scooby_dooby
Legend
I have one. Force load times for people w/o a HDD, and cache for the rest of us. Doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.
*merge/rename* The Importance of an H.D.D. (e.g. caches, streaming etc)
- Thread starter deepbrown
- Start date
I have one. Force load times for people w/o a HDD, and cache for the rest of us. Doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.
As it'd likely only add $30 tops to the base unit cost, was it really worth the sacrifice? Especially when it's used for downloaded content. The importance of this choice won't be seen until the significant price drops, but even then, I can't imagine those waiting for the magical $200 would refuse to spend $230 and get an HDD included. I think the main reason for the HDD free version was an uncertainty over Sony, and if MS knew Sony would include it as standard, they would have too. If Sony hadn't and MS had, they'd be $30 extra loss, or extra price, over PS3 for the life of the machines if launch prices and reductions were in sync. Though again I don't think that matters. PS2 had been consistently pricier than XB and still sold. If you get the market behind you early on, that should be enough to get people to shell out that extra $30 for the HDD.Hard drives "never" go down in price, unlike silicon. Not strange at all
scooby_dooby
Legend
At some point $30 could be 25%-35% of the unit cost.
At $150, an extra $30 over your competitor would impact sales, no doubt about that. And if they subsidize it, then it would affect their profit margin instead.
Was the sacrifice worth it? In terms of marketshare, IF Microsoft is aggressive with their pricing, and utilizes the advnatage than yes it will have been worth it. If not, then it will do little but pad their bottom line.
I don't think you realize how much money that extra $30 bucks is if the x360 is to get a big marketshare. We are talking billions of USD. Which even by MS standards, is money.
Really? I doubt it.
If you talk about the economic side of 360 and 30$ is biggie for you, you have to check what % of total sales are Core.
But like I said, by the time these machines are those prices, it won't be price that's the deciding factor. PS2 has been well over $30 more than XB in the UK for years, but it's the machine of choice. IT's not enough money to worry over. When all your friends and XB360s and Live and talk up it's features, would you really by a PS3 just because it's $30 cheaper? Not even the price of a game?Scooby said:
Yes, if the Core sells. At the moment by a big way it's the Premium that's selling. Cores aren't popular. The theory is when the Core's $200 it'll have the market share over Premiums, but by the time the Core is $200 and likely to sell bucket loads, would the buying public really prefer that and a $30+ memory card than spend $230 on a console with a HDD as standard? And if the HDD is standard, you've much better chance at long-term profits from downloads.
To me, the saving is false economy. I'd put the HDD in as a non-reducable cost like the DVD drive, and use it to make a console with better appeal and more earning potential. We've only had one console with a standard HDD and because that didn't work so well, people think the theory is unsound. But I disagree. XB had serious competition and other problems, and no revenue stream that benefits from persistent storage. It's a whole different ball-game now. The HDD isn't 'dead weight' any more.
of course, yet its what some ppl on these forums seem to think about,.. pricecuts now that is the answer ...., and true a pricecut will help in the shortterm but it wont help ultimately
history lesson
last generation in the US these were the consoles launchprices
A/ dreamcast $199
B/ ps2 $299
C/ gamecube $199
D/ xbox $299
now again i ask you, does price ultimately matter
( at $250 for wii+xb360+ps3 the only guarantee of a sellout would be the wii )
youre guessing the xb360 or ps3 would sell as well
but A/ the xb360 is only $50 more expensive cut it by $50
is that enuf to double its sales ? nope dont think so,
ps3 is twice + more the price thus make it $250 would it sell x4, nope sorry dont think so
desirability is the key factor/ coolness / whatever u wish to name it (the only proven is price is not the most important ingredient)
of course, yet its what some ppl on these forums seem to think about,.. pricecuts now that is the answer ...., and true a pricecut will help in the shortterm but it wont help ultimately
history lesson
last generation in the US these were the consoles launchprices
A/ dreamcast $199
B/ ps2 $299
C/ gamecube $199
D/ xbox $299
now again i ask you, does price ultimately matter
( at $250 for wii+xb360+ps3 the only guarantee of a sellout would be the wii )
youre guessing the xb360 or ps3 would sell as well
but A/ the xb360 is only $50 more expensive cut it by $50
is that enuf to double its sales ? nope dont think so,
ps3 is twice + more the price thus make it $250 would it sell x4, nope sorry dont think so
desirability is the key factor/ coolness / whatever u wish to name it (the only proven is price is not the most important ingredient)
A $250 PS3 would definitely sell 4x over the pathetic numbers its doing now, or reach supply constraints.
Further what kind of tard math are you using? 600 is not twice more than $400. Its $200 more, or 50% more. Which would mean 3x .
You need to learn a thing or two about price elasticity.
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of course, yet its what some ppl on these forums seem to think about,.. pricecuts now that is the answer ...., and true a pricecut will help in the shortterm but it wont help ultimately
history lesson
last generation in the US these were the consoles launchprices
A/ dreamcast $199
B/ ps2 $299
C/ gamecube $199
D/ xbox $299
now again i ask you, does price ultimately matter
( at $250 for wii+xb360+ps3 the only guarantee of a sellout would be the wii )
youre guessing the xb360 or ps3 would sell as well
but A/ the xb360 is only $50 more expensive cut it by $50
is that enuf to double its sales ? nope dont think so,
ps3 is twice + more the price thus make it $250 would it sell x4, nope sorry dont think so
desirability is the key factor/ coolness / whatever u wish to name it (the only proven is price is not the most important ingredient)
What this example show is that price isnt the ultimate factor, but there are other factors as well. Price is included in the factors though
Also the bigger the price the more it starts to matter. Since PS3 came late with not so many games, 360 had a year start, and a strong presence, PS3 needed to atleast be sold at a cheaper price. Not necessarilly priced as much as a 360 or less, but atleast lower than what it was
scooby_dooby
Legend
I never said THE deciding factor, I said it will impact sales. It WILL impact sales. You can argue about the magnitude, but you can't deny they will sell more units at $150 than they would at $180.
The core argument proves nothing as long as the HDD is $100 and MC is $40, and it comes with a wired controller. All that proves is that customers are smart enough to spot a bad deal when they see it. If MS adjusted the pricing of their peripherals, and dropped the core into the sub $200 range, you would surely see a rise in core sales.
The fact of the matter is, the core is setup as a bad deal, while premium is setup as a good deal, as such, you can't be surprised that the core sales are low. It's not meaningful whatsoever. A person who wanted HD cables, and a memory card, would be only $20 below the price of a premium, and they'd still be stuck with a wired controller? Why get a core at all?
It's simple, right now MS wants to sell premiums, when they decide they want to sell cores, and adjust the pricing/peripherals accordingly, they will sell. There are still tons of gamers out there looking to get in at the lowest pricepoint possible. 4 million 360 users have never gone online, and that number will only increase as we reach a more casual audience.
And, there are by all estimates, 1-2million cores out there, which is not peanuts.
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Back to the thread topic, these pics with low-res textures show a symptom
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/827/827005/imgs_1.html
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/827/827005/imgs_1.html
scooby_dooby
Legend
GTA always had relatively low-res textures. With that said I sure hope they're not downgrading the game because 10-15% of 360 owners don't have a HDD.
You would think it would be worth their while to implement HDD streaming for premium 360 and PS3 owners, which would work out to be over 90% of the target users.
woundingchaney
Regular
I think GTA looks beautiful especially given the scale. Regardless of their use of the hard drive or not this still has to fit into a relatively small (well by much of todays standards) memory pool. R* has really made some impressive visuals in the next title.
inefficient
Veteran
*sub-thread* HDD Usage (e.g. Cache, Installations, Optional or Mandatory...)
Bought the game today. Put the disc in, took a long shower. Came back and it was still installing! 4834MB install when it was all over.
Will post impressions later.
Mod Note: This is a sub-Thread for discussing the nature of the hard drive for installing a game cache in consoles, be it the size of the installation or whether the installations are required or optional, impact on your experience... etc. Please leave out snide remarks.
-AlStrong
Bought the game today. Put the disc in, took a long shower. Came back and it was still installing! 4834MB install when it was all over.
Will post impressions later.
Mod Note: This is a sub-Thread for discussing the nature of the hard drive for installing a game cache in consoles, be it the size of the installation or whether the installations are required or optional, impact on your experience... etc. Please leave out snide remarks.
-AlStrong
You didn't watch the install animation?
Yeah turns out the PS3 exclusive bonus video was just a screen saver. How these things get so misreported prior to release is anyone's game.Check it out here:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/168594.html
Not quite was I expected when I heard of a video recapping the series
djskribbles
Legend
its a slideshow with text, summing up the story thus far.
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