Looks like they are getting serious about Europe...
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=34381
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=34381
Xbox 360 50 Euro price cut March 14
- Thread starter iceberg187
- Start date
50 euro != $50. I'd love to know where you got your economics degree from! I think you're getting a little confused here, Ostepop. B3D isn't a Government Think Tank with a minimum qualification requirements to post on certain subjects. We're not an Analytical Firm providing market advice for commercial ventures. We don't limit opinions in sales threads to people having economic degrees, just as we don't refuse anyone without a computer science or game development degree to post in game threads, or a suitable engineering qualification to post on matters of hardware design.
Just so you know, and to save your keyboard a little bit of wear, everyone knows you think my economic commentaries suck. You don't have to keep raising the subject of economics qualifications every single time you respond to post of mine in an economics thread (in the same way you don't post remarks about qualifications for other members...). We've got the message already! Just keep to your well-informed arguments and present them sensibly and point out how wrong I am with reference to proper economic threory.
In this case I happily concede my expectations were probably unreasonably, mostly because, I think, when spikes are mentioned they tend to be substantially bigger numbers than 40%, and when you factor that prolonged sales increases will tend to be a lesser amount than the spikes, a 40% spikes would amount to little more long-term sales.
Well they were making money before a sales increase. From that POV why would they ever have introduced a price drop? Because long term they think it'd make them more money. More money is better than less money, and given a choice between 'Huge Install Base' and 'Okay Install Base' MS would want the former. From that POV, a smallish increase in sales, even if all good profits, must be something of a disappointment unless they were aiming for a lowish (XB1 sales rates) EU install base instead of PS2 like performance? Putting it another way, you can get an XB360 to play all those HD games in its much tooted awesome library for £150 in some places. That's a mainstream price. At that price, more expensive even, PS2 and Wii have sold gangbusters. If XB360 isn't flying off the shelves at this price, it shows that it isn't the price that's preventing people from buying in. If MS have hit this mainstream price but they aren't seeing the same popularity of sales as other systems, isn't that reason to be disappointed?
I accept it's too early to make accurate predictions, but people are going ot still be looking and thinking. The chaps at XB EU HQ will have had a reaction to any news on sales. How do you think they'd react to a headline "XB360 sales spike of 300%?" And how would they react to "XB sales spike of 40%"? If they were aiming for 20%, then I guess they would be pleased with the headline short-term response to the price drop...
The X360 price in europe is can be converted at a 1:! ratio. Meaning the X360 costed 400 euros in europe, while it was priced at 400USD in US. The relative % in price cut's remains the same, as the PS3 is priced in the same fashion. Thus no need to convert, the reason i used USD in both examples, is simply because you refered to some american sales report. The PS3 got a 200euro price cut in europe, and 200USD in the states, initial prices where the same if we ignore the real currency values....
A crack in financial economy is defined by a drop in 20%, and a boom by a 20%, spikes can be anything.
This statement is false. Lowering the price, instantly raises amount of demand there is for the system, thats all we know, the current price might give a more or less permanent 40% boost in sales and it may not. Depending on the type of item we are discussing, there are plenty of data suggesting sales to trend both ways, often also building more momentum after the initial spike, this generally depends on the type of item we are talking about. For consoles, i havent seen any cases but i cannot say.
Wrong logic. If the price cut results in a higher cashflow to MS overtime (that overshadows the loss in 50euro) your making more money. Its allways nice to make even more money.
Note that when i talk about profits, i talk about all the cashflow after expenses that will go to MS from one guy buying an Xbox 360 and licencing money from all the games he buys, not just the X360 itself.
Also note, that you mentioned in your previous post "if pent up interest is 50% above average, that's not a lot. " The latter part of that sentence, makes me laugh, and ask for your credentials, because a 50% boost into pertuity would be far more than Microsoft management could ever hope for from this move.
To me, while B3D is not government think-thank, the average IQ here seems to be high enough, to make me question why people without any qualifications at all make up fairytale posts that are completely of no value to anybody. And predicting future based on 2 days of sales, is of very small if any value to anybody.
(ofc, for people who dont have a clue either, it kinda works out because both parts are arguing by using arguments neither have a clue about).
I dont have a clue about 90% of the stuff talked about in technical forums here, and i certainly make up fairytale stories including some technical mombo jumbo that i dont understand, in order to post something about an article about a gpu or whatever. I dont, because i know that will get me ridiculed and because nobody benefits of reading it.
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Right now at Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/videogames/506846/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/videogames/506846/
Code:
1. Wii (179.98 GBP)
7. PS3 40GB (284.99 GBP)
9. Xbox 360 Pro (189.99 GBP)
16. PS3 40GB + GT5P (289.99 GBP)
23. Xbox 360 Elite (249.99 GBP)
34. Xbox 360 Arcade (149.99 GBP)iceberg187
Regular
Word of mouth is spreading in the UK it seems.
This is a notable increase from the USA amazon. As of right this very second We have the PS3 40GB at #17 and the 360 Pro at #45 (those are the only sku's in top 100). For the past few weeks or so it seems PS3 has been #7-12 and 360 has been in the 40-60 range on amazon usa. It seems 360 used to do quiet a bit better on amazon, maybe before January 1.
I don't want to sound like an ass, but...
Using Amazon sales rank to predict overall sales is like using internet polls to predict elections. (By now Ron Paul would locked up the republican ticket)
At best it's just a very very crude trend barometer. Otherwise it's hardly representative at all.
Well let's compare only Amazon-to-Amazon then
The ranking is currently a little different from what I pasted a few days ago.Aside from that, I had thought Arcade is more popular with a memory card and the below-Wii price so it's surprising for me. (It's at 33 now)
Well let's compare only Amazon-to-Amazon then
And how is that at all telling? Do you know what units moved it represents? The number 1 item could have fallen back in sales and stayed number one while a lower ranked item could have sold relatively more but still moved downwards. Sorry, but using amazon as a barometer isn't useful because rankings without numbers don't tell you anything. I'm not even sure that Amazon uses completed sales? It could just be put in cart, does anyone actually know the criteria they use to rank their bestsellers?
More popular than what? It's more popular than the old core was, that doesn't mean its more popular than the wii or the 360pro.
You seem to have a wrong impression about my post... did I write it represents real final sales? If you open the URL you see "The most popular items". In fact there are multiple ways to look at it - if you think the ranking moves without influence of actual stock, it can show real consumer interest which is not restrained by shortage. Unlike StefanS, I see a certain value in internet polls too in terms of a socioeconomical trend, and Amazon is not exactly an unknown entity. Internet polls are vulnerable to manipulation by stakeholders including the owner of a poll. If you think Amazon is eager to give more exposure to items with plenty of stock and moving them at the top, it can show stock status, or generic retailer interest instead of consumer interest. It's akin to shelf-space management. Either way, there's less likelihood of manipulation among products of the same manufacturer except for marketing reasons or retailer margins.
More popular than its current rank in Amazon. If I use the metaphor of shelf-space management again, Amazon is much more keen to sell Pro right now. What does it mean? I guess the rumored 60GB model will replace Pro soon with a similar price tag, while Arcade is here to stay.
Oh please.
Amazon rankings are based on a rather short time period so very small changes in offers make tons of difference, and its really not representative of anything.
The 60gb PS3 was very often far above the X360 for amazon.com for 3 months or so after it launched. (It was number 2 pretty much all the time when they had stock). Did Sony sell more PS3's in the states than Microsoft sold X360s? No. Did people try to argue amazon.com numbers rather than NPD? Yes.
Amazon rankings is not usefull for anything, aspecially when we dont know the amount of units that gets moved from one place to another. Its useless.
This is useless aswell, unless you have the exact same demographic of people using the sites in both countries (and it should preferably have the same % of console buyers using the sites). They dont. Amazon is far from the biggest online store in the UK, aspecially for video games, i dont know how popular Amazon is in the states, but im sure its significantly more popular. Thus, any comparison from amazon-to-amazon will not give you any statistically relevant infromation, because the numbers are shewd to begin with.
Amazon rankings are based on a rather short time period so very small changes in offers make tons of difference, and its really not representative of anything.
The 60gb PS3 was very often far above the X360 for amazon.com for 3 months or so after it launched. (It was number 2 pretty much all the time when they had stock). Did Sony sell more PS3's in the states than Microsoft sold X360s? No. Did people try to argue amazon.com numbers rather than NPD? Yes.
Amazon rankings is not usefull for anything, aspecially when we dont know the amount of units that gets moved from one place to another. Its useless.
This is useless aswell, unless you have the exact same demographic of people using the sites in both countries (and it should preferably have the same % of console buyers using the sites). They dont. Amazon is far from the biggest online store in the UK, aspecially for video games, i dont know how popular Amazon is in the states, but im sure its significantly more popular. Thus, any comparison from amazon-to-amazon will not give you any statistically relevant infromation, because the numbers are shewd to begin with.
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