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Xbox Price Drop Doubles Sales, Sony To Follow?

Posted by simoniker on from the more-crunk-for-your-buck dept.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its story mentioning Microsoft's indication that dropping Xbox's price to $149 has caused sales to double for the week immediately following the announcement. However, the piece muses: "The question, however, is just how long the sales boost will last - with some analysts suggesting that the 'bounce' isn't sustainable. Certainly, there are many factors which suggest that Microsoft will cut the Xbox price again before Christmas 2004." In addition to this, there's speculation about competition: "All eyes are now on rival Sony, with sources close to the Japanese giant suggesting that it plans to drop the US PS2 price point to $149 later this month - and will add two games (as yet unnamed) to the bundle as well, bringing the effective price of the hardware below the Xbox."

7 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Sony's price drop by lake2112 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find it odd how the first and least powerful next-gen system is now at the highest price point. I guess it just goes to show how big Sony has become in the gaming industry. Even though I still view them as an outsider in an industry where Sega and Nintendo were once kings.

    1. Re:Sony's price drop by MMaestro · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I guess it just goes to show how big Sony has become in the gaming industry.

      Indeed, but one has to wonder : Will that translate true with the PS3?

      IMO, the PS2 outdid the Dreamcast with backward by shipping with backward compability and shipping with a DVD system. However, a shipping with a DVD system isn't going to help anymore since the market is saturated with them, and backward compability won't help since they've saturated the market with PS2 units (when PS3 hits, I wouldn't be surprised to find pre-owned PS2s going for $50.) So what does Sony have going for them with the PS3? Maybe some linkage between the PSP and PS3, and its huge third-party developer support.

      But even thats weak. SquareEnix, unarguably Sony's biggest help with FFVII and FFX, isn't staying 100% dedicated with them to buddy up with Nintendo. Capcom and Konami are also beginning to cross-develop on other systems as well, not to mention Sony failing to buddy up with Sega after defeating their Dreamcast. The PSP also doesn't have much going for it other than technological overpowerment over Nintendo's Gameboy Advance, considered to be an unenterable market. Unless Sony reveals some serious, serious backage at this year's E3, I'm gonna have to say Sony is in trouble. Between Nintendo's tried-and-true franchises and Gameboy Advance, as well as Microsoft's power-leading Xbox and a treasury larger than some third-world countries, Sony is in a tight spot. Yesterday's success is today's overconfidence and tomorrow's defeat.

    2. Re:Sony's price drop by Worminater · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I picked up a dreamcast, and i garantee i play it more than i would a ps2 if i had one:P

      I bought it for 20 bucks with 3 games, 4 controllers(including guns) and memory card.

      www.dcemulation.com

      I have an nes still, yse, but isnt it just that much better to turn on dreamcast and have entire nes game library on ONE disk, with all the perks associated with a pc emulator?

      Cant beat that, and the first party games are also good, hold their own with most ps2 games graphically.

  2. Heh... by cybermace5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I knew this was going to start soon. Both Sony and Microsoft own the rights to a good number of games. When they've lowered the price so much that it hurts, they'll just include games...hey, it's no extra cost right? Just the cost of another pressed CD?

    It would be interesting to see what the internal financial impact analysis of including games is, compared to public statements of loss due to piracy.

    This might be bad news for the Xbox modders out there. If Microsoft takes the cue and no longer lowers the price, but instead includes more games, then they will increase the perceived value of their system while not making it any more attractive to people who want to take advantage of their loss leader.

    --
    ...
  3. PStwo ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    In that interview with the European Sony chief he hinted at a PSone style makeover, which means are we potentially going to be getting a PStwo soon? Maybe Sony didn't immediately follow because the product is in the pipeline for next month's E3?

    If they made the PlayStation 2 small, sleek and sexy ala the PSone, you would have to wonder if the hard drive peripheral would fit as easily.....

    Anyhow, my PS2 is starting to make real funky noises when I open the slide tray and I've had mine since 2001, so I would definitely buy a replacement if it had something new to offer.

    -Joshua

  4. The point of selling consoles: by empaler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sell the console cheap. Lose a little money while doing it.
    Charge extortionate license fees from the producers for every gamecopy produced or sold.

    Why else can you get consoles for the same price as three games?

    The point of lowering prices to bleed even more is to get consumers locked onto _their_ machine, so that they will buy _their_ games. It's the games that pay their bills, not the machines. A machine can hold for years (I'm pretty sure my NES still works), but new games keep coming _all the time_.

    We are all consumer whores.

  5. My take by DamienMcKenna · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't intend buying an XBox, but I would buy a reduced-price Playstation 2 due to the awesome RPGs. The XBox doesn't have the games I want, the PS2 does.