How to sell next-gen consoles, Marketing, Positioning, and Pricing [2020]

[zupallinere]

Often times just being the market leader allows you to sell a new product for more than the competition. There will be a lot of people who go ps5 just because its the next playstation just like a lot of people at launch bought a ps3 because it was the next playstation

The question then becomes why wait to show the price ? If they are planning on relying on the brand to sell itself at this price they might as well reveal it as opposed to waiting for MS to which everyone says they are doing.
MS reveals a 499 price and then Sony replies with 599 ?

 

[function]

The question then becomes why wait to show the price ? If they are planning on relying on the brand to sell itself at this price they might as well reveal it as opposed to waiting for MS to which everyone says they are doing.
MS reveals a 499 price and then Sony replies with 599 ?

I figure neither wants to be undercut, but neither wants to sell at a lower price than they need to.

MS have the challenge of two machines to price and market. Lockhart needs to be sufficiently cheaper than the PS5 to make sense, but it too is going to be a pretty expensive machine to manufacture.

 

[eastmen]

The question then becomes why wait to show the price ? If they are planning on relying on the brand to sell itself at this price they might as well reveal it as opposed to waiting for MS to which everyone says they are doing.
MS reveals a 499 price and then Sony replies with 599 ?

They may rely on the brand but that doesn't mean they will let MS have a huge price advantage. I think they are waiting because they don't wnat to be $200 more than what MS does

 

[wco81]

Price is one thing but are there going to be games compelling enough in November and December for people to dive in?

 

[disco_]

They may rely on the brand but that doesn't mean they will let MS have a huge price advantage. I think they are waiting because they don't wnat to be $200 more than what MS does

I don't think there's a reasonable person out there who thinks ps5 will be $200 more than xsx. If lockhart is the great equalizer than not allowing MS reveal that as early as possible might be what they're trying to do. Or it could be they're doing what they did with the PRO and waiting til september. The whole apple-esque thing people clinged onto some time ago.

 

[PSman1700]

Price is one thing but are there going to be games compelling enough in November and December for people to dive in?

Exactly, those consoles aren't really worth it day one at launch. But rarely has that been different though.

 

[eastmen]

I don't think there's a reasonable person out there who thinks ps5 will be $200 more than xsx. If lockhart is the great equalizer than not allowing MS reveal that as early as possible might be what they're trying to do. Or it could be they're doing what they did with the PRO and waiting til september. The whole apple-esque thing people clinged onto some time ago.

I think lockhart is the very reason they are waiting. If we know about lockhart then so does sony. no matter how you slice it MS will have a low end next gen system at a low end price. A casual gamer who might spend the majority of their time playing third party games can see that system and see they will get next gen graphics and simply choose that despite exclusives.

So maybe the ps5 is priced at parity to the xsx but then there is the xss. Is that $100 or $200 or $300 cheaper ? What if both MS boxes come in cheaper ?

 

[Strange]

Sony won't sell at a major loss. They can't afford it. MS needs to scoop more users into it's ecosystem. This might be the last generation before everything crystallizes and it will be very hard to get a Sony user to go to MS and vice versa after this generation IMO.

MS is well aware of this. They need users. It's like Facebook. A lot of people thought they were fools for paying billions to get customers and now they're raking in the money. I believe MS is willing to lose $100 per unit, easily, to get someone into their ecosystem. If I'm running MS I would pay $100 each for 100 million new users. Lose $10 billion. Who cares? They'll make it up by the end of the generation and Sony would be crying themselves to sleep at night.

$499 launch. $399 in March for XSX. Put out another $499 box in 2024 and the XSX down to $299.
$299 for XSS and $199 by next Christmas.

Just keep churning out hardware every 3-4 years.

Sony would be screwed. MS can afford it. Be aggressive.

Nothing's stopping them from doing it now and I don't think we see that strategy.

 

[iroboto]

Nothing's stopping them from doing it now and I don't think we see that strategy.

I think they'd be very lucky to get either console down to 350 by the end of the generation. let alone this advanced timeline I'm reading above.
Very lucky if they can get it down to 350.
There's only 5nm, and 3nm and then 2nm left?. I don't know the details on the how much smaller things get as time goes on, but even if XSX manages to launch at the same price as PS5, PS5 should become cheaper once the shrinking begins.

 

[Strange]

I think they'd be very lucky to get either console down to 350 by the end of the generation. let alone this advanced timeline I'm reading above.
Very lucky if they can get it down to 350.
There's only 5nm, and 3nm and then 2nm left?. I don't know the details on the how much smaller things get as time goes on, but even if XSX manages to launch at the same price as PS5, PS5 should become cheaper once the shrinking begins.

TSMC is working on 2nm right now. The current hard limit would be the size of an atom, and for silicon the radius is about 0.11 nm.
so 2nm would be at most 10 atoms wide.

 

[HBRU]

I'm sure MS will do great deals for who owns an used XBOX.... maybe 150 $ for a xbox360, 250 $ for a XboxOne, 400$ for a Xbox OneX... So 600 - DEAL the console will be pretty affordable...

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I figure neither wants to be undercut, but neither wants to sell at a lower price than they need to. MS have the challenge of two machines to price and market. Lockhart needs to be sufficiently cheaper than the PS5 to make sense, but it too is going to be a pretty expensive machine to manufacture.

This. People keep focussing on Lockhart's performance and conclude the budget performance equates to budget price, but it's likely a bespoke piece of hardware with unique manufacturing costs. Based on the number of people who DIDN'T a PS4 Pro or Series X, Series S is likely going to hugely outsell Series X so Microsoft will have economics of scale working for them but anybody expecting a brand new console in 2020 at the 299 price - you know, the launch price of PS2 almost twenty years ago, is going to be hugely disappointed. One S is 299 and that's a cheap/mature tech cost reduced to hell and back.

 

[AzBat]

Here are some Xbox All Access numbers I put together. Keep this in mind for Series S & X pricing.



The Console MSRP values for monthly rates over $24.99 are just guesses of $50 increments.

Tommy McClain

 

[iroboto]

Alanah Pearce indicated she received a DM from a retailer of their price of XSX coming in at 599.
That could have been place holder, it could be subject to change, but yea, I think there it is.

 

[PSman1700]

Just get a second job

 

[iroboto]

Just get a second job

we talking about the consoles or we talking about 3080TI?

 

[Silenti]

we talking about the consoles or we talking about 3080TI?

He said second job. Not selling a kidney on the black market.


Edit: I really hope the $600 tag is false. The friends and family I ran it by, well, the reaction could be summed up in "Wow. That's a lot. Guess I will wait." And that is the nice version.

 

[QPlayer]

599 and 299?

Believable.

 

[iroboto]

599 and 299?

Believable.

599 and 399 is believable.
599 and 299 is perhaps slightly too ideal

 

[BRiT]

Still hoping $599 is the placeholder value to not tip their hand.