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The 360's Towering Pricetag Explored
Last week Gamasutra had up a call for commentary on the revelations about the Xbox 360's pricing structure. This week, comments are available on the groaning pricetags gamers will have to endure if they want to jump on the next-gen bandwagon. This commentary is especially well seen, given that Gamestop has just come out with a 360 Bundle that clocks in at a whopping $1,199.83. From the article: "I don't think the prices for the $300 or the $400 bundles are unreasonable, but anyone who buys the $300 bundle is going to end up paying more on expensive accessories. $99 for a 20 gig hard disk? You can get a 250 gig hard disk for less than that! If you don't want to get the hard disk, you have to pay $39.99 to save your game."
Yup, this sounds like one of those PC World reviews of new Macs, where they moan about how it's so much more expensive than a comparable Dell once you add in a 30 inch aluminum Cinema Display and a 60 gig iPod...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
$100 US gets you a 60GB 2.5" notebook drives at retail. While the "250GB" comment is just plain ignorance, the fact remains that Microsoft is overcharging for the hard drive, charging the price of a 60GB drive for a 20GB drive.
I don't get why people are upset about these bundles... price point be damned.
Back when the Playstation2 came out, many who were actually able to get one turned around and sold it on eBay for 2x-3x as much as Sony's $300 MSRP. So this time around, the retailers are trying to cash in on the people with wads of money to spend and a burning desire to be the first one on the block to get the new XBox.
Can you blame 'em?
Again, people were buying new PS2s on eBay for $900... without extra accessories! At least the retailers are driving up prices by bundling a bunch of extras and not just inflating the price "base" system.
Supply and demand, here, people.
Too few units at launch coupled with people willing to pay for expensive bundles... hell, I'll be shocked if the retailers complain "nobody's buying!" I strongly doubt that'll be the case.
1. It costs too much
2. Doesn't offer anything that I can't get from a cheaper system
3. High price doesn't mean better games
4. It is developed by Microsoft
we, as consumers, control the market. It is our duty to stop this from continuing. If we keep buying things like this, for these prices, then things will stay like this and only get worse.
But then again, most of these systems cost more when they are introduced. Their prices eventually drop. This is just Microsoft imposing the early adopter tax on those willing to make the purchase.
And those that do? Well, they are wasting their money. But it is their money to waste.
And you still only get one controller! For $1000+ I would expect atleast 2 controllers.