controller. Together the pair cost me maybe $65 and the graphics blow away the PS2.
Now, why is this troll?
It can run linux.
Nintendo needs to get over the gaming is for kids only thing, but they've made and continue to make some quality games.
The people that think Nintendo only promotes "kiddie" gaming are the same ones that won't play a game because they think their friends will laugh at them, playing something with bright colors and/or bouncy music is embarassing, etc.
And yet again, this PA comic is appropriate.
I realize you're not (directly) bashing Nintendo, but this rubbish that they only target little kids needs to stop. Just because they make games without massive blood, violence, or sex does not make them any less mature or enjoyable.
Name the company that sells an OS and an office suite at 80% profit margin? Name the company that could significantly cut prices across the board because it has 40+ BILLION in CASH in reserve, but doesn't? Name the company that is inducing a loss-leadership so that eventually it can make large profit margins. Capitalism is the best system in the world, but it is hardly perfect nor always thinks of the consumer. Make no mistake, Microsoft has demostrated a willingness to own markets at any cost, especially as the cost of consumers. After all, how many companies with superior products have been decimated so that we have been left with a lack of innovation for a decade? The definition of a viable system is that it must work in the long term. The short term consumer gain will come at a huge long term cost. It took over five years before browser innovation started again, for instance.
I, for one, do not welcome our attempted overlords.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
I don't consider P.Diddy a rapper (much less a musician). Rappers usually have a little talent.
Now someone else may have posted about this and I may be redundant, but it just ERKS me like nothing else that Microsoft can get away with this.
Being a monopoly Microsoft cannot use their weight and power from one market to force their way into another market. This especially involves selling products at a loss. Even though it's common to sell a console at a loss and hopefully make up for it on game sells - MICROSOFT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DO SO
They're a justified monopoloy by two (terrible) justice systems. They should not be allowed to play by the same rules as everyone else.
*DrugCheese rants*
>so worrying about backwards compatibility is a >non-issue.... The issue of backward compatibility is for people who have never owned and xbox before, and could pick from the entire xbox library as well as new xbox2 titles. So I believe it is an issue...although not a huge one.