Xbox 360 to launch in Europe on November 25 at 299 UKP

[London Geezer]

Well, here's another article on the whole thing I guess - this one saying 249 BP rather than 299.

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=10663

oooooh 450 dollars instead of 530!! I mean that's just awesome!! Yes i am being sarcastic.

 

[sytaylor]

I don't buy the gamecube argument one bit. Do you honestly think if the gamecube was MORE expensive it would have sold more units? I don't think so.

The problem with the GC was not it's price.

Being viewed as a "cheap" product is a potential pitfall but I'm sure the graphics will more tha speak for themselves. Besides, MS has nothing to lose and everything to gain here, why not be aggressive with the pricing. (talking EU only here)

Oh I agree, it was the strategy that was the problem, but that strategy was based around who the consumer was, and why they were buying the device (and moreover how they viewed that device fitting into their life). I think the pricepoint reflects their miscalculation of this aspect, as well as many other things they did.

 

[Magnum PI]

So you agree, the gamecube failed, thank you. The fact they made a profit in the long term is irrelevant when revenues from home consoles shrunk.

they didn't make profit in a long term, they were constantly profitable.

the purpose of market share is to allow you to make more profits.
but when the increase of market share is only translated in increase of losses.
is the term success adapted ?

the gain of market share is not an end in itself for a private company.
i admit that for some kind of enthousiast it can be enough (my console as a bigger market share than yours)

fortunately the microsoft plan doesn't end with the xbox. they are in the investment phase and they hope to build on this market share and have an even bigger marketshare and a profitable one. so in the end they hope top recoup the losses and make even much more money.

when that happens it will undoubtly be a big success for the xbox venture.

if it had stop with the xbox it would undoubtly have been one of the big flops of microsoft. fortunately it didn't happen.

I didn't say anything about defining 100% success in console wars, I said in terms of growing market share and improving on the last generation.

mhh.. it's not really what you said.. you spoke about success and failure in a general sense.

Snes>n64>gamecube... see a pattern?

declining market share.. so the xbox is a success because the market share of n64 was less of snes one ?
sorry i don't follow you there.

i find the idea of defining the success or failure only in terms of progression of market share rather strange, the kind of strange idea you can have when you have the conclusions then try to find a reasoning afterwards, in order to back it up. see what i mean ?

another way to look at things could be to look at each year. if you look at each years, nintendo only
accumulated successes since their IPO, some years less successful, some years more successful..

but how can you seriously look at a period when on the average a company the size of nintendo makes on the average 500 million dollars of profits each years, and say it is a failure ?

 

[sytaylor]

Company profits overall do not speak for home console successes, when Nintendo absolutley own the portable market. Therefore you can only judge a console based on the performance it has against both expecations and competitors. I think its pretty clear the gamecube underperformed in both areas, as did the n64 but by less of a margin.

 

[Sindre]

Stop complaining about price people. When the PS2 launched in Norway the 24th of november 2000, I paid 562.5€ for mine. . .
Can't even imagine what the PS3 lauch price will be over here.

 

[AlNom]

oooooh 450 dollars instead of 530!! I mean that's just awesome!! Yes i am being sarcastic.

Well, you can have yours for 530 dollars then.

But really... what happened to the idea where even books had multiple prices listed on the back? Perhaps they weren't the most up-to-date with exchange rates, but they weren't 1-to-1.

 

[macabre]

Stop complaining about price people. When the PS2 launched in Norway the 24th of november 2000, I paid 562.5€ for mine. . .
Can't even imagine what the PS3 lauch price will be over here.

Do you know the PSP price for Norway ?