http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25476764/

They are on the 13th. We've already seen the Kmart ad and Radioshack ads. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/30/report-major-retailer-confirms-xbox-360-price-cut/

I wouldnt call this "Slashing"........more like a nice trim. Personally, I think if they went $75-$100 they could really boost sales a ton! I'm sure they've had a few marketing gurus offer their opinions though ; )

even though i own an elite and love it maybe its my cheap side coming out but the more i look at it the overall 360 hardware is not worth 300 its almost 3 year old technology i cant see how this machine could not cost MS more then 200 to make

even though i own an elite and love it maybe its my cheap side coming out but the more i look at it the overall 360 hardware is not worth 300 its almost 3 year old technology i cant see how this machine could not cost MS more then 200 to make

Who is saying it doesn't cost MS 200 to make?

Who is saying it doesn't cost MS 200 to make?

It probably costs even less than $200 to produce at this point, but somewhere MS needs to recoup the $200+ they were losing on each one they sold at launch since the hardware was significantly more expensive back then.

It probably costs even less than $200 to produce at this point, but somewhere MS needs to recoup the $200+ they were losing on each one they sold at launch since the hardware was significantly more expensive back then.

i am sure they made all that back in royalties that they charge game companies i remember reading on nextgen that 90% of all last gen sales came when the price point was below 200 and maybe thats around the break even point for ms

Does nobody else find it interesting that a site co-owned and operated by Microsoft (MSNBC.com) is reporting on the "rumor"?

i am sure they made all that back in royalties that they charge game companies i remember reading on nextgen that 90% of all last gen sales came when the price point was below 200 and maybe thats around the break even point for ms

MS game division had an operating loss of approximately $4 Billion in 2007 due to selling hardware below what it costs them to produce as well as extending the warranty for RROD for 3 years.

Obviously MS is dabbling in games to try and be profitable at some point and while their other revenue pays for this venture there is no need for additional write downs if the console is still selling well at current price points. From a business standpoint there is no real incentive to drop prices even further. Now on the flip side of that coin if Sony drops the price of the PS3 $50, MS will probably mirror that with their own $75 savings. Until all 3 major systems start slashing their prices no 1 company is going to be the stand out and agressively reduce the price of their system...imo

NOT GOOD ENOUGH.


They really needed an $80 drop, cause they really need the Arcade unit to be the magical price of $199.99. The only way the Arcade makes any sense, is to get a Sku to the magical price of $199.99 as quick as possible, that was the whole idea behind the core/arcade. Yet they keep pussyfooting around with these insignificant price drops. The only thing a 50 buck price drop does, is basically pay the tax, and maybe one cheap accessory. It's not like that's going to get a ton of people to jump on the 360.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
They really needed an $80 drop, cause they really need the Arcade unit to be the magical price of $199.99. The only way the Arcade makes any sense, is to get a Sku to the magical price of $199.99 as quick as possible, that was the whole idea behind the core/arcade. Yet they keep pussyfooting around with these insignificant price drops. The only thing a 50 buck price drop does, is basically pay the tax, and maybe one cheap accessory. It's not like that's going to get a ton of people to jump on the 360.

I don't agree. I've been waiting on the sidelines to get a second unit and this is the moment I was waiting for.

Will it be NEW SKU, newer chip etc or just price drop? I just bought one from amazon, so depends whether I request exchange or price adjust?

part of the rumor is that a 60gb is coming out.

well part of the rumor is ms will be pulling a sony.... announcing a "price drop" on the 20 gig units to clear stock and come in with the "upgraded" 60 gig unit at the original 349 price. if that happens it will be as lame as when sony tried it. i think it would work well though if ms used the pro to replace the core and brought in the 60 gig at the current pro price.

that way they can remove that no hard drive thing in games.

pussyfooting
you are 1 of 2 people, that i know of, that actually uses that word... LMAO!

that way they can remove that no hard drive thing in games.

I have a 20 gig drive laying around from when I upgraded to the 120 GB. I'd love to see a sub-$200 arcade version that I can slap that drive into. :)

that way they can remove that no hard drive thing in games.

Never gonna happen. MS made their bed when they launched the 360 with 2 skus, one sans hard drive. Now they have to lie in it. Eliminating the Arcade (Core) now, doesn't make any sense, because you already have a segmented user base. So it isn't like they can all of a sudden say, "ok, now a hard drive is required to play all new 360 games." That isn't going to work.

The most puzzling thing about the Arcade (Core), isn't the fact that they haven't gotten rid of it, it's the fact that they haven't really taken advantage of it's existence in the first place. The whole idea behind the Core is that it gives them the ability to have a low cost sku that they can use to lure Johnny Sixpack, and his little son Jimmy. The whole idea was to get to $199 as quick as possible, and if they never had the Core, it would take a long, long, long time to get to $199. The Core was the ticket to $199. Yet, here we are almost 3 years later, and the Core still isn't $199. Makes no sense whatsoever.

Yet, here we are almost 3 years later, and the Core still isn't $199. Makes no sense whatsoever.

I am going to take a guess and say maybe because companies like to make money vs losing it. Since that was the trend up until this year they actually started to make a profit.

Never gonna happen. MS made their bed when they launched the 360 with 2 skus, one sans hard drive. Now they have to lie in it. Eliminating the Arcade (Core) now, doesn't make any sense, because you already have a segmented user base. So it isn't like they can all of a sudden say, "ok, now a hard drive is required to play all new 360 games." That isn't going to work.

The most puzzling thing about the Arcade (Core), isn't the fact that they haven't gotten rid of it, it's the fact that they haven't really taken advantage of it's existence in the first place. The whole idea behind the Core is that it gives them the ability to have a low cost sku that they can use to lure Johnny Sixpack, and his little son Jimmy. The whole idea was to get to $199 as quick as possible, and if they never had the Core, it would take a long, long, long time to get to $199. The Core was the ticket to $199. Yet, here we are almost 3 years later, and the Core still isn't $199. Makes no sense whatsoever.

there are a multitude of ways they can fix the issue.... do some sort of tradeup program (similar to that hard drive upgrade cable) where you send in your info and get a hard drive in return. 20 gig drives really do not cost that much anymore. There cant be that many arcades/core units out there because most consumers were not that stupid.

Or they could potentially flat out ignore the arcade sku.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/soulcalibur4/

it still may get removed but right now according to xbox.com to play that game it says "hard drive required". What are core users gonna do with that?

I don't agree. I've been waiting on the sidelines to get a second unit and this is the moment I was waiting for.

Me too. I've been waiting to buy a second unit until after a price drop or preferably when a 60gb unit becomes available. Hopefully we'll know something for sure after E3.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH.Yet they keep pussyfooting around with these insignificant price drops.

Insignificant? I suppose you wanted one for free?

And i suppose this price drop was expected? ( jasper )

20 gig clearance would make sense.....you dont' want to have people buying a $500 system with a 20gig HD and then immediately replace it with a 60gig system for $500.

As for price drops....remember, you drop prices when you have to, not before, thats bad business and leaves money on the table. Microsoft will drop the price of the system when their expected sales volumes are below their expectations. Clearly they are sellling enough arcade units at the current price to justify keeping it around.

Businesses make money over long term, small margin profits...not over "Lets drop the price to $99 bucks and sell a gillion of them!".

Good I can take my RROD'ed Premium back to Best Buy and get an Elite (do they let you trade up)? Or should I wait longer for the 60GB?

Its two different arguments here.. and I agree with both.

Anthony1's debate - is that $199 (or less) is the magical price point where 90% of every videogame console in history has been sold. That is a HUGE number. Its basically saying people dont really buy video game consoles until they are priced $199 and lower. So he strongly believes (and I wholeheartedly agree) that if you price the Arcade at $199.. the 360 will equal or better Wii sales.. absolutely slaughter the PS3 (which would be priced TWICE as much as the 360). At a price of $199 the question goes from "Why?" to "Why not?" for the consumer thinking about picking up a 360. Seeing as though MS is willing to go down to $240 for extra sales.. why not just go all the way to the $199.. and pickup double/tripple/quadruple sales. Its a risk of only $40 a console.. and its only a loss on the Arcade. With their overpriced accessories (i.e. Harddrive) they could easily recoup that additional $40 lost.

Everyone else's debate - Any modest price drop is still a price drop. And $40-50 ain nothing to sneeze at. And they're right too. Any price drop is going to stimulate sales. And it appears this time around MS & Sony care just about as making money.. as they do increasing/gaining marketshare. With the Billions (and I do mean Billions) lost on both of these platforms.. sooner or later you have to start recouping the dough. Theres other departments, stockholders, and management in general to keep happy within the company. You cant just take one department and have them waste every buck.. the rest of the company works so hard to earn.


That said.. my 'ideal' pricing for the 360 right now would be:

$199 - Arcade
$279 - Premium 20gig
$329 - Premium 60gig w/bundled game
$359 - Elite 120gig w/bundled game


Take your most popular title and include it in your "premiere" bundle. Just like Sony did with MGS4. Afterall.. someone spending almost $400 on a videogame system should atleast recieve *gasp* a game to play with it.

Microsoft is in an even better position in that they have a catalog of AAA titles that are 1-2 years old that could be bundled easily. Off the top of my head would be Halo3. As that is the title that seems to have defined the Xbox name itself.

Just call it the 'Greatest Hits edition' to sell the system..

Take your most popular title and include it in your "premiere" bundle. Just like Sony did with MGS4.
that won't happen. you're talking about a company that released a Halo3 Special Edition 360, increased the price $50, and DIDN'T even include the Halo3 game!

Well, since none of us really know the true sales numbers and marketing outlook its hard to say.........but for sake of speculation I do think dropping the price to $199 is a magic number that opens a lot of the "average Joe" eyes into getting a 360. I also agree with the idea that throwing a game like Halo 3 in with the system would really spur sales. Halo is a game that probably has seen its best days in terms of sales, its a good game that perhaps gets brushed aside because of its "same old" feeling to the hardcore gamer and the fact that there are so many other titles out there. Put it with the 20GB units and you might get a lot of folks on the sidelines interested in buying a 360 who have heard of Halo and the Xbox but never really felt the need to pull the trigger.

But yeah, the bottom line is always money. It will be priced where the supply and demand curve says it should be........

that won't happen. you're talking about a company that released a Halo3 Special Edition 360, increased the price $50, and DIDN'T even include the Halo3 game!

You make a good point.. but I can make an even better one:


How well did it sell??

exactly.



So you can bet your azz that will be the last game based "special edition" 360 that doesnt come with the actual game. Microsoft may be slow to learn. But they are far from stupid. They have a record of failing, but trying over and over again until they eventually get it right. Thats pretty much their success record for all of their software accomplishments. Hardware is a different story, because you cant just make version 2.0 overnite.

They will figure out what it takes to sell hardware.. (more research on wants/future needs, more testing for reliability/stability, more refinement, smaller footprint) look for them NOT to make the same mistakes twice. Compare the original XBOX compared to the 360.. you will see they have learned alot about what consumers want and willing to pay for.. versus just throwing together a bunch of ideas and hoping somebody will buy it.

I bought one as a gift from CirCuit City about a week ago.... think they would price match? Console price drops apply to price match policies, right?

I bought one as a gift from CirCuit City about a week ago.... think they would price match? Console price drops apply to price match policies, right?

Yes.

You make a good point.. but I can make an even better one:


How well did it sell??

exactly.



So you can bet your azz that will be the last game based "special edition" 360 that doesnt come with the actual game. Microsoft may be slow to learn. But they are far from stupid. They have a record of failing, but trying over and over again until they eventually get it right. Thats pretty much their success record for all of their software accomplishments. Hardware is a different story, because you cant just make version 2.0 overnite.

They will figure out what it takes to sell hardware.. (more research on wants/future needs, more testing for reliability/stability, more refinement, smaller footprint) look for them NOT to make the same mistakes twice. Compare the original XBOX compared to the 360.. you will see they have learned alot about what consumers want and willing to pay for.. versus just throwing together a bunch of ideas and hoping somebody will buy it.

Lets not overlook another critical reason as to why the Halo box fell hard........it was ugly as F'in sin. Id be just as happy putting a turd with an HDMI cable sticking out of it in my AV rack as I would that Halo 360!

Lets not overlook another critical reason as to why the Halo box fell hard........it was ugly as F'in sin. Id be just as happy putting a turd with an HDMI cable sticking out of it in my AV rack as I would that Halo 360!

"Leaves work to grab the kids and download Soul Caliber the Dreamcast version on his yet to show any signs of RROD on his Halo 3 edition 360(which is covered by a replacement plan just in case)" :cool:

I am going to take a guess and say maybe because companies like to make money vs losing it.


You're assuming that it costs MS more than $199.99 to bring an Arcade 360 to market. You know what they say when you assume......:p