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."
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 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!
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
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.
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.
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 ;-)