consoles

[Hiimori]

Xbox boss Don Mattrick says when compared to other modern products, $500 is not a "ridiculous" price point.

No, but 500€ is.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-defends-xbox-one-500-price-point-were-over-delivering-value-6410352

[Grimnirsson]

Don Mattrick probably doesn't even know what the Euro is...

[W8taminute]

What I found disturbing about that gamespot news item is Don's comments that MS is delivering thousands of dollars worth of technology at a very good price to the consumer.  Over delivering value is not a term I have ever heard of in my life during my work in the semiconductor industry. 

I really liked the point too that in light of recent events with phone and data monitoring of all U.S. citizens I resent the XBone as yet another spy device creeping into my life.  Did you know that the new Kinnect can detect facial expressions based on your reactions to a game?  The premise is that you can get a screen shot of how you reacted to an in game event.  The software developers can also use the data on how people reacted to improve their games.  I don't buy that explanation for one minute.  It's nothing more than yet another datapoint to be used against you if they wish to.  This is all according to my recent issue of the magazine 'Game Informer'.

[Grimnirsson]

Don's comments that MS is delivering thousands of dollars worth of technology at a very good price to the consumer

I say BS! They can keep their 'thousands of dollars worth of technology' while I'm playing my games on the 360 and PS4...

[JasonPratt]

What I found disturbing about that gamespot news item is Don's comments that MS is delivering thousands of dollars worth of technology at a very good price to the consumer.  Over delivering value is not a term I have ever heard of in my life during my work in the semiconductor industry.

The standard account of the PS3 is that they did just this for years: the units cost much more to produce than they were earning from sales income. This is one (ostensible) reason why they removed PS2 hardware functionality; also why they did some other things to bring the cost down.

They were banking on the PS3 selling more units for being higher quality, e.g. an excellent Blu player, thus making up the difference on game licensing and peripherals (extra controllers etc.) I haven't seen numbers to indicate how well that worked, but Microsoft sounds like it's trying the same thing: Nintendo won big early in the last generation going cheap and superficially innovative, but the same strategy imploded on them this past winter, giving a signal that the market wants quality--and no longer gives much of a damn about motion control. Consequently I haven't seen much promotion along that line from Sony at all this year, and not even much really from Microsoft -- they're going to insist on that Kinect for their own reasons so they have to find some way to promote it, but I don't see much promotion for its game functionality yet, not to the degree that ABSOLUTELY HAVING TO HAVE IT ON YOUR SYSTEM would suggest.

[Arctic Blast]

What I found disturbing about that gamespot news item is Don's comments that MS is delivering thousands of dollars worth of technology at a very good price to the consumer.  Over delivering value is not a term I have ever heard of in my life during my work in the semiconductor industry.

The standard account of the PS3 is that they did just this for years: the units cost much more to produce than they were earning from sales income. This is one (ostensible) reason why they removed PS2 hardware functionality; also why they did some other things to bring the cost down.

They were banking on the PS3 selling more units for being higher quality, e.g. an excellent Blu player, thus making up the difference on game licensing and peripherals (extra controllers etc.) I haven't seen numbers to indicate how well that worked, but Microsoft sounds like it's trying the same thing: Nintendo won big early in the last generation going cheap and superficially innovative, but the same strategy imploded on them this past winter, giving a signal that the market wants quality--and no longer gives much of a damn about motion control. Consequently I haven't seen much promotion along that line from Sony at all this year, and not even much really from Microsoft -- they're going to insist on that Kinect for their own reasons so they have to find some way to promote it, but I don't see much promotion for its game functionality yet, not to the degree that ABSOLUTELY HAVING TO HAVE IT ON YOUR SYSTEM would suggest.

This is true of most consoles. they lose money per unit until/unless they get to huge sales levels. On the other hand, the developers make up that loss through the licensing fees on every single copy sold for that console.

[Huw the Poo]

Next gen I'm going to correct the mistake I made this gen.  I'm going to return to Playstation.  Microsoft, for reasons already given in this thread, can suck my balls.

[Grimnirsson]

The 360 and XBL was superior this gen, but M$ decided it was worth the try to mess around with those who play and pay. And Sony learned from previous mistakes and listened to what those who pay and play say...