Microsoft defends $500 pricetag for XBox One

[Yuuki]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-defends-xbox-one-500-price-point-were-over-delivering-value-6410352

We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get. Any modern product these days you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they're going to love it when they use it.

"Thousands of dollars in value"? It's not hard to shut up and let the product do the talking, but MS beg to differ...I mean christ, they're only *just* recovering after the reversal of policies and the last thing they need their higher-ups spouting more bullshit all over again.

While MS have to stammer out a list of gimmicks disguised as applications/services to justify $500, all Sony has to do (once again) to retort is say "We'll give you a more powerful console for $400. Our motion/voice sensor is purely optional". Too easy.

 

[Zeh Don]

The price point difference is basically just "Kinect 2.0" - and it really is the anchor around the Xbone's neck at the retail counter. While it might strike a cord with some, the basic reason it was included was to sell "Minority Report TV" to the mainstream culture... which Microsoft simply cannot do at US$499.00.

This just means it's, once again, the hardcore gaming crowd that's going to have to shoulder the burden of the device until the platform establishes a foothold. With Kinect being virtually useless for any experience that the hardcore crowd are going to be interested in, it becomes US$100.00 that's wasted - and the hardcore crowd are the most educated and savvy crowd, meaning they're going to weigh it up pretty heavily. They're also the least likely to use the TV features, if the reaction to the Xbone's reveal was any indication.

In my opinion, they'd struggle to sell it at US$499.00 regardless. It's just a lot of money to ask for a console - doubley so in this economy. At any price point, Kinect is dead weight in the eyes of many. That's not the image you want when not only are you launching with a high price point, but you're launching weaker hardware at a higher price, surrounded by the worst PR of any gaming console in history.
Microsoft are really going to struggle to sell this thing.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Its the opposite of dead weight, dead weight would be a thing I have no use for (like potentially the light bar in the duelshock 4), this is a spy unit I ACTIVELY don't want in my house

The funny thing is that there is a product Microsoft has which (if it works as well as it was shown) WOULD make me pay more for, the illumiRoom. THAT has potential for me as a customer, the kinect only has the potential to spy on me

 

[Yuuki]

Sony is really looking to appeal to the more "heavy" gaming crowd (not gonna throw around terms like "hardcore" because it almost has a negative implication in recent times lol) not just because the motion sensor BS is optional, but also because at $400 you're getting incredible hardware.

If I was to build a PC from scratch using the PS4 equivalent hardware, it would run me at least $600. And it would look nowhere near as elegant or be as small as the PS4. Throw on top of that the fat load of performance optimization consoles get for running few background programs and direct-to-hardware coding (dedicated gaming machine n' all)...for $400 it's an absolute steal!

But unfortunately neither console has evolved in the controller flexibility department, which makes me very sad. While Sony boast their controller has more accurate analog sticks for first person shooters, ultimately playing a first person shooter with analog sticks to begin with is nothing short of a big joke. Especially for someone who's used to having the accuracy and twitch-aim with kb+mouse and can pull off maneuvers like circle-strafing, A-D strafing, mid-jump glancing, etc with ease. Then there's the other elephants in the room known as the MMO, RTS and MOBA genres - consoles seem to want to actively avoid embracing those genres because they are essentially built upon keyboard+mouse controls, and I don't really get that.

I mean how fucking hard is it to allow plug & play USB mouse/keyboard support in this era? If the multiplayer shooter nutters are going to get iffy about being at a disadvantage to kb/m users, then it's fairly simple to divide the playerbase according to what controls they're using and call it a day. The player populations playing those games are vast enough to allow that.

I'm personally sick and tired of seeing consoles hog something like 80-85% of the player populations of online shooters and I'm stuck with the platform that has the least players, plagued with ghost town servers and empty lobbies. From the very first day the player populations playing the SAME GAME is divided into 3 groups (PS, XBox, PC) and it makes no sense when everyone should be able to play against everyone else.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Sony is really looking to appeal to the more "heavy" gaming crowd (not gonna throw around terms like "hardcore" because it almost has a negative implication in recent times lol) not just because the motion sensor BS is optional, but also because at $400 you're getting incredible hardware.

If I was to build a PC from scratch using the PS4 equivalent hardware, it would run me at least $600. And it would look nowhere near as elegant or be as small as the PS4. Throw on top of that the fat load of performance optimization consoles get for running few background programs and direct-to-hardware coding (dedicated gaming machine n' all)...for $400 it's an absolute steal!

But unfortunately neither console has evolved in the controller flexibility department, which makes me very sad. While Sony boast their controller has more accurate analog sticks for first person shooters, ultimately playing a first person shooter with analog sticks to begin with is nothing short of a big joke. Especially for someone who's used to having the accuracy and twitch-aim with kb+mouse and can pull off maneuvers like circle-strafing, A-D strafing, mid-jump glancing, etc with ease. Then there's the other elephants in the room known as the MMO, RTS and MOBA genres - consoles seem to want to actively avoid embracing those genres because they are essentially built upon keyboard+mouse controls, and I don't really get that.

I mean how fucking hard is it to allow plug & play USB mouse/keyboard support in this era? If the multiplayer shooter nutters are going to get iffy about being at a disadvantage to kb/m users, then it's fairly simple to divide the playerbase according to what controls they're using and call it a day. The player populations playing those games are vast enough to allow that.

I wouldn't discount more MMOs appearing on consoles, Elder scrolls is and Blizzard is putting Diablo onto consoles and I wouldn't be surprised to see a WOW variant on console

RTS is obviously better suited to computer (its been tried badly before) because of the mouse and keyboard issue

I can see why Sony has avoided a keyboard and mouse interface for gaming (you can actually hook them up for navigation to the PS3). Consoles are tied to TVs which means most of us want to be able to play while lounging on the couch and a keyboard and mouse hinder this. Sure I am currently on my couch with the laptop but the mouse playing games like this would mean getting out a mouse pad and external mouse and then finding something hard to put it on which makes it less of a relaxing activity where as if I flick the TV over to the PS3 I can play Bioshock without moving because the controller is self contained

However maybe there is nothing to stop them introducing this down the track, remember Sony uses Bluetooth and already has keyboard and mouse drivers in the current generation so it wouldn't be to hard for them to add that option down the road if they wanted to

 

[Maximum Bert]

Over delivering on value huh well consumers will decide that and they seem to think otherwise. What about the rip off price of the PS3 on launch you could say that was over delivering on value as it was one of the cheapest blu ray players at the time as well as a games machine but people rightly wouldnt pay that much for it same will happen for the Xbox One especially when their competitors have more powerful hardware at a much cheaper cost oh and havent pissed off everybody with terrible PR.

Kinnect needs to go really its not winning many over in fact its doing the opposite and making the console to expensive get rid of it then maybe they can undercut Sony because they really should be selling it cheaper than the PS4.

 

[Terminate421]

Yeah, I'll get it after the first price drop.

 

[Yuuki]

Kinnect needs to go really its not winning many over in fact its doing the opposite and making the console to expensive get rid of it then maybe they can undercut Sony because they really should be selling it cheaper than the PS4.

Hmm I don't know about the whole "Kinect is not winning many over" thing.

As we should know rather well by now, opinions across the internet don't always translate directly to what happens in the real world. There is a large and growing demographic of consumers who have nothing to do with the deeper parts of the internet (e.g. game forums), the most they use their PC's for is Facebook/Youtube. They aren't even aware of the existence of "hardcore gamers" as a thing and any game rated higher than PG13 doesn't appeal to them.

If you don't think they are out there in colossal numbers, the Wii's initial reception should be enough proof that they ARE. I know of two such families IRL who are very happy with their 360 Kinect and will most certainly be buying the XBox One primarily for Kinect. They have very young children and the parents find the Kinect games to be easy grasp and fun to play with their children.

Yes, the internet as a collective scoffs at Wii and Kinect as casual kiddie gimmicks...but to a ton of consumers out there, all that noise coming from the internet is either non-existent or flying completely over their head.
To more experienced gamers motion controls come off as horribly imperfect and counter-intuitive compared to good ol' buttons...but there is a massive consumer-base out there for whom whole motion control gimmick is the best thing ever and the most fun they've ever had with videogames. Show them an XBox/PS controller or anything more complicated than a 2D side-scroller and they'll either run away screaming or express complete disinterest.

Yes, forcefully bundling Kinect and charging extra for something that quite a portion of gamers don't want is a dick move. Needing it to be plugged in for the console to work is an even bigger dick move. I don't get MS's reasoning behind that. If they offered the option to buy just the console without Kinect for $400-430 then a lot of people would be happy, that much is for certain. Such things should always be optional, at least Sony knows it

 

[Tom_green_day]

I'm sure the price is justified- there are many more new features for the XO than for the PS4. However, the XO costs more therefore I shall not buy, it's that simple.

 

[King Aragorn]

I might be putting a 1000$ dollars of value due to the games developed by other companies, not Microsoft. They're pushing a gimmick, The Kinect, on people who don't want it nor care for it. It's increasing the price, and Microsoft are losing due to it. Is it really that hard to unbundle it, and make it a seperate product for people who are interested in motion controls for their console? just look at Sony. a 400$ price tag, no forced device on you.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Kinnect needs to go really its not winning many over in fact its doing the opposite and making the console to expensive get rid of it then maybe they can undercut Sony because they really should be selling it cheaper than the PS4.

Hmm I don't know about the whole "Kinect is not winning many over" thing.

As we should know rather well by now, opinions across the internet don't always translate directly to what happens in the real world. There is a large and growing demographic of consumers who have nothing to do with the deeper parts of the internet (e.g. game forums), the most they use their PC's for is Facebook/Youtube. They aren't even aware of the existence of "hardcore gamers" as a thing and any game rated higher than PG13 doesn't appeal to them.

If you don't think they are out there in colossal numbers, the Wii's initial reception should be enough proof that they ARE. I know of two such families IRL who are very happy with their 360 Kinect and will most certainly be buying the XBox One primarily for Kinect. They have very young children and the parents find the Kinect games to be easy grasp and fun to play with their children.

Yes, the internet as a collective scoffs at Wii and Kinect as casual kiddie gimmicks...but to a ton of consumers out there, all that noise coming from the internet is either non-existent or flying completely over their head.
To more experienced gamers motion controls come off as horribly imperfect and counter-intuitive compared to good ol' buttons...but there is a massive consumer-base out there for whom whole motion control gimmick is the best thing ever and the most fun they've ever had with videogames. Show them an XBox/PS controller or anything more complicated than a 2D side-scroller and they'll either run away screaming or express complete disinterest.

Yes, forcefully bundling Kinect and charging extra for something that quite a portion of gamers don't want is a dick move. Needing it to be plugged in for the console to work is an even bigger dick move. I don't get MS's reasoning behind that. If they offered the option to buy just the console without Kinect for $400-430 then a lot of people would be happy, that much is for certain. Such things should always be optional, at least Sony knows it

Yes it has its audience but these werent repeat buyers thats why the Wii gradually lost relevance these people are happy with just a few games, I know a fair few people who bought Kinnect and I dont know anybody who used it for more than a week and with the Kinnect 2 most people I have talked to and heard have either been hostile towards it or just completely uninterested. I believe the bubble has burst and Microsoft dont want to except it.

We heard all the oh hang on something good will be made for it something down the line with the whole Wii remote rubbish Kinnect and Move and it never materialized as people had hoped. Unless the Kinnect 2 is absolutely mind blowingly amazing I dont think it will shift many consoles especially as its priced a tad higher than the Wii or Kinnect was on its own which firmly places it out of the realms of people picking it up on promise alone.

Also casual gamers rarely buy systems initially or drive sales the Wii hardware was an exception and not something that is likely to be repeated especially at the price of the Xbox One and the negative PR they have garnered.

Really though they can justify the price all they want but its still not very attractive in the face of the alternatives.

 

[samwise970]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/microsoft-defends-xbox-one-500-price-point-were-over-delivering-value-6410352

We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get. Any modern product these days you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they're going to love it when they use it.

"Thousands of dollars in value"? It's not hard to shut up and let the product do the talking, but MS beg to differ...I mean christ, they're only *just* recovering after the reversal of policies and the last thing they need their higher-ups spouting more bullshit all over again.

While MS have to stammer out a list of gimmicks disguised as applications/services to justify $500, all Sony has to do (once again) to retort is say "We'll give you a more powerful console for $400. Our motion/voice sensor is purely optional". Too easy.

I really don't understand how the $500 price point is so bad. Has anybody here tried building a PC recently? I got the parts for my new rig on sale from newegg, and with an i52500k, a geforce 560ti, and 8 gigs of RAM, I'm basically running something not far from the next gen consoles. It cost me well over $500 for that, and when you consider that over the next 10 years I would have to upgrade my PC hardware multiple times to continue playing new games (as console versions are optimized for consoles but PC versions obviously can't be), I don't see $500 as being unreasonable. The new kinect is now one of the only things keeping the xbone from being the xbox 360 2, and when you include that in the price (not to mention tv integration), it seems totally worth it to me.

Anybody who thinks that Microsoft should offer multiple pricing models and an optional kinect, just doesn't understand the videogame industry. To make the kinect actually part of the console product, it NEEDS to be included with every xbone. Otherwise, console peripherals are just that, expensive peripheral objects that nobody develops for. Its happened time and again (downfall of SEGA anyone?), and you would think gamers would understand this.

As far as PR goes, aside from 'hardcore' gamers like us, nobody has any clue what's happened over the past few weeks, and by November, this will have totally blown over.

 

[Poetic Nova]

500 bucks for a glorified TV with gaming as (what looks like) a afterthought? No thx. And I'm fairly sure the dashboard will be full of commercials again. Mandatory Kinect doesn't help either.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

500 bucks for a glorified TV with gaming as (what looks like) a afterthought? No thx. And I'm fairly sure the dashboard will be full of commercials again. Mandatory Kinect doesn't help either.

I do agree with some parts, but then i would only use it for the gaming and as long as they have great games released on it then thats all i need. TV thing and adverts dont bother me that much and hopefully, like 360, you can chose for games to load automatically when you turn on the console. Im not interested in online gaming anyway so im never on my 360 dashboard for more than it takes to click play. But i guess if you do game online, then i guess you would see those dashboard adverts more. But as long as its not to invasive, then its fine, though they shouldnt have adverts if you pay for a gold subscription.

Though 100% agree with mandatory kinect being annoying. Especially as they have yet to say how it will effect you if you dont want to use it. Or if your xbone is in your bedroom and to small for a regular connect to work. I dont want it moaning to be moved to a better vantage point even when im not using it to play games.

 

[Poetic Nova]

500 bucks for a glorified TV with gaming as (what looks like) a afterthought? No thx. And I'm fairly sure the dashboard will be full of commercials again. Mandatory Kinect doesn't help either.

I do agree with some parts, but then i would only use it for the gaming and as long as they have great games released on it then thats all i need. TV thing and adverts dont bother me that much and hopefully, like 360, you can chose for games to load automatically when you turn on the console. Im not interested in online gaming anyway so im never on my 360 dashboard for more than it takes to click play. But i guess if you do game online, then i guess you would see those dashboard adverts more. But as long as its not to invasive, then its fine, though they shouldnt have adverts if you pay for a gold subscription.

Though 100% agree with mandatory kinect being annoying. Especially as they have yet to say how it will effect you if you dont want to use it. Or if your xbone is in your bedroom and to small for a regular connect to work. I dont want it moaning to be moved to a better vantage point even when im not using it to play games.

The ads do annoy me due to having disabled autorun so that I can swap disc while the console is just booted up, seeing an ad half the size of my tv annoys me into infinity.
I do not play online btw, but I have a internet connection to be able to purchase dlc's and arcade games and for the occasional message i receive.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The ads do annoy me due to having disabled autorun so that I can swap disc while the console is just booted up, seeing an ad half the size of my tv annoys me into infinity.
I do not play online btw, but I have a internet connection to be able to purchase dlc's and arcade games and for the occasional message i receive.

Could be worse, MS could go the route like some other website where you have to watch a 1 minute advert before you can watch the video. That would suck, oh know, home im not giving MS ideas.

 

[Poetic Nova]

The ads do annoy me due to having disabled autorun so that I can swap disc while the console is just booted up, seeing an ad half the size of my tv annoys me into infinity.
I do not play online btw, but I have a internet connection to be able to purchase dlc's and arcade games and for the occasional message i receive.

Could be worse, MS could go the route like some other website where you have to watch a 1 minute advert before you can watch the video. That would suck, oh know, home im not giving MS ideas.

*cough* youtube *cough*. Frankly, I do see it happen on the Xbone in the near future.

 

[masticina]

Not the strongest PR I have seen. Okay they haven't shot themselves in the foot this time but yeah I don't see it either.

It is to unsure still, to unclear, I have to to go with Adam Sessler here, WAIT.

And Sony is rather quiet to.. how long will it take for them to roll out what they desire with their new PSN idea.

I am giving nothing to work with here! We will have to wait and see but eh yeah. At least Microsoft didn't shoot themself in the foot again that is something.