Walmart employees reveal/confirm XBox360 price?

[Kanyamagufa]

Now it's from the Inq...but I still thought it'd make an interesting topic with all the debate about the PS3 price going down in the other threads.

Apparently it's been confirmed at $299.00. Not bad...not bad at all considering the rumors being thrown around for the PS3, no matter how random they are.

What do people think? Feasible? Reasonable? Possible without MS taking a huge hit until they can profit?

 

[Carl B]

The Inquirer actually got it wrong - the 'official' Wal-Mart leaked price is $299.96. Now then, does it sound plausible? Absolutely. Is it true? No real way of knowing. But I won't be surprised either way whether it ends up being that price or it ends up being higher.

Again, I think it's very believable, but as long as you don't put faith and hope in these rumors, you're never disappointed if they go sour.

Whether fake or real, that's a Wal-Mart style price though.

 

[pc999]

I actually hope that it is lower, because from XB to XB360 the only thing (besides spec) is a small update (DVD speed, HDD capacity), plus wireless, considering that XB do have 3 chips WITHOUT a changing of process (>15nm), most of the things should be the same prince than in todays XB or only a bit pricier (from a DVDx1 to a DVDx12, today, the price is almost the same, the rest scale almost the same way), thats why I think that the price may be/could be lower.

 

[PG2G]

Well, isn't that "besides spec" thing the important part?

 

[Farid]

I actually hope that it is lower, because from XB to XB360 the only thing (besides spec) is a small update

The X360 silicon cost if far from from being small or negligible. MS went with a higher silicon cost this time because they are capable to reduce this cost by migrating to smaller processes as soon as possible.

(from a DVDx1 to a DVDx12,

The Xbox drive is locked at 4X, not 1X.

 

[Carl B]

I actually hope that it is lower, because from XB to XB360 the only thing (besides spec) is a small update (DVD speed, HDD capacity), plus wireless, considering that XB do have 3 chips WITHOUT a changing of process (>15nm), most of the things should be the same prince than in todays XB or only a bit pricier (from a DVDx1 to a DVDx12, today, the price is almost the same, the rest scale almost the same way), thats why I think that the price may be/could be lower.

PC999 to tell you the truth, I have a feeling that the a x12 speed DVD drive today is less expensive than the DVD drive in the XBox was when they originally included it, so I wouldn't get too caught up with the scaling of the prices.

 

[TheMightyPuck]

I actually hope that it is lower, because from XB to XB360 the only thing (besides spec) is a small update (DVD speed, HDD capacity), plus wireless, considering that XB do have 3 chips WITHOUT a changing of process (>15nm), most of the things should be the same prince than in todays XB or only a bit pricier (from a DVDx1 to a DVDx12, today, the price is almost the same, the rest scale almost the same way), thats why I think that the price may be/could be lower.

I hope it is lower as well, but I'm not following your logic. What do you think determines price? Functionality? I thought it had something to do with supply and demand. Of course this is limited at product launch because it looks very bad for the manufacturer to change prices frequently. They need to set the price in the context of projections of how many units will they will sell at that price. Look to ebay to get the real supply/demand price. In any case, I can almost guarantee that retail will be approx. $299.00 because that is just what consumers expect and because of the non-existent retail margins, the price needs to be set so that the product moves through the channel quickly.

 

[Guden Oden]

PC999 to tell you the truth, I have a feeling that the a x12 speed DVD drive today is less expensive than the DVD drive in the XBox was when they originally included it, so I wouldn't get too caught up with the scaling of the prices.

The DVD drive probably is cheaper - a DVDROM costs almost nothing today even if you go out and buy an IDE unit to stick in your PC, and the x360 drive will be much cheaper and more streamlined.

However, the DVD drive is likely one of the cheapest of the major components in that thing, even the power supply might be more expensive depending on how much current that thing draws, and a PSU is just a bunch of passive components with no moving parts on a circuit board.

 

[Carl B]

@Guden: Completely agree - was just addressing PC999's focus on the optical component of the system. The PSU will certainly be more expensive. The CPU and VPU I wonder about though (relative to XBox's launch). Do we have a definitive die size on the XeCPU yet? I wouldn't be shocked if their die areas were competetive with the CPU and GPU die sizes in the original XBox, though truthfully I just don't know and my hands are too tired to go Googling around.

Either way the manufacturing model Microsoft has set up for them will make their pricing favorable - mm^2 for mm^2 - to the arrangement they had prior with Intel and NVidia.

 

[Farid]

The CPU and VPU I wonder about though (relative to XBox's launch). Do we have a definitive die size on the XeCPU yet? I wouldn't be shocked if their die areas were competetive with the CPU and GPU die sizes in the original XBox, though truthfully I just don't know and my hands are too tired to go Googling around.

J.Allard already said that the sillicon cost of the X360 was higher than the one of the Xbox (WRT to the launch period).

 

[mech]

The Xbox drive is locked at 4X, not 1X.

Xbox drive is 2x-5x.

The PS2 is locked at 4x.

 

[Carl B]

J.Allard already said that the sillicon cost of the X360 was higher than the one of the Xbox (WRT to the launch period).

True true - I forgot about that.

Still, I'll look up the actual die sizes at some point or another for reference to the modern counterparts when those figures are released. I think that Intel and NVidia's pricing was unusually lenient in the beginning, on the (correct) assumption that they would be the primary recipients of any margin gains from process shrinks.

EDIT: Allards comments may also have included the aggregate, such as motherboard and associated logic costs, as well as the RAM.

 

[AlNom]

I bet the 512MB of 128-bit GDDR3 700Mhz costs at least $299 USD

 

[pc999]

My point is that, besides specs (i.e. CPU,GPU and memory), everything is almost equal (price wise) to corrent XB wich sell for 150 euro (150 dollars ?), then I suposse that the silicone/memory being pricier is not more 150$.But, as TheMightyPuck, suply and demand do have a lot to do with price, but I think that (I think I heard 1M+ consoles ready to holliday somehere), would be a suply big enough, and a 250$ price would create a good demand, and in the final one thing that should really help them against SONY is a good start.

Besides that, a lot of the 300$ buyers would spend the 50$ in a extra game or controler or...

To sum things up, besides spec, XB360 is a equivalent to what a GC has 4 years ago, of curse, IMO, fell free to counter argument .

Edit:and once that the processor on XB are on the same process since 2001, they (power suply also, right?) cost the same, even reduces more the distance between the todays console cost, from XB360 cost.

 

[Nicked]

You're way off course pc999.
Sure, in price, Xbox360 is probably comparable to what Xbox1 cost to make 4 years ago. But Xbox1 now costs significantly less to make, so your whole point is moot. Plus MS had to aggressively price their system to match PS2. This time they will be going first, the market will pay $300 and so they will set it at that.

Your other point, GC to Xbox360, is ridiculous, GC was designed to be small, efficient, and cheap. They were using parts finalised a year before it launched. Xbox360 is packing a lot of power for the time-frame it will be released in, and while MS may not want to take a bigger loss per console to match PS3 which has a timeerformance:cost advantage, they will still be making a loss in the beginning.