This I do agree with though in terms of both companies being able to save on manufacturing and passing savings to us, this won’t happen for quite a while. I remember at the end of the PS2 gen being able to buy a PS2 slim for 129.99$ here in Canada yet the console was 499.99$ at launch. At the end of last year PS4 and Xbox One S still had MSRPs of 299.99$ over here and even though it was frequently on sale, it’s crazy to me to think they haven’t managed to lower costs more than that. So to me it felt like Series S was smart in the sense that it makes that price cut available at launch in a way; I’m just surprised it isn’t flying off shelves as much as I thought it would. MS does seem happy with the sales so far though so at least that’s a good sign and maybe once the mass of casual players still on last gen is forced to move to play call of duty it’ll actually sell out.
I just bought a Series S used today for 100$ less than MSRP on Facebook marketplace. I’ll be bringing it with me on my military mission for the next 6 months and leave the Series X at home; it’ll become my daughter’s Minecraft console when I come back.
In Europe no. There are dozens of European Countries that only know Sony PlayStation when it comes to games. Series X is selling out based on the neutrals not being able to find PS5’s.
There always was a slim model and Microsoft/Sony can still do those die shrinks. But Microsoft already pointed out they don’t come with the usual cost saving.
These savings are still expected by the consumer, because they’ve always been there. But I believe a price sensitive consumer thinking she/he can get a Series X (slim) for 300-350$ in 2024 will be in for a surprise and then eventually buy a Series S instead.
In short, Series S is and was a long-term strategy product. It never was meant for early adapters, so I don’t think Microsoft is surprised or concerned about Series S being less in demand than PS5 or Series X.
PS4 is still 299 MSRP, so I don’t hink a price cut is needed, warranted or wanted.
The times of cheap hardware are over.
We won’t even get $199 deals for the holiday any time soon. Let alone those madness 99€ Xbox One S ADE in Europe.
Nintendo doesn’t do price drops. Maybe once in a generation.
Sony wasn’t aggressive with price after the fist PS4 Slim holidays anymore.
There will be no Series S price cut.
The first savings you’ll see is a 1TB Series S for $299, when the Series X will go to 2TB
The Series S is incredible cheap. It’s just the fact, that the Xbox Series X and PS5 DE are so much more subsidized, that the console seems expensive for hardcore users on forums.
The Series X should be 599 in a normal world and the PS5 should be 499/599
At those prizes they would have a similar margin as the Series S.
I think in order to justify dropping to $250 you would need to have evidence that the $50 price difference would have a material impact upon sales, and that the impact would be worth the additional loss they’re taking.
When people talk about the XSS, I rarely hear anyone but console warriors talking in terms of value. Instead they tend to focus on why someone would want to upgrade their existing console to a “second best” experience. And there is concern that the XSS is “only for people who don’t have 4k TVs.” Further, there are a lot of people who have friend groups or live in markets where Playstation is dominant and they don’t want an Xbox at any price. Does a $50 price cut address these concerns? (Obviously there is SOME price at which the cost is so low that the purchase is “worth it” but the question is whether a $50 gets you there for a lot of people.)
Furthermore, there’s a question of whether taking this added loss is a good allocation of resources for Microsoft. For example, let’s assume that (1) the XSS is currently being sold at a $100 loss, and (2) MS produces 1m XSS / year and is only able to sell 80% of them.
Under these facts, MS is currently realizing a $80m loss on their XSS consoles. However, if they dropped the price they would (1) sell 200k more units, but (2) increase their loss on XSS consoles to $150m (a $70m increase in hardware losses). (The key thing to remember is that they don’t only take the additional $50 loss on the consoles sold to people who wouldn’t otherwise buy it, they take the extra loss on all of them.)
Wouldn’t this $70m annually be better spent acquiring a third party title for Game Pass on Day 1? Or funding another first-party AAA title? It’s not an insignificant amount of money.
Can’t really say for sure. It’s already the cheapest next gen machine and seems to sell well. I personally would never go for it since I want the best of the best. But I think if you are still using a 1080p display amd won’t upgrade upgrade the next several years it’s the more logic choice. But everyone who already uses a 4k display should definitely go for the x. A 1080p picture doesn’t scale to well to a 4k display.
It also seems to be selling well in countries like india where money is more of a problem