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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!
Synergy is your friend
Breaking news, this just in, the XBox 360 is gonna be expensive.
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*
$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
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.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
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.