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."
it's still more then I can afford on my meager interns wage.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
When exactly does Xbox2 come out?
I wonder if Nintendo will/can drop their price below $99. Personally... I'm a big Nintendo fan. I can't believe, in the 2+ years I've owned the console, that it took me so long to try Metroid Prime.... what a delight!
as previously reported on Slashdot. No specific details, though.
I wonder if they are gonna drop the price once again when halo 2 comes out. That would seem like a pretty reasonable way to move a whole lot of Xboxes, but that's just me. I like halo.
I must say I don't mind a price drop of this nature. As a consumer it's a good thing, at least short term where I lay out few clams and come up with a good product for the lower price.
However I'm sure nobody believes MS is anywhere near making a profit, indeed they're taking gigantic losses (not relative to their income of course, but in real numbers) to do so. Obviously Sony will be doing the same with the PS2 and whatever it's next box is, and Nintendo too if they release another.
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? Not only coming out on top but coming out as the ONLY contender. While it's not a monopoly situation now it seems clear to me it's heading that way.
I know nobody can prosecute a company on something they have not yet done, and there's perhaps no indication of who will win in the end out of the gigantic gaming manufacturers. Indeed, far be it for me to tell someone they CAN'T throw away their profits, but looking ahead it seems impossible to end up in any other way than someone with a massive monopoly. No new players, no competition between existing ones, and it won't end cleanly... because (forgive the cliche) in the end "there can be only one"
Adult mac desktops & wallpapers
Not necessarily. As time goes on, it costs less and less to manufacture these. The video core, which is kind of a haggle between a Geforce 2 and a Geforce 3 (basically, an overpowered Geforce 2 w/ vertex and pixel shaders), was beyond what PC manufacturers had out at the time. Now, we are 2 cores BEYOND that, so manufacturing costs have dropped signifigantly. As far as the processor goes- it's a 700mhz Celeron, which costs practically nothing to manufacture now. The 8GB hard drive they are using is now TINY comparatively. In short, that's how they do it.
Listen to my experimental-industrial-techno!
Sounds like the printer ink scam/strategy. Get 'em hooked on a platform and live off the game sale revenues.
~$100 is the best guess as to the current loss per box, before this cut, I've heard. Microsoft obviously won't say, so you'll have to hunt down a few analystis who will. The only link I can offer is old - but Microsoft doesn't gain as much from increased factory optimisations as Sony and Nintendo do (for one thing - the Xbox hasn't had its layout optimised for over a year).
http://www.xboxsolution.com/article154.html
it's in my head
Got news for you...all console makers sell their product below cost, and have for many years. They make it up on the games, though, which actually winds up making them more money than in the days of $300 consoles and $30 games. (Keep in mind that the console makers collect license fees even on third-party game titles, because the titles have to be officially licensed to run on the consoles. This not only ensures a revenue stream, but keeps third-party publishers from flooding the market with cheap, crappy games, which is part of what caused the video game crash of 1983.)
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Plus the fact that the less they have to store, the less their storage costs are. I'm sure MS will suck up a few new companies to offset this loss. Really, when it comes down to it, this was their practise machine. I'm honestly wondering what will happen to my precious N5 when the next gen is out, and MS has (perhaps) caught on to the way this market works. At least there is no chance of them buying either of their compeition :).
There was an article a few weeks ago about how Microsoft can't find 8GB harddrives anymore and has to pack in larger drives. This is why they can't get the cost of the Xbox down over time and is also why they're looking at not including a harddrive for the Xbox 2.
This is because the harddrive industry increases size instead of lowering prices. Quite workable for the pc industry but not very good for the console industry, especially since the Xbox is designed around 'only' having 8GB available. Larger drives are just formatted to have 8GB available.
I believe an XBox might make a nice Mame (prefer) or MythTV box.
Is it expensive to get the thing running Linux? I saw someone in this thread mention modchips being more expensive than $150. Do you need a modchip to run Linux? Is there a cheaper "hacker" way? I can solder.
Can you add more RAM to it? How about hard-drives? Does it have a free PCI slot?
I mean, $150 for a 1 Ghz (?) P3 and nVidia card sounds like a good deal to me since I need more of these cheap "weak" machines for common stuff like MythTV and arcade machines.
In normal PC terms, $150 would only buy a 1.3 Ghz Celeron+Motherboard with GF440MX video. You'd still need to add RAM, a hard-drive, power supply, and a case.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
"There's only one game I'd like to play on the Xbox"
You are missing out on the games then. I have 2 for you to try. Ninja Gaiden and Ghost Recon. Oh, and get xbox live too. You will never go do anything else again.
Evolution or ID?
Haven't people installed linux onto the Xbox? Does it actually work well or is it more of a novelty sort of thing? $150 is pretty good for a linux box. The Xbox has like a 733mhz processor, right? So it shouldn't be too slow...and if it really does use pretty standard PC hardware, then it might work out all right. As opposed to the PS2, I mean, which has weird hardware specifically designed for running games.
I'll believe that Microsoft is losing money on every X-box sold when the balance sheets are published.
Maybe they are selling the boxes at below Suggested Retail, but at a loss. . . I doubt it.
Since the Xbox is essentially a PC with a lot of anti-hack DRM crap built in, I wonder when it becomes practical simply to canibalize it for parts, stick on an "open" BIOS and turn it into a real low end PC?
Not as a basement hacker project, but as a commercial scale re-engineering effort. If you are replacing the BIOS with a one that will turn it into a regular PC and not play any PS/2 games, they could hardly be raided for piracy.
My rights don't need management.
It's a PC. We all know it. How much would a PC with hardware of "the same class" cost now? I don't think it would be more. It's far from "state of the art" technology by now and PCs that are 2-3 years old, easily fall in the "economy class". Think something similar to HDD40GB, GForce2, P3 1GHZ, 256M RAM - where would such thing land on a shelf in a computer shop?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The price tag of ~ $150 is still not low enough for me to buy a second console. In fact, for someone like me who has already invested in "This generation" of consoles, anything over a hundred is too much. Its not a casual buy whenever you see three digits in front of the price tag's decimal point. I don't see what they intend to gain from this manuever.
Go Gusties
Besides, who's going to sink $150 into the thing and not get a game or two for it?
i did... in fact I bought 2 of them.
they both sit on my network in my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom as Mythbox playback units.
work great and you cant build a playback box for myth for anywhere the price of an X box.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
...you can bet they won't drop it to 80!
Am I right in thinking that you can't export the X-Box from the US because of the encryption issue? That is the offical reason given when you try to export an iPod.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Maybe they are selling the boxes at below Suggested Retail, but at a loss. . . Doubtful.
There was an article a few weeks ago about how Microsoft can't find 8GB harddrives anymore and has to pack in larger drives. This is why they can't get the cost of the Xbox down over time and is also why they're looking at not including a harddrive for the Xbox 2.
The Xbox hasn't been shipping with 8GB drives for quite some time now. Most are now coming with 10 GB drives. Ask any modders about it and they'll confirm (xbox-scene.com) I know mine included a 10GB Seagate. Also, I believe the 10GB drives are actually 20 or 30 GB drives with the extra platters disabled refurbised drives are probably a good bet on this.
As far as why the Xbox 2 will not have a hard drive, lack of 8 GB drives is definitely *NOT* the reason. Hard drives below size X become a commodity, and thus an 8 GB drive isn't necessarily more expensive then a 20 GB in 2 years etc.. so drive size is not the reason. I'm not sure but it probably has to do with the modding scene (it is harder to for any real use something without permanent storage), increases in flash storage size and speed is probably a factor as well, and/or size and heat concerns.
Does anyone else find it strange that in America, games are for adults and animation is for kids, while in Japan (with Nintendo, at least) the games are for kids and the animation for adults?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
I reckon a MAME emulator like this would could cost something like $25 at the factory door.
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
The xbox comes with 64MB RAM. There are open spaces on the motherboard that allow you to add another 64MB, bringing the total to 128MB. The process is not as complicated as you might think. You can even buy an xbox with the 128MB modification already done for you.
Cost to build 10,000 X-boxes: $2,000,000
Scenario 1:
Revenue from selling 10,000 X-boxes: $1,500,000
Net loss: $500,000
Scenario 2:
Revenue from selling 0 X-boxes: $0
Net Loss: $2,000,000
So, because the way businesses work is they spend money to make a product, then hope to get some back, you don't hurt them by purchasing things "at a loss" - you actually reduce their losses. It's better to not buy them at all and have them just eat their initial expenditure.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
Hey Lumpy, could you please post your comments about your experiences doing this? I have a link in my journal to open a discussion if you have the time.. thanks!
Intelligent Life on Earth
I have a PC that I've been slowly upgrading over the years (motherboard is 5 year old dual proc BX with 2xP3-850). It suits my needs just fine as a software engineer. The biggest cost this year was adding an 80GB hard drive - not much really. Why would I spend a couple of grand to get a machine capable of playing games? Why would even set myself up to that I would need to keep spending top dollar to keep it playing games? That's a waste of money. Not to mention that it's in my office and nowhere near my stereo nor TV nor in a position several people can sit around it. Also, who would want a large noisy PC in their living room? Nah, I bought an XBox and *no* new game will have performance problems and force me to upgrade.
Buying a gaming PC is a constant battle against one's bank account and a foolish mistake that I've only made once. If you've got money to squander so frivolously then go ahead as there are plenty of people who you keep employed. I would rather save the money and spend it boozin' or taking my wife out to dinner or travelling to other countries, or any other number of things. Trust me, you can do a lot with the money you save.
Any sort of creative control that Nintendo exercises over the content of the games on their system is a bad thing.
Depends if it's for the purpose of increasing quality or, in your words, to create "Disneyfied" games. It's a case-by-case deal, not something where you just say "Hands off!" and that's it.
Sure its their right, as the console manufacturer, to enforce this Disneyfied vision on their developers, but it hurts them with other markets... like people who eventually get sick of MarioKart's colour scheme.
Okay, i'm trying not to get too annoyed, but you're being quite confusing here. Since you mention Mario Kart and it's color scheme for some reason, we'll go with that.
First of all, the latest Mario Kart game (and the two before them) were all first-party Nintendo titles, meaning they didn't force a vision on anyone but themselves. You may argue that they're still stifling their in-house developers, but that's not really what we're worried about at the moment.
Secondly, I really fail to understand how having a similar color scheme across games in a series is a problem in the first place. Even if it is/was, it's certainly not confined to Nintendo alone.
And lastly, i'm curious who you mean, exactly, by "people who eventually get sick of MarioKart's colour scheme.". Would that include the teenaged segment of the population that worships stuff like Halo, GTA3, or DOA: Extreme Volleyball?
Again, if your sole reason for not playing a game is embarassment over a bright, colorful color scheme or oddball premise, maybe you should think about how mature you really are.
Sony has it right. Games are so mainstream now, they must be treated like movies - and more importantly, art, when warranted. Put a rating on the thing and stay the hell out of the creative. It stunts the available offerings.
Oh, Sony and many of the developers for the PS2 are treating games like movies in more ways than one, especially the more high-profile RPG's.
If you have a PS2, go rent Xenosaga, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Namco's still cool and all, but gawd...The game is best described as a series of up to 45-minute cutscenes where you occasionally get to play the game a bit inbetween. The cutscenes are skippable, but if you're going to miss huge chunks of story, what's the point of even playing?
Anyway, when it comes down to it, if you think a game's fun, just play it. Personally, I think life's too short to miss a good gaming experience just because it might look a bit cutesy.