The 360 Is Too Cheap?

The always interesting GamerDad site is running a 'LongShot' column wondering if perhaps the 360 wasn't expensive enough? From the article: "The beginning of a console generation has typically been for those with deep pockets or an unhealthy hardcore jones for videogames. These people are willing to smack down big bucks for the latest technology. The price of 360 was too low to keep the launch confined to that group and it was a big mistake in my opinion. With a higher price tag, Microsoft would have made more money, made sure sellouts wouldn't have lasted for months after Christmas and still sold through all the units they had to sell before the holiday. The demand for a new system was far higher than most people anticipated, especially given the early demise of the original Xbox, a system that will probably be gone from store shelves by February 2007."

Comments

Oh no!

[TimAbdulla]

It's too cheap?! Darn. I was just about to buy one too. Hopefully the PS3 can deliver in price!

He's right!

[gEvil (beta)]

He's absolutely right. I mean, look at the 3DO. The perfect price point got it the penetration that it needed.

Re:He's right!

[poot_rootbeer]

And keep in mind, the 3D0 was SEVENTY BETTER than the 360, hexadecimally.

Market forces

[DeadCatX2]

Of course the 360 was too cheap. Look at what they went for on eBay.

Microsoft obviously failed to find the appropriate point on the supply/demand curve for the market.

Rehash of a Slate story

[MeanMF]

Slate magazine said the same thing four months ago:

The Great Xbox Shortage of 2005
Xbox Economics, Part 2

that's a pitty

[moochfish]

The declining prices of the XBox 360 will surely seal its doomed fate.

Re:Reaching

[Life2Short]

I'm sorry, did you say something about the quality of Xplay?

I was staring at Morgan Breast's Webb.

Er, Morgan Webb's breasts...

Seriously, silly banter aside, the reviews are quite good in that they seem to know how to use a 5 point Likert scale. Most of their reviews are a 3/5. The distribution of many of the other reviews I see seems to be bimodal - the game either totally sucks, or it rocks "TO THE EXTREME!!!" At least I know that when I watch Xplay if they give a game a 1 it must really suck, and games good enough to earn a 5 are equally rare.

Here's your market breakdown

[Anonymous Coward]

• 10 crazy fucks with more money than brains on eBay
• everybody else

I know, let's just raise the MSRP 1000x and then we only need to make one sale!

Teacher! Teacher!

[lamz]

After explaining how Microsoft should have charged more for the XBox 360, he pointed out to the teacher that she forgot to assign homework.