IF PS5 prices are 399 and 499 as rumoured - what should or can Xbox do?

Just stay the course of what they are already doing, maybe get some bigger games onto gamepass and continue with what they have been building.

How many games are on PSNow? I get the value of gamepass, but for gamers who mainly play a few big multiplats and maybe one or two exclusives the swing of gamepass isn’t really there…

I do not know what is supposed the be the problem if the PS5 DE is $399.

XSS is still the cheapest entrance into next gen and it can be getting even cheaper in countries that offer All Access.

As always, not in Germany, though!

The PS5 showcase event has a codename: Project Nimble. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/09/project_nimble_was_the_codename_for_ps5_showcase_event

Which obviously hints at flexibility in terms of pricing the unit in retaliation to MS’s price announcement.

It begs the question: Does MS have the flexibility to further reduce the price of the XSS to $249?

If the PS5 Digital is priced at $399, first off I’m sure Sony is unhappy about taking the loss, but most importantly it’s a very good price point for a 4K next gen machine. Many arguments could be made that spending $100 more for the PS5, a 4K machine, is worth it. But it would be a much harder sell if that delta is $150.

This might sound outlandish and wishful thinking. It is. I’d love a cheaper console, but also a low barrier of entry for everyone.

We know that the $25/month for two years offer for the XSS saves us $60. But that’s not why we’re going for the offer, it’s not the savings. It’s the convenience of drawing out the total cost of the unit.

That $60 saving means we pay $15 a month for GP Ultimate and essentially $239 for the console.

So it makes me wonder if MS is prepared for that discount, aren’t they offering it up front? $249 for everyone.

XSS: $249

PS5 Digital: $399

PS5 & XSX: $499

I feel like that $150 difference is important if we’re comparing a 1K machine to a 4K machine.

That said, there are good reasons why MS would not. First off, the price has been widely marketed. Secondly, the $60 savings over 2 years could be justified as an added loss by MS because by 2 years time the manufacturing cost is reduced and they’re making revenue throughout that whole time. Lastly, they are likely taking a sizable loss as is and cannot justify any more. Still, it’s just odd that the payment plan included that added $60 loss.

With Project Nimble being an obvious chess move, a further discount on the XSS would be an unexpected one.

If this 2 year payment plan came to savings of $20 like with with XSX plan, I wouldn’t have even mentioned this. But $60? That’s too significant and frankly, bizarre, if you ask me. So it’s food for thought. An equivalent strategy would be to label the 2 year plan as essentially a “$239 XSS with 2 years of Gamepass paid out over two years” in an explicit fashion. It would be a marketing fail if that wasn’t the case.

$100 is a lot for some people, and I think that will be fine even if the PS5DE is cheaper.

Btw I’d suggest using different sources - pushsquare are some of the biggest console warring people around.

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I think these prices are what everyone expects so I dont think they do anything

lol people really think MS should code red in reaction to every little thing Sony does. MS still has the most affordable console, and the most powerful console if Sony goes with these prices. And even available financing for them, with top of class services. MS doesn’t need to do anything if Sony wants customers to pay $100 more to use a disc drive.

I think that people are missing a huge part of the picture

Total upfront costs aren’t as important as they once were

All access changed things

They have the cheapest next-gen console and the most powerful next-gen console at the same price as the competition and they have GamePass Ultimate and All-Acmes. Something the competition doesn’t have. Market All-Access like crazy and watch and the fact that all games will look and play better on the X and watch the sales skyrocket.

Wouldn’t that be Sony shafting their users, making them pay 100 dollars more who want to use a disc drive. That’s like forcing people to go digital.

As far as I know I guess PlayStation has a larger traditional media using userbase. So making them pay 100 dollars more would be a dick move. It will work fine in Western Countries but other places it might not work well.

Yes, exactly. So this isn’t some sort of “checkmate” move that Sony can pull.

And that 100 dollars hit wont come cheap for Sony as they don’t have infrastructure for other services in place like Game Pass or some backend services in GameStack like Playfab, Havok, Azure servers where they can have a steady flow of income.

They will definitely have a bigger userbase due to the success of this gen and being an overall bigger brand recognition but if things don’t fly off like this gen for them the 100 dollar hit might hamper them financially in the future as the margin on digital games is not that big to cover 100$s

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Realistically, I am expecting $400 and $500 but the leak as great as it was for Microsoft and the Xbox brand, really screwed up what they wanted to do which was wait for Sony because majority believe that Sony wanted $500 and $600.

As for what Microsoft should do? Nothing. They stay on course. Xbox will do great. If they can snag a third party game for Game Pass day one at release, great but if not, concentrate on 2021 because all four consoles are selling out in November/December.

I’m not convinced of that. I think they were prepared to put this information out, at the beginning of this week, before Sony had a chance to speak - similar to how they released the Series X specs just prior to Sony doing the same for the PS5.

Yeah true but I do believe that Microsoft would have preferred to go last in order to undercut Sony.

They should keep their pricing and just throw a three or six month Game Pass Ultimate card in the box.

The value is truly preposterous.

Why do people keep saying “$100 for a disc drive”?

That’s not what the extra $100 is for

It’s $100 extra as to not render the Digital version completely worthless. No sane person would give up the option of a disc drive and the ability to play their Blu-rays and PS4 discs for the next 7 years for a mere $50. That’s just…dumb

Sony wants you to buy the DE though. $100 difference ensures you have a long hard look at giving up the disc drive. $50 doesn’t.

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:bosmanright:

This.

MS don’t need to change the pricing, but I think they should bundle 3 - 6 month GPU.

I would. Im already all digital, I don’t have any discs for my PS4, and I have two other blu ray devices, so why not save the $50? I get all their games for $10-$20 as it is, messing around looking for a cheap disc somewhere is sort of pointless and less convenient.

Hell if they sold it at the same price I’d probably still get digital only, just so it didn’t look stupid on my shelf with that drive tumor.

That said, I expect it to be $100 less for competitive reasons, and I will gladly accept the discount even if it’s intended to motivate people in different situations than myself.