Economist Says Xbox One is Too Expensive

Trishbot

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Has there been ANY games that truly, 100% justify the existence of the Kinect?

It just seems weird Microsoft is sticking with it. Even Nintendo abandoned gesture and motion controls after the fad died out.
 

The Lugz

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Trishbot said:
Has there been ANY games that truly, 100% justify the existence of the Kinect?

It just seems weird Microsoft is sticking with it. Even Nintendo abandoned gesture and motion controls after the fad died out.
Has there been ANY [banannas] that truly, 100% justify the existence of the [bananna plant]?

replace those words with almost anything, to see how annoying this question is.
 

kailus13

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faefrost said:
The thing can detect your heartbeat and your enthusiasm for something based on subtle changes to your infrared skin tones. There is not now nor will there ever be a true legitimate gaming need for such technology... but advertisers and marketing people will pay top doller for that kind of information.
I'm not at all interested in the xbone, but I can think of one way a heartbeat monitor could be used in games. Horror games specifically could use it to ensure that you are never calm. Heartbeat monitors are also used in anger management classes.

It's quite sad when using a bit of basic logic classifies you as an expert. Most of the people here could have told you that, and they're not getting paid for it.
 

Trishbot

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The Lugz said:
Trishbot said:
Has there been ANY games that truly, 100% justify the existence of the Kinect?

It just seems weird Microsoft is sticking with it. Even Nintendo abandoned gesture and motion controls after the fad died out.
Has there been ANY [banannas] that truly, 100% justify the existence of the [bananna plant]?

replace those words with almost anything, to see how annoying this question is.
What? Are you daft? Plenty of systems and accessories have the "system seller" that 100% justifies the whole investment.

Games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time fully justified the cost of an N64, just as games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7 made the Playstation a system worth buying.

Halo to Xbox. Pokemon to Gameboy. Sonic the Hedgehog to Sega Genesis.

Games so good they're worth the cost of a system all on their own.

So, once again, what does Kinect have that's so high in quality that it demands you slap down the money for it?
 

SecondPrize

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StewShearer said:
With Microsoft currently pushing the Xbox One and Kinect as essential partners, the idea selling the Kinect as optional is likely something that won't appeal to the company. That said, there are probably more than a few gamers who could do without the Kinect and, as Microsoft has already confirmed <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124447-Xbox-Ones-Kinect-Can-Actually-Be-Turned-Off>it can be turned off, it begs the question of whether or not it needs to be there in the first place.
No. The kinect can only be turned off if the system is off. The article you linked says that. The info dump Microsoft did before E3 said that. All they've said is that the system can be turned off. The kinect cannot be off if the xbox one is on. They said the (kinect) sensor can be paused, but what does that even mean?
 

Jamous

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I desperately hope this bombs. Almost as much as I hope the next CoD bombs. Maybe then there might be a more positive attitude towards consumers after that.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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faefrost said:
He's missing the point. The Kinect is not there for gamers or console owners. It is there to collect usable marketable meta data on users, user habits and most importantly user TV and commercial viewing. Think about it. The thing can detect your heartbeat and your enthusiasm for something based on subtle changes to your infrared skin tones. There is not now nor will there ever be a true legitimate gaming need for such technology... but advertisers and marketing people will pay top doller for that kind of information. They say the Kinect can be turned off. That's not entirely true. It can be turned off when you are not using the console. MS doesn't care about that time. It comes on when you use said console, especially when you use it to watch TV. (TV! TV! TV! TV!)
Smart man. This is probably how they are hoping to make the Xbox division profitable again.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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RandV80 said:
RhombusHatesYou said:
StewShearer said:
"I still think the price is too high," said Rafi Mohammed, an economist and author of The Art of Pricing. "You want to get that console in consumers' hands, and then where you really make the money is off of the games."
Ugh. Can Microsoft, or more specifically the division responsible for the Ecksborks, afford another generation using the Loss Leader model? Personally, I'd say if Microsoft are going to heavily subsidise the Xbone they'd be better off going the route of mobile phones by offering cheap consoles to consumers willing to sign up for an extended XBL Gold contract.

I feel dirty typing that.
I've heard people mention this subscription idea but I don't think they can pull it off in any meaningful way. Xbox Live Gold is $60 a year, a cell phone contract can be that much a month. Let's you sign a cell contract for two years at $50 a month, that's a minimum of $1200 your agreeing to pay them. With their profit margins it's pretty easy to toss in a cell phone for free that likely only has a wholesale value of $50-$200. Two years of Xbox Live on the other hand is $120 total, so unless they want to admit that they have a ridiculously high profit margin on it they could maybe squeeze out $50 at best of the total price. A $450 Xbox One with a two year contract still doesn't look as appealing as a $400 PS4 for anyone who's being price conscious.
Maybe they'll cut some deals with large ISPs for all that broadband people are going to need for the fucking things. :D
 

Lightknight

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You're talking about an extra $100 for a console whose competition is estimated to be 50% more powerful. Of course it's over priced unless the Kinect is $150-200 of the price. Force feeding the kinect isn't much of a justification when some people don't particularly want or need it. As for the services? Are they talking the ability to watch my DVR feed on the XBO for some silly reason?
 

Tradjus

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I'm guessing that the Kinect will eventually be removed from the bundle and the console priced cheaper, but here is the reason why it might not happen. Microsoft -knows- that if it does, if you don't -have- too buy and use the Kinect.. no developer in the WORLD is going too waste time and resources making Kinect games, just like almost none do now, because the Kinect is a piece of garbage. So they'll have essentially wasted every bit of effort they put into it if they admit defeat and don't package it in and make it required.
 

EGtodd09

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Bundling these two products together and preventing the individual sale of either without the other is called "tying" and it's illegal. The issue is MS will claim it's only one product (excuse the pun).
 

Something Amyss

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RhombusHatesYou said:
Ugh. Can Microsoft, or more specifically the division responsible for the Ecksborks, afford another generation using the Loss Leader model?
Depends on whether they make a console that dies due to internal defects.

There's nothing wrong with loss leader. I think it's the other crap they pull that makes it less effective. When you have to spend billions to fix your mistakes, you're probably going to end up not winning. Unless you're taking in trillions, but the gaming industry just isn't big enough to merit that.

Personally, I'd say if Microsoft are going to heavily subsidise the Xbone they'd be better off going the route of mobile phones by offering cheap consoles to consumers willing to sign up for an extended XBL Gold contract.
I don't know the numbers, but keep in mind they did just that with a release of the 360. I can't help but think that if it was successful, they'd be doing it for the Bone already.

The contract model may simply not work here. I do say "may," because I just don't know.
 

The Lugz

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Trishbot said:
The Lugz said:
Trishbot said:
Has there been ANY games that truly, 100% justify the existence of the Kinect?

It just seems weird Microsoft is sticking with it. Even Nintendo abandoned gesture and motion controls after the fad died out.
Has there been ANY [banannas] that truly, 100% justify the existence of the [bananna plant]?

replace those words with almost anything, to see how annoying this question is.
What? Are you daft? Plenty of systems and accessories have the "system seller" that 100% justifies the whole investment.
Correct, and I never said it was wrong in fact it's extremely easy to qualify this statement my problem with it is, it's the very definition of formulaic and you could make that argument about almost anything!
your last sentence there explains what you mean allot better.

I agree it is a complete waste of money in it's current form, it needs a certain something to make it worth it as it only caters to people with money to burn on 'future tech' that isn't really useful like clapper lights and other similar crazy accessories before it it's just not helping the user to the point where it's a necessity, now if they'd made it so the camera tracks the controller and the player, you could have your lag free input and have different postures and character modes by moving the controller relative to you, ever leaned the controller while making a difficult jump in a platformer? imagine if the world tilted when you did.. now that's how to use an accessory like this just use it to augment the controls in a natural way it's possible but it just isn't being done, yet.
 

A Curious Fellow

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They're seriously using the Kinect as a defense for the pricepoint? The Kinect requirement is exactly why I'm NOT buying the console!
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Zachary Amaranth said:
There's nothing wrong with loss leader. I think it's the other crap they pull that makes it less effective.
There's nothing wrong with the loss-leader model, no. It's why every year a new brand of razor with a ridiculous number of blades gets released. It works in the right circumstances.

What I question is whether the circumstances are right for a loss-leader model for game consoles. If the industry hand-wringers are to be believed, used games are going to become even more popular which is a problem for the loss-leader model. Last time the numbers were thrown around and played with I think it came down to every console owner having to buy 5-8 new games a year for the first 3 years of the consoles product life for the manufacturers to break even on the loss-leader model. At 3 years it's assumed that console sales become break even and the console manufacturers can stop panicking over game sales.
 

RevRaptor

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At $650 for the PS4 and $749 for the Xbone in NZ both are way to high to tempt me. I'm gona wait for a while, after a year or so I might be able to find a PS4 around the $500 mark if there?s a sale on or something. I doubt the xbox will ever get low enough in price to be worth buying.
I'm sure plenty of other people feel the same way.
 

Lightknight

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Tradjus said:
I'm guessing that the Kinect will eventually be removed from the bundle and the console priced cheaper, but here is the reason why it might not happen. Microsoft -knows- that if it does, if you don't -have- too buy and use the Kinect.. no developer in the WORLD is going too waste time and resources making Kinect games, just like almost none do now, because the Kinect is a piece of garbage. So they'll have essentially wasted every bit of effort they put into it if they admit defeat and don't package it in and make it required.
They've supposedly made it required for the system and I imagine a non-trivial number of developers have been making games with that in mind.
 

spartandude

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the thing is that alot of people in europe (and especially the UK) have an average smaller houses than in the US, for many people (especially tall people like myself) simply dont have enough room to even use a kinect, so not only do i not want it, need it but im not even able to use it yet they still think i would like to pay for it? not to mention in europe we dont get alot of the TV features they showed off but we still pay more even before tax. The pricing on this is just a joke