Game Console Price Cuts in US

[ultragaijin]

PS2 and XBox prices likely to be cut from $299 to $199 in May. (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-899815.html)

Microsoft, fighting to gain a share in the competitive game machine market, will kick off the cuts...Sony, the market leader, will likely follow, also cutting the PS2 price.

[Crispy]

Heh. This makes my decision to wait on the X-Box look better all the time.

[ultragaijin]

Update:

Effective immediately, the PS2 will be available in stores for $199. (http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/05/14/playstation.htm)

"PS2 is a clear leader for Sony. With Xbox, Microsoft has a beachhead, but I don't know if they have the beach. That next big wave could wash them out, and I think Sony is trying to create a tsunami."

[cstaylor]

Any mention on the Japanese units?

[ultragaijin]

In related news, Sony Japan announced a very different kind of price reduction for its PlayStation 2 business. SCEJ will reduce the price of PS2s, but using an open-market model, one in which Japanese retailers will openly decide how to price the hardware unit. Retailers will use the model to compete selling PS2s at prices they find effective, hoping to undercut competing retailers.


IGN story with click thru ad (http://ps2.ign.com/articles/359/359352p1.html)

The official memory card will retail for $24.99 (down $10 from $34.99), while the Dual Shock from $34.99 to $24.99.

The PS one will now retail for $49.00 (down from $99); the PS one combo (the portable screen and the PS one units combined) will now retail for $149.00 (down from $199.00), and the PlayStation Dual Shock will now retail for $19.99.

"We are able to lower the price because we have gone through significant pains to modify and make the manufacturing process as efficient as possible for the PS2,"

[cstaylor]

In related news, Sony Japan announced a very different kind of price reduction for its PlayStation 2 business. SCEJ will reduce the price of PS2s, but using an open-market model, one in which Japanese retailers will openly decide how to price the hardware unit. Retailers will use the model to compete selling PS2s at prices they find effective, hoping to undercut competing retailers.

Translation: no fucking way.

[ultragaijin]

Microsoft cuts price of Xbox game console to $199 (http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/technology/3263873.htm)

The Xbox price cut, to $199 from $299 in the United States and to 24,800 yen ($193.12) from 34,800 yen ($271) in Japan, comes two days after Sony Corp. said it would cut the U.S. price of its market-leading PlayStation 2, which came out a year before Xbox, to $199.

The Japanese price cut will take effect May 22. The U.S. price cut will take effect immediately, Microsoft said.

[ultragaijin]

The Nintendo GameCube will be dropping in price from $200 to $149 this coming Tuesday. (http://www.cube-europe.com/news/102173158663338.html) (to be announced during E3)

[ultragaijin]

Nintendo drops price of GameCube! (http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=3039) (it's official)

Nintendo of America Inc. is dropping the MSRP to $149.95, effective Tuesday, May 21, 2002.

[ultragaijin]

XBox Economics (http://red-mercury.com/mmceo/mmceo_current.html) (how Sony and Nintendo are kicking MS butt)

It all depends on how much money Microsoft is willing to lose.



Also: slashdot thread (http://slashdot.org/articles/02/05/20/1236200.shtml?tid=127)

[ultragaijin]

Q: How much money is Microsoft willing to lose?

Answer: 2 Billion Dollars (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3302950.htm)


Microsoft will stick around long enough to build a second-generation game system -- one that likely wouldn't reach stores until 2005