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Xbox 360 Pricing and Bundles Announced
Microsoft has promised for months that the Xbox 360 will be available for the 2005 holiday season, and today, the company has moved one step closer to that goal.
Microsoft released packaging detail on the Xbox 360, its price and confirmation on a release this year. The next-gen system will be available in two flavors:
- The base bundle will cost $299.99 and will include the console, one wired controller, a white faceplate and a standard audiovisual cable.
- The premium bundle will cost $399.99 and will include a the standard equipment (plus replaces the wired controller for a wireless one), a headset, remote, membership to the Xbox Live entertainment and chat network, and a 20 GB hard drive
The 360 itself comes with a built-in Ethernet port and can play DVDs, CDs, MP3s, and digital content from other devices (e.g. cameras).
The base system will cost 299 Euros in Europe and 209 Pounds in Britain, with the premium bundled costing 399 Euros and 279.99 Pounds. Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox 360 will be released in the U.S., Europe and Japan in time for the holiday season but will not release pricing for Japan until next month.
This confirms J Allard’s comments about the Xbox not being a “one-size-fits-all” device for this next generation and the telling of developers to not to count on every system having a hard drive.
With Sony releasing the PS3 no earlier than mid-2006 and possibly at the end of 2006, this move should give Microsoft a definite advantage in this “round” of consoles. While the “winner” between Sony and Microsoft will not be known until well after the release of the PS3, consumers are guaranteed to see a change in their home entertainment experience with the expanded features of these gaming consoles.
The first Xbox came with a hard drive but most developers/games did not really use this feature except for minimal caching and a few downloadable extra maps.
For this next version, will we see the same thing since all 360’s may not have a drive? What about patches, chapter distribution/sale of games, etc.?
[…] Microsoft has announced details on the pricing and packaging for the Xbox 360 that is expected in time for the holiday season. […]
[…] Even if the PS3 does release around the $300 price point or even less, Microsoft is still in a better position by entering the next generation race 8 to 12 months before the competitors. Console manufactures have historically sold each console at a steep loss per unit, where console licenses for each game sold on the system bring in significant revenues down the line. Many analysts have claimed that Sony in fact often sells hardware at a loss to maintain brand strength and market share, with Sony’s video game revenues and movie divisions subsidizing at least portions of the hardware businesses. Early adopters and many hardcore gamers will no doubt buy the Xbox 360 at the proposed $300 and $400 prices, and the more expensive bundles of games and accessories will likely increase the overall stigma of a “must have” item. This higher price point will lessen the loss that Microsoft experiences form each console sale and help the bottom line. […]
In my opinion, this is the worst plan Microsoft has had so far in regards to their gaming console. The hard drive may not have been used that much by games/developers in the the fist Xbox, but it’s going to get a lot of use with the 360. Either Microsoft needs to make all the Xbox games backwards compatible with the 360, or they need to include a hard drive with all models. In the least they should include a 5GB hard drive (strictly for saving games and downloading patches for original Xbox games) with an optional 20GB hard drive that can be added on later if the consumer wishes. Also, what hapened to everything being wireless? Now I have to buy wireless controllers separately? With all of the changes Microsoft has suddenly decided to make, I think I’ll wait a while before I go out and buy one. I just hope they fixed the issue with the DVD-ROM going bad. I have a PS2 that I’ve had since release that still works perfect, and my Xbox is constantly giving read errors after 2 years. I think Microsoft is getting ahead of themselves trying to figure out how to get more money than to try and bring us the “next generation” system they hyped it to be.
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