Xbox 360 Pro and Elite price cuts confirmed in Target ad for next week
By Thomas Ricker 
posted August 25th 2009 2:26AM
posted August 25th 2009 2:26AM
[Thanks, Tyce]
posted August 25th 2009 2:26AM
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Didn't see that one coming...
Sony is in a bit of a pickle with the PS3. Microsoft and Nintendo have room to lower their price and still make a profit on the systems. Sony loses money on each PS3, even the slim ones, making it more difficult to drop the price.
The PS# will always be the most expensive console this generation, and NOBODY will launch a console at $600 again.
Sony isn't in a jam at all if you ask me. First of all, while Sony probably doesn't have room to lower the price, they are probably not losing money on the console anymore judging by recent reports that the PS3's production costs are down 70% from launch.
$300 is a sweet spot for this console and by the time the PS3 is due for another price drop, the manufacturing costs will have dropped as well.
Actually, I'd claim the opposite. Sony HAS been in a pickle with the PS3 with it being the most expensive console until now, but now it's the same price as the 360 elite, and MS had to lower their price to match it.
Personally, I still see the 360 as better since it has more exclusive games I'm interested in and a much better online experiance (despite the cost)
But now that price isn't that much of an issue for the PS3 I think the system can flourish more than it could before.
@JayVe...
no one has done a tear down (isuppli) on the ps3slim and u know that they're still losing money? remember how they said they had lowered the cost to mftr about 70%...well read this and do the math: "Back in 2006 Sony PlayStation 3 20GB and PlayStation 3 60GB video game consoles cost $805.85 and $840.35 to manufacture, respectively."
Even taking the higher cost of the 20GB console, us till end up w/ a price of about ~$250 bucks. Last i remember 300>250.
@Caramelzappa. Are you sure the 360 has more exclusives, for atlest the last year Sony has been pumping out quite alot more exlusives than MS. So the PS3 might have caught up with 360 atleast when it comes to the amout of exclusives.
Time to dump MSFT. Margin pressure is mounting!
Sony aren't in a pickle at all, they aren't losing money on the hardware
either. Whilst Microsoft have been busy selling RROD consoles for the
last 4.5 years, Sony have been doing major cost savings to the PS3. The
Slim teardown is $200, so once you add retailers and distributors cuts in
there, they still make a reasonable amount of cash. (but as always, it's
the software that makes money, and Sony and 3rd party publishers are doing
very nicely on that front too, with Ubisoft, EA, Konami and Capcom all
making more from the PS3 than they do from Xbox.
As for pricing, who in their right mind would buy a RROD-box for $299, or
$250 when you can get a PS3 SLim for $299? The slims got so much more to
offer (Blu-Ray, Wifi), and the very first time you sign up to Xbox Live,
it's already costing you more than the infinitely better PS3....
As it standards, Microsoft are the ones in a jam, there has been no
engineering work done on the Xbox, it costs the same to make as it's
always done. They USED to make money on the Elite and lose money on the
Arcade, however since the last round of price cuts, they are losing money
on both.
@JayVe
Sony is in a pickle?
Not only have they dropped production costs on the fat PS3 70% (who knows how much more now with the slimmer version) they are now setting the pricing standard in the industry, as if they are the market leaders...
Microsoft has followed immediately, Sony has not done anything as substantial in the past.
With IBM involved with GeoFoundries +others trying to have 25NM processor architecture in a couple of years (and confirmed 32nm mid next year) PS3 prices can really start to drop in the near future if they start to implement the available technology (perhaps if this price drop is adequate for most consumers and Sony sees huge profits coming in then its quite likely the Cell will go from 65 to 32nm)...
Microsoft is in the pickle, trying to keep there console alive by bringing out reports on 'Natal' 2 years early. We all know that with one more PS3 price drop it will be the end for the 360, which does not have much room for price drops in the future (not that they have made a substantial impact anyway)
@Mr Ed
heh, hivemind friend.
@ Daki
I didn't mean to say the 360 has more exclusives per se. More /= better. The PS3 only has a few titles that interest me. (KZ2, Resistance 2, MGS4) The 360 on the other hand has a great deal of games I really like. (Gears, Halo, Shadow Complex, Pacman CE, Banjo Kazooie arcade, geometry wars I, and II, Rez HD, Splosion man, V8 arcade, I could go on)
And most multiplatform games would have a vastly better experience on the 360 because of xbox live.
I really like the PS3, and I'm probably going to pick one up pretty soon, but right now I don't see it offering nearly as many fantastic games as the 360. Hopefully now that it's price-competetive developers will invest more into it and we'll see better games for the PS3. So far though, I am yet to be captivated by a PS3-only title.
@ CaramelZappa,
Please. Those exclusives don't hold a candle to PS3's exclusives. Once you got past Halo and Gears of War, you dropped down way too far to compare.
@ Caramel: XBox Live presents a better experience because the games are more populated. Games are more populated because more people own the system. More people own the system because it was priced better. Now that the PS3 offers more for the same price, the install base will go up, games will populate more, and unless you only use Live to talk to your friends, PSN will catch up to Live because of this logic. And it's free. So as long as I'm right, and I think my reasoning here is fairly solid, PSN will eventually be the better deal.
Personally, I already like it better. Despite the fact that there are less peoole to play with online, I don't have to worry about finding deals for and paying for Gold refills. I can see, however, why others would prefer to pay for the benefits of Live.
To everyone who said that PS3 is not profitable for Sony... here are today's headlines.
PS3 Slim hardware still losing money
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/sony-still-losing-money-of-ps3-slim-hardware/#comments
Nintendo and Microsoft have both been profitable with their home consoles. Sony is trying to catch up lost ground. Microsoft and Nintendo can always lower the price of their systems, to keep them the least expensive to consumers. Sony does not have that luxury.
In order for the PS3 to surpass the Wii in worldwide sales, Sony would not only have to quadruple the PS3's sales, Nintendo would have to stop making and selling the Wii. Just check out the sales trends for the past year for a little bit of a wake-up call.
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39677&end=40041&weekly=1
what i don't get is why is the 120GB console $300 when the 120GB hdd alone is $120. seems like they are losing a lot of money, or everything is still overpriced
@Caramelzappa
Did... did... you just list... Pacman... as a reason to buy a 360?
Pickles?! I LOVE pickles! Kosher dills all the way!
This fall will be interesting, but checking out the sales trends for the past year, I can safely say that the horses aren't going to change position any time soon.
Competition FTW.
Yes. No matter which console one choses (PS3 FTW!!!) the consumer wins! They have two fine consoles to pick from, and it's all a matter of personal taste.
MS strikes back... again ;-)
no one cares if you pass or not.
You see, I'm looking at a console currently, and the PS3 Slim's bluray player gives it a huge advantage. What can the 360 do that the PS3 cant now?
Netflix streaming is a big thing to a lot of people. Not to mention XBOX live gaming with their friends.
I've got a PS3 (have had one for a while), so I'm just sayin. The 360 and PS3 bring different pluses and minuses to the table for the same price.
Has better third-party support, Netflix streaming, Media Center Extender. I'd so those are pretty big deals. Also last.fm, if you use the service.
I mean 'say' instead of 'so'. Also forgot to mention taht it will eventually have last.fm.
I can get Netflix streaming from my TivoHD and installing PS3 Media Server on my PC is a better media center solution than MCE (wider file and codec support). And with the PS3's internet browsing capabilities, I can also watch streaming internet video from sites like Youtube, and with a little PC trickery, Hulu.
Pretty much just netflix , this wouldnt apply to you if you live in a country without netflix anyway.
if you like multiplayer stuff, i would get whatever system most of your friends own, unless you really want the blu-ray.
also, my guess is that the new Elite 360's will have be the newest Jasper revision (previously only found in Arcades). the Jaspers are much more reliable than previous versions.
You can do the convoluted streaming with the 360 as well to get various other video sites.
But the fact that Netflix is officially supported and has full HD without any need to re-encode or anything is pretty sweet. If you're already a Netflix member it's icing on top, and if you're not it's a pretty compelling reason to join Netflix. $8.99 a month gets you unlimited streaming access and it beats the heck out of pay per view.
BTW I don't personally stream netflix over the 360 but it's certainly a compelling reason and it tempts me.
With a 54% failure/red ring of death rate and no Blu-ray I think I'll pass.
Arent you original, like we havent heard that before. Since the introduction of Jasper over 5 months ago hardware reliability has become a thing of the past...and i still get a 3 year red ring warranty.
...and if the box said in big shiny letters "Hey this is a jasper unit!" instead of trying to slip me an error prone old model which I can't know until I buy the system, I would totally buy one.
@justin
there's a way to tell whether or not you're getting a jasper. look it up. engadget even had a post about it. you can tell jaspers from the others by the power supply numbers, which you can see without opening the box.
I work at target and we get the next week ads in a good week before the next sunday. It'll be interesting to see both the 360 and the ps3 price points against each other in the same ad. The Price Cut label means that it will be a permanent and also occur on that sunday. (unless fine print is involved or something)
Imo Microsoft is missing the opportunity. They should remove the Arcade, price the Pro at $199, and price the Elite (without stripping it) + wifi adapter at $299. The $199 Pro will give Nintendo Wii a run for its money, and the Elite can compete a bit better with the PS3 slim. I bet at MS, there's a bean counter that made this stupid decision of discontinuing the Pro and stripping the Elite. We might see a turning point for Sony, unless MS has something up their sleeve (and the $299 stripped Elite is just a move to clear inventory).
I seriously think this 299 Elite will only run for a year because I still have this gut feeling that a built in natal will come in to play next year with more gigs of space. Speaking of GIGS of space, theyre still selling 20 GIGS for 99.99 LOL
pika2000, you raise a good point about WiFi. Some gamers (*cough*, me) homes that span distances greater than cardboard boxes, and require WiFi to get onto the internet (I'm on WiFi now), and play games (my PS3 and my brother's 360). If Microsoft would get their heads out of their asses and add a wireless card that probably costs $20 to manufacture and implement, they would see more gamers. But then again, they are probably making a staggering amount of cash with their abg (a band? god, they need N) attachment.
Still, and I've been saying this forever, it it a great console.
Well f*ck, so much for selling my old Premium unit on ebay. I'd be lucky to get 50 bucks for it now, and it's in mint condition with original packaging.
Oh well. My bad for not selling it in July, before all the price drop rumors started.
The craziest part about this is that the 360 is now the same price as the wii. I can't believe the wii has sold so well that nintendo hasn't had to drip the price... Maybe this holiday season is the first they'll have to... Oh well... Time will tell...
The Wii continues to do well because it is not aimed an engadget readers and hardcore gamers. It is a toy for children and for casual gamers. And it is the ONLY system of the current generation with a wide variety of games aimed at and appropriate for pre-teens. Why is that so hard to understand?
OMG I Love you Engadget! You even get a FREE CONTROLLER!!!
How anyone can think this is still a better or equal deal to the PS3 is beyond me. The PS3 offers so much more right out of the box, it's not even funny.
The 360 doesn't even have a High-Definition movie player included in the system. For Christ's sake, you get one of the best, if not the best Blu Ray Player(s) on the market, AND a reliable next-generation gaming console with an excellent software library to boot.
Every console has its benefits, but to think that this nullfies the value that the PS3 offers is ridiculous.
no one cares about blu-ray. maybe u forgot that the movies are 30 dollars. What a waste of POOP if you ask me when u can get just stream movies off NetFlix. ANd IMo, consumers are still satisfied with DVD quality.
you can also get bluray from netflix. or anything from netflix. i haven't bought a movie in three movies.
Any gamer is going to buy game consoles for the games. A lot of people like the exclusives that the 360 has over the PS3 exclusives, and a lot of people prefer xbox live over the PSN. Yes, the PS3 has better specs and more features blah blah blah, but in the end you buy the console to play games.
So yea, the PS3 is an attractive piece of hardware at a very attractive price point, but until Sony gets the software up to speed with microsoft, a lot of gamers will still buy 360's.
lol jekoln, has it really been that long?
"So yea, the PS3 is an attractive piece of hardware at a very attractive price point, but until Sony gets the software up to speed with microsoft, a lot of gamers will still buy 360's."
Ah, still living in the past where people still think the PS3 has no games? Your argument is invalidated right here and now.
it's been three long movies since i movied a movie
@ant
I care about Blu-ray. After watching 1080p HD video on my HDTV, it's hard to go back to SD content. And if you think all Blu-ray movies are $30, you haven't shopped around.
Also, are you one of those consumers that "are still satisfied with DVD quality"? If so, do you own a Xbox360 and have it connected to a HDTV? If you do, I implore you to change your video settings to 480p standard-def and see if you are satisfied with "DVD quality".