Xbox 360 50 Euro price cut March 14

You're not taking into account this simple fact: in the last 2 months there has been no killer-game to drive 360 sales. So even with major problems in manufacturing enough non-arcade units, MS was probably able to recuperate a little bit. Hence consoles on the shelves. But if you want to "win" the customer around GTA launch you need way more consoles at hand than just a few spare units here and there. GTA is no Madden - it will be hot outside of US as well so there's no way to pump more consoles into US favoring its market over, say, Europe.

It's not about not being dry, it's about dripping wet.
 
ConayR said:
You're not taking into account this simple fact: in the last 2 months there has been no killer-game to drive 360 sales. So even with major problems in manufacturing enough non-arcade units, MS was probably able to recuperate a little bit. Hence consoles on the shelves. But if you want to "win" the customer around GTA launch you need way more consoles at hand than just a few spare units here and there. GTA is no Madden - it will be hot outside of US as well so there's no way to pump more consoles into US favoring its market over, say, Europe.

It's not about not being dry, it's about dripping wet.
Click to expand...

Err, it was a response to people theorizing that perhaps dry channel was indicative of pending new sku's or the like.
 
Still your statement that "360 stock appears to be back in full force" is in my opinion wrong. I tend to agree that this is no preparation for [insert your reason here] though. It's just that I disagree with the "stores being full so there's no preparation" reasoning.
 
ConayR said:
You're not taking into account this simple fact: in the last 2 months there has been no killer-game to drive 360 sales. So even with major problems in manufacturing enough non-arcade units, MS was probably able to recuperate a little bit. Hence consoles on the shelves. But if you want to "win" the customer around GTA launch you need way more consoles at hand than just a few spare units here and there. GTA is no Madden - it will be hot outside of US as well so there's no way to pump more consoles into US favoring its market over, say, Europe.

It's not about not being dry, it's about dripping wet.
Click to expand...
GTA4 is still 1 month away, is there another killer game that coincides with this price cut?
 
ConayR said:
But if you want to "win" the customer around GTA launch you need way more consoles at hand than just a few spare units here and there.
Click to expand...
Does that really matter though? I mean, if you sell the same amount anyway, whether in a job lot with one game or spread over a couple of months, it's the same amount of install base. Is there any real benefit to withholding some of those sales? I guess PR sound bites may benefit. Generally though it makes more sense ot me to sell the merchandise as soon as you can, rather than withhold sales for a later date.
 
@one: do you have any better idea why MS would cut the price now? I'd be glad to hear it.

@Shifty Geezer: I'm not sure if I get what you're trying to say. Assuming that there are people who are going to buy (some) console to play GTA4, it does matter whether you have consoles now or one month after game's release. Of course it's rather bold assumption that any game will move console sales. But as much as I don't care about GTA, I believe GTA matters. And if it matters, MS needs a lot of spare consoles.

What I find confusing is your last sentence. Do you believe that MS is witholding consoles? Assuming PR talk about shortages was at least partially true, if MS understood its problem around December, no extra units could arrive until pretty much now. So IMO if you see some consoles on the store shelves, that's pretty much there is right now and this won't meet the demand if GTA happens to be a system seller.
 
ConayR said:
What I find confusing is your last sentence. Do you believe that MS is witholding consoles?
Click to expand...
No (I've no idea what they're doing!), though others have suggested as much (or I've misunderstood them) and it's a theory I'm discussing at the moment. Hypothetically, if MS produced 1 million consoles more than they've had on the shelves for the last three months, is there any benefit to holding them back until GTA4 launches so they can have a big splash? Or would they be better of supplying the channel with everything they can make when they make it? IMO the latter. Thus I think we can accept what's out there now is everything they can make, and that'll limit what they can sell with GTA4 for those expecting a spike in sales.
 
No, Shifty. You're right. It makes no sense for MS to withhold supply under nearly any situation (new sku or otherwise).

As far as 'can you think of another reason for the price cut' question, what price cut are you talking about?

A US price cut that I inquired about but hasn't been hinted or reported? Or the Euro price cut, which really only aligns the 360 with its (current) relative price in Canada and the US?
 
@Shifty Geezer: I completely agree. It puzzles me why people tend to go for "MS is an evil empire plotting against mankind for no reason" option (here: MS is witholding consoles to make less money) over "MS has little experience with hardware and makes stupid mistakes" (here: not enough consoles in December/January make it difficult to catch up). But this is Internet after all.

@RancidLunchmeat: there has been no reports on price cut in US AFAIK.
 
Shifty: I was referring to Conay's question about the price cut, sorry I was unclear earlier.


ConayR said:
@RancidLunchmeat: there has been no reports on price cut in US AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Exactly. So why is there any question about why MS decided on the price cut? This price cut merely brings the 360 in line with the previous Canadian price cut.

There needs to be no other explanation, no GTA IV tie in or any such correlation to anything.
 
I am reading that in EU the price drops will be to:
Arcade €199 (80 off)
Premium €299 (50 off)
Elite €399 (50 off)
 
22psi said:
I am reading that in EU the price drops will be to:
Arcade €199 (80 off)
Premium €299 (50 off)
Elite €399 (50 off)
Click to expand...

That could put it in line for a similar price drop for the US too. Just imagine a US$200 Arcade, wow.

Tommy McClain
 
68120.jpg


Arcade €199,99
Premium €299,99
Elite €399,99
 
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So what's the status of USA?

Hell, I can even see 360 sales falling here as people wait for the "expected" USA cut, that isn't planned (if it isn't)...
 
Not a big surprise, then. It was hinted at both in the context of GTA coming up (all over the place), and in the context of BluRay winning the format war, thus making the PS3 package more valuable (by gamesindustry.biz in particular).
 
Well, 80 euros is a bit of a surprise. It might be overdue, but it's still quite a drop. 199 is a nice price.

It might actually have some impact. ;)

Edit - the Euro price drop is confirmed by Major Nelson.
 
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