Rumours abound, Xbox 360 at $US299 on July 6th @ K-Mart (US) - What about Australia ?

XboxOZ360 - 537 days 1 hour ago

I agree, and I'll NOT take anything away from MGS4, it's an excellent game on the PS3, but Sony does need to have another major title up its sleeve NOW, not in 6 months time (Christmas etc) . . as by then, they could be in hot water.

MS is not off the hook by a long shot either. They need to be aggressive with their marketing tactics. Something they usually don't do with in the Xbox-Div. Not so for their MS Corp section, they are dogs in there, but the Xbox-Div seem to be a different lot (which they are actually)

If MS Xbox-Div do reduce the price "across the board", and it seems it might well be true if the facts about the drop in New Zealand are anything to go by (ie: GamePlanet say they are dropping the price point $NZ100 on both the Elite and the Pro on July 2nd - see link in article and mentioned elsewhere on n4g) They need to begin to now push bundles as you suggest, tying in AAA titles with games in custom packs, rather than just games added on as a supplementary item/s.

They have proven in the 1st-gen Xbox that customers WILL buy hardware IF it is re-packaged suitably, or if the hardware sporting something to make it different from the rest. Sony and Nintendo have shown this to be the case as well, with their various coloured cases of both the PS3, PSP, Wii's and DS etc all selling out briskly.

If Ms does drop the price point below the magic $US300 mark (ie: $US299.99) for the pro, then that will certainly put huge pressure on Sony to either add more items to make it more attractive to have a PS3 (right now with good games other than MGS4) or reduce their prices.

E3 could well shed some light on many things, And I think there are a few red-herrings going to show up at this years E3 especially with regards to Xbox Live, the MarketPlace, and a few games no one has been expecting.

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green - 537 days ago

I agree with both of you.But i will reserve my judgment till after the big three make their conference at E3 because i believe that this is the most crucial E3 for both Sony and Microsoft.

How successful their keynote presentations will be will determine who will come out on top this holiday.

In terms of the price drop i think it will boost 360 sales but if Sony will follow suit is another matter entirely.the PS3 is selling well but it is still not profitable and Sony have made it clear that profitability is their mane priority.I heard they will reducing the GPU size this fall and people are speculating a price drop but i seriously doubt it will happen because then profits will star rolling in and it will be hard to justify dropping the price again to end up in square one.

i hope they do drop the price because it's still to expensive for me to get one at the moment and i would like one before the year runs out.But if they don't then ill just get a used one.

But thats just my take, we will just have to wait and see.

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crck - 536 days 23 hours ago

Retailers were giving away $50 gift cards for buying GTA 4 and any 360. It didn't move any extra units at all. While a straight price cut should increase sales some I'd be willing to bet its not nearly as much as some of you think.

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 23 hours ago

I generally agree with green, Oz and Siligon.

Whilst I think E3 is more important to the hardcore, the real key for the larger console war is going to be what MS or Sony announce for the much larger casual mass market. Whether that comes in the form of new online content and services, motion controls, casual titles or bundles/hardware I don't know, but significant announcements could change the game completely.

In regards to price competition I acknowledge crck's comment. Whilst I do think a $50 cut does not seem like much, it is actually very significant at this point in the cycle as Sony has been very vocal about it's focus on profitability and therefore its inability to enter a price war with shareholders breathing down its neck.

Given this I actually feel MS, from a corporate strategy point of view should be much more aggressive, they have been profitable for several months now and whilst Sony is unable to respond I believe MS should ruthlessly cut closer to $100 off the retail price, safe in the knowledge that Sony will not be able to respond for 6-12 months and MS will be the first to reach that historically magic US$250 price point that has been the key economic driver of previous generational winners.

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hazeblaze - 536 days 23 hours ago

There is no doubt that this puts some pressure on Sony. I have no doubt that they intended to cut the price of the PS3 in the holiday... the question now is whether or not they react and cut it sooner. If Microsoft is willing to cut theirs in July, Sony may need to wait until August to see if the 360's price cut is enough to boost sales long term.

Of course it will have at least a short term effect... but general interest in the 360 seems to be dying down, and a price cut may not present as large a threat as at first perceived. For instance, if the 360 cannot manage to sell 300k or more after the price cut, then they are really finished, and Sony can wait to cut their price. Because truly a price cut is much more effective around the timing of highly anticipated game releases. The truth is that Microsoft is really blowing their load too early by slashing now instead of in preparation for Fable 2 or Gears2. At least for Sony, if they dropped theirs now it would be on the heels of MGS4. Better yet to do it leading up to LBP.

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Tomdc - 536 days 22 hours ago

look at both PS3 exclusives for this year and then the 360 ones... the PS3 ones are far superior.

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 22 hours ago

I agree that the 360 has the first mover advantage because it was released earlier, but the core reason that the 360 is able to drop it's price and is profitable is actually because MS made the 360 much more cost efficient than the more technologically advanced PS3.

For example:

- MS designed their own chip which whilst it caused RROD, means that they pay no ongoing royalties/licensing on console sales for the life of the console to manufacturers, in contrast to the PS3 which will do so for it's entire ten years.

- MS designed the 360 with relatively mass produced components to reduce manufacturing and supply costs, as opposed to the PS3's more technologically advanced, but also much more expensive to manufacture and design, BluRay and Cell Processors.

If you read Kaz Hirai's notes at yesterday's shareholder meeting he addresses the above two price problems directly by emphasising the key to profitability is not so much the increase in the console base as reducing manufacturing and supply costs and increasing alternative revenue streams (eg. online content).

You can find details of his speech here: http://www.n4g.com/industry...

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himdeel - 536 days 19 hours ago

...and I'd add that if they did cut the price another $50 to make it a $100 reduction they should go ahead and do it now if they want to paint Sony into the corner. If they don't reduce the price by $100 now they need to do so by October at the earliest and no later then December 1st.

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AAACE5 - 535 days 20 hours ago

I didn't 100% agree with you but you did point out some true facts!

The fact of the matter is, MS and Sony both need to get those prices as low as they can. Gamers/ people don't have the kind of free money they had during last gen. Now we are paying higher gas prices, higher utility cost, higher food cost, etc. So when you see a videogame system for $400-$600 (yes i'm talking about both the 360 and ps3), it looks less interesting!

I remember last gen, I could fill up my tank with $20, now it cost about $60-$70 a week(dam SUV)! Head to gamestop and buy a new console, or 3-5 games at a time! But since all these prices have risen, I have been looking at everything sideways, asking myself if I really want to spend the money, or wait for it to get cheaper? I got alot of other stuff I like to do besides just play games!

MS and Sony had the right idea in mind when they came out with these consoles> They figured since we love videogames so much, we would be more than willing to throw money at these systems with no problem! But they just didn't anticipate the economy being in the situation it is in!

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 23 hours ago

That's exactly what the PS2 did. Or did you forget? lol

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GoD_tattoo - 536 days 23 hours ago

@aaquib
Are you serious? Are you implying that the PS3 has better or more games? I sure hope not.

I have both a PS3 and 360, and usually my PS3 collects dust. If I want a game to work like it is supposed to online, then I buy it for the 360. PS3 has tons of online issues to work out before they can compete..( a free piece of crap is still a piece of crap)

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butterfinger - 536 days 23 hours ago

Either you don't have a PS3 or really haven't used the PSN in the past 6 months. There are not "tons of issues", but there are simply missing features that will be mostly included in the upcoming 2.4 firmware update. The online itself works beautifully while I play COD4 and Warhawk all day/night long.

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juuken - 536 days 23 hours ago

Then GoD, it's time to sell that PS3 then because I can only see but good things happening for Sony up until next year. Also, what ton of issues are you talking about? I could have sworn we're getting a video download service. I could have sworn MGS4 is on the PS3 only. I could have sworn rpg's are on their way. I could have sworn two excellent looking shooters are coming. I could have sworn Sony has two secret games in the works.

But alas this is about the 360's pricecut. Good for them if it works, but they'll need more than that.

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hazeblaze - 536 days 23 hours ago

Actually the PS2 beat them in price AND games... kind of a big difference.

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 23 hours ago

I think the key point of GoD tattoo's deliberately provocative post was that other than MGS4 (and I'd add Uncharted, Warhawk and Motorstorm) there's nothing there that the 360 doesn't have and generally does better in terms of games at the moment.

Whilst the future may be different and is a reason for GoD to hold onto his PS3, regarding the current situation you admit as much yourself with an argument that essentially is "we've got MGS4... but I promise there's heaps of cool stuff on the way."

EDIT:

@juuken below. Come on mate don't put words in my mouth ("I can see that Super, but what makes you think it'll stay that way?"), just read what I wrote...

"Whilst the future may be different and is a reason for GoD to hold onto his PS3..."

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juuken - 536 days 23 hours ago

I can see that Super, but what makes you think it'll stay that way? Also, the reason why that's the case is because the 360 came out way before the PS3. The 360 has been on the market for almost three years I believe. The pS3 is still a pretty new system. I see this pricecut by MS as a sign of desperation. The PS3 has been outselling them for a good while, despite having less games, no in-game XMB, and Home. When that stuff does come, I'd have to say that things will get worse for MS.

I didn't put words in your mouth. I just said that things will change for Sony in due time. The PS3 will soon have a chance to drop down to $299.99 and when it does...it's a wrap.

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 23 hours ago

And how's that different to the current situation?!

The 360 carries almost three times the titles of the PS3 and has a significant price advantage of hundreds of dollars.

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RealityCheck - 536 days 22 hours ago

@2.8, however the 360 doesn't have the same range of quality games the PS2 has. While the 360 has more JRPG than the original Xbox had, none of them have caught on yet like a Final Fantasy game. It also lacks in other genre like platformer, SRPG, etc. It's strength still lies with shooters and this generation it added FPS-RPG or US-RPG. It's an improvment and it keeps improving, just not PS2 comparable yet.

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GoD_tattoo - 536 days 22 hours ago

To all those who say they have no problems playing online, be honest here. You mean to tell me when you are playing COD4, there is no lag, connection interrupted all the time? And don't try to say it's my connection cause I have Comcast, and have no problems. Every Game I've ever played on the PS3 has had online issues. Obviously I like my PS3 or I wouldn't have spent nearly $800 (with warranty) when it came out. But every game Ive played has had online issues.

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juuken - 536 days 22 hours ago

GoD, then there must be something wrong with your connection. I usually don't play online most of the time (though that will change) but I haven't heard anyone complain about online problems with CoD.

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butterfinger - 536 days 22 hours ago

It IS your connection! Comcast SUCKS @ss. I used to have comcast and had the same stupid problems you have mentioned, but now I have Verizon FiOS and I have never had one bit of lag or an interrupted connection in 4 months. The PSN is fine.

Comcast high speed with the little boost thing is terrible. They tell you you are getting 12mb dl times when actually you are probably at your fastest doing 4 down/ 1up if that. I have 30/30 with Verizon which is ridiculously fast for the US.

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titntin - 536 days 22 hours ago

I've had both a 360 and a Ps3 since their respective launches.

Yes I can honestly say, in all the time I've used the Ps3 online, I've never had a single glitch, and I've barely ever seen any lag. I've had lag on live though - though not too often.

I'm not going to tell you its your connection, it could be anything, but it IS an issue thats your issue, not the psn service or the machine.

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scottie2521 - 536 days 22 hours ago

again it's all based on personal opinion, but i don't care how many games the 360 has, i didn't like the majority of them. and that's why i haven't missed it since i got rid of it.

playstation has always had the games i liked on it's platform and that's why i choose them above the rest. i gave MS a shot but i wasn't impressed.

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GoD_tattoo - 536 days 22 hours ago

Wow, and here I was thinking 26500kb/s Download and 2500kb/s upload was ok. That is with powerboost, my standard upload is over 1000kb/sec though. Guess I should upgrade then huh? Fios isn't available yet, but I will get it when it is.

And to those who've never heard anyone complain about connection problems, guess you've never been to the Playstation forums...

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Superfragilistic - 536 days 22 hours ago

@juuken
Hey mate I replied to your post but N4G went crazy on me and posted it in the thread above. :)

@butterfinger
I'm so jealous. In Oz we have nothing that fast available commercially!

@RealityCheck
I agree, but the 360 is on track for a 1000 titles by end of this year and is only in it's third year. Which is a vast improvement over the original Xbox.

However, most of the extensive game library on the PS2, possibly the greatest ever seen, was achieved after the PS2 reached that magic mass market appeal of US$250 or thereabouts where the install base boomed and developers started doubling efforts to stock the library.

I kind of feel it's a bit of a chicken and egg argument. The PS2 had great games and more importantly an extensive library, but the majority came once it reached mass market size as a result of a much lower price. Heck we didn't get my personal favourites God of War and its sequel until 2005 and 2007 respectively.

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Silver360 - 536 days 22 hours ago

you want the 360 to stay at $359 until the PS3 catches up then lower their price along with the PS3. What kind of business practice would that be. Any company operating like that would out of business in two days.

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titntin - 536 days 22 hours ago

Your speeds sound great. I get a 10th of that, but I've never had an issue, so thats not your problem. Could be a simple setting?

As for people posting in the playstation forums - of course we see theres plenty of users incapable of even switching the unit on - never mind getting a connection through a router!
There's thousands of posts of a similar nature on the Xbox live forums in the technical help section, new ones added every minute.
Or don't you bother to look at the Xbox forums?

For all its lack of fuctionality, the PSN is every bit as rock solid as live in maintaining a health connection, so if you have issues, you need to troubleshoot and not blame the network or the hardawre, cause that aint the problem! Seriously - you'd enjoy it a lot more if it wasn't twitchy and there's no reason it should be...

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hack6464 - 536 days 21 hours ago

LOL at massive fail by God_tattoo and superfrag. Next!!!

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GoD_tattoo - 536 days 20 hours ago

@ hack

You're an idiot....I wasn't being a fanboy or whatever, I was stating that I have BOTH systems, and find that Live is more reliable and has less problems to ME...I bought COD4 for the 360, PS3, and PC. My 360 version was more reliable, had less problems than the PS3 version. I'm talking about from launch day. Every game that Ive bought recently has been the same way. Seems like the PS3 versions always have issues that either don't affect the 360 as much or at all. Believe me, I want my PS3 to be the greatest thing since sliced bread because of the amount of money I have invested into it, (broken controllers, damn you L3)but for me right now it isnt. Maybe you have a different experience that you'd like to share? Your first post was so intelligent, I'm not sure you could beat it...

@titntin

Maybe its not the PSn I should be blaming but the individual game manufacturers or whoever is hosting the servers. Like I said above, I found my 360 version of COD4 to be much more reliable, but the more I think of it, I guess I can't blame the PSN for that. I was wrong there.

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Silver360 - 536 days 22 hours ago

That why I never brought a ps2 and just waited for the PS3

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LastDance - 536 days 21 hours ago

why would you do that.

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hack6464 - 536 days 20 hours ago

I dont know about waiting for the next console but I'll wait till they fix the 360 and its Red Ring.

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butterfinger - 536 days 23 hours ago

may not know about E3, but the announcements made at E3 will eventually be relayed to the masses through advertising and marketing. For example, if Sony announces Home will be available in November at E3, they will begin showing ads for the PS3 with Home already on it. E3 is really for the type of gamer that visits N4G daily, but big announcements will find their way to the public.

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Mr Marbles - 536 days 22 hours ago

really puts things in perspective.

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butterfinger - 536 days 22 hours ago

The games library for the PS3 is actually pretty good especially now with MGS4, Blu Ray movies are NOT $35 AND UP, they are mostly $25 of $30 and are in full 1080p with 7.1 surround (something the 360 could never do), the controllers design is fine and essentially copied by MS with differently positioned analog sticks, the PS3 has customizable looks (with FREE wallpapers and themes), FREE online, and game installations make are load times much faster and don't hinder the PS3 too bad when you can just buy any 2.5" SATA drive up to 320gigs to put in there. It's funny how you can tack on another $50 off the bat for a gold membership on Live which would make your 360 about $400 now, unless of course you are not getting the "best" online experience.

Fanboys like you two should really stick to the open zone.

@ Bladestar below

"where can I find a free 320GB drive? funny we are talking about price and you are not including the price of the drive with the PS3"

First of all I said buy, and I bought a 250gig WD Scorpio SATA HDD for $81.05, so I guess you can have a 250gig PS3 for $481.05 plus tax. Wow, that is over double the size of the Elite isn't it? Also, if you want to talk about not including price, let's talk about the cost of 360 add ons and how Microsoft screwed consumers with their choice of HDD. The cheapest 20gig hard drive that CNET found was $89.99 (as in 9 dollars more for 230 gigs less).
http://shopper.cnet.com/har...

Maybe you should pick up a 120 (or less than half of my PS3) for $180.

And since you obviously have problems reading, I never said anything negative in regards to the price pushing more consoles. If you would look a few comments up, I actually said I would consider getting one if they dropped the price of the elite, because that is the only one that is worth it. The Wii does not simply sell because of price btw, it hit a home run with the motion controls and casual games. As for the better games, the games that people have loved all their lives will most likely have sequels on either the Wii or the PS3.

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karlostomy - 536 days 23 hours ago

.. and about time

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ppp - 536 days 23 hours ago

hittler[karlostomy]shut-up u are ignored by more people than "RAM MAGNUMS" . what a waste of money the xbox360 is. glad i sold it & got a ps3. gears of war was good and thats it. im going 2 put u on my ignore list now

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karlostomy - 534 days 23 hours ago

Hitler is spelled with one 't'.

If you can't even spell 'Hitler' correctly, then what would you pretend to know about him?

In any case, I use the Hitler pic to parody Krazy Ken Kutaragi.
Boy o boy am i sick of explaining that to the mentally challenged amongst the N4g community. (oh, that means YOU ppp..)

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