Let's make blind guesses about a 360 price drop!

flogen

Most people assume that the 360 will drop in price in time for the PS3 launch and frankly I think you'd be a fool to suggest that MS will keep things as they have been since November, but I got lost just there and found myself outside the box, thought there for a while and have since returned to spread my baseless guesses with you lot for a second opinion.

OK, Most people here are hardcore gamers (or at least they are serious enough about games), and as such the 360 Core was/is not an option, except perhaps in the most extreme of circumstances... I think one figure MS released was a sale of 2:1 for the full system, and that was back around launch when the full system was hard to come by (so people went for the core because they had to). I can't find up-to-date figures on the comparison but I'd venture a guess that the situation has not improved for the core and if anything has gotten worse.

The dual sku tactic is being emulated by Sony now, but their lower model packs more of a punch compared to the core, for one it has a 20gb HDD (something that the higher end xbox only matches). Since the sony announcement MS have remained quite quiet on the HDD front, despite promising higher HDD's at some point (they said so at launch, and should have announced something by now for the Christmas market, like they did for the HDDVD drive).

So here's my theory; MS won't drop the price of their consoles but instead add a 20gb HDD to the Core (which is an effective price drop of €110 to anyone buying a core only to upgrade later), and they'll slap something like 60gb (matching ps3) or more on the higher end model... the higher end will keep all the extra extras like headset, remote and blingin' chrome dvd drive etc.
The advantages would be as follows: ALL 360's on the market would be backwards compatible (with the listed games), and there'd be no need for additional purchases, the Core would be somewhat comparable to the lower end ps3 and finally the amount of consoles on the market sans HDD would be cut (let's see... if they sell 10m by PS3 launch and 1 out of every three are core, that's just 3.3m without a hard drive and god knows how many of them have bought a seperate HDD) and so it wouldn't be as big a deal for games in a year or two (halo 3, I'm looking at you) to use the HDD like they have done on the original xbox...

I do wonder, will MS prefer to show off a lower price point or offer more bang for their buck, frankly the Core was always a joke and even though it's far cheaper than the lower end ps3 it's going to look even worse once that launches (if it launches).

super_furry

The thing is now, with Sony's stupidly high launch price for the PS3, Microsoft don't have to cut the price of the 360. They can keep their prices the exact same and still look a much better alternative than the PS3. I can see the Core pack being phased out alright, but it's difficult to know exactly when this will happen.

flogen

super_furry wrote:

I can see the Core pack being phased out alright, but it's difficult to know exactly when this will happen.

The sooner the better for MS IMO; I think it's only a matter of time that we see a 360 game (other than a MMORPG) requiring the HDD, if they get more customers onto a machine with a HDD now they'll have fewer complaints when that happens...

Gonzo

wish the fekin price of 360 games wud fall back to normal prices €59.99 maximum for a game etc.

sprinkles

I can't see MS upgrading the 20gig to a 60 gig in the premium system. Firstly (and I don't own a 360) but has anyone actually filled it? I really doubt it. I don't see this happening. I think MS will phase out the core system and lower the 360 premium to the current core price. We usually see a price drop the following xmas to boost sales and as it coincides with the PS3 they would be foolish not to give the mothers absolutely no reason to choose the PS3 when it's main competitor is 200+ cheaper.

monument

super_furry wrote:

The thing is now, with Sony's stupidly high launch price for the PS3, Microsoft don't have to cut the price of the 360. They can keep their prices the exact same and still look a much better alternative than the PS3.

That's just what I was thinking when I read the tread title.

super_furry wrote:

I can see the Core pack being phased out alright, but it's difficult to know exactly when this will happen.

Maybe whenever they lower the price of the other.

Retr0gamer

I think that MS have deep enough pockets to reduce the price by 50-75 euro. They would be stupid not to. With such a big headstart it should be easy for them to put a huge dent in sonys market share or even take over sony in first place.

super_furry

Well I'm waiting on a price drop. I've been impressed the 360, more so than the Wii and definately more than the PS3 but the Premium pack is still too expensive (with the obligitory couple of games) for me to justify buying. A €75 to €100 price drop will be enough for me to splash the cash. And until then I've started Morrowind GOTY on the Xbox again.

flogen

sprinkles wrote:

I can't see MS upgrading the 20gig to a 60 gig in the premium system. Firstly (and I don't own a 360) but has anyone actually filled it? I really doubt it. I don't see this happening.

Well they'll certainly offer a bigger HDD seperately at some point; they want to go for the whole media centre thing, and if it's true that Sony are planning an iTunes-esque service on their machine then you can expect Xbox to respond, queue plenty more demos, additional content, music videos, video casts etc.

There's also the possibility that digital distribution will take off, although not until the end of this gen at the earliest IMO.

Lemlin

Can't see it happening TBH. The 360 has been doing well for Microsoft and with the PS3 launching at such a high price, I can't see a 360 price drop on the horizon.

koneko

MS said they saw no reason for a pricedrop, as "recent events" (PS3) have confirmed they're at a good price point (something along those lines). I wouldn't expect a substantial pricedrop anytime soon, maybe a minor one, or more price drops on specific games, but I don't think the price of the console will go down much anytime soon.

flogen

http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65251

Microsoft may consider releasing a larger Xbox 360 hard disk in future - but is unlikely to keep devoting resources to making Xbox games work on its next-gen format.

That's according to Peter Moore, who told Kikizo at E3 that "there's going to be a time when we need to look at what we're doing [with hard disks] - but no announcements now".

"We continue looking at the hard drive, we're looking at the behaviour of what people are doing with their hard drives," Moore had said. "Clearly when you have a million downloads you start looking at what you need to do."

So HDD's are a likely thing of the future, but it also blows my theory on upgrading rather than price cutting out of the water.
I still think MS will start to phase out the core; maybe that's just wishful thinking