360 to target mums with new games and price drop

he typical-to-Xbox selection of driving and shooting games has worked wonders in appealing to the hardcore crowd, but in light of Nintendo's success, Microsoft hopes to broaden the 360's with new games and possibly a price cut before Christmas.

Xbox boss, Peter Moore has admitted: "If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million people ... What I need is a solid business with 90 million people."

[marionz]

with viva pinata and kameo, and this christmas ill buy her banjo kazooie and lego starwars the full saga

she loves cute games so im glad MS has rare on their side!

[TheMART]

There we go

Price drop in fall

Core: 199 Euro (far better deal then a Wii)
Premium 299 Euro
Elite 399 Euro

Sony may gonna act real soon, otherwise they're dead

[Shadow Flare]

'Gears of War 2 - With Love'

[_insane_cobra]

Gears of War 2 - The Locust versus the Care Bears

[ShiftyLookingCow]

hahaha because of the overwhelming invasion of alien care bears, humans and locusts decide to join forces to protect their planet of unwanted cute cudley alien bears

[Bloodmask]

gotta agree with you Mart at $199 especially before Christmas and with all the games being released this winter pretty much could spell doom for Sony. How can Sony possibly compete with a $199 starting price. Oh well Sony will always have their Hi def movies..............

[WIIIS1]

Hate to say this but Microsoft won't be able to accomplish what Nintendo did with non-gamers 'cos the magic of Wii is in the controller. But it is always a good idea to expand the repertoire of games.

[TheMART]

Well, with Vision cam and the gesture control, they can.

I'd rather stand with my real tennis racket in front of my 360 and swing it, without any other device, then a WiiMote still with wires to the other controler connected.

@ Kevin (below)

Yes that is going to happen. The core will be 199 Euro

http://www.computerandvideo...

[kevin1122]

sony wont have to compete with a 199 price point because that is not going to happen.

[_insane_cobra]

It's going to happen and it's going to happen soon:

http://www.next-gen.biz/ind...

Besides, Nintendo is right on their tails, they have to react.

[Antan]

I would keep the prices as they are, if the machines are still selling at the rate they are at the moment, then i dont see a need for a drop. Sales are only going to increase over the next 6 months with the nice looking catalogue ready and waiting, especially the effect Halo 3 will have. If anything, i would just drop the Core to 199 euro`s as Mart suggests. For me the premium is already nicely priced bearing in mind what you get for your money. I`d be suprised if MS reduces the Platinum this year.

[Also Known As]

As soon as I started reading your comment I felt the impulse to disagree but as I kept reading I realized that you might have a point. Maybe lowering the price of the premium and elite by $50 and the core by $100 would be just right.

[SuperSaiyan4]

Have you seen the price of a CORE in GAME? £199 gets you Viva Pinata and some other game AND a 64mb memory card!

Play.com Xbox 360 premium with smackdown vs Raw 2006 £230!!!

Or

for £290 4 games and an extra official wireless pad!!!

If those arent already bargains of the century then I cant wait to see what Microsoft has in store before X-mas cos those are pretty damn good deals imo.

[Uganda64]

Considering that Sony's lineup is equally good if not better, and Sony's poised for a price drop which will make it much more attractive - the PS brand in the eyes of customers is worth more, so a $150-$200 drop this fall and sales will rocket for PS3.

Of course Pete shouldn't be so arrogant. 90 million? After losing half your fanbase according to you? Man it'd be a miracle if they beak 30mil this lifetime.

Fall will be too late for Microsoft. Sony will have its games, its price drop and its incredible value and most importantly its casual games - LittleBigPlanet and Singstar etc to gather gamers.

MS is most likely looking at a $50 price drop across the board if they want to see profit at all, and certainly not during Halo where they'll sell units no matter what. And a $250 core is still a huuuuuuge rip. No one's buying it in droves like they bought the hard drive less PS2 in droves at the same price - it's obviously not good value for anyone, and MS only has hardcore gamers interested again - high software, low hardware like before.
Then they've got Europe and Japan where they're doing worse than Xbox1. Oh god, this is not looking good.

EDIT:
Uhh...Sony can afford to drop the price, they have their subsidies from other ventures. Nintendo would not drop the price, Sony can drop it the most - 150 looks more reasonable with quickly decreasing Blu-ray costs and the shift to a 65nm process for the Cell far quicker than it took MS for their whatever chip.
LittleBigPlanet happens to be just the game that appeals to casuals. Same with Singstar. You can't dispute that obviously. Same with PSEye actually.

And the lineup is fantastic.
MGS4, Tekken 6, GT5 Prologue, LBP, HS, Killzone 2 (probably), Haze (timed exclusive), Socom Confrontation, Warhawk, Uncharted, R&C5.
All exclusive.

@Above
Yeah, and it's still not selling at all. Obviously the core is unwanted by the hardcore which MS can attract. They'll never have Sony's casuals or Nintendo's non-gamers.

EDIT @ Insanecobra
Well yes actually. Xbox has done nothing but bleed money and they want to make it profitable. For all we know, PS3 could be near profitability or is already there - the costs were high because it was bleeding edge, now there's massive reductions. Also, Sony needs to drop the price to fight for this. They won't achieve 5% profitability overall, but it'll be worth it in the long term - after layoffs they've obviously cut long term costs - the Pres knows this.
For example, they've already earned ~400 million (half box office gross) for Spiderman 3. That goes a long way in subsidising costs. The 300 million to make the movie was factored into last quarter's cost.

[WIIIS1]

Lol! Which planet do you live in? LittleBig? In this reality, its Microsoft and Nintendo who are in a position to consider a price drop at this time. You fanboys can't really be that cruel to want Sony to bleed even more can you?

And that comment about Sony's lineup...

[_insane_cobra]

Of course, Microsoft can't afford a $100 price drop because they need to worry about their profits, but Sony can add additional $150-200 per system to their already monumental losses without giving it a second thought. They're also laying off people like crazy (pardon me, they're "restructuring") because their pockets are so deep.

[DrRage77]

if you think that sony is actually going to drop the price of the ps3 in the fall by $150-$200 then you must be smoking something lol

i'm sorry, but your other comment about more people finding value in the ps3 is complete nonsense also. most casual gamers are not looking at the "value" that a ps3 has with the blu-ray drive, that is why the ps3 is NOT selling very well. casual gamers find $200-$250 to be a value for a next-gen gaming console, so when the 360 premium gets around that price its going to pick up a lot of people that are on the fence about which console to buy.

and consider this....prices of hd-dvd players and blu-ray players are going to start dropping like crazy. we already see a price of $199-$299 for hd-dvd players and sony is releasing their new blu-ray player for $499...soon the blu-ray players are going to cost $200-$300 and so the ps3 at a price of $400-$500 (with a price drop) is not going to seem like a good value. when blu-ray players cost $800-$1000, the ps3 seemed like a decent price, but once the blu-ray players drop BELOW the price of the ps3, it's "perceived" bargain value goes way down....

and as for game lineups coming out, let's not start saying that sony has a better games lineup...if you want to say they are close to equal with great games coming out, that is one thing, but to say sony has a better games lineup coming out is ridiculous. the 360 has bioshock, mass effect, blue dragon, HALO3, and several more coming out THIS YEAR. killzone 2 and several others you mentioned on the ps3 are coming out in 2008....if there are no more delays

[UrbanJabroni]

Ummm.....sure.

[felidae]

i think people who want a ps3 will buy it - no matter how much the 360 is ...

[DrRage77]

i agree with that 100%. same holds true for the 360. people that really want a 360 or ps3 are waiting for the console they want to drop in price. there are lots of people who are sitting and waiting on the sidelines to get a 360 or ps3, but those consoles might be a bit pricey for the people that want them. when the first xbox came out, i really wanted one, but it's price was too much for me to digest, so i waited almost 2 years before i bought one. this same thing is being done by millions of gamers who are still holding onto their ps2's or original xbox's until the price of the ps3 and 360 come down to a point that they are comfortable paying.

alot of people keep saying sales have everything to do with "supply and demand"......in reality, sales are driven more by "price and demand"

[UrbanJabroni]

"Demand" is actually calculated based upon price. So, there may be x demand at $100 but y demand if the price was $200. The "law" tends to get mutated on the net..

[SorenK]

Both the 360 and PS3 need a price drop to gain appeal to more than the committed hardcore gamers.

Meanwhile, I believe Nintendo has proved that the sweetspot for a system with a general appeal game packed in (like Wii sports) is $250. Thus I suppose a console alone costing $199 sounds about right for mass consumption.

[Eclipticus]

I think somewhere floating around this site is a post, by me saying a price cute for 360 before xmas. I still say around the release of the Million Selling Multi-Platform game GTA-4.
Sony to cut 150-200 off the ps3? I highly doubt that, i mean they lost a billion dollars? or was it half a billion? either way thats alot of money. since release. and still losing. Yeah they have money from other subsideraries. so does MS and so does Nintendo. I cant see Nintendo dropping their prices. Hell i still cant see Wiis on the shelves. So why would they?

[BIadestarX]

Why are sony fans asking Sony to drop the price of the PS3? Where is your loyalty to the company? Before they can drop the price they need to make a profit. their future depends on it. Do you want them to lose more money then they are? You can support their cause by buying a PS3 to as many people as you know. Also, don't forget to buy as many blu-ray movies as you can.

Come on do it for Sony!

It's not what Sony can do for you... it's what you can do for Sony!

[bootsielon]

First they have to crack japan before they wish they surpass PS1 figures, let alone reach PS2 figures. Second, they have to make innovative yet casual games, unlike bioshock, mass effect and too human which may innovate but are relegated to the current installed base. They'll sell a lot of copies, but they won't sell a lot of consoles. GTA and HAlo might do that, but they're not enough. They need singstar, home and little big planet. They need wii sports, wii play and warioware.

Besides, if the Core does indeed outsell the premium and elite, that would mean they'll be screwing up developers and dedicated gamers, the hard drive will become almost useless for games.

By the way Xbots, it's been said tons of times that a price drop on the PS3 is possible after cost cutting meassures. But I forget that you pick your knowledge selectively when trying to make an argument.

Above, Bladestar: You evidently have an Xbox 360 bias, so I find it hilarious that you make fun of Sony fans.

Everyone: How the hell do people that post FUD (like TheMart and bloodmask) or guys with an evident bias (like Bladestar) got their bubbles up? N4G definitely needs an improvement on the voting system.

[Also Known As]

I'd say that if they make more family oriented games, add that motion sensing camera, and lower the price (of the core) to $199 and advertise it properly (like say a commercial saying something like: Why would you want to hold a controller when your hands could be free? Why stay in last gen when you could be experiencing next gen. XBOX360, jump in.)If they do these things it wouldnt surprise me if they sell 150 million by the end of the console's life cycle (about 5 more years left).

[gta_cb]

if they do have a price cut, then i know one of my little brothers will want to buy one, hes wanted one since i got mine lol.

[snoop_dizzle]

and then we wont have an issue.

[TheMART]

Well one thing is for sure, watch out

Coz MS/Bill is gonna (s)h!t on your mum Sony fanboys!