Yesterday, Sony finally made it official and pulled out the last desperate card they had, which was to cut the price of the 60 Gig PS3 by $100. While doing this, they also introduced a 80 Gig model for the original $600 price, but it comes bundled with Motostorm. While this may spur sales for the console, Sony has involuntarily ticked off some users with the third (technically only two after already abandoning the 20 Gig PS3) sku who would have wanted more hard drive space, and they will continue to lose even more money on each console sold. It will be interesting to see when analysts believe the PS3 project will finally break even. The other funny thing is to see the lineup of games Sony touts that are coming. The majority are available on the Xbox 360 as well, with very few exclusives. The bottom line remains this is a system without a killer app(s) to drive it. Motostorm is a great game, but will people really pay an additional $100 for the game and another 20 Gig of HD space? Does anyone use (or even need) the 60 Gig that are available now?
Now, what does this mean for the Xbox 360? Is a price drop imminent for the Premium and Elite models? Will we get Gears of War or Halo 3 bundled in with new consoles? The answer will probably be seen at E3 this week, but my gut feeling is that no, we won't see a price drop (or bundling) until later this year at the earliest. Even though there are reports that Microsoft had been making (as opposed to losing) money on each 360 that is sells, a $1 billion charge to fix defective consoles and extend the warranty for the three-red-lights issue will likely deter a price drop until the all important Holiday selling season.
However, if Microsoft wants to stick a fork in Sony, now is the time. The folks up in Redmond aren't dumb, they have been planning for the day the PS3 price drop hits. The question is not will, but when will they pull the trigger and drop the Xbox 360 price. The second question will be and how far will the price drop be? My best guess is the Elite will drop from $479 to $429, and the Pro will drop to $399 to $299 and the core from $299 to $249. But who knows, the core may get the ziggy like the PS3 20 Gig model. Time will tell.
EDIT: Dean Takahashi announced in his blog that Microsoft is getting ready to switch to the cheaper 45 Nm chip vs the current 90 Nm chip. This would reduce the costs, power consumption and heat produced.
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Now, what does this mean for the Xbox 360? Is a price drop imminent for the Premium and Elite models? Will we get Gears of War or Halo 3 bundled in with new consoles? The answer will probably be seen at E3 this week, but my gut feeling is that no, we won't see a price drop (or bundling) until later this year at the earliest. Even though there are reports that Microsoft had been making (as opposed to losing) money on each 360 that is sells, a $1 billion charge to fix defective consoles and extend the warranty for the three-red-lights issue will likely deter a price drop until the all important Holiday selling season.
However, if Microsoft wants to stick a fork in Sony, now is the time. The folks up in Redmond aren't dumb, they have been planning for the day the PS3 price drop hits. The question is not will, but when will they pull the trigger and drop the Xbox 360 price. The second question will be and how far will the price drop be? My best guess is the Elite will drop from $479 to $429, and the Pro will drop to $399 to $299 and the core from $299 to $249. But who knows, the core may get the ziggy like the PS3 20 Gig model. Time will tell.
EDIT: Dean Takahashi announced in his blog that Microsoft is getting ready to switch to the cheaper 45 Nm chip vs the current 90 Nm chip. This would reduce the costs, power consumption and heat produced.
Got a comment! Throw it in below...
