In a vacuum a $400 Lockhart could be seen a quite acceptable but at say $50 less than a full next gen PS5 Digital Only might be a problem if you aren't already ensconced in the MS ecosystem. IF you are already in the MS lifestyle then you might was well wait a bit for the price drop.
I could see a 299 intro price for the launch to get a few into people's hands quickly and then price drop here when Halo comes out or another big MS exclusive.
Yeah MS could do with being careful about pricing relative to PS5. If Lockhart doesn't have an optical drive either and it's only $50 less than the PS5 then it's pretty redundant.Then again, I think the LH BOM will be a lot more than $50 lower than PS5. Needs to be a $100 retail gap minimum IMO.
I guess it's hard for us to know how much any of them are prepared to bleed. I'm sure lots of very highly paid people have been sweating over spreadsheets.
Regarding S and X BOMS, I don't think the difference will be as large as $200, but the retail price difference might be. I could see the X being used to lower the average overall loss. If you could get 1 in 3 customers to get the X where you only lose $40 instead of the S where you lose $80, you've kind of won. Or at least lost by less.
599 didn’t work out in 2006. 499 didn’t in 2013. 599 or even higher wont be a problem crisis year 2020?
Things change over time though. With inflation, $400 in 2005 (the great selling 360 Pro) would be $540 according to some online calculator I found. MS intentionally ate big losses to gain market share from Sony. The question is whether they'd still do so again now that streaming, PC, and Gamepass very important pillars to also invest in.
For sure though, if the XSX comes out as low as $499 then that's insanely good value. And a $300 Series S would be pretty great too.
If MS aren't determined to be bold from the start, then I think it's probably Sony that get to decide the pricing as they're so dominant. And so far, doesn't look like MS are being bold on pricing.