I’ve been thinking about the game of ‘who goes first’ with regard to pricing and pre-orders between Xbox and Playstation. Whilst I think earlier in the piece it made sense from Xbox to try and get Sony to break cover and go first I’m now of the opinion that Xbox have little to lose in getting the ball rolling.
Reasons:
Xbox’s early hardware announcement caught people by surprise as did their power - they captured some early mindshare that probably if we are honest has now been conceded somewhat.
Microsoft are not necessarily bound by ONLY selling hardware - therefore their price will presumably be as low as they are prepared to go - since they want to drive gamepass and therefore will one assumes want the lowest boundary to entry possible - for both the high end of the hardware market and the cheaper end too.
Sony seemingly are going hard for exclusive content - if Sony want to undercut Xbox and take a big loss on their hardware then they will one assumes be running at considerably lower margins for a long part of the generation. But that is their issue and frankly given how aggressive they are - it wouldn’t surprise me.
If Sony are able and prepared to go super aggressive on price - then what would Xbox do? Price is not fixed - you can easily reduce it if you choose or throw in better incentives to make up the value - longer gamepass free period for example. I don’t think Xbox are as tied to a single box price as Sony are and therefore, they may as well set the bar.
The scenarios if you go first are either you are cheaper and grab lots of headlines and of course capture attention just by going first. OR you are more expensive, but in this case Xbox has the ability to tweak the value via gamepass and of course demonstrating the power of their console.
Waiting for Sony to me only really seems an advantageous position if you’re prepared to substantially undercut them - and given their digital version - it seems unlikely to me that Xbox will be able to do that with the SX at least. And if there is £50 either way - I’m not sure it will change the conversation an awful lot. Xbox will still point to value and power. Sony will still point to their ‘exclusives advantage’ and the worst case scenario is that nothing actually changes. Which is probably in any case the most likely scenario anyway.
Not saying the Series X will be $400 but if they are willing to go that low, they should just do it. It would then put pressure on Sony to answer with a similar price and I’m sure they’d prefer to lose as little as possible on hardware.
Yeah, this is another thing to consider. MS will likely be taking a loss on both systems but they will be more willing to lose more on the Series S since that will be the more mainstream device where more people looking for the premium system will be more open to a premium price point.
Of course MS has the money to take large losses on both systems to really stick it to the competition but they probably don’t want another OG Xbox or 360 situation on their hands.
Based on what? Past generations? Past generations had at least a few titles to showcase new hardware. They’re pushing hard on cross generational games. There just isn’t anything for anyone to drop their One or One X and upgrade. By the time there is, they’ll probably flock to the S.
I don’t think so. The people queuing up at launch to buy a console won’t buy the S. Is how I see it. Nor many early adopters, it might do well at Christmas. Then I think it will pick up seriously holiday 21 at least relative to the X. I think the whole cross gen thing is overblown. If you want to play Halo in 4K on next gen tech you will need a series X. The core will want that. And Assasins Creed at best quality possible etc…
I think Microsoft wants Sony to know that they plan on undercutting them regardless of what they announce so please don’t announce something too low that we’ll both lose our shirt on. Sony still isn’t sure if Microsoft is bluffing and have done their best as the counter puncher.
Funny thing is, you could announce something, let your competitor announce something, then change it again right after. Unprecedented but we live in unprecedented times.
