Xbox 360 Price Cut!

[Pirate]

I didn't see this posted already.

Core: $280
Premium: $350
Elite: $450

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp said Monday it will cut the price of its main Xbox 360 video game console model by about 13 percent in the United States, hoping to boost sales ahead of the crucial holiday season.


Microsoft is aiming at expanding the appeal of the Xbox 360 to an audience outside its core fan base.

The move reduces the price of the Xbox 360 Premium model by $50, to $350, and follows a move last month by rival Sony Corp to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 machine by 17 percent, to $500.

Faced with unexpectedly strong competition from Nintendo Co Ltd's cheaper Wii console, Microsoft is aiming at expanding the appeal of the Xbox 360 to an audience outside its core fan base of young men.

"As we look to the holidays we want to bring in more gamers and lower the price for those customers," the Xbox 360's group product manager, Aaron Greenberg, said in an interview.

"We're always trying to bring down cost of the box and ... we always try to pass on the savings to our consumers. We feel like this is the right time to do it."

The price of the Xbox 360 Core, which does not include a hard drive, will fall $20 to $280 while the Elite model, which features a 120-gigabyte drive, six times the size of the Premium's, will fall $30 to $450. The cuts will take effect from August 8, Microsoft said.

Launched in November 2005, the Xbox 360 has gone 20 months without a price cut, the longest of any console in history. Sony's PlayStation 2 held its $300 price for 18 months after launching in the United States in 2000.

"It surprised me a little bit because there's not a whole lot of market pressure on them to lower the price," said Van Baker, an analyst with market research firm Gartner.

"Is it going to make an enormous difference? No, because when it comes to consoles, it's not the price that sells the console, it's the games that sells the console and from that perspective, Microsoft's in pretty good shape," Baker said.

The rising sophistication of consoles, which boast graphics performance that rivals personal computers costing several times as much, means manufacturers are more reluctant to drop prices. That's particularly true for Microsoft, which has yet to turn a profit on the Xbox business it launched in 2001 in a bid to challenge Sony's growing dominance in the living room.

By the end of June, Microsoft had sold 5.6 million Xbox 360s in the United States, compared with 2.8 million Wiis and 1.4 million PS3s -- the latter two launched a year later.

Microsoft forecasts its entertainment and devices division, home to the Xbox, Windows Mobile and Zune digital music player businesses, to turn profitable in its current fiscal year after two years of losses totaling more than $3 billion.

The Redmond, Washington-based company has forecast revenue at the division to grow by between 10 percent and 19 percent this year from sales of $6.08 billion in fiscal 2007.

Greenberg said Microsoft timed the price cut to coincide with the release of Electronic Arts Inc's "Madden NFL 08", the latest installment of the publisher's top-selling football franchise.

"Summer tends to be seasonally slow, but we definitely see a big uptick starting with 'Madden', and accelerating through the end of the year," Greenberg said.

Microsoft is also banking on the highly anticipated final episode of "Halo", its flagship game franchise, to be a major profit driver this year. The game hits stores on September 25.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/08/07/x...eut/index.html

[sub780lime]

Wish I had a ton of desposible income lying around because I really wouldnt mind having HDMI by picking up an Elite...but the core and premium dont really affect me.

[littlebib]

Originally Posted by piratehunter

I didn't see this posted already.

Core: $250
Premium: $350
Elite: $450




http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/08/07/x...eut/index.html

The Core is actually $280, not $250. Only $20 off the Core making even less sense for anyone to ever get it.

[umainebearman]

Originally Posted by littlebib

The Core is actually $280, not $250. Only $20 off the Core making even less sense for anyone to ever get it.

Someone should tell Sony that.

[187ontheVHS]

In Canada the Elite and the PS3 60GB are now the same price, I love how ridiculous that is. To bring your Elite onto equal footing with the PS3 you have to spend $179 on the HD drive, another $30 for the battery pack for the controller and $120 for wifi (if you go first party). Awesome! Oh sure you get another 60GB of storage, but what good does that do us up here?

[umainebearman]

Originally Posted by 187ontheVHS

In Canada the Elite and the PS3 60GB are now the same price, I love how ridiculous that is. To bring your Elite onto equal footing with the PS3 you have to spend $179 on the HD drive, another $30 for the battery pack for the controller and $120 for wifi (if you go first party). Awesome!

Of course you'd also have get the 360 to have worse frame rates and visuals on all cross platform games, cut xbox live content down to probably 1/3 of what it offers now and then cripple the online functionality of the games offered for online play. THEN they'd be about equal.

[187ontheVHS]

Originally Posted by umainebearman

Of course you'd also have get the 360 to have worse frame rates and visuals on all cross platform games, cut xbox live content down to probably 1/3 of what it offers now and then cripple the online functionality of the games offered for online play. THEN they'd be about equal.

That sounds about right!

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by umainebearman

Of course you'd also have get the 360 to have worse frame rates and visuals on all cross platform games, cut xbox live content down to probably 1/3 of what it offers now and then cripple the online functionality of the games offered for online play. THEN they'd be about equal.

Don't blame the PS3 hardware for companies' shitty non-optimized 360 ports.

Look at exclusives and see the power of the PS3... it's there for the taking.

[187ontheVHS]

But has anything so far been all the impressive on the PS3 yet?

[ganthc]

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Bundles/Amazon/Xbox_360/Amazon_Bundles_Xbox_360_Elite_with_HD_DVD_add-on_and_Seven_Discs_for_$599/855

Now it looks like Elite is being bundled with the hd-dvd drive and 7 movies for $599 on amazon.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by 187ontheVHS

But has anything so far been all the impressive on the PS3 yet?

Motorstorm has some of the best graphics I have ever seen, maybe the best so far of the entire generation. Resistance is right up there as well with some amazing textures and HUGE levels with a nice crisp look. Heavenly Sword demo rocks with beautiful landscapes and detail...

Looking at games not playable yet, Ratchet and Clank Future looks STUNNING. Like a Pixar movie.

[187ontheVHS]

Originally Posted by MooglePorn

Motorstorm has some of the best graphics I have ever seen, maybe the best so far of the entire generation. Resistance is right up there as well with some amazing textures and HUGE levels with a nice crisp look. Heavenly Sword demo rocks with beautiful landscapes and detail...

Looking at games not playable yet, Ratchet and Clank Future looks STUNNING. Like a Pixar movie.

Motorstorm is very nice, as is Resistance. In many ways so is Heavenly Sword, but what was with all the v-sync issues? I was so disappointed to see all the tearing, I hope that is fixed in the final build!

[MooglePorn]

Yeah, I hate tearing as well... All the Clancy titles were doing it for a while there, but they stopped thank God.

[Mr. Furious]

I'll wait until Elite's are value priced.

I'd like one, but I'm not going to pay $450+ for it. I could do a hell of an upgrade on my PC for that.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by MooglePorn

Don't blame the PS3 hardware for companies' shitty non-optimized 360 ports.

Look at exclusives and see the power of the PS3... it's there for the taking.

How about we blame Sony for making ass-backwards engineering choices in their CPU instead instead of shoveling the blame on developers?

I mean, in terms of general programming the 360 has mirrored the pc scene - dx9/10 GPU paired with 2-4 GP core CPU. OTOH, PS3 has a dx9 gpu paired with a 1 GP core CPU, plus some vector units tagged on. And we all saw how useful those were in those Aegia Physics games on the PC.

[187ontheVHS]

I second Ruined, Sony made some poor choices with the PS3, especially as far as the GPU is concerned. Just as Microsoft has clearly made some very bad decisions as far as the overall design of the 360, especially in regards to cooling. What system would I rather have though? I couldn't say, at the end of the day I love them both.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by 187ontheVHS

I second Ruined, Sony made some poor choices with the PS3, especially as far as the GPU is concerned.

I would actually say the CPU is the weak link, not the GPU. The GPU in the PS3 is similar power to the one in the 360, it is just more bandwidth limited; this means PS3 will lose some framebuffer effects/aa/af on multiplatform titles - however these are not make or break things.

The real problem with PS3 is the CPU. Its simply too complex for current game design - where most CPU time is coded for general ops - and changing your game design for the PS3 is costly and results in little payout because your new PS3 design only suits the limited PS3 base - on the other hand the a 360 game can be ported to PC easily because they are currently fundementally similar. If most PCs were single core general purpose CPU + GPU + AGEIA physics addon then the PS3 might be more attractive; however, the PC scene is now 2-4 core general purpose CPU + GPU + no physics card/hardware accel - very similar to the 360 design.

[MooglePorn]

The simple fact is if you put the time in on the PS3 you can get amazing visuals even greater than what the 360 can do... To not put that time is a developer not doing what it can to make the game look the best it can.

Finito.

[187ontheVHS]

Can it really do better than the 360 though? Will it?

[MooglePorn]

Games developed for the PS3 already show it can at LEAST match the 360 when given proper development.

I don't even know how that could be debated.

As for surpassing it, I think Motorstorm is the best looking game this generation. If you can't agree with that, look at videos of some future stuff coming out, be it Lair or much more impressive Ratchet and Clank. Better looking than Bioshock? Well, it's a different style... who knows.

There will be awesome looking and playing exclusives on both systems, end of story.

I feel like I'm repeating myself here... you guys know this stuff already.

[187ontheVHS]

I don't doubt that it will equal the 360, I just have my doubts about whether it will ever be better in any significant way.

Thing about the 360 is that it provides unprecedented audio and visual experiences to create worlds that are beyond real and it delivers storylines and game play so compelling that it feels like living a lucid dream. The result is a state where I achieve the perfect mind-body equilibrium as I forget my physical surroundings and become completely immersed in the game itself; my controller becomes an extension of my body, it becomes the gateway to the Zen of gaming!

Will the PS3 ever do that?

[MooglePorn]

Hahaha...

Look, some games are going to look amazing and be the best of their genre... some of those games, like Motorstorm, are going to be on the PS3... some are going to be on the 360, like Gears of War.

My point is the systems have at least equal power to each other and it's more about development than anything. We're starting to see the benefits of the multicores in the 360 now and games look great... we haven't even seen what the Cell can really do yet, developers are still wrapping their heads around it.

Have you seen video of Ratchet? My God, it looks amazing.

[187ontheVHS]

I'll admit, I haven't, I've only seen stills and they did look very very nice.
At the end of the day I like both systems, I own both, and I don't care who the "winner" is or whatever, I just want to play good games, which is how I've been all the way back to the NES vs Sega Master System days.