Price drop for XBOX soon?

[Pikachu]

I heard Microsoft is going to drop the price of Xbox soon, it is likely to start in Japan first, to stimulate the sales, and then Europe, and finally North America.

Man, they would be losing so much money if they did that, it's not even funny. I suppose if they want the Xbox to go anywhere in Japan, it'll help...

[Overlord]

The price drop should occur right when PS2 drops its price. And it should happen all over globe. PS2 will anounce the drop at E3(May).

But the XBox is losing more money than the Ps2 right now. Because 1 XBox takes about $400 to make and Sony just made new chips for Ps2 which are cheaper and more efficent...

So the Ps2 can go a lot lower than the X. It probably won't go as low as $199(probably $229). But if it does than the Cube might also go down...

[folken001]

Originally posted by Overlord
The price drop should occur right when PS2 drops its price. And it should happen all over globe. PS2 will anounce the drop at E3(May).

But the XBox is losing more money than the Ps2 right now. Because 1 XBox takes about $400 to make and Sony just made new chips for Ps2 which are cheaper and more efficent...

So the Ps2 can go a lot lower than the X. It probably won't go as low as $199(probably $229). But if it does than the Cube might also go down...

I don't see the point for MS to drop the price after SONY drop its. If anything, MS should drop Xbox's price before SONY drop PS2's.

IF SONY drop the price as soon as E3 this year, it spells "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" for MS.

[Overlord]

Well the main reason for M$ to wait is because they can't afford to make any mistake at this point. No one knows what the PS2 will go down to. It could be $269 or $229. What if M$ drops to about $249, and then Sony waits and drops to $239 or less...

But you might be right, M$ might need to take the fisrt strike.

Another question is if you'll be buying a cheaper problem free XBox or not...

[folken001]

Originally posted by Overlord
Well the main reason for M$ to wait is because they can't afford to make any mistake at this point. No one knows what the PS2 will go down to. It could be $269 or $229. What if M$ drops to about $249, and then Sony waits and drops to $239 or less...

But you might be right, M$ might need to take the fisrt strike.

So MS did. MS cut the price in Europe a big time. Xbox must doing bad over there.....

I think the Xbox is a really good system but they need to do something to stay competative, and I don't think it's price but they need games. I know nobody really cares about "should have" type posts, but MS should have invested in SquareSoft before Sony did (unless this is seen as an international business buying to much of another, like VoiceStream and Deutch Telekom) and that would at least of snatched a port of FFXI over on the xbox. Heck! Why not do that now? Oh well, I really can't wait to see what come out of all this.

[Rubeus]

I don't think Squaresoft will develop for Xbox, especially now the company owns a subsidiary company that is funded by Nintendo.

Didn't Square turn away Microsoft the first place when Bill Gate tries to acquire Squaresoft?

Just found out today Microsoft Europe will lower the price of Xbox from 26th april. The new price will be 325 ?=285$, not bad for the European consumers! Finally Europe is being treated pretty equally as fellow Americans and Japanese
Hopefully MS lower games price as well, 75 ?=65 $ Compare to US prices, 55 $.

What I?ve heard there will no price drops for North America?s and Japan?s market.

May as well gonna pick an XBox at a local market with JSRF
;)

[Overlord]

Last time I heard, the Xbox was supposed to be $350-$400 in Europe and some other places! And thats US dollers.

Yes, square did turn down Microsoft. But only as a 2nd party exclusive. They can still make games for them if they wish, but it won't be exclusive.

[Pdaimaoh]

if you were a sucker and bought one, and you happen to be a euro gamer, then you get two games and a second controller for free

that is, if you bought one before the price drop

and yeah
it's doing crap in europe
the problem is that europe is the last refuge
America may have taken to the Xbox as much as expected, but it's still a tiny number

in japan, it has tanked

if it tanks in europe, it is game over for microsoft's xbox

not to mention, as it continues to tank there, the gamecube's impending release PREorders are roughly DOUBLE the amount of sold through xbox units!

they HAVE to gain a stronger hold, because if nintendo eats them in europe, they will be the uber-laughing stock

I can almost assure you that there will be a price drop for xbox in all zones by holiday, regardless of actions taken by Sony or Nintendo

BRING IT DOWN TO FIFTY!
I'll buy it for fifty...

Originally posted by Overlord
Last time I heard, the Xbox was supposed to be $350-$400 in Europe and some other places! And thats US dollers.

Yes, square did turn down Microsoft. But only as a 2nd party exclusive. They can still make games for them if they wish, but it won't be exclusive.

The development cost of Square's games are higher than average, unless Microsoft can guarantee each game Square release will sell over 500,000, otherwise why bother? If the game can easily sell better on the other platforms.

[Overlord]

The development cost of Square's games are higher than average, unless Microsoft can guarantee each game Square release will sell over 500,000, otherwise why bother? If the game can easily sell better on the other platforms.

True, last year the two games that had the biggest budget were MGS2 and FFX.

..Both ranging around 4 million dollers (maybe it was 4bill, not sure...). Thats why square only develops for consoles with high hardware sales, and affordable development costs.

When Xbox was released in Europe, here in Sweden the console without no gemas hade the price of 500 US Dollars!
I bought Halo and an additional controller so i payed over 600 US Dollars that day.
(The Swedish currency is SEK but I tell the prices in dollars so you can see how expensive it was)

After a little more than a month, MS cuts the price 200 dollars
and MS is also giving away 2 free games and one controllers to those who bought it on the release.
So dont complain about the prices in the US, a game does also cost 70-80 Dollars here.