Microsoft recently announced their price cuts on the Xbox 360, effective today, but what is motivating them? Microsoft’s not going to make much additional money by passing off the savings to the customer but they will, more than likely, sell a bunch of great new Xbox 360‘s to a new crowd of gamer.
Motivation? Sony.
“I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo,” says Don Mattrick, senior vice-president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. Indeed, Nintendo is likely to run away with the lead in the current generation of console gaming, leaving Microsoft and Sony to battle for second place. (businessweek)
Who would have thought Sony and Microsoft would be battling out this generation for second place while Nintendo breezes through with their Wii console and a handful of games with mediocre game reviews? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question. If you saw this coming and you’re not on the marketing or project planning for one of these console makers you better prep your resume!
The battle isn’t cooling, Microsoft drops their price to compete with their big competitor Sony which also brings it closer to the price tag on the Wii getting two bird with one stone. The reason Wii is winning is clearly due to its broad demographic of grandpa and grandma non-gamers along with hardcore gamers who have to collect all the consoles and younger gamers that want to fit the trend.
Microsoft’s clearly shooting for second place by installing more units into the consumers home as possible. They’ve got a great library of first person shooter titles, a few RPG’s and RTS titles and the typical contraversial titles like GTA and Saints Row with more hot blockbusters (read: Gears of War 2) arriving soon.
I see this as a great opportunity for casual game developers to get into the Xbox Live Arcade market and start making themselves (and Microsoft) some money off the new gamers that will buy their first Xbox 360 for $199 and up. Microsoft’s getting closer to the low-budget gamer crowd with their price cuts so it would be great if they can take advantage of that market with lower cost titles as well.
If you’re a game developer looking for console stick time and you want to grab the attention of a large pool of gamers, the Xbox 360 isn’t a bad start!
While Microsoft isn’t aiming at Nintendo just yet, there is no doubt Nintendo will be in their sights if they can smoke the pants off Sony in the near future (by this holiday).
Nintendo announced the price of the Wii U in New York City today, and to the surprise of some, the Wii U will come in two price SKUs:
@THQ finally dissolved, assets auctioned off
RIP. I’m curious as to how Metro will do, I saw them as a possible lifeboat for THQ.
Jonah, I think the release date for the games in development will be delayed. Those devs rely on money from the publisher, and even the ones that did get bought, their HR/payment systems will be disrupted.
We have a similar saying, going “Each kick in the arse forces you to take a step forward”.
@League of Legends Team Solo Medbi players receive lifetime bans for anti-Semitism and abuse
Ok, it’s a start. But as I said in a previous discussion, it won’t change that person. Sure, it makes the LoL garden cleaner, but it won’t do much for the real world.
@Sony fined 250K GBP for April 2011 hacker intrusion
Well deserved fine. I’m curious how the appeal will work. I agree with Jonah, the fine is small, but Sony has to appeal, even so that it doesn’t appear to be giving up. ‘Cause if they do, they’ll find themselves drowned in lawsuits.
@QOTW
Anything that can be obtained also by grinding. If it can’t be obtained by grinding then it must be a temporary upgrade, like EA’s Battlefield Heroes renting weapons.
Now I know I keep mentioning World of Tanks, but that visit at my brother’s was quite an eye opener. The microtransactions there revolve around buying ingame credits for fuel, ammo and repair points.
Now, you can also obtain those credits by playing the game. So what my brother does is to use a medium class tank for grinding up credits – it’s cheaper to operate – then fight a few battles using the high end tank. And although this sounds tedious, he enjoys a lot even the matches that he plays with his medium class tank. So, in his case, the experience provided by playing free is very enjoyable.
That flu made Jonah sound his age. How strange.
@THQ no more
A bit sad. They published some good games. A decade of gaming history down to the archives. Hell, we lost a lot of studios since the crisis. Midway. Ensemble. 3D realms. Let’s just hope once the next gen kicks in there won’t be just EA and Valve out there.
@Gears of War 3 microtransactions
Oh I am sorry? Did I spell Dead Space wrong? Silly me. I understand when a free 2 play MMO needs microtransactions. Servers and all that. But Dead Space is a full retail game and you will have to shell out full price for it. Mooching more cash of you once you pay them is just ignite.
@Disney
Don’t care. I want Kingdom Hearts where you can play as Darth Vader and Spider-man.
@Court slightly inconveniencing Sony for gross incompetence
Man that’s bad. I hope that slap on the wrist won’t turn into a bruise. I mean, it’s all the subscribers fault anyway. If they wouldn’t subscribe for PSN there wouldn’t be any account details to steal in the first place.
@QOTW
I prefer cosmetic microtransactions. When you pay for your character to look fancy but not actually be any better than an average player. Microtransactions can ruin competitive games. I have been playing Dust 514 recently. It’s unfair when you get dominated by a kid whose daddy has a fat wallet. In the end, it puts you off playing the game.