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Xbox 360 Sales May Exceed Microsoft's 10M Forecast
- Thread starter Karma Kramer
- Start date
The Innocent X
Banned
GhaleonEB said:
the Wii number could be anywhere from 20% to 40% for me. Still too early to tell if it will lose its shine or carry on as a steamroller. The summer months sales will be the key, as it seems more of a party/christmas console.
jarrod said:
You mean the industry where the low cost GBA, DSL, PS2 and Wii are cleaning house? IMO the past year has only served to solidify the fact that the core will be a very important part of the MS strategy to gain marketshare in North America. The best thing about core from MS perspective is that it can be fully upgraded to what the premium offers through accessories and it allows the customer to defer the costs of the full system over time while still allowing ample profits for MS. The core has had slow sales so far because of its pricepoint - once it goes under $200, it will become much more appealing as an entry level system with simple upgrades to add functionality at a later point in time.
Il Comodino
sorry about his english
duk said:
you can't use the 1th 3 week to look a market of 5/6 years
Honest question: Do they tally replacement units in the number calculations? For instance, my friend bought a launch 360 and returned it after it kept freezing up. When Gears dropped he bought another one. Of course, he doesn't own two, but do they tally it up as two sales?
mrklaw said:
I am pretty sure those shareholders would prefer to see MS gain marketshare in the console market with some minor losses than see them scrape out a few mil in profits while squandering their chance to make gains. Nothing the Xbox does at this point is going to have a significant short term impact on MS financially. 4 Billion in losses last gen may seem like a lot, but it hardly impacted the quarterly balance sheets and doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to the core business that MS is trying to protect with their entry into this market.
urk said:
I don't know, but I don't think it will make much of an impact overall if they did.
Agreed, but we're looking both at initial results, short-term forecasts and strategy, including price and demographic positioning.Il Comodino said:you can't use the 1th 3 week to look a market of 5/6 years
Maximilian E.
AKA MS-Evangelist
It is funny to see people still dragging up the "MS has lost 5 billion, shareholders wants their money back"-comments..
..funny because people seem to forget that MS "were willing" to spend 15+ billion to buy Nintendo.
So they came off far cheaper by doing it themselves than by buying Nintendo...
..funny because people seem to forget that MS "were willing" to spend 15+ billion to buy Nintendo.
So they came off far cheaper by doing it themselves than by buying Nintendo...
Maximilian E.
AKA MS-Evangelist
urk said:
But MS would still had to spend 15 billion.. it would take years to get the investment back..
jarrod said:
It will depend on the sales of the 360 and how well it is competing.
You seem fixated on the fact that MS might loose money on the hardware when that is pretty much a given. Take the price of a Core bundle in Japan for instance. While it is pretty stupid to leave money on th table with unnecessary price cuts, MS is going to do what it needs to do to remain competitive in the market.
You seem unwilling to acknowledge though that Microsoft can still be perfectly competitive with a SKU reshuffle, get the same percieved and competitive effect of a pricedrop, and have the added benefit of actually start making a return on hardware. Sony opened the window for them, you really expect them to go back to (heavy losses) plan A? Just stay the course?Arsenal said:
I'm fairly certain this generation will have come and gone and the Core will never have been relevant. I don't think it will appeal to people ever. Even my uncle who was shopping for a system to have at his house so his grandkids could play it when they came over, someone who hasn't owned a game system probably since Intellivision, even he was aware of how retarded the tard pack actually was and ended up buying a premium.
I think MS might want to, just maybe, entertain the idea of hitting the gas now and completely burying Sony under the weight of the current climate.
It would also be wise for them to price the Core 360 evenly with the Wii where it would have an overwhelming advantage from a hardware power perspective, and also from a games library perspective at this point.
No one can absorb a loss like MS, and if they cement the #1 position this generation, they will make all of their losses back, and then some.
Sean*O said:
I also think it's imperative to point out that MS is still floundering in 2 regions, 1 of which many analysts are saying is set to become the most important gaming market this generation (Europe). While they have a lot of leeway to do whatever they want in the US due to Sony's inability to do anything, they're in trouble in the EU if they rest on their laurels. I think it's necessary for them to drop the price there.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Odysseus said:
Does he live in India? Because that's the kind of market it was made to serve.
Maximilian E.
AKA MS-Evangelist
Odysseus said:
I have experienced the contrary..
A friend of mine is going to buy a core pack to her sisters son, and his mother is going to buy the hdd and some uncle some games etc..
But in the long run, the core pack will make "sense" even for hardcore gamers (at least, they will see that it makes sense).
When there are several hdds to choose from, more memory cards etc.. and when the core pack goes down in price.. then it will all make sense..
Regret Truth
Member
Odysseus said:
Good story. No one with half a brain is buying core systems. The only people buying core units are arrogant moms or just plain stupid. Ive sold about 4 core systems in the last year and EVERY SINGLE person came back within a week to buy the hard drive. This is all after imforming them about premium benifits.
I agree with those saying a sku reshuffle would come before a price drop.
EDIT: Im completly aware why the core unit exsits. Its more appealing to a worldwide audience. But its kind of a joke here in the US.
jarrod said:
I'm thinking price drop near the end of 2007 with the impact (and original intention of the Core's existence) being realized in 2008.
Edit:
I see the 2008-2010 $199 Core system being the PS2 of this generation. With hundreds of games and many "Platinum" classics and Halo 3, GTA IV etc., they will fly off the shelves at that price, maybe with a memory card pack-in to make it not as much of a tard pack either.
Regret Truth
Member
Maximilian E. said:
Very good point. Never actually thought about it from that angle.
KeithFranklin
Banned
I have always thought the Core really wont sell much at all except for this time of year.
It is much more palatable as a gift and the gift giver doesnt care that the recipient needs a memory card to save a game. How many PS2's and GCN's were sold for Christmas presents without memory cards? When people are purchasing for themselves then the core isnt a wise choice, but as a gift it works.
It is much more palatable as a gift and the gift giver doesnt care that the recipient needs a memory card to save a game. How many PS2's and GCN's were sold for Christmas presents without memory cards? When people are purchasing for themselves then the core isnt a wise choice, but as a gift it works.
The 360 was built from the ground up to support an external, upgradable and optional HDD. A big reason why the core is not selling very well is because MS is charging an arm and a leg for mem cards and HDD accessories, not to mention the existing options there are extremely limited. Its hard to say what MS has planned, but it just doesn't make sense to me that they would *not* offer a 360 without a HDD based on its design. If they were to start licensing HDDs to 3rd parties or something like that - the core could start looking like a much better deal from an upgrade perspective. Hopefully the PS3 and its more open accessory architecture will kind of force this on MS. I have long thought that the 360s best bet to compete against Bluray is simply to offer gigantic HDDs that will make downloads easier to manage.
Edit: I also have to say that I am very surprised that there is not a bigger black market for non-MS 360 HDDs, I would think that kind of hack would be pretty easy (but I don't really know much about that kind of thing).
Edit: I also have to say that I am very surprised that there is not a bigger black market for non-MS 360 HDDs, I would think that kind of hack would be pretty easy (but I don't really know much about that kind of thing).
hyp
Member
maybe there are some people out there that really don't care about online, wireless controllers, and a hard drive... i don't see how the core system would be irrelevant for these folks. if all they need is a memory card for save games, then by all means, the core is still cheaper than owning a premium for a budget gamer.
jarrod said:
true... a $50 drop may not be out of the question but I really think the route they'll take for 2007 is pack-ins and bundles. (as they already are).
It makes more sense IMO, creates value rather than diminishes it, expands software saturation and one of the Core pack-ins could be a memory unit of some sort.
Odysseus said:
I didn't trade it in. My premium (without the HD) is now attached to my SDTV in the family room. It doubles as a DVD player and my wife and kid sometimes play Viva. I just use my memory card for them.
My core is now where the premium was before with the original HD attached. I have a 1 year warranty on this new core. I never had any intention on taking it back. I just figured I would own 2 Xbox 360s. My wife was even the one who suggested it. I didn't even think of buying another system. I figured I would just have to suffer it out.
Mr Furious
Member
Odysseus said:
I did the same thing. Now I want to get another HD, wireless bridge, and HDTV for upstairs. Dreaming for now.
soul creator
Member
Arsenal said:
and that XNA Racer video was a big tease
"See, this can all run on a basic retail Xbox!"
*video clip shows 60MB of free space on 360 memory manager screen)
strangely enough, I've held the somewhat controversial opinion that MS may actually get rid of the premium system somewhere down the line, and just have ample stock of hard drives and memory cards available, with bonuses for buying them (preloaded content, for example). It depends on if they want to risk the whole potential "wow, the system doesn't have as much features packed in like the PS3 does!" viewpoint. But then again, if they're at $149-$199, and still $200 cheaper than a PS3, maybe they won't care. This also depends on the whole profitability thing.
The original Xbox having a hard drive contributed to lost profits (couldn't be cost reduced), and consumer perception of a hard drive's benefits was somewhat limited. With the 360, they obviously want to push the whole marketplace and downloadable content thing, but at the same time, they may want to leave themselves an "out" if the mass market doesn't consider downloadable content an absolutely necessary thing for a game system. If hard drives are separate, but ample enough so people obviously know that they exist, maybe they can balance this. Or maybe not, lol.
soul creator
Member
Dr_Cogent said:
that's actually another thing I could see with the Core system waay in the future (like 2009). A cheap media center extender/dvd player/gaming system. Don't need a hard drive if you're simply streaming everything from your PC in the other room.