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Next-Gen Price Drops?
JMAN871
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm not sure how realistic this question is, but has anyone heard any rumors or have an idea of when the prices of these newfangled systems may descend to lower - and therefore more attainable - levels of the stratosphere? I imagine that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remain pretty tight-lipped about the timing of their price drops. But if anyone has heard anything, or if there's a general time-line to price drops, I would greatly appreciate the info.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot.
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As for the 360, maybe Christmas at earliest? That's pure speculation.
Wii, no time soon at all-it's the cheapest and it really hasn't even been easily available to buy yet at the current price, I've yet to find one.
The 360...almost definitely by Holiday '07.
Nintendo: not on your life. Maybe a version without Wii sports for $200 come next holiday, but I wouldn't even count on that.
Microsoft, I wouldn't count on either. Though I would expect one of two avenues this summer or early fall: a few different bundles, or there's been talk of upgrading the $300 core to include the hard drive, and increasing the hard drive for the $400 premium. With the way they're pushing their new television/movie download service, I see the latter as the most likely.
Sony's just saying no price drop to snag the last stragglers that will actually pay $600 for the PS3.
However, there are hundreds of PS3s languishing on shelves here in my town. One Best Buy alone had two walls built out of PS3s in the middle of the store, and my thought was "Wow, poor Best Buy really got caught up in that initial hype. Someone's gonna get fired for that one". Every Wal-Mart around me has at least one glass case's bottom shelf filled with PS3s.
This is in Tulsa, OK, so I can imagine how many are sitting unsold in them thar big city towns. If my town isn't alone in this situation, Sony will have no choice but to lower prices, or pray that all these companies ship them to Europe to get the biggest launch evar!!!!1.....oh wait, they can't. It's illegal now, so moving all that unused inventory overseas isn't an option. Good plan, Sony!
They can't go an entire year without establishing a user base, and selling a system at a $400 loss is better than not selling anything at a $800 loss.
On the other hand, I haven't seen a Wii in a store since launch day. Print money olol.
Microsoft's sitting pretty, since Sony fucked themselves in every concievable way this gen, many exclusives seem to have started migrating to the 360, and Nintendo's doing their own unorthodox thing, so there's really no need to lower the 360's price just yet.
Except that when Sony said "$599 olol!", they gave Microsoft a Get Out of Pricedrop Free card. Microsoft's pricey $400 system was immediately retagged as cheap if someone wanted to upgrade to next gen. If the PS3 had launched for $400, the 360 would have already gotten a price drop (not to mention the PS3s that would be flying off the shelves in record numbers).
Microsoft makes roughly $80 profit on their system now (premium model), and if push comes to shove they could drop $50.
The ps3 i cant see before next year, although i could see them package it with something like a game (maybe restistence) or componet or hdmi cables
The Wii is already turning a profit on the actually hardware, so nintendo can drop at anytime. I expect them to drop based on what microsoft does. If the premium suddenly drops to like 330, i could see a price drop for the wii.
I'd be shocked if they dropped Wii Sports anytime, nevermind anytime soon. Wii Sports sells consoles. After this weekend I have two more friends that went from "I'll get a Wii sometime" to "What are those sites that tell you when Wii's are in stock?"
Nintendo also doesn't drop prices, they'll do a bundled game first. Don't be shocked if the next drop is Wii+Extra controller+Wii Sports+Wii Play (Single Disc). The Wii is about ten times better if you play with somebody else so again, the second controller sells more Wii's.
and then also, heard rumminations that the 360 revision wont be hitting till late late this year now.
Microsoft don't have to drop the price, so I doubt they will. They are in a pretty comfortable position, and will probably just let the cash roll in for a while, hoping that their games division will finally turn a profit.
Nintendo are printing money with the Wii. They will probably drop the Wii Sports bundle (and drop the Wii price a little) after Microsoft drop the XBox 360 price. They have no real need to move first.
Basically, I think Sony will drop the PS3's price some time later this year. The XBox 360's price will be dropped as a result, then the Wii's will follow. I can't see this happening any time in the next six months, though.
The nice thing about waiting a couple of years to buy a new console is that the game library is already robust when you get your hands on it. By the time I get a 360, there will probably be 10+ "must-haves" for the platform.
True that, I just finally bought a PS2 a year ago. Real cheap in price, all the games I want were cheap too, and finally bought a GBA last week. It's great to be a waiter.
As for the price dropping. I doubt Nintendo will be dropping the price on theirs if Sony/Microsoft drops theirs. It's already selling like hotcakes, and even if the others do drop down $100, Nintendo's STILL got them beat by a long shot(especially if they decide to drop wii sports(ala japan) and sell just the console at $200.
Wii Sports is the game that defines the Wii for the casual/nongaming demographic that Nintendo is shooting for.
Some woman asked if we would be getting any in before Christmas, I told her that we probably would, but on a first come first serve basis and they'd go fast. Then she asked me in all seriousness if they'd drop in price before christmas.
Ya. People are beating down the door to buy them at the current price, so of course we'll drop it. We love giving away money here. :P
X360 probably won't do one anytime soon, either. They still have the most market share and (as far as I know) X360 are still selling at a good clip.
PS3 is kind of a crapshoot. On one hand they're already losing a lot of money, but they lose even more money if the console doesn't get sold. Of course, a couple of nice exclusives would help just as much as a 50-100 dollar price drop.
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Expect some sort of price drop from Microsoft in time for the holidays (earlier if Sony makes a move) My personal guess would be that the Core system is discontinued or drops to $200-$250, the XBox 360 Premium system takes its place at a new price of $300, and a new Ultra Premium system is released for $350-400 which is basically the Premium system + a bigger hard drive and the Live Camera accessory. A pack-in game may be involved.
Sony is in a hard spot. To my knowledge, they're the only one of the big three that is currently losing money off each console being sold. On the one hand, they really need to lower the price if they want the system to have any sort of mass market appeal. On the other hand, if they lower the price, Microsoft will almost undoubtedly counter with their own price drop and Microsoft is much better situated at the moment to drop the price than Sony is.
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Nintendo and Sony I don't think are going to this year.
Having said that, the PS3 still isn't even out here, and it will cost about $850. So already a price hike! Woo. Clearly some people will pay for it.
Didn't Sega try to ask stores to "accept a small loss" on Saturn sales?
I consider that a price drop, if only a seasonal one.
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I'll admit that a gift card is essentially a price drop, but the bundle is only a drop if it's a game I would have bought anyway. NCAA is not that game.
The other 2 I don't see Sony moving just yet, but when they do it will be a bundled game imo, same with the 360, no need to move untill the others do and even then they will just swap bundles.
Only Sony at this point seems to be in a bind as to needing to do anything to make more sales, and they still have a euro launch to make them a some numbers up.
I'm really waiting for a deal on the Wii or PS3. I paid full price for the 360 and I promised never to do that again.I might consider a good pack-in or an extra controller a deal maker if it's something I wanted to get anyway.
I think I'll be ready to purchase a PS3 when it's at around $450 (could be a while) for the high end model. I also said something similar about the 360 so we'll see what happens.
The Wii is at a pretty decent price, but the games aren't very enticing yet and I admit I have only used to the Wii for a few miutes (Excite Truck Demo at EB) so I'm not yet sold on the wiimote.
Regardless we won't see a price drop until Christmas at the earliest. I've noticed Circuit City and a few other places running buy a 360 get a free wireless controller promotions, though. That is essentially $50 off and, imo, a better deal than a free bundled game.
Yea it's now $699 in stores up here now.
I think MS was waiting to see how the PS3 did. If the market would bear $600, I think MS would have come out with an HD-DVD/HDMI/120gb version. Clearly, what was true for Neo Geo and 3DO is true today: $600 is more than your average Joe will pay.
I think we'll see a better bundle on the 360 this summer, maybe with Gears of War. I'm still holding out for an HDMI 360 with HD-DVD, but I'm not holding my breath.
(Redwall joke)
Wii will release different colours to spur sales instead of dropping the price.
Microsoft will either release that new design, start going with bundles, or just let Halo 3 spur sales.
The suits at Sony will not allow themselves to lose anymore money than they already are with the PS3.
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