xbox 360 confirmed pricing

[Tap In]

snip...

right now this situation sucks . Its bad for xbox's future

for a retail store I can imagine that it sucks today.

one month from now.... I think no big deal.

3 months from now... much joy for gamers and retail.

3 years from now... good for MS and X360 and gamers and retail.

I like looking at the big picture in case you couldn't tell.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I really feel bad for the people who are going to throw down on a $299 version (uninformed consumers would be most likley). I feel MS is taking advantage of these people. When a kid opens up his 360 this Holiday and sees that there missing alot of components that where seen as standard for the 360, that will just be messed up to the 10th %. Parents will have to go out and in the worst case scenario, get the kid a..

• $100 HDD
  
  $99 Wi-Fi Adapter
  
  $50 Wireless Controller (without the rechargeable batteries?)
  
  EDIT: Forgot the Component Cable = $39.99

that already comes out to almost EDIT: $290!!!!!!! if you get the base version then get all the items that you may need!!!....almost the same amount of a 360..wow...thinking about that...that blows my fricken mind...

 

[jvd]

i think 3 years from now ms will leave the market which = bad for consumers

when the system luanches we are going to sell very few games which is what we make hte most off of . Many people who were going to buy 4-6 games are now going to buy half that

 

[pso]

Na not many people know whats going on . We are going to make calls tommorow. I believe the plan is to put everyone on the 300$ verson untill they confirm a change over to the 400$

right now this situation sucks . Its bad for xbox's future

Yes it does look bad for MS. I just hope MS makes it up with something big at TGS, because of the bombshell that was dropped on us today.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

'Scuse my ignorance but wWhy is the WiFi adaptor needed? Internet access through a wireless router for one thing I guess. It's not needed for wireless controllers though is it?

 

[Tap In]

thier website faw said standard removable 20 gig hardrive however .

that's true...

but they never said for $299 so as compared to a price point they never lied, but saying the HDD was std for ALL units sold was misleading.

Perhaps the HDD is not as important to games as some of us thought.

I personally will use it for storage and downloads from LIVE and music and game cache for the games that support it but yea, I see where having it std would have been better.

 

[BlueTsunami]

'Scuse my ignorance but wWhy is the WiFi adaptor needed? Internet access through a wireless router for one thing I guess. It's not needed for wireless controllers though is it?

Nope..the wireless adapter is just to connect online wirlessly...but the adapter shouldn't be needed for the controllers right?....please say i'm right...

 

[Tap In]

It's not needed for wireless controllers though is it?

nope

 

[Shifty Geezer]

i think 3 years from now ms will leave the market which = bad for consumers

when the system luanches we are going to sell very few games which is what we make the most off of . Many people who were going to buy 4-6 games are now going to buy half that

I've always said I expect this XB to the last hardware console MS attempts. Allard has said they don't like doing hardware. They'll move instead to an XNA system where you buy a PC with a certain performance rating to match your games. Perhaps it's this lack of hardware know-how that's causing maniac prices for their hardware - they're used to massive profitability from their software and are looking for the same level of returns on peripherals??

 

[jvd]

Yes the hardrive is very important . Its just obviouslys more imporatnt to ms's bottom line that its not there so they can get people to psned 100$ more to buy it

 

[inefficient]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/17/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm?cnn=yes

"The hard drive might seem like an expensive luxury to some shoppers, particularly those buying for someone else this holiday season, but for current Xbox gamers, it's a critical piece of equipment. Without a hard drive, the Xbox 360 will not be able to play any games from the current Xbox, including the phenomenally successful "Halo 2"."

About the HD being required for backwards compatability. Is CNN just speculating? Or has this been confirmed?

 

[Tap In]

i think 3 years from now ms will leave the market which = bad for consumers

when the system luanches we are going to sell very few games which is what we make hte most off of . Many people who were going to buy 4-6 games are now going to buy half that

I disagree with you on MS leaving the market

but I understand the game sales point regarding extra games but OTOH perhaps more units will sell now at the $299 price to some who see it as a value and those "new" consumers will buy games too.

I believe that is the strategy that MS is counting on, considering it possibly costs more to produce this system than we may have anticipated.

I don't see PS3 at any less than $399 either now and possibly more considering what they are putting in the box.

 

[wco81]

'Scuse my ignorance but wWhy is the WiFi adaptor needed? Internet access through a wireless router for one thing I guess. It's not needed for wireless controllers though is it?

So that you don't have to string ethernet cables all over your house to go online. Remember, MS wants a much higher XBL attach ratio this time. Instead of 10% for Xbox, they want well over 50% for X360.

Also, they're really big on streaming media content between the X360, which has a MCE Extender built in, and a Media Center Edition PC, which they want people to buy to complement the X360.

Instead of putting in a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive, they want you to get HDTV movies through an MCE PC and then stream it to the X360 connected to the HDTV. Of course, you could also connect the MCE PC directly to the HDTV as well. But if you stream high bitrate video, apparently 802.11a is better than 802.11b or g.

 

[Tap In]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/17/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm?cnn=yes

"The hard drive might seem like an expensive luxury to some shoppers, particularly those buying for someone else this holiday season, but for current Xbox gamers, it's a critical piece of equipment. Without a hard drive, the Xbox 360 will not be able to play any games from the current Xbox, including the phenomenally successful "Halo 2"."

About the HD being required for backwards compatability. Is CNN just speculating? Or has this been confirmed?

that is a BIG question and I wish IGN had asked Peter Moore.

 

[scooby_dooby]

just for networking. i can't belieb the $99 price tag, these sell for $10-$20 retail and are STOCK on the PS3.

It's like MS just took all the hard work they'd done with xbox, all the momentum, and killed it in one fell swoop.

It's hard to say what will happen, because Sony may very well pull the exact same thing, but man-o-man what a stpuid move, this is why you should listen to GAMERS and not ANALYSTS.

Moore...I'm talking to you Einstein...

edit - i was respondign to shifty's post about the wi-fi

 

[PG2G]

I'm thinking that people buy 4-6 games because there are 4-6 games they want, not because that's all they have money for. If someone was planning to pay that much from the get go, an extra $100 probably isn't that much of an issue.

The price increase probably won't deter me from buying any games I want, it may keep me from buying anymore than one extra controller though.

 

[PG2G]

Is the Xbox360 a normal USB adapter, or is it more of a wireless bridge like previous game adapters.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Is the Xbox360 a normal USB adapter, or is it more of a wireless bridge like previous game adapters.

If its a wireless bridge..them MS is trying to get away with murder with the $99.99 price tag for the Wi-Fi adapter. I've seen bridges for around $30....

 

[pso]

Do you know what guys? I or all of us overlooked something, lol. For the $399 premium version, we're still getting the Xbox Live Silver membership. Where's the Gold membership?

Talk about milking us even more.

 

[Carl B]

What this proves that the analysts were dead on concerning the 360 launching with 2 SKU's. Almost everybody waived it off as rubbish. Now they were proving right.

Other analysts or should I say Merrill Lynch, mentioned the manufacturing cost of the PS3 at around $494 here:

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Journals-J-4-4-26-21879431-x

So I think we should take the analysts predictions more seriously this time around.

MS and analysts basically owned everyone into believing the 360 will come standard with a HDD at $299. Most Sony fans thought the same thing as well.

I just hope the PS3 is not too expensive, because I really want both.

Hey analysts can be right, analysts can be wrong - I still think that $494 number is total BS.

Anyway on the larger subject... I don't know... what is there to say? I think Microsoft should have played to their 'hardcore' strengths and expanded from there. Instead, they seem to be doing the opposite - offering something for everybody, but taking away some of the key components that got them their fan base to begin with. Like I said in my previous post, I think this new system will have serious $$$ potential for Microsoft, probably emliminating hardware losses entirely after one or two 'insane peripheral' purchases, but I think this opens the door to serious mindshare damage on their part. I can see Sony's TGS showing now: "With WiFi standard, all wireless rechargeable controllers, and a next generation optical drive..." This among whatever other pushes they would have done.

PS - People who think they can sidestep the higher peripheral prices with third party gear, remember Microsoft's recent 'exact royalties on hardware' move.