The guys at kotaku say retailers got an advice from M$ that the Xbox (not 360) is being discontinued. Today I spoke to my game distributor and he informed me that Microsoft has officially discontinued the Xbox 1.0 today. It seems as though M$ has no intentions to keep their predecessor around and make it a bargain console like Sony did with the PS1. But then again, they never said they were going to. Now this is a bitch: my Xbox died not too long ago and since the X360 backwards comp. is a piece of crap (I CAN PLAY BARBIE BUT NOT PANZER DRAGOON, WOOOHOO!) buying another Xbox was kind of an option, buuuut I was waiting to a redesigned (ex: smaller!) version to give my 149$ away. Anyways, I wonder if they would stop game production too...
Why would M$ want to keep xbox 1 around when they just launched 360, doesnt make much sence to me, how about you? The backwards team is on a month long vacation, and since LIVE is due for a fairly large patch im sure alot of xbox 1 games are part of that as well.
That has been debunked since this morning, they are on a month long vacation, and ign has that on there site as well.
Thinking about it, i have to question exactly what was meant by MS' statement. If they're saying they aren't producing any more Xboxes, the who really cares. They have well over a million in the distribution pipeline, most of the componenets haven't been produced in over a year. Unless they're saying that they won't SELL any more xboxes, which i don't believe to be the case. There are still plenty of big names comming for the xbox... Black (which i just finished playing, it's pretty awesome), Godfather, Medal of Honor: Airborne Assault, Angels over the Pacific (I REALLY want to play that), and more that i can't think of right now because i'm late for work...
Luke at Kotaku just got something from M$ ''Our plans for the Xbox version 1 platform remain unchanged from what we discussed last year at E3. We expect to continue to sell Xbox V1 consoles well into CY2006. We have more than 800 Xbox games in the portfolio today with many more being added in the coming years. Xbox V1 is a great value for consumers and we expect to continue to see good demand for the platform in CY2006. We don’t provide details on our console manufacturing plans for either the Xbox version 1 or the Xbox 360.'' Leaves some areas in the shade, but atlest they havent forgot about it.
There are plenty of systems both new and used in retail stores and through secondhand avenues like eBay. Why should MS bother producing another million fresh consoles when the emphasis is now on the 360? There's enough supply out there to keep demand sated, and an analyst once said that MS was unwilling to sell regular Xbox below the $100 mark due to the number of parts used in production of the console.
Because in the United States, bargain products are a viable market. Do you really think everybody who plays video games can afford a 360? There is a HUGE bargain market and people in lower income demographics that would buy an old model xbox (new in the box, but at a reduced price) Microsoft is basically saying that thier xbox line is a PREMIUM product and will not be lowered in price ever. It similar to what APPLE/MAC does with thier products. "Don't you want to be a cool rich kid/adult too, buy APPLE products and show everybody that you are" I can't say that it is a bad move on microsofts part, but it does reveal the direction that videogames are going. Sony and Microsoft want thier products to be viewed the way BMW and Mercedes are in the US. Limit the production of the product which will then increase demand and price. Oh, well I guess I may never own the original xbox. Is it really? Everytime I go into costco or best buy etc the most expensive bundle on the shelf is the original xbox. I have yet to be tempted by this so-called value, I know many people were not satisfied with nintendo GC but you sure can get a lot of system for $100 USD. PS2 has the library to justify almost any price, but I can't say the same for xbox.
In aplpe's defense (said typed from an iBook) the systems don't get lower, just upgraded but kept at the same pricepoint. For example this time last year an iMac was ~$1k, and gave you a 1.6GHz processor. Today it is still ~$1k, but now gives a dual core 2GHz processor. This model unfortunately can't work for a console, as you can't just increase the speed and sell at the same price, so the 360 can't be a premium product in the same vein as apple computers are. Finally, It's Apple products, or Apple Macs, Not Apple/Mac products. In the same way you don't say Microsoft/Xbox products. Sorry for that moment of pedanticism.
The differance there, is that nintendo still made money on every console they sold. Microsoft will never pull a profit from a single xbox. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to stop the hemoraging.
The problem with apple is the middlepoint: the ipod is way too expensive for a music player (if you compare it with discman and flash MP3s) but is cheap enough for almost anyone to buy one. Is like those small mercedes benz car in europe: a lot of people bought them cuz they wanted a MB but they couldn't pay the price of a C class. With videogames is different cuz the kind of shallow people that buys the ipod dont play games and the gamers from 18 to 35 that can pay high prices dont care about the bling-bling, they prefer to spend money on rare items. If the X360 wanted to appeal to a higher market it should cost like the NeoGeo did at the time: 600 and up.
I know, but I dont mean "OMG! I just got a M2!" like some guys here (no pun intended) but like the guy who had a NES back in the 80s and today he works in some company for less than 30k a year and prefers to spend it in online services instead of a souped-up car or an overpriced apple computer.
I take the statement that "Well into 2006" means that the Xbox 1 will be discontinued sometime in 2006. It makes sense. If you've got two products that do essentially the same thing you end up competing with yourself as well as with other companies. It's different with things like Mp3 players or dvd players, you can have several different models and expect to sell a certain amount depending on your customer's income level. The thing is the content is cross compatible, as in a dvd will work in any dvd player no matter who makes it or what model it is. But a game system doesn't work that way, if you have a cheap version and an expensive version that does more stuff, one of the two sells less, and one of the two will end up going away. The game publishers will support whichever one has the largest installed user base, whichever platform makes the most sales. Like back in the early 80s with the Atari 2600 and 5200, the 5200 looked better but cost more and didn't have as large a library, and ended up being phased out. But if support were dropped for the older machine it might have caught on more. Or the 15 different models of 3DO that all had different capabilites (some with video cards built in, some without, etc) Problem is they all ended up competing with each other. So it comes to a parent going to the store to buy a game system for thier kid, they see one that is $145 and has 800 games, then another one that is $399 with 50 games. Which one do they get? They get the cheap one. Doesn't matter that Jr. says the other one is ten times cooler and all the kids at school are going to laugh at him. You'll play the damn system or you don't get one at all. But if they see the Xbox 360 all new and shiny with tons of cool games, then the Xbox 1 in the corner with a "Reduced- 50% off" sticker on it and games that came out 6 months ago, they might be tempted to spend the extra cash and get the new one. Which is how the transition worked with Nes-Snes-N64-GC, Ps1-Ps2, all the Sega systems, etc.
Dunno, I saw in a documentary that about 40% of the visits to theme parks in america were due to kids pissing off their parents. Anyways, I think the problem is that X360s assembly costs are lower than those from the Xbox
