XBox 360 Price Cut/60GB model*
- Thread starter 22psi
- Start date
To add, the average buyer who gets told he needs a $120+ monster cable for "real hi def" see's the included HDMI cable as a big plus. Yes, it's sad people get taken like this but that's sales.......
To be fair not everyone knows of monoprice and other like it.
They should stick a higher quality DVD drive (less noise) in the Elite - and up the HD to something larger. They would still make money, but those two things would really add value. I'd pay anything for a lower noise level.
Cheers
In a few months you will have that luxury on the Elite, given you can fully install games to the HDD. For those of us suckers with 20gb's however it's a little less nice.
I'm still hoping for cheapish HDD's, or at least some clever sucker on the net figuring out a way to make off-the-shelf drives work in ways which won't ban you from Live. I think this will be reasonably likely after the HDD installation is launched, since there will be much more demand for the space.
No, but look at video cards. A GT260 can be found for $230 after rebate on newegg. As far as I understand it, video cards also contain a hefty profit margin (in fact I think I read somewhere GT200 may cost $110 to produce? Not sure if that was including everything or just the die). A GT260 has a 576 mm^2 die, and 896 MB GDDR3 RAM and a circuit board. A 360 has two ~160 mm^2 die and one 70mm^2 IIRC (total 390 mm^2 silicon), and (not knowing the latest updates on 65nm etc it may be less) and 512 MB GDDR3 RAM.
Even allowing that 360 has several expenses GT260 doesnt (plastic casing, controller, various trinkets and cables, power supply, optical drive, more complex motherboard) it seems likely to me that 199 is at least break even or so on the Arcade unit.
Edit: Or the Arcade may be a (likely slight) money loser, and the Pro and Elite would seem a good deal more profitable (since they only add a HDD that doesnt cost near the price differential) to even things out. Also keep in mind cost reductions in hardware are ongoing, (such as Jasper, which has not yet been released) and 360 will likely stay at these prices for a year. Therefore the 360 hardware profitability picture, wherever it may stand right this second, will only improve until fall of 2009 and the next cut.
I'm guessing MS is staying pretty conservative, and are staying break even or above on hardware for the most part nowdays, due to the sting of the 1 billion RROD charge, and interviews where they have stated the goal is to break even on hardware or slightly profitable over a life cycle. If that's the case, they have to be trying to make up those first two years of heavy hardware losses even now.
Last edited by a moderator:
I would think the Arcade is a loss, banking on future peripheral sales to make it profitable overall. I'd expect the Pro and Elite to make money, the price increase is absurd - a HD which probably cost MS $0.3/GB, a $1 headset and/or $0.50 HDMI cable. Of course minus the 512MB memory card and games.
Fair enough.
Sometimes when you figure the enormous amount of ridiculously profitable accessories MS sells, $50 controllers, $99 wireless adapters, $50/year for Live ($250 over a five year lifespan), wireless headsets, memory cards, hard drives (though they probably dont sell a ton, since most came with a HDD) first party cables, play and charge kits, I cant figure out why 360 isnt $99 right now for all sku's
I've removed the off-topic comparison talk which was quickly goign downhill from a low starting place. Choice of console based solely on pricetag is moronic, and discussion of a platforms comparative worth without regard for software and usage, which is entirely subjective, is equally moronic.
On topic, with $200 finally reached we'll see if MS really knew if they understood the market's buynig habits!
On topic, with $200 finally reached we'll see if MS really knew if they understood the market's buynig habits!
Fair enough.
Sometimes when you figure the enormous amount of ridiculously profitable accessories MS sells, $50 controllers, $99 wireless adapters, $50/year for Live ($250 over a five year lifespan), wireless headsets, memory cards, hard drives (though they probably dont sell a ton, since most came with a HDD) first party cables, play and charge kits, I cant figure out why 360 isnt $99 right now for all sku's
To be fair Live needs to be maintained. I know many like to say that it has no servers for gaming , but it does have servers for messagings , game achivements , your purchases and other things . Also you can buy live for as low as $35 a year and most normaly find it for $40 at newegg.com. So while i'm sure its a money maker , we really don't know how much they keep of that $50.
I just want to add that I think it's a shame that it's not possible to have at least a semi-intelligent discussion on the price of a console in the context of market forces. It's not like Microsoft would have done anything with its pricing if there hadn't been any competition. But it's clearly not possible, and that makes me sad.
I'm repeating myself on this subject but I dont see the Elite as all that out of line.
To make an Elite from an Arcade, you need to add:
+150 HDD
+15 headset
+hi-def cable ($3-$20)
So right there you're at 368-385. Is it really that big a deal? Are people making a ~400 purchase really going to worry about it? Especially those who desire black? Elite also comes with component and HDMI and ethernet cable and the optical dongle thing (which doesnt matter to me). Now, the thing always said on the internet is "well just go get your $3 monoprice HDMI cable". But is that really what people do?? I'd argue not, I'd argue 90% of people will be paying Best Buy $20+ dollars for that HDMI cable. Hell even a savvy user like me, if I was buying a PS3 tomorrow, would very likely be grabbing a cable from the store, rather than waiting days for it to arrive in the mail and playing at SD in the meantime. I mean who is going to open up a $400 purchase and be like "I'll wait a few days to use this as it's intended to save 17 bucks".?
Also, there will surely be bundles for the holidays, you will likely be getting two full games with Elite/Pro but not Arcade, like you did last holiday with Forza/Mavel UA bundle, further tilting the value add in Arcade to murky at best.
Also, Elite is supposed to be targeted at that consumer who wants the best and isnt price conscious. The whole quibbling over a few bucks doesn't make sense when you account for how the sku is targeted. Hence the name "Elite".
Anyways I agree, until holiday software bundles show up, Arcade is the best deal, but it's pretty slight. And just keep in mind MS is always repositioning the sku's, previous, the Pro was clearly the best deal. Now it's the Arcade. Next time something different, no big deal.
To be fair the most popular verison of the system has only recieved 1 price cut of $50 since it launched in 2005. We were getting close to the start of its fourth year on the market. I think even without competition it would require a price drop of almost any product as its basicly exhausted the user base willing to pay x amount of money. When taken on the whole the 360 average price went up since launch and they have been able to do a good job of maintaining system value with refreshes of the system while still driving generaly higher % of sales over the same time last year I believe. If rumors of a new xbox coming before 2011 they really need to start to change the price or they would be forced to drasticly cut later in its life cycle and risk to many price cuts in a short time. The 360 should move to $200 its an advantage of being first and lacking a hardrive and next gen optical unit. Through hardrive additions they are still able to maintain higher p rice points and the highest sku announced (god knows there may only be more skus ) and on sale is still at the original launch price point of the 360.
When compared to ms's last console they are doing much better than they were. Last gen they were forced very quickly to shave off $100 a little over 6 months after launch and lost money on each console sold through the end of the generation. No matter where the 360 goes from here 2nd place ,1st place , 3rd place this is really a sucess story for ms when compared to the xbox .
Well, okay. A lot of this hinges on how savvy the average customer is, and I can't argue on that because it'd just be baseless speculation anyway. But the thing is, the elite used to be a good deal. In fact, before HDMI became standard, it was probably the best deal if you didn't already own a 360. Even after HDMI became standard it was a pretty decent deal. It's just been made to look worse and worse comparatively: MS really hasn't done anything to make the package more attractive since it was released, relative to the other SKUs.
I think this is fairly silly. It's just a name. Why not create a new Premium SKU titled 'The Best', and draw a glass of champagne and a Ferrari on the box? I own an elite. I bought it because it was a good deal, not because it's an 'Elite'. Your argument might hold if we were talking about shopping for yachts. Just having a fancy name doesn't automatically make it a luxury item.
Last edited by a moderator:
The pro is down $100 with triple the HD space and added HDMI thanks in large part to competition. The reason it's not $199 now is probably the RRoD disaster costing them over $1B. Of course this works both ways, the PS3 has dropped in price, added features, etc. I'll ignore the Wii, I don't understand the draw, sales or pricing.
Why do I care, I'm not a share holder, are you?
You care because it'll mean that MS has good incentive to stay in the gaming business. Their shareholders are happy and they can justify a bigger commitment to their gaming division. As a gamer, that should make you happy.
I will probably update to an Elite this holiday, depending on the bundles available and if it's at the same or lower price. At this point, I really hate having to clear space to download demos and game videos, which I tend to keep even after the game releases.
I'm also hoping to have more room for Rock band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour dlc. The one thing that I envy my PS3 over my X360, besides the drive noise, is the user upgradable hardrive.
The other advantages of the Elite are mostly comsmetic in my eyes. I use a VGA cable for gaming (got it for <$10), so HDMI isn't a plus for me and the black color, while more desirable, doesn't justify the cost at this time.
Also, hopefully the new mobo will be out by then.
I'm also hoping to have more room for Rock band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour dlc. The one thing that I envy my PS3 over my X360, besides the drive noise, is the user upgradable hardrive.
The other advantages of the Elite are mostly comsmetic in my eyes. I use a VGA cable for gaming (got it for <$10), so HDMI isn't a plus for me and the black color, while more desirable, doesn't justify the cost at this time.
Also, hopefully the new mobo will be out by then.
One problem with the black color is that it's harder to find accessories. It's shallow, but I've been thinking of buying one of those keyboards, and I'm sorta bugged that I can only find the white one. Same for stuff like Play 'n' charge kits -- I own one, but I'm slightly bummed that the battery pack, though black, is actually a different shade of black from the controller itself.
Similar threads
