Gamescom 2009 : MS/Lionhead's Fable III Conference*
- Thread starter Shifty Geezer
- Start date
silhouette
Regular
It is not episodic content. As far as I understand, they re-release Fable 2 with multiple episodes. The first one is free. If you like it, you buy more as you progress in the story. It is also compatible with Knothole Island.
Btw, do not you guys think that Fable 3 is a bit early given that Fable 2 was released only last year. I think one for each console generation is the right amount for this game.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
I'll take as many as I can get. Rather than waiting until after 2015 for the next Fable.
Regards,
SB
Two years for a sequel is the general pattern. Also, we don't know when the next gen'll be. If it starts in 2013, that's a long time for a sequel of a game released in 2008.
Goodness no! I loved Fable 2, it's one of my favorite adventures ever. I'll gladly welcome new Fable content anytime they offer it, hopefully soon. I've got millions to spend after all, and I think I've bought everything there is to buy in the world of Fable 2.
Perhaps MS were caught flat-footed by the surprisingly (I was even surprised by the $299 price of the slim ps3) low price of the slim ps3. They might be panicking, saying "Uh-oh, what do we do now? We might have to cut the price of the Elite to $199 and that would mean losing money per unit sold!"
Huh? I think the article just refers to the fact the basically confirmed 299 Elite>>bye bye Pro isn't official yet. That was the "pulled" announcement.
Agreed. Plus, you can look at it from another perspective: they figured the PS3 price drop would have been lower than $300 or they were expecting the 250gb slim model & didn't feel threathened enough to rush out and drop their price either.
Tommy McClain
I'm sure I wasn't the only one expecting $299. It's invariably the next price after $399, and most of us were expecting a drop.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Heh, not all of us though. I'm still somewhat surprised that they lowered the price. Although I know they pretty much HAD to, I'm not sure how this will affect their bottom line. I suppose it all now depends on how much software they can move to make up the loss.
But even for those of us not entirely convinced they would drop the price. 299 USD was the logical next step. 349 USD just wouldn't have much of a psychological impact.
And I'm pretty sure MS was aware of all possibilities.
Regards,
SB
Important for Sony is the rollout this year of media downloads. When people can buy/rent movies and music, the revenue stream should expand with user base beyond games sales.
They could have dropped $50 now, and $50 closer to the holiday, but I think this was the best choice - it's a much stronger statement and leaves much less room for doubt.
An important reason why even if the Slim would still make them a loss on the hardware (which I personally think that if it does, it won't be much - if the manufacturing cost has been reduced by 70%, the original price would have had to be something like $1000 for a $300 console now (though of course there are other costs than manufacturing, so it's likely to be a little less - let's say the original price was something like $850). If the cost is $350 now, that would make the original price something like $1150 etc. ... it doesn't seem to add up. If they still make any loss on the console, it has to be on tax, shipping and distribution, I think.
The price point is important in terms of competition. It brings the PS3 in a range where even if the 360 and Wii were to undercut it's price, price is going to be less relevant, and value more. 299$ is a smaller barrier of entry, and it's hard for a 360 or Wii to price itself to a point where people will say yes, I can afford a Wii or a 360, but the PS3 is really out of my range.
Also, the price cut is important for software sales for both first and third party. There is little doubt that a price under $300€ will put the machine in buying range of a much larger audience, which means games for the platform can sell more. That's also important to Sony itself, who puts out a lot of big exclusives in the next 6 months (like Uncharted 2, Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, Ratchet & Clank) and the motion controllers at the end of that period.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Well, you also have to realize that cost includes distribution (shipping and handling to various outlets), then additional markup for retailers, etc. So it's hard to judge just what exactly Sony is getting from each sale. 200 USD? 225 USD?
And that's before you even include marketing where the more units you sell the less impact it has. Conversely the less units you sell the bigger impact it has on the cost of each console.
Regards,
SB
Apparantly the PS3 Slim gives a $7 U.S. margin for retailers in Japan for example. Whilst its the top ticket item and being shipped in large numbers and those shipping costs themselves have fallen through the floor you could probably expect that they net ~$280 on every console. I read a newspaper article a while back that IIRC a container from Japan to Europe costs about a third what it used to ($400) and they can fit more slims per container.
So it looks like Microsoft is responding with a price drop, at least in the UK, where as suggested the Pro drops out of the lineup, and the Elite drops to 199,99:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-elite-price-cut-to-199-pounds
EDIT: and the Elite drops to $299 in the U.S., Pro phases out as expected.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-27RedTagPR.mspx
That's not nearly as aggressive as what they're doing in the U.K. though.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-elite-price-cut-to-199-pounds
EDIT: and the Elite drops to $299 in the U.S., Pro phases out as expected.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-27RedTagPR.mspx
That's not nearly as aggressive as what they're doing in the U.K. though.
