Europe gets Xbox 360 price cut Comments by Ellie Gibson

until the person who has bought the bargain price console decides "oh, I want to go online"

i love my ps3...but love the 360 to !

might get one for xmas off the missus :p

Why do people go on about the 360 WIFI?

Firstly its a lame argument

Secondly for most people its a non-issue, because you can just get an extension cord instead of a router anyway! As most people have the consoles in their lounge and pretty close to the phone line you dont even need a wireless router just the cable that came with console.

@ Widge

Nothing to stop an Arcade from going online.

@ Doctor_What

Buy the Premium for £170 and a couple of homeplug mains network adaptors for £40 (better than wi fi) and you've spent just £210 - a bloody bargain!

@ Stepneg.

Your witty debating style has defeated me. I shall immediately go and kill myself for my sins. Yes, I am clearly an idiot.*

@Widge: Exactly. I thought the Xbox Live service was supposed to be the killer-app, so the lack of wi-fi from the box... I'd say that's an issue.

Yep, it's still a pretty decent deal, but it's not as good as it looks.


*Except you seem to have fallen for the £129.99 = £120 trick.**

** And you don't know when to use "you're". Other than that, I am utterly defeated. Woe is me.

What? Wifi is an absolute dealbreaker! I had a nightmare getting my bastard xbox online last gen. Now its no wires, no hassle. I'd rather have that than having to route some wires around the outside of my front room or something... I mean its either that or go homeplugs and thats even more money!

If I was to buy a 360, its got to be the one with all the bells and whistles.

Ok online beyond silver!

@Moggsy: That's what I've been trying to say: the Arcade isn't as cheap as it looks. The options that appear to cost more from the outset are actually cheaper.

AND... Ooo... Those plug thingies are neat! I might have to get some of them! Good tip, cheers :D

Some of the sheer nonsense in this thread = epic facepalm.

Although it is somewhat comical that Woolies inadvertently let the cat out of the bag, and MS have had to make what amounts to a second-hand announcement. For the average Joe, though (in other words, NOT THE LIKES OF US, before some of you fanboy cretins chime in), this *does* amount to a good deal. Be interesting to see how sales stack up come January, given the current financial climate.

@ Widge

Nothing to stop an Arcade from going online beyond silver. Online Xbox Live gaming doesn't need the hard drive.

Seals the deal, I'm buying an elite soonish, as I'm fed up with not having HDMI and only 20 GBs

OK, to anyone saying it's half a machine... For us "hardcore" YES the arcade is half a machine. But then us "hardcore" shouldn't complain about wifi, or "the poor man's networking standard".

When you become a 40-year old single mum working 20 hours a week with a kid who's just turned 13 wanting an Xbox360, you will buy THE CHEAPEST. So what if you don't get a HDD? You get a memory card and 5 games in the box for £130. And that, apparently, is what your bastard spawn wants in a console. And he's not working so can't afford to buy one himself. So as his mum, you go to the game shop and buy THE CHEAP 360 THAT HE ASKED FOR. So STFU, geeks!

Plus, it keeps the little shit off Live! Which is good for everyone.

Surely now the PS3 owners can see what all the fuss is about?

/coat

edit - oh, and if anyone mentions having to pay £40 a year for xbox live - you're an idiot, or a tightfisted arse. A brilliant service with dedicated servers and (in my experience) faster lag-free games (except PES 08, sigh) all for around 75p a week. Anyone who says 75p a week isn't worth it is clearly a complete tard or they are inserting dual shocks up their arse they love Sony so much.

@ seasidebaz

Plus they can buy a hard drive at a later date - the brats birthday perhaps!

Note: It won't keep him off live though - you don't need the hard drive for that.

@moggsy:

Hopefully they won't have broadband, though, but there ya go. Plus wouldn't the lack of HDD prevent any patching of Halo3? Thus achieving the desired effect?

+1 for usage of phrase "bastard spawn"

I love my 360 but I'm on my fourth and I don't really trust it. Its been a load of hassle and there has been times when I've been enjoying it and then its crashed and I've got annoyed with it. My current 360 isn't perfect. It crashes about 50x more often than my ps3. My ps3 has crashed once in timeshift which is poorly coded anyway where as my 360 can crash in any game. However that said my current 360 can go a week before crashing. I know the ps3 in theory is more powerful but in general only a few sofware houses seems to have the skills to really get that performance like evolution, criterion, konami, naughty dog and insomniac and many have truly failed to achieve much with it. Free Radical spent ages developing Haze on ps3 and still came out with graphics which were inferior to 360 launch titles. I know the ps3 has one massive advantage over 360 and that is ample storage on its discs. The 360 is still limited to the same storage capacity of the ps2 discs and so relies more on compression and in game engine movies or downloadable content. The thing is the 360 has a better gpu than the ps3 but the ps3 has additional support for its gpu to enhance its features. The ps3 has twice the cpu power of the 360 in principle but its spread over twice as many cores making it much harder to program. The PS3 memory system is I've read not as good as the 360 but not far behind. The fact remains that the 360 is offering generally better games for much less money and later 360s are more reliable. I personally think the golden price point is £99.99 thats when it becomes real mass market but then people who buy a console at £100 generally don't buy games at £50 a pop but instead look for bargains and budget games.

I personally think the ps3 has yet to come of age and that generally truly absymal ps3 games are a thing of the past. Most developers are getting the hang of it now and it won't be long before the ps3 can show some distance between itself and 360. Remember it took ages for the ps2 to show itself to be superior to dreamcast.

To be honest I'm one of those rare people that love the ps3 and 360 but if anything haven't much regard for the wii as its just not capable of the same level of game performance as ps3 or 360.

One last point is Microsoft's intentions were never to compete with other consoles but dominate and become the main gaming platform just like windows is the main OS for PCs. They want a 360 in just about every home and they want them connected to the internet buying downloadable content. That was always their intention and they are taking a financial hit now to secure a huge revenue stream in the future. whether that will be a reality I don't know but from a consumer point of view 3 competing consoles is the best news for us as thats why the pricing is soooo good. If Sony and Nintendo had been wiped out last generation the 360 would probably be £300-400 now and games would be stuck at £50 with little discounting. So for all the fanboys out there remember none of these companies are your friends they just want your money.

@ seasidebaz

I don't think game patches aren't stored on the hard drive - I think there's some flash memory built into the 360 for this purpose.

Anyone who says 75p a week isn't worth it is clearly a complete tard or they are inserting dual shocks up their arse they love Sony so much.

Great comment lol!

@ BonzoBanana

They want a 360 in just about every home and they want them connected to the internet buying downloadable content. That was always their intention and they are taking a financial hit now to secure a huge revenue stream in the future.

...

If Sony and Nintendo had been wiped out last generation the 360 would probably be £300-400 now and games would be stuck at £50 with little discounting.

You can't have it both ways - which is it to be?

A brilliant service with dedicated servers

I thought the dedicated servers were only for matchmaking? And the actual gameplay was all P2P?

Can you pay in 75p a week installments now?

"I personally think the golden price point is £99.99 thats when it becomes real mass market but then people who buy a console at £100 generally don't buy games at £50 a pop but instead look for bargains and budget games."

This is an interesting point. As they did with their rushed hardware release are MS rushing the current gen cycle with this price drop?

Sounds like you have a real problem with 360 Widge.
I would get that looked at. The frothing should be a bit of a concern too.

I don't get Les :/
I mean I make the odd piss taking comment in the Wii post sections, I make it and then move on with my life. But Les is really and quite strangely determined, determined to make loads and loads of posts in a comments section related to a console he can't stand. It makes no sense. Did Bill Gates touch Les' dirty bits as a youngster? Or is that, quite simply, he's like 14 with nothing better to do.
I mean, you'd think he'd be playing all the latest top notch Wii releases wouldn't you?....

@Les

"Maybe the Wii hype will be over by chrismas 2009 but that will come way too late for the 360."

What Wii hype? There's only a Wii Sports hype and unfortunately you need a Wii for that. The third party sales are catastrophic and by Christams 2009 this ugly truth will be even more evident. Hell, lots of Wii owners don't chip their console because there's even hardly anything that would be worth pirating...

I was just reading another news article on here which makes a valid point. This DOES cut into the domain of the PS2 as the base unit of the market, so perhaps its a bold move to tackle Sony on 2 of their fronts.

Widge; Exactly! So are MS rushing the current console cycle? And if they are then I don't think Sony and Ninty should drop their prices. Let MS screw it up for themselves, maybe?

Rash'

So are MS rushing the current console cycle?

Of course they are the 360 was a rush job from the get go.

BartonFink, So is it like Speed (the film, rather than the drug) it's destined to bomb... fast?

@Rash'

Seems to be doing pretty damned well so far doesn't it?

If anything it's the PS3 that's in that territory tbh.

didnt the ps2 and ds sell 20m units first?

BartonFink, Don't know about that, I would describe PS3 as slow and steady.

I like Vista :(

Although Firefox 3 disagrees with my laptops password bank thing.... other than that, no probs!

They've dropped the price because demand is low. The question is are consumers not buying the system because the price is too high or because they're not interested in the first place?

If demand is low for the 360 then its even less for the PS3 (especially in Japan!)

Rash

I think the problem with MS in main land Europe is that the 360 was a new comer while the Playstation is a very established brand.

In Europe consoles didn't really exist until the playstation, the snes and megadrive sold well but Parents prefered to buy their kids computers where they might learn something as well so too many europeans playstion = consoles.

This meant that when the 360 was selling for €300 and the PS3 for €400 they chose the PS3 as they were spending a considerable sum anyway so they might has well have the brand they always go for, but these price cuts put now mean that the 360 now almost becomes a no brainer and can simply be an impulse buy to be bought on a whim or as a 2nd console to a PS3.

I think the new pricing will break down some of the fear factor of Europeans buying a 360 and with the cost of living and economic problems of the world this can only work in the cheapest consoles favour.

I wish people would get it into their heads that the RRoD problem in new machines has been pretty much fixed for nigh-on a year at least.

The question is are consumers not buying the system because the price is too high or because they're not interested in the first place?

I don't think it's because the price is currently too high .... But I guess we shall soon see whether the price cuts do the trick for MS or not. Breaking into the casual market is obviously the aim (if there are any casuals left that don't already have a Wii). With good marketing showing off the new dashboard, Lips and In the Movies (and that 100-to-1 thing or 1-to-100 whatever), and astute bundling maybe it will all come together for them. Or maybe not ;-)

is this move the poker equivalent of 'all in'?

YAY
i might buy one now

johnnybrn, No. simple. NPDs have shown the system to be neck and neck if not better then 360 through out this year in US. In Europe 360 is the least popular and Japan is a similar story. Demand is low, that's why the prices have been slashed globally.

is this move the poker equivalent of 'all in'?

Ha ha!

If theres one company with all their chips on the table its Sony, the PS3 HAS to succeed due to the amount invested into its development.

Yeah, PS3 has to succeed, but then so do the other two. They've all had serious cash invested in them. Sony are playing a slow and steady game in contrast to MS's "all in" gamble. Lets see how it pans out shall we?

Yeah, this generation was pretty much a do or die for old Nintendo. They played it well.

Its makes me laugh that people can actually diss a company for reducing the price, come on Sony fan boy's get a grip, this benefits all consumers as a whole and may even put pressure on Sony to do the same.

Is it because Xbox is "losing" the war, I'd say no. Why? Simple it has been on the market the longest has an install base of 20million and the highest software attach rate for any console, they can afford to do this.

Are sales declining? Yes!! Nothing out of the ordinary there, its typical product life cycle. You have growth, maturity and decline. It was relesed a whole year ahead of its competitors, the serious gamers already own the console and now its about getting the casual market.

People will be tighening their belts this xmas and for the non serious gamer who doesn't need anything all singing and dancing whats more attractive £129.99 or £299.99 when the quality of the games are identical??

"For some reason MS just can't seem to fix whatever is causing it."

And there goes my reason for buying one. Damn you MS!

/Waves fist.

they still break though dont they?

Just on the 360 on SD TV's comments I used my 360 on an SD TV for 2 years and never really had any problems. It was a big 36" CRT though so possibly that resolved the text size issues.

In general though the games still look great on an SD TV so if you don't have an HD TV yet I don't think its that big a deal.

Of course now I have an HD TV it does all look a lot better but I would still rate the 360 as well worth having for the two years I played it on an SD TV.

@ confunder Nobody wants a Xbox 360 (apart from the Xbots who want a backup one). Every one desires a PS3.

Not true I own both and don't desire my ps3 at all... however with regards to my 360 its all love baby.