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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."
The 360's HDDs are 2.5", aka laptop drives. 250GB $100 laptop drives? Sign me up!
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Breaking news, this just in, the XBox 360 is gonna be expensive.
...there's over 500 dollars worth of games there.
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This is just moronic. Are we trying to make things sound worse, by citing some ridiculous package put together by some retailer? Please.
The $399.99 bundle that Microsoft announced is expensive. We freakin' get it, already. Considering what you get, many of us feel that its not that bad. Mentioning that $1,200 package is just flamebait.
That bundle includes every possible launch title for the Xbox 360, including those that haven't even been confirmed! Bethedsa has never confirmed that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will launch. The closest we get is "Holidays, 2005".
You know what's even worse? When Sony comes out with the pricing for the PS3, this is going to start all over again. Ken Kutagari has already warned us that its going to be ridiculously expensive. *sigh*
For me the biggest attraction to a console is that I can buy any game released for the system, take it home and shove it in the drive and viola, working and playing flawlessly. With PC games you have to worry about installation and hardware compatability and the latest versions of DirectX (or OpenGL), etc. And then often you will still get slow downs here and there if you dont have a top of the line system.
And yes, the price tag compared to a comparable gaming PC has generally been pretty sweet in the past. :P
$40 for a memory card? That's ridiculous. I know most XBox 360 buyers will be interested in the HD, but what happened to the reasoning people bought consoles in the first place?
They used to work straight out of the box. Need to hook it to your TV? There's a cord in the box. Need a controller? There's one in the box. Need to save? Either it came with a memory card or the games saved to the cart.
I'll be waiting to buy any new console until I can buy it the way I bought my GameCube (I got the cube, a controller, a game (choice of 5 I think), and a memory card) at a reasonable price.
e2 | LJ
You didn't look at the package for $1,200, did you? It includes the Xbox 360, a wireless controller, headset, hard drive, and remote control, along with 11 titles. Show me a high-end gaming PC with 11 titles for $1,200. Geez. You pay that for an average PC without any good software.
Seriously, before making a ludicrous statement like that, please read what you're commenting on.
Can you buy your sweet gaming rig, enough accessories to use it (ie, keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc), and 10 new release games for less than $1000?
Last I checked, the latest video cards can cost up to $600 alone.
maybe if they had a package and let you pick 2 games from that list instead of forcing specific titles on you. I am sure i aiwll get the 399 package, and then a game or 2, so i would love a package, i would just want to pick the games...
You can fool some of the people all of the time
Yeah, I second that. They should give you options if you're spending $600 to $700.
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...
Soon part.
I have been saying this all along, way before the official numbers were released and I was met with countless flames.
The simple fact is that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to be very large busts. Sure the dedicated fanboy will spring for a $1000+ system but the average person is not. The Revolution's position keeps looking better all the time.
On top of these massive costs, the games are going to be more expensive and long gone are the days of $20 older popular titles. The other MAJOR problem will be the number of titles released over the consoles lifespan. With astonishingly high production costs and timetables almost double that of other consoles, developers are simply not going to be pumping out many titles... and those that do get made will be the "safe" titles and licensed games. So except for FPS, Sports, and safe RPG's/MMO's and crap movie/TV/whatever licensed games there will be little else. I don't even believe many puzzle games or niche titles will be seen.
It is going to be very frustrating for gamers, look how the comparatively cheap (while still way expensive) to produce for PSP is doing... If the Revolution can come in at $199-$249 and have some solid titles on top of classics/GC backwards compat. and a simplified innovative controller, there truly will be a revolution in gaming.
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maybe if they had a package and let you pick 2 games from that list instead of forcing specific titles on you. I am sure i aiwll get the 399 package, and then a game or 2, so i would love a package, i would just want to pick the games...
But then nobody would buy the crappy games, which is one of the major reasons for bundling them.
You're an idiot, and every moderator who marked this "insightful" is an idiot as well. The suggested retail price of the Xbox 360 is $400 for the HD version. You can't build a PC with the same gaming specs as the Xbox 360 for $400.
The price listed in this flamebait article is the price of the console, a bunch of extra controllers, and *THE ENTIRE GAMES LINEUP* at launch. That's why it costs $1200... $660 of that is games, $400 is the Xbox, and the rest is the extra controllers and other accessories. (Oh, and BTW, you can't build a PC with the gaming specs of the Xbox 360 *and* 11 brand-new games for $1200, either.)
Your post isn't insightful, it's plain wrong.
Comment of the year
Do I detect a CHALLENGE???
DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 - $98
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice - $146
Samsung Spinpoint SP2014N 200GB ATA133 - $86
MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB - $169 (comes with XIII, so there's one game)
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) - $90
Seasonic S12-330 PSU (22a on 12v channel, 330w max) - $59
In-Win S508T case - $53 (includes okay power supply for backup)
Logitech MX510 mouse - $28
Logitech cheap keyboard - $8
NEC DVD Burner - $50.
(I'm assuming that, since the 360 doesn't come with any way to watch/listen to games, that this computer doesn't come with a monitor or speakers.)
Total cost: $787, including one game. That leaves $413 for ten games (from ebgames.com), so here we go:
Guild Wars: $50
Advent Rising: $30
Madden NFL 06: $40
Battlefield 2: $50
Doom 3: $30
HL2 - GOTY: $50
C&C Generals Deluxe: $30
Empire Earth II: $50
Rome: Total War: $50
UT2004: $30
Total cost for games: $410. Leaves you $3 for a snack while you're assembling your system. So, instead of bitching and moaning about which component doesn't work, or this and that game sucks, can you see that, in theory, it's perfectly possible to spend $1200 on a better-than-average PC system with eleven games?
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
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.
I'm no Nintendo fanboy, but I cannot help but wonder if Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to price themselves right out of the market and give Nintendo a big win in the next console round. It's not just the cost of the console and the games themselves. As others have mentioned, the next gen offerings from MS and Sony are going to be relatively difficult and expensive to develop for. This could leave the door wide open for Nintendo to become the console of choice for the great middle swath of developers that don't have the resources to develop on the other machines, whose high prices may result in smaller market penetration.
If Nintendo plays the price game right, wooing consumers with a capable low cost and easy to understand (no multiple models here) console, and wooing developers with an easy and cheaper to develop for console, they could win the round.
I know that the new generation of consoles usually have more expensive launch prices, but it seems that something is different about this launch. It's taking place against the backdrop of a relatively sluggish economy in the major console markets, high energy prices, and each major console manufacturer facing financial difficulties or at least reduced profits. That makes me believe that we won't see a fast drop off in prices after launch as has been the case in the past. And some major publishers have invested a lot of money in either securing exclusive sports licenses and/or buying out the competition. In short, no one will be in a hurry to lower prices.
If Nintendo plays this right, they could win. And I can think of no company more desperate to get back to the top of the gaming heap than the big N.
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Microsoft (or anybody else) selling a console without a save mechanism would be like Microsoft selling Excel without the save button (it would be available as an online patch for $40 though).
Please don't give them ideas.
And you still only get one controller! For $1000+ I would expect atleast 2 controllers.
I'll be going for the $400 package and probably order one or two games (Elder Scrolls and one other shooting/blow-em-up Live enabled game).
Thank you for your informative response. I wasn't aware that I was a fool, but thanks to you I now know the truth and can live a better life.
If graphics are all that matter to you then you should buy a PC. After all, a PC will always have better looking games than any console? Or maybe you forgot?
Do you need exclusive games? Ok, then let me suggest that you buy any of the consoles, or a PC. I am certain that these options will also provide you with a plethora of exclusive games as well.
You are correct, low prices do not mean better games. But neither do high prices. Remember, excellent games existed before the XBox 360.
As for being uninformed, I should let you know that I actually built the XBox 360. That's right. I work for Microsoft and still, even I wouldn't buy one. Yeah, yeah, that's it. See I am not a consumer at all. I work for the company that makes this system. You shouldn't buy our system. How's that for uninformed?
Of course, I can not end this post without thanking you first. This post was actually an experiment. I was trying to see if I could get someone, much like you, to reply and say something nasty. So think about it. I actually controlled your mind by presenting my post. How does it feel to know that your emotions have been manipulated by someone smarter than you?
So, thank you and have a nice day!
"Limit 1 Xbox 360 bundle per household. "
somehow i dont hink with a 1.2k price tag, that is going to be a big problem.
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Actually, he is just plain right and your point (I use that term loosely, since you don't really have one) doesn't make any sense. You fail to note prices of consoles drop. You fail to provide any evidence. A "decent" gaming rig today costs $2000+ if you want to stay current with games because PC games are constantly pushing the edge of systems. If you want to make some sort of point, here's a tip. You figure out the prices. You present the data. You give your sources. Go ahead and do it now.
The price point of consoles over PCs is still there. But there is so much more to it than just that. It's easier for developers because they have one target platform (or 2 or 3 if they aren't exclusive) to develop and test for. Consoles are more social so people can play with their friend all while in the same room. Games on consoles (normally) just work. No new video drivers or weird issues...you just can concentrate on playing games. You really miss the point.
I play on both platforms, so I am not trying to say consoles are better than PCs. I will always rather play strategy and FPSs on PC. Hooking up a keyboard to a console to get my mouse rate limited is dumb...plus, I don't want to hunch over a coffee table to play a game...i want to kick back in a recliner with a controller. You just need to drop your biased attitude about consoles. Both have advantages and disadvantages and both will be healthy markets in the future.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
They are now listing a bundle for $1999 that has 20 games.
-Randy
The accessory market was pretty open (look in a store how many third party accessories are sold there for any console) before the 360. MS announced they're going with Trusted Computing in order to force accessory makers to get a license.
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