Xbox Price Drop Doubles Sales, Sony To Follow?

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."

Comments

Sony's price drop

[lake2112]

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.

Re:Sony's price drop

[black mariah]

It was the second console of this generation, but I still think it's the least powerful. The Dreamcast is part of this group, even though it died off fast (it came out too soon). I think that the DC had the horsepower to keep up with the others and probably outpace them at times.

(can you smell the burning Sega fanboyism?)

Re:Sony's price drop

[MMaestro]

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.

Re:Sony's price drop

[Worminater]

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.

Re:Sony's price drop

[chill182]

That's odd, I see Nintendo as the outsider where Atari and Intellivsion were once kings.

Re:Doubles their sales!!

[roll_w.it]

Does this mean that they have sold 20 last week as opposed to 10 the week before?

Well - I bought one, a friend bought one and I saw 3 others sold while we were there, that was Monday.

Fairly impressed - Hopefully it won't be replaced too quickly, but it beats having to keep a windows partition around to play games on.

Unfortunately, I broke one of my rules on things not to do during exam week.

PS2 Bundle

[the Man in Black]

If I could get a PS2, second controller, and 8MB memory card for $149, I'd buy one immediately. As it stands, the combination costs about $249, and you STILL haven't bought a game, which is another $50.

Maybe the rest of you have cash reserves the likes of which I can't imagine, but I don't have $300 to blow on sedentary entertainment. Do you know what I could get for $300 across the river in Windsor?

Re:PS2 Bundle

[KyolFrilander]

Canadian social disease?

Heh...

[cybermace5]

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.

Re:Heh...

[cbirdsong64]

Bundled games or accessories don't really increase percieved value. Before the Gamecube dropped to $100 last year, it was selling for $150 with a free game or GB player. Price drops, free stuff deal ends, sales quadruple. There was really NO DROP at all. Interesting situation there.

Re:Heh...

[cbirdsong64]

Well, with the GC deal, at the end, you could choose between Zelda: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Mario Party 4, and the GB player. Admittedly, Star Fox and Mario Party are "Meh" and "More of the same", respectively, but Zelda and Metroid Prime are two of the best titles of this generation.

I got yer reason right here

[aztektum]

Someone, somewhere, is putting together a Beowulf Cluster.

Thanks to Thompson?

[GeneralCern]

I love Xbox, love it, love it, love it. But even in my fanboy state I still have to question how many of these reduced price Xboxes are being purchased to replace broken First Generation Xboxes that shipped with the faulty Thompson DVD drive?

The point of selling consoles:

[empaler]

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.

My take

[DamienMcKenna]

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.

Re:Viewtiful Joe

[edwdig]

It's "Henshin a go go, baby". He says it when he transforms into superhero form. Henshin is Japanese for transform.

The game is fairly hard on the adult difficulty (and there are 2 harder difficulties), but there's also a kids mode which is pretty easy.

Hardware is not the issue....

[BigChigger]

I'm a light PS2 gamer. I probably have $750 worth of games. Most PS2 owners probably have twice that (just a guess.) Backwards compatibility is about still being able to use the investment I have made in the games - the price of the hardware is small by comparison.

BC

One more console

[swat_r2]

I was contemplating another Xbox so I can use Live, but I swear to god if someone sees another console in my entertainment unit they will think I have a problem.