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[itsgreen]

I think it's a combination of making sure the channel is full in December and declining sales...

 

[FLEABttn]

Pretty much everyone that wants a current gen console has one at this point.

At the current price point. And even that's not necessarily true.

But seriously, both HD consoles need price drops. You can only increase the perceived value of a console so much with pack ins and increased hard drive sizes and what have you before nobody cares about perceived value anymore. The 360 and PS3 are old at this point, they're long in the teeth, people have more avenues of entertainment than they did in the past, and the spotlight isn't on console gaming like it used to be. It would behoove both Sony and MS to do $50 price cuts across the board to boost sales now, then do a holiday bundle at the new price point later.

 

[NeoGIF]

I'll say it once again. Both Microsoft and Sony need to cut their $299 price point on these 6-7 year old consoles, along with with slashing lower-end SKUs to a price of $99.

However, I am sure with the WiiU on the horizon, a price-drop on both platforms is not too far off.

 

[Curufinwe]

Sony's already at $249.

 

[DOA]

According to the publisher, the 360 accounts for a 47 percent share of the current-generation console market

i don't understand that, do they mean for the current year? because no way they've meant the total of the current gen consoles market.

 

[spwolf]

I'll say it once again. Both Microsoft and Sony need to cut their $299 price point on these 6-7 year old consoles, along with with slashing lower-end SKUs to a price of $99.

However, I am sure with the WiiU on the horizon, a price-drop on both platforms is not too far off.

$99? Thats too expensive.

Unless it is $49.95, they dont have a chance.

 

[Hiro_Kunimi_80]

I'll say it once again. Both Microsoft and Sony need to cut their $299 price point on these 6-7 year old consoles, along with with slashing lower-end SKUs to a price of $99.

However, I am sure with the WiiU on the horizon, a price-drop on both platforms is not too far off.

well.. i'm not sure both Microsoft or Sony prefer to sell Decent / good amount of consoles each month @ over 249$ than " more units " but at lower price.


Console War is not a priority anymore

 

[infinityBCRT]

I'll say it once again. Both Microsoft and Sony need to cut their $299 price point on these 6-7 year old consoles, along with with slashing lower-end SKUs to a price of $99.

However, I am sure with the WiiU on the horizon, a price-drop on both platforms is not too far off.

I think not cutting the price gives them a psychological advantage over the consumer. If they see the console selling at a $299 price point now and the next gen console announced at the same price point, it will seem like a bargain.

 

[phosphor112]

To be fair, Sony has stuffed the channel this gen as well.

Both of them are guilty of this.

They still ship millions of units though, don't they? It's not like Best Buy is still buying PS3's from Sony when their back room is full of them.

 

[Dabanton]

Not sure what Sony will do but surely MS have the room to do a decent price drop when the Wii U releases?

 

[KageMaru]

They still ship millions of units though, don't they? It's not like Best Buy is still buying PS3's from Sony when their back room is full of them.

Not sure I understand what you're saying here. Both have stuffed the channel before and resulted in lower shipping numbers for the following quarter.

Only now, we're seeing a bigger drop than normal due to the overall market slowing down.

 

[Vanillalite]

PS2 did extremely well once it hit the 150 and under price range later in it's life cycle. I'm really surprised MS didn't try to go for at least $150 for the base arcade without anything extra in the box at E3. Sony's kind of screwed in that they don't have as cheap of a base model to pedal to the masses.

Not that it would happen, but $129.99 for an arcade 360 around the launch of the next CoD and Halo games would be boss for the holidays IMO.

 

[fabricated backlash]

Not sure what Sony will do but surely MS have the room to do a decent price drop when the Wii U releases?

That should be a given. MS just keeps the price high to recoup the massive losses that the launch and subsequently the RROD disaster have created.
Same as Sony really.

If 720/PS4 are launching in 2013 with another loss model, we can expect the next console cycle to last through 2020... I for one don't want that.

5 year cycles with reasonable upgrades are better in my view.

 

[kruis]

PS2 did extremely well once it hit the 150 and under price range later in it's life cycle. I'm really surprised MS didn't try to go for at least $150 for the base arcade without anything extra in the box at E3. Sony's kind of screwed in that they don't have as cheap of a base model to pedal to the masses.

MS will always have the cheaper console option. Every PS3 has both a hard drive and a Blu-Ray player compared to MS's cheapest Xbox 360 with a DVD-player (and no hard drive). That will drive up Sony's manufacturing costs by at least $50, if not more. Sony is in a difficult spot when it wants to lower the price of the PS3.

 

[Miles X]

People that don't know what they're talking about shouldn't make threads.

As already stated. They shipped 1.4m Jan 1st - 31st March. They can't lie to investors.

The big 3 use old data until new data is available more often than not, Sony have even done it at E3 before.

1.4m also doesn't prove they overshipped last Q. YoY it was down a hefty amount but that's because Q1 2011 was refilling the channels after they were drained over the holidays. Q1 typically sees 1.3m - 1.7m for the 360, so 1.4m is actually the norm.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Yup. It's the tail end of the gen, and they've already sold 67,000,000, who else are they going to sell them to?

You are aware that new humans are born every day, right? I give you a hint... A kid that was 10 year old in 2005 may just got it's first money to buy a new console.

The argument of you is beyond stupid.

 

[Miles X]

You are aware that new humans are born every day, right? I give you a hint... A kid that was 10 year old in 2005 may just got it's first money to buy a new console.

The argument of you is beyond stupid.

Indeed, I'd say gaming consoles are a lot more commercial these days as well, more accepted into society thus opening new possible customers vs last gen. (Talking about PS360 here)

PS2 + GC + XB did 150m~ by time next gen rolled around, and 200m in total.

Excluding Wii, because it tailors to a completely different audience we're only at 130m~

 

[Sky Chief]

The entire industry has fallen off a cliff

 

[Clear]

The entire industry has fallen off a cliff

Not especially. Wii burning out took things down massively (as you'd expect when the all-territories best seller runs out of steam), and now the post-Kinect boost 360 got has fizzled you're basically down to new "core" console buyers carrying most of the water instead of the casual market.

Wii-U should provide an uplift.

 

[donny2112]

Either Microsoft massively overshipped the Christmas period, so much even that it would ship only 1 million Xbox 360s in the next 5 months or simply Xbox 360's sales have fallen off a cliff. It could be the combination of both too, I guess.

First one, would be my expectation. December sales were actually down for most systems in the U.S. That's almost unheard of for a single system (that's still alive), much less most of the systems going that way. Easy to see them overshooting December shipments with the November results they had. And U.S. is 360's main market ...

Edit:
Noticed the 1.4m consoles shipped in Jan-Mar period comments above. Not sure what to make of it, but it'd be easy to imagine overshipping last Fall based on the very unusual December sales behavior.