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Editorial: Xbox 360 Price Cut Won’t Matter
By William Usher: 2008-09-04 14:41:58
All this talk about the Xbox 360 price drop has put the gaming community hot in a buzz. Well,
it’s time to drop a buzz-kill: The Xbox 360's price cut won’t matter for anyone but undecided
gamers. The problem is that the console is simply a luxury expense that will only appeal to those
not trapped in the financial tyranny of gas prices, the mortgage crises or other economic
necessities.
The people who are more likely to purchase a 360 after its price drop are those who were considering a PS3, but found the 360 to be more affordable. Realistically, the price cut is an incentive for those who are undecided about a new console but want something affordable. Of course, if you already have a Wii – or can’t find one in stock – the 360 is going to look awfully appealing sitting next the more expensive PS3. But for the rest of the market who are in a financial headlock, a price drop on a luxury entertainment item is more like an intolerable taunt than an affordable treat. However, that is assuming that the point of the price cut was to ensure a larger installed base within as many households as possible. But given Microsoft’s track record for ignoring consumers, one would be wrong to assume that the Xbox 360's price drop was even meant for potentially new Xbox gamers. If there’s one thing that has been ever present in Microsoft’s tactic for securing an establishment for the Xbox brand, it’s with crushing the competition, or stealing the competition’s consumers. For example, the original Xbox was considered a shooter-game console. Yet the Xbox 360 has seemingly found a niche within a broader spectrum of game players (though not quite as broad as Nintendo’s Wii.) This spectrum, however, was just wide enough to breach into the PlayStation consumer pool of RPG/adventure fans, which was a market pool for which the original Xbox was nearly devoid. First-party games such as Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon have already opened a door for RPG/adventure fans to flood over to the Xbox 360. Other titles such as Final Fantasy XIII and Infinite Undiscovery are also aimed to further breach into the PlayStation RPG fan-base. And while gaming variety certainly isn’t a bad thing, the problem is that the Xbox 360 console wasn’t really fleshed out to be a stable system for its own extensive library. The year-head launch over the PS3 and Wii gave Microsoft the lead-in they needed to prevent Sony from claiming their prowess over the next-generation gaming market with the PS3. But this lead-in came at the expense of a quality gaming machine; riddled with problems such as the rings of doom. As of now, the trend has been for Microsoft to one-up Sony at every turn just to prevent potential “next-gen” consumers from purchasing a PS3 over an Xbox 360. Around this time last year Microsoft had price cuts for the Xbox 360 during the release of Madden 08, and before the release of Halo 3. This was, of course, a month after Sony had dropped $100 off the price of the then $599, 60GB PS3. The move, by Microsoft, was always to detour consumers from Sony, just like their one-year advance into the “next-gen” console market back in 2005. The launch of the Xbox 360 had nothing whatsoever to do with introducing gamers into the actual next-generation of gaming. The launch had everything to do with trumping the competition. If Microsoft was actually concerned about the install base of the Xbox 360, and keeping the system selling steadily enough, they would have cut the price down to $199 on the Premium model a year ago and completely axed the Arcade model of the Xbox 360. MS then would have solely focused on the software and peripherals for the 360 to keep gamers interested. That would have been a much more appealing tactic to the gaming community in general. Instead, price drops usually only occur (for the Xbox 360) when it looks as if one of Microsoft’s competitors will shell out a console-selling game, or subsequently (if Sony) drops the price on their console (Note: Nintendo has yet to change the price of the Wii and have strategically focused more on providing software and peripherals to further engage the gaming community.) Sure this price cut is going to have fan-boys flooding forums with comments about how much more accessible the 360 will be over the PS3. But all this move will really do for MS is keep undecided gamers from buying the more expensive PS3...especially with the upcoming slew of fall games. It’s really that simple.
RELATED: xbox, xbox 360, microsoft, price cut, price drop
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September 4th, 2008 at 15:01
Sure it will not matter. Only to "fan boys" like yourself. If anything, it is interesting to see this kind of spin already however. This holiday will be just like last year except a lot worse.