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

I asked Brad Sams a question on his podcast last Thursday about One S production...

  • 14:52 - AzBat says do you think that Microsoft
  • 14:54 - will release
  • 14:55 - the manufacturing will increase the
  • 14:57 - manufacturing of the Xbox One S you
  • 14:59 - can't get one from their site for 30
  • 15:01 - days
  • 15:01 - it's not uh if not what is the
  • 15:03 - likelihood of them stealth dropping the
  • 15:04 - Series
  • 15:05 - S when announced so there's a massive backup
  • 15:07 - in some of the manufacturing stuff I
  • 15:08 - tried to buy a pair of Surface
  • 15:09 - headphones in retail stores
  • 15:11 - good luck you can't really find much of
  • 15:13 - anything
  • 15:14 - and so it would not surprise me to see
  • 15:16 - that I don't know if they're going to
  • 15:17 - ramp it up but they're definitely
  • 15:18 - already said they're going to continue
  • 15:19 - to make it because to your point
  • 15:21 - it is actually hard to get a hold of an
  • 15:22 - Xbox console a ton of them
  • 15:24 - sold in the last quarter when the you
  • 15:27 - know when everyone started staying home
  • 15:28 - and gaming
  • 15:29 - we saw massive increases in Microsoft's
  • 15:31 - earnings for gaming revenue from their
  • 15:32 - software and services
  • 15:34 - and that was related to a lot of
  • 15:35 - hardware purchases and people just
  • 15:36 - saying hey look I'm bored at home I need
  • 15:38 - a console and the Xbox One S is
  • 15:40 - really cheap let's just go buy it and to
  • 15:41 - your point uh you can't really get one
  • 15:43 - so
  • 15:44 - I don't know if they're gonna ramp it up
  • 15:45 - but they're definitely gonna
  • 15:47 - there's more on the way I do know that
  • 15:49 - for sure


I cleaned up YouTube's transcript a lil bit.

Tommy McClain
 
I asked Brad Sams a question on his podcast last Thursday about One S production...




I cleaned up YouTube's transcript a lil bit.

Tommy McClain

MS has nothing. Even if your a big school buying up thousands of laptops or surface go 2s your going to be on a wait list and waiting up to 4 weeks to get your order. MS was hit hard by the virus in terms of hardware. For the xbox it didn't help that they were transitioning and thought they had enough stock of XOX to last until Nov so they stopped production before the virus. XOS sold better at its lower price point so they still had some purchases left on the production line.

They have been supply constrained since March on all their products even the new products like the go 2 , surface ear buds and the like would come out with a large amount of inventory because they were built up for launch and then quickly went oos
 
Thought I would go ahead and toss in a rough prediction. Just to have my hat in the ring so to speak.

PS5 w/ OD - $550
PS5 Digital - $500
Xbox Series X - $500

This lets Sony take advantage of their market position by charging a non-exorbitant premium for the optical PS5. Both would minimize losses while avoiding the dreaded $600 price tag. This would also let MS claim they are cheaper since the XSX is an optical only option. No evidence and certainly wouldn't put money on this, but I like the compromises. Seems reasonable.

Xbox Series S - I am not sure what to say here. From the recent leak, and informed speculation around here, it doesn't seem like they can shave $200+ off the Series X BOM. Maybe $150 if one is being generous? Yet, if they do not get it to $300 and below, I cannot see it being a compelling option. $400 is so close to the full monty that I have difficulty seeing its appeal over the $500 options. Yet if the BOM comes in at around $400 - $420, you would be looking at $100-120 loss on each sale. Not impossible certainly. It has happened before. That is just some serious cash. What if you have demand for, and manage to manufacture and sell, 10 million units before any significant cost saving revisions? That is $1-1.2 Billion $'s. Quite a sobering figure. Maybe if you assume they buy a first party title and subscribe to GamePass for a year? Get them on a payment plan that actually costs more and lowers the barrier to entry? Love the Lockhart concept. Not so sure about the reality.
 
I don't agree with any of these prices.

The social media price rumor du jour seems to be:

$699 Atari VCS
$499 PS5 OD
$499 XSX
$399 PS5 DE
$299 Lockhart
EDIT: So the $699 Atari VCS price is from Australia, where US bundle price is $399. What a steal! PreOrder now!
 
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I don't agree with any of these prices.

The social media price rumor du jour seems to be:

$699 Atari VCS
$499 PS5 OD
$499 XSX
$399 PS5 DE
$299 Lockhart​

Can't wait for Atari VCS & use it as a Chromebox.

But seriously, these prices are what I'm leaning toward myself.

Tommy
 
Wait... people are actually going to spend $700 on the Atari VCS?
Is that is a real price? I thought it was supposed to be capitalising on the cheap retro thing that Nintendo did so well and Sony did so badly. :???:
 
Wait... people are actually going to spend $700 on the Atari VCS?

No. Even more. If you want the wireless joystick and controller then it's $849.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...9/news-story/b39d7c6e7a285c8cb1dc05bc5efc4d4b

2d8a8b64a97c3cf18580fa46212f5014


While the new Atari VCS unit might look like it’s been designed by someone still preoccupied with 1985, under the bonnet it’s got an AMD processor and graphics card, Wi-Fi, USB support and the ability to install a Solid State Drive for faster storage.

The joystick keeps the traditional iconic appearance but is also wireless, with vibration and lighting effects, and there is a controller available which appears to take some of its design cues from the one accompanying the Xbox.
 
Wait... people are actually going to spend $700 on the Atari VCS?

In the US it's actually $399.99 for a bundle Pre-orders were extended to August 15th, but it was originally listed for $389.99 . Preorders were shipping by December 24.

Tommy McClain
 
AMD processor and graphics card, Wi-Fi, USB support and the ability to install a Solid State Drive for faster storage.
La-de-dah, it has both wifi and USB. Cutting edge tech indeed. So where do I pre-order? :nope:
 
In the US it's actually $399.99 for a bundle Pre-orders were extended to August 15th, but it was originally listed for $389.99 . Preorders were shipping by December 24.

Tommy McClain

Is Australian prices still that drastically different then? So it's $399. What a steal!
 
Is Australian prices still that drastically different then? So it's $399. What a steal!

Yeah, the thing should have released in December 2018 for $199. I might have bitten at that price. Once it was announced at $249 in Q2 2019 I lost interest. It's been downhill ever since.

Tommy McClain
 
Atari Vault is $10 and you can run it on any Windows, OSX or SteamOS platform. VCS is just a marketing scam to appeal to nostalgia.
 
Atari Vault is $10 and you can run it on any Windows, OSX or SteamOS platform. VCS is just a marketing scam to appeal to nostalgia.

True, but there is more to it than the 2600 games. It's not $399 worth for sure. I would love to have that new joystick though to use on my Xbox.

Tommy McClain
 
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