Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

[Mythos]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Why is a bigger hard drive necessarily costlier?

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

The HDD isn't the only difference in the two versions. The 80GB model drops the PS2 Emotion Engine processor.

[Ziero]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

The 80gig PS3 is changing a hardware emulator, which costs money to produce, into a software emulation system which can be updated over time to fix any emulation bugs. As such, losing out on a physical part of the PS3 the prices will start to drop, but right now Sony *loses* money on each 60gig sold. So they feel they should keep the PS2, a consistent moneymaker, in active production with upgrades and additions for as long as they can so they're making up the lost revenue from their current PS3 systems. Unlike the Xbox and Gamecube, which were literally just forgotten by their respective companies, the PS2 is still a viable, profitable system. On top of that, it still has a decent library of new games (God of War 2 is one of the best games out on any platform now imo) with the posibility of Sony 'copying' the Wii's motion control and porting it to the PS2.

Sony is taking a long term approach to this, they're trying to create something that will last a decade easy. Microsoft on the other hand rushed theirs out in order to corner the market when there was no competition and Nintendo basically told every to 'f' off' and went down a whole different path. So far Xbox seems to be winning because of it's massive headstart, and the fanboys ability to ignore a 40% fail rate in the system, but Nintendo and even Sony still have the ability to come out on top. That is until Microsoft throws out it's next nextgen system a year before it should with a myriad of bugs all it's own.

[Manatra]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

I find it funny that people consider the PS3 situation a price drop, when it's the exact same as when the PS3 first launched. Yay for PR spin I suppose?

[jwalton]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Pretty much. I liken it to how the failure rate percentage of the 360 is conveniently increasing each week. The very idea that 4+ million Xbox 360s have failed is pretty damned hilarious. At current rate using arbitrary calculations similar to the ones used to determine failure rates of 360 consoles, I estimate people will be claiming 50% failure rate on the 360 by late September.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

I kinda find it funny that people find the need to spin negativity on something like a price drop. People can look at it in any way they want, but even Sony didn't directly call it a "price drop." Granted, it is a price drop on that particular model, just not the PS3 generally across all SKUs that have ever existed...which is a pretty fickle way of looking at it. Once the 80GB unit drops down to $399 next year, people will be satisfied and should be able to call it a price drop.

And yeah, the 360 situation is pretty ridiculous. The confirmed rate by Microsoft is still alarmingly high, but people love to exaggerate on that one. I think a few websites decided it was a smart move to post unconfirmed reports that 100% of all units were defective in some way.

[Kailea]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Found this...........
Failure Rate: Xbox 360 High As 33% - Sony PS3 & Nintendo Wii Less Than 1%
http://www.ripten.com/2007/07/03/fai...3-less-than-1/

[Ziero]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Pretty much. I liken it to how the failure rate percentage of the 360 is conveniently increasing each week. The very idea that 4+ million Xbox 360s have failed is pretty damned hilarious. At current rate using arbitrary calculations similar to the ones used to determine failure rates of 360 consoles, I estimate people will be claiming 50% failure rate on the 360 by late September.

I got my numbers for the failure rate from a Xbox representitive himself from an E3 interview where it was stated as being between 30 and 40%. It's because the fail rate on that system is so alarmingly, and unprecedetedly high that they extended the warrenty to cover 3 full years, offer a discount to those who have an Xbox that fails post warrenty, created a website for the sole and specific purpose of tracking ones Xbox once it's been shipped back to Microsoft to be fixed after it failed and why they're spending over 1 *billion* dollars to try and repair the 360s that went down.

And as Kailea posted, the other next gen systems barely have a 1% fail rate.

[jwalton]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

No, the one billion covers Xbox 360 warranty over the course of this console generation. The money is not spent yet. Microsoft simply wrote it off as a loss so they don't have it hanging over their head for the next few fiscal years. Conveniently written off for tax time.

Also, that linked article is pretty silly. "My best friend's wife's boyfriend who works at the local Games'R'Us said that half the videogame consoles returned are defective." Yeah, sure. The Xbox 360 is the least reliable console in gaming history to be certain, but 40% failure rate? Come on. If they were that unreliable, no one would be buying them. If there really were 4+ million broken Xbox 360s, Microsoft would be in a world of shit. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and 4+ million people would not be particularly quiet about a broken $400 piece of electronics. Word of mouth is why Nintendo Wii is so bloody successful.

I do have to thank the blogger communities for their sensationalist methods of reporting however, as it got me free warranty, and I didn't have to do a thing. It also kind of saddens me that people don't stop and think about what they're reading or bother to question the material, choosing instead to take things at face value.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Microsoft never gave out any specific numbers, but most retailers and industry insiders seem to be pointing to a failure rate in the vicinity of 30-35%, and that's a number Microsoft hasn't yet denied. That's still not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be, claiming it to the in the 50%-range and higher.

[Manatra]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

How does a costlier hard drive equate to a cheaper system, exactly?

The 80 gigabyte harddrive is actually cheaper. The reason is that not many 60 GB hard drives are manufactured now, whereas there are a lot more 80 GB drives being manufactured due to demand.

[jwalton]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Industry insiders also expected a price drop on the 360 to match Sony's at E3 and it didn't happen. Industry insiders expected the Nintendo Wii to sell like crap, and the PS3 to clean house like Sony's previous two consoles. The reality is that industry insiders tend to do a lot of guesswork like the rest of us, and there has been no official figures on what the failure rate is for the 360. Just a bunch of arbitrary figures by random people taken at face value as some kind of representative for whatever company's store that they work at. Sorry, but I don't take some guy in his early 20's working as a manager at EBGames claiming a 50% failure rate to be a very accurate assessment.

A 30% failure rate would equate to 3+ million Xbox 360s being broken. Sorry, I don't buy it. If a piece of hardware was that unreliable, word of mouth would have spread such news like wildfire, and no one, including myself, would bother purchasing the console. The internet has a habit of blowing things out of proportion.

[Icemage]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

A 30% failure rate would equate to 3+ million Xbox 360s being broken. Sorry, I don't buy it. If a piece of hardware was that unreliable, word of mouth would have spread such news like wildfire, and no one, including myself, would bother purchasing the console. The internet has a habit of blowing things out of proportion.

Sorry, denial doesn't make it not so.

Take a look around any gaming website and post the phrase "RRoD" in an Xbox 360 forum and watch the fireworks. Word of mouth is what started people digging for the truth in the first place. Do you really think Microsoft would absorb a 1 billion dollar future estimated cost if they didn't think they'd actually have to lay out that sort of resources?

Bear in mind; that $1B is for future repairs. It says nothing about the multitude of units that have already undergone repair - some of them multiple times.


Icemage

[jwalton]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

Sorry, internet forums don't make it so either. The supposed numbers and continued success of the console don't match up.

By the same token, take a look around any gaming website and post "Metal Gear Solid 4 isn't going to be a PS3 exclusive" or "Wii is for little kids" and watch the fireworks. We could post controversial topics about gaming all day, but it doesn't mean much. It just goes to show that people love controversy.

And as it turns out, I was wrong. Microsoft did release an official figure, and they said the failure rate is 3 to 5%. People accuse them of lying, but that's sensationalism for you. All it takes is one site to make a sensationalist story, and every other news site on the internet references it and regurgitates the same info. 3 to 5% is roughly 300,000 to 500,000+ broken 360s, and that's a lot. Certainly enough to spark thousands of different people claiming problems with their 360s on various gaming forums, and infinitely more believable than 3 to 4 million broken 360s.

Oh and, $1 billion estimated cost resulted in a considerable tax write-off. Hell, they could have probably gone with $1.5 billion and gotten away with it based on the perceived failure rate of the console. Meanwhile, they still have the money since it hasn't all been spent, and it sits collecting interest. Win-win scenario for Microsoft.

[Ziero]

Re: Pachterdamus: More PS price drops predicted

It's called fanboy-ism.

It is not uncommon for people to have to have their 360 repaired *multiple* times due to it's fail rate. But despite repeated breakdowns, they still play the system and sing it's praises. Microsoft *has* spent millions, and will spend more over the next few years, repairing the system and extending the warrenty. If the fail rate wasn't so alarmingly high, why would they repeatedly increase the standard warrenty as well as put aside 1 billion dollars for future repairs.

No, a tax break is not the reason because they are still losing millions in the process.

If it was 3-5% as Microsoft claims this would not be such a big deal. That is an *average* fail rate of systems. But the Red Ring of Death is common knowledge amongst the tech world and has even made it into mainstream news on more then one occasion. And the 30% fail rate is a number that has become most common because that is the number most researchers obtain while polling retailers.

I've had friends who've had to repair their 360s multiple times turn around and tell me that it was the best system ever and that I should get one. *THAT* is why 'word of mouth' about this problem isn't stopping sales.

Well, at least if you don't consider the fact that Microsoft will be shipping a less then expected number of units this holiday season due to the loss of the extended Warrenty...