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Xbox One is back at $399. Lineup for crow pie => thataway

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S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Were people saying this wouldn't happen? Because that'd be weird. Not that it matters. January is a dead month for sales generally, and Sony's taking February no problem. Maybe MS announces a price drop by March or so, but I'd guess E3.
 
E

Elios83

Member
I'm in the surprised group for this. I expected 349$ with no games to be announced in January. You don't go back from 329$+ 2 games + 50$ or 70$ gift cards to 399$ standalone. Sales will nosedive...which makes me question how long this will last....I think a price drop will be announced between early spring/easter or E3 worst case.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
jelly said:
Not that far fetched. Design was finalised before release so E3 or Fall 2015 is a solid 2.5-3 years and 1.5-2 years for consumers.

Then there is this.

Chip designer AMD has developed a smaller, more cost-effective 20nm version of the main processor found in Xbox One, opening the door to a cheaper 'slim' version of the Microsoft console. The news comes from the LinkedIn bio of AMD's senior manager of SOC (system on chip) physical design, as discovered by Mosen from the Beyond3D forums. The entry in question says he "successfully planned and executed the first APU for Microsoft's Xbox One Game Console in 28nm technology and a cost-reduced derivative in 20nm technology."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...aper-cooler-xbox-one-processor-in-development

"However, with the cost-reduced design of the main Xbox One processor complete, production economics are the only thing stopping Microsoft from creating a 20nm-powered 'Xbox One Slim' right now. Newer chip fabrication technologies are notoriously expensive in their early years as the number of usable processors gleaned from each silicon wafer (the "yield") is very low. There's also a question of capacity. Right now, it's believed that the majority of TSMC's 20nm production line is occupied creating the A8 and A8X processors used in the iPhone 6, 6 Plus and iPad Air 2. Behind Apple, AMD and Nvidia are waiting for access to 20nm technology in order to power their next-gen PC graphics cards, due in 2015."

If Microsoft can save money with a slim, they'll do it. I don't think a certain time gap has too much to do with it.
Click to expand...

Everything there applies to the PS4 as well, in fact given that the chip design is much more conservative any die shrinks will come earlier and the yield will be higher.
 
S

spwolf

Member
Elios83 said:
I'm in the surprised group for this. I expected 349$ with no games to be announced in January. You don't go back from 329$+ 2 games + 50$ or 70$ gift cards to 399$ standalone. Sales will nosedive...which makes me question how long this will last....I think a price drop will be announced between early spring/easter or E3 worst case.
Click to expand...

its gonna happen, question is when... tomorrow, next week or next month. They will quickly lose what they recovered unless it happens.
 
Castef

Castef

Banned
Americanmushroom said:
I posted this in all the topics talking about this. I sold Surfaces and I feel the price is going exactly the same way:

Price cut
price goes back up for 1 month
Price goes back down again with new marketing


If the price is not down again by February 15th I'll eat crow.
Click to expand...

This. Now they are able to announce a proper 50USD price drop.
 
J

jelly

Member
zomgbbqftw said:
Everything there applies to the PS4 as well, in fact given that the chip design is much more conservative any die shrinks will come earlier and the yield will be higher.
Click to expand...

Yeah, get one the other won't be far behind. PS4 slim will be something, hope Microsoft put some more thought into their slim design.
 
A

ascii42

Member
Joe said:
They literally said "limited time only".....
Click to expand...
Right, but we figured that was just a marketing ploy to get people to want to buy it before the limited time is up, the pull a "thanks to the wonderful response, we've decided to extend the price drop." We didn't think Microsoft would actually go through with raising the price back. Clearly, we misunderestimated them,
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
Joe said:
They literally said "limited time only".....
Click to expand...

And that's why the price had to go back up. They were pushing the idea that this was limited time only so act fast, that is completely diminished and shady if it then turns out it actually wasn't limited time only and you can get it at that price with those games anytime you want.

I feel they succeeded where they wanted to succeed. They sold a lot of consoles in one their most important territories and now they have to hope that word of mouth takes hold and the friends and family that got it at $329-$349 can convince others to join them at $399, which just so happens to be the same price as the PS4. The thing we will never know though is how many of those Xbone buyers were already owners of PS4 and jumped on a good deal for MS exclusives and would still recommend the PS4? Regardless, I think as of right now MS is happy with the Holiday results, now it is a wait and see if the seeds they planted sprout.
 
Stare-Bear

Stare-Bear

Banned
I'm always surprised that people think that just because Microsoft has all the money in the world, they somehow would spend it on the Xbox division.
 
F

Footos22

Member
Ps4's in the UK are having crazy deals at the moment
£100 off rrp in some places. They'll soon gain that gap back in the first quarter of this year. In the UK at least.
 
C

ClearData

Member
Might hurt them for a bit if people wait for next November anticipating another drop. Did Microsoft make any profit from Xbox Ones sold at the $350 and below price point? That might explain why they had to go back up.
 
S

SpotAnime

Member
For those who didn't get in on the $50, Amazon is currently offering a $70 discount on the Assassin's Creed non-Kinect bundle (found on CAG).

$350 Limited Time Only.

Now $329.
 
E

EGM1966

Member
I knew it would go back up - it had to otherwise they'd have committed themselves to another big sale for November 2015 - but I'll admit I thought they'd raise it to something like $389 just to keep it a little lower post momentum. Looks like I was wrong.

Lest this way we get a relatively clean look at how market responds post holiday momentum. Have MS generated enough momentum to raise the baseline sales or will they drop right back down again? The excitement for January/February NPD mounts and we haven't even had December yet.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
Man-is-Obsolete said:
And that's why the price had to go back up. They were pushing the idea that this was limited time only so act fast, that is completely diminished and shady if it then turns out it actually wasn't limited time only and you can get it at that price with those games anytime you want.

I feel they succeeded where they wanted to succeed. They sold a lot of consoles in one their most important territories and now they have to hope that word of mouth takes hold and the friends and family that got it at $329-$349 can convince others to join them at $399, which just so happens to be the same price as the PS4. The thing we will never know though is how many of those Xbone buyers were already owners of PS4 and jumped on a good deal for MS exclusives and would still recommend the PS4? Regardless, I think as of right now MS is happy with the Holiday results, now it is a wait and see if the seeds they planted sprout.
Click to expand...

Probably not really a stretch to say that a decent amount of sales were from gamers who were buying their second or third next gen console simply due to pricing.
 
S

soulassssns

Banned
That sucks for those that didnt purchase at that reduced price but I am pretty sure that it will happen again next holiday.

I purchased 2 of the assassins creed unity bundles with 1 being 329 usd.
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
Footos22 said:
Ps4's in the UK are having crazy deals at the moment
£100 off rrp in some places. They'll soon gain that gap back in the first quarter of this year. In the UK at least.
Click to expand...

There was no sales gap in favour of the X1 in the UK. MS might have won a few weeks, but Sony weren't that far behind even then.

I'm at a loss as to why Sony are slashing the price so heavily on the PS4 though. Normally I'd assume retailer driven, but the £100 price cuts along with some of the insane bundles don't exactly seem like they are retailer driven.
 
H

Hibiki Kurosawa

Member
Well then, sales might screech to a halt. I think MS is hoping for a word-of-mouth/"my friends all have an Xbox One, so I need one" effect, but I don't see that happening.
 
panda-zebra

panda-zebra

Banned
ascii42 said:
Right, but we figured that was just a marketing ploy to get people to want to buy it before the limited time is up, the pull a "thanks to the wonderful response, we've decided to extend the price drop." We didn't think Microsoft would actually go through with raising the price back. Clearly, we misunderestimated them,
Click to expand...

How about a few days or weeks from now big Phil announces, due to fantastic user feedback and Microsoft's huge listening ears, the price drop is now reverted. Consumer good will, headline-hitting and huge white smiles all 'round...

Probably not.

More likely, the price drop was a last-ditch effort to secure unit sales to the remaining influential undecided in the hope they will evangelise and expand the user base as any steps beyond the last holiday period would have been too little too late given the way things were headed.

The drop was potentially worth every penny lost in the longer term. Potentially. Hopefully for Mr Spencer and co. it wasn't funded at the expense of borrowing from the money mountain marked "future game development", because it's a gamble rather than a sure fire strategy in terms of return. A brave step but likely worth the risk at that point... as I said earlier, it felt like going all in.

Miles Quaritch said:
I'm at a loss as to why Sony are slashing the price so heavily on the PS4 though. Normally I'd assume retailer driven, but the £100 price cuts along with some of the insane bundles don't exactly seem like they are retailer driven.
Click to expand...

Feels like we've been over-paying from the get go, and that's fair enough it was our decision to make. Maybe that in itself has helped subsidise more recent pricing?
 
E

EGM1966

Member
Miles Quaritch said:
There was no sales gap in favour of the X1 in the UK. MS might have won a few weeks, but Sony weren't that far behind even then.

I'm at a loss as to why Sony are slashing the price so heavily on the PS4 though. Normally I'd assume retailer driven, but the £100 price cuts along with some of the insane bundles don't exactly seem like they are retailer driven.
Click to expand...

They sure look retail driven as they vary so much by retailer. Could be retailers choosing to capitalize on demand to get customers in their stores/web sites during sale period (despite Black Friday this is more traditional discount period in UK still).

If it is Sony they I too don't get it either.
 
R

rpg_fan

Member
I predicted a press release about how much we enjoyed the lower price, so good news! Crow eaten, although I'd still bet this wont last long. MS has shown us that if things go badly at this price point (and I expect it too), they'll drop drop drop away. I'd think any potential new xbox customers would just wait now that they've seen just how far ms is willing to go.

Anyway, ms got their wins in the us, kudos to them.
 
H

Hattori

Banned
Probably trying to get as much as they can before they reveal a revision sometime this year. This will likely slow their momentum, but then again months pre-e3 are very slow on the retail space.
 
S

SeanR1221

Member
January is a pretty slow sales month so I guess if you're gonna do it, might as well be now.

Which month tends to go up a little because of tax returns? February or March?
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
I'll gladly ready my crow. Really one of the dumbest moves Xbox division has ever made. Even if you don't keep the price differential, bundle in a first party game (or two) FFS. They can't be competitive at this level, we have more than enough data to show that.
 
B

bebop242

Member
They were going for mindshare over the holidays. They couldn't afford to lose another holiday season this early in the generation. The pricing strategy worked and it will be interesting what happens next.
 
F

FHIZ

Member
I just saw a twitch ad for the console and it had a VO bit at the end that said "now starting at 399" and it just felt so weird that they're actually vocalizing a price increase in ads.
 
M

Memorabilia

Member
Seriously? Lol People are posting threads to gloat about temporary price hikes now?

This is a temporary bump before the real price settles back down to $349 in 2-3 months tops.
 
O

Ol No Bones

Banned
Will someone pass me the Crow? I need to fill my plate cause I thought there was no way they would raise the price of the standard kinectless bundle for the Xbox One. I was damn wrong. Wow.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
Memorabilia said:
Seriously? Lol People are posting threads to gloat about temporary price hikes now?

This is a temporary bump before the real price settles back down to $349 in 2-3 months tops.
Click to expand...

Price hike? This is the regular price. The gloating comes from people so sure of themselves the price would stay at $349. Now it looks like people have shifted gears and think that in a month or two it will drop again.

Well here's a prediction, it will drop after E3, and so will the PS4.
 
T

TyrantII

Member
ascii42 said:
Right, but we figured that was just a marketing ploy to get people to want to buy it before the limited time is up, the pull a "thanks to the wonderful response, we've decided to extend the price drop." We didn't think Microsoft would actually go through with raising the price back. Clearly, we misunderestimated them,
Click to expand...

The marketing ploy was clearly to win PR for a few good months and get some good press. Buying time for 2015 releases.

And it worked.

E3 will see a price drop and then its gear up for the late summer / fall slug fest.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
Memorabilia said:
Seriously? Lol People are posting threads to gloat about temporary price hikes now?

This is a temporary bump before the real price settles back down to $349 in 2-3 months tops.
Click to expand...

tongue in cheek. reference to the debate in the other thread. people were adamant that ms wouldn't go back to 399 even with shogun telling them otherwise.
 
P

Purest 78

Member
Ultimately People have no problem paying less for the weaker console, that's how it's always been in the console world. I don't think the x1 can compete with ps4 at the same price, which has already been proven.
 
D

dave_d

Member
Wow, and to think this is only the second time in my life I can remember that a console basically went up in price.
 
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