Wednesday, August 17, 2005
360 Price Point(s, unfortunately)
So here we are, less than three months away from the 360 launch (well, we can only assume as a date STILL hasn't been announced), and they wait until now to kick our teeth in with a price. $300 for the bare-bones, must-upgrade-to-enjoy-fully version, $400 for the decent package (and don't even think about accessories beyond that unless you want to mortgage your dog).
So let's say you're a casual consumer buying a 360 for your ornery children, and want to spend as little money as possible. You walk into a store, they throw a cheaper $300 price point at you. Sure, why not, you like having money. What do you get?
An Xbox 360 (no hard drive)
A standard, wired controller
Standard A/V cables
A...detachable faceplate (sorry, I threw up in a mouth a little bit just then)
And that's it. No wireless controller, a supposed standard for next-gen - that will cost you another $50. Oh, and you can't save your games, download extra content, or take advantage of any backwards compatibility, unless you want to spend $40 for a 64mb memory unit. And just so you know, HD cables will run you another $40, an extra wired controller yet another $40. Headset? $20. Remote? $30. Hard drive later on down the line? $100. The list goes on. So, what are you getting for your $300?An Xbox with better graphics and a much smaller library of games.
So what do you get for $400, you ask through grinding, infuriated teeth. Well, actually not that bad a package:
A Xbox 360
20GB detachable hard drive
A wireless controller
A wireless Xbox Live headset
HD AV cables
An Ethernet cable
A remote control
A...detachable faceplate
I have no problem spending money for all of the essentials necessary to enjoy my next-gen system to it's fullest extent, so why even spit in my face with the cheaper package? Casual consumers will already be over the higher price point once they've picked up a memory card, headset and anything else, so why not just assume everyone wants the luxury of basic features and functionality? For Microsoft to wait this long and then expect ANYONE to find this news to their liking, well, it's insulting frankly. I'm off to work, perhaps I shall comment more later when I've thought it through.
Oh, and the Gameboy Micro is $100, to complete the trifecta of bad gaming news for the week.
So let's say you're a casual consumer buying a 360 for your ornery children, and want to spend as little money as possible. You walk into a store, they throw a cheaper $300 price point at you. Sure, why not, you like having money. What do you get?
An Xbox 360 (no hard drive)
A standard, wired controller
Standard A/V cables
A...detachable faceplate (sorry, I threw up in a mouth a little bit just then)
And that's it. No wireless controller, a supposed standard for next-gen - that will cost you another $50. Oh, and you can't save your games, download extra content, or take advantage of any backwards compatibility, unless you want to spend $40 for a 64mb memory unit. And just so you know, HD cables will run you another $40, an extra wired controller yet another $40. Headset? $20. Remote? $30. Hard drive later on down the line? $100. The list goes on. So, what are you getting for your $300?An Xbox with better graphics and a much smaller library of games.
So what do you get for $400, you ask through grinding, infuriated teeth. Well, actually not that bad a package:
A Xbox 360
20GB detachable hard drive
A wireless controller
A wireless Xbox Live headset
HD AV cables
An Ethernet cable
A remote control
A...detachable faceplate
I have no problem spending money for all of the essentials necessary to enjoy my next-gen system to it's fullest extent, so why even spit in my face with the cheaper package? Casual consumers will already be over the higher price point once they've picked up a memory card, headset and anything else, so why not just assume everyone wants the luxury of basic features and functionality? For Microsoft to wait this long and then expect ANYONE to find this news to their liking, well, it's insulting frankly. I'm off to work, perhaps I shall comment more later when I've thought it through.
Oh, and the Gameboy Micro is $100, to complete the trifecta of bad gaming news for the week.
// posted by Nick @ 10:50 AM 
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