X box 360 price announcement

[Eomer]

Don't get anything less than 720p, otherwise it's not even considered HD.

And I agree with you about the price argument, so long as a console is costing less than a 800 bucks, it's a much cheaper games platform than any PC. Show me a PC that you can buy that will play the latest and greatest games 3 years down the road, and I'll show you a system that cost 5 grand to build.

[Drajakur]

I think the issue is that in order to play the next generation of upcoming games (eg. Oblivion) you are almost definately going to have to invest in an SLI-type PC setup. That, however, is really quite an incredible expenditure for many people. Considering that a single decent PC card costs as much as the whole console system, I wouldn't be surprised if more people start making the switch to the new XBOX. It's just getting too expensive to stay on the cutting edge of PC technology.

Me and my friends are pretty dedicated PC gamers (we have Xboxs but only use them occasionally) but have pretty much agreed that the we'll give the 360 a chance before investing another 2-3K in newer game rigs.

D

[Cryptin]

When they announced the pricing package the X box forum was a clusterfuck. I couldn't believe alot of people were expecting to get the $399.00 deal for a $299.00 price. Ya its a $100.00 more than the expected price but we're talking about a next gen system. The GPU alone is worth $300.00. Hell 4 to 6 years (average life span for a console game) from now when they announce the next system after this one expect to pay $500.00 or more.

Originally Posted by potam

And just derailing the thread a bit: can anyone recommend a good LCD TV? I think I want 720p minimum, and it has to be pretty cheap (I'm a poor college student). There was a nice Philips 30" I saw for $799, but I can't find it now.

Potam you may want to look at this model. Its a good HDTV for that price but its not a LCD model. It processes at 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i and displays a 16:9 widescreen. Only problem with LCD HDTVs that you gotta pay out the ass for them to get the best quality picture.

[Cryptin]

Originally Posted by Drajakur

I think the issue is that in order to play the next generation of upcoming games (eg. Oblivion) you are almost definately going to have to invest in an SLI-type PC setup. That, however, is really quite an incredible expenditure for many people. Considering that a single decent PC card costs as much as the whole console system, I wouldn't be surprised if more people start making the switch to the new XBOX. It's just getting too expensive to stay on the cutting edge of PC technology.

Me and my friends are pretty dedicated PC gamers (we have Xboxs but only use them occasionally) but have pretty much agreed that the we'll give the 360 a chance before investing another 2-3K in newer game rigs.

D

Exactly man. I have an AMD64 3200, X800Pro, with a gig of PC 3200 RAM and my system is considered a mid-range one. I'm not upgrading my PC for the next 2 to 3 years. It's getting too damn expensive especially with the latest GPU cards coming out, you can easily drop $500.00 for one. Then we're not talking about the mobo and ram. That's easily $1200.00. Many companies are coming out with these new gaming engines and it forces you to upgrade just in order you can play them. Imo $400.00 is not bad price so you can play games for the next 4 to 6 years w/o a single upgrade.

[Itzena]

Really stupid idea.

Either games will be mostly developed assuming people have the HDD (etc) - in which case the cheaper one is crippled, or games will be mostly developed for the crippleBox and they more expensive one is worthless.

[Nakilos]

I won't buy it unless I see some fucking amazing games. I bought my Xbox on a friends recommendation, I mean yea its a shit ton faster compared to PS2, but I can count the number of decent games for the Xbox on one hand, and even to this day I haven't seen any new games that even tempted me to rent them, let alone buy them. Last game I rented was Bard's Tale, and I returned it the same night, and haven't rented anything since.

Considering my Xbox is just my DVD player now, I wish I had got a PS2. At least it had a good bit of games worth playing.

[Jubee]

Originally Posted by Nakilos

Considering my Xbox is just my DVD player now, I wish I had got a PS2. At least it had a good bit of games worth playing.

You'd think that. Except my PS2 is only used as a dvd player and it springs up "Disc read errors" on brand new dvd's. Console games are pretty much garbage compared to the PC market. Halo and KoTOR are the only console games I didn't regret spending money on this generation (I own PS2, XBox and a GC. No fanboi remarks kthx.)

[Nakilos]

Well the only games I liked on the Xbox was KoTor, Halo 1 and 2, and Ninja Gaiden. 4 games, and only 1 was the genre I enjoy the most, RPGs. At least in the RPG department, monstrosities like Sudeki, KoToR 2, and Fable really left something to be desired.

I think if I liked FPS or sports games more I'd probably be more satisfied with the system, but Madden 94 with better graphics doesn't exactly get my dick hard.

[dak]

Consoles are for potheads and frat boys.

[Iannis]

I have an xbox. Otogi games are nice too. They're purdy.

I wouldn't get an xbox360 until I see a game worth buying for it. This does not include NFL 200*insertcurrentyeardigithere* games. The 360 looks like it'll be pushing those xbox Live bullshit games though.

[Burf]

Also, can anyone tell me the difference between the graphics cards in the XBox360 and the PS3 vs a modern PC graphics card? Why does a PC graphics card cost $300+, but you can get the whole console for $300-400 (with a graphics card that does HD, etc).
Are the PC graphics cards really THAT much better, or are we getting scammed via some invented price-point?

[Szlia]

Originally Posted by Jubee

You'd think that. Except my PS2 is only used as a dvd player and it springs up "Disc read errors" on brand new dvd's. Console games are pretty much garbage compared to the PC market. Halo and KoTOR are the only console games I didn't regret spending money on this generation (I own PS2, XBox and a GC. No fanboi remarks kthx.)

A good question would be what did you spend money on then?

[Iannis]

I would have to say PC video cards really ARE that much better. Morrowind looks like shit on xbox. Hopefully the 360 will be a great leap upwards and Oblivion won't look like poo too.

Well, compared to those screenshots I see of the PC version of Morrowind. I keep meaning to take this into a gamestop and trade it in for credit...sooo not good.

I only got it because i was lazy and wanted to lay on the couch while playing games :/ without old EQ raids my butt lost its incredible resilience to constant sitting!

[Kiksar]

Originally Posted by Burf

Also, can anyone tell me the difference between the graphics cards in the XBox360 and the PS3 vs a modern PC graphics card? Why does a PC graphics card cost $300+, but you can get the whole console for $300-400 (with a graphics card that does HD, etc).
Are the PC graphics cards really THAT much better, or are we getting scammed via some invented price-point?

The XBox 360 will be running on some form of ATI's next generation card (the r520 chipset, possibly to be known as the X900) and the PS3 will supposedly be running on some cracked out version of their 7800 tech. I'll guess they'll be at 256m memory for both, but I'm not sure it's been announced yet.

When it comes down to it there are differences, but the core tech of the new consoles will be very similar to this next generation of PC cards. To the best of my knowledge the pricing is based on a few factors, such as the obvious deals between Microsoft/Sony and whoever is manufacturing their hardware, but the manufacturers need to make their profit while the company releasing the console usually takes a pretty big hit. So in short, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will likely be selling you their consoles for a good bit less than it cost them to make at launch, and over time their production costs will even out so they don't have to take losses on the consoles. Games are where the money's at though, it's plain and simple.

[Aulirophile]

Originally Posted by Kiksar

The XBox 360 will be running on some form of ATI's next generation card (the r520 chipset, possibly to be known as the X900) and the PS3 will supposedly be running on some cracked out version of their 7800 tech. I'll guess they'll be at 256m memory for both, but I'm not sure it's been announced yet.

When it comes down to it there are differences, but the core tech of the new consoles will be very similar to this next generation of PC cards. To the best of my knowledge the pricing is based on a few factors, such as the obvious deals between Microsoft/Sony and whoever is manufacturing their hardware, but the manufacturers need to make their profit while the company releasing the console usually takes a pretty big hit. So in short, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will likely be selling you their consoles for a good bit less than it cost them to make at launch, and over time their production costs will even out so they don't have to take losses on the consoles. Games are where the money's at though, it's plain and simple.

Is Sony letting someone else manufacture their hardware for the PS3? So far, even when they've subcontracted out R&D on certain components, they've always done their own manufacturing, which is why they sell consoles at a profit. A huge profit in fact, according to their stock reports, heh.

http://www.actsofgord.com/Proclamations/chapter02.html

History of console pricing and the myth that all consoles are sold below cost. PS2's are sold at roughly a $100-120 profit according to the 2000 and 2001 Sony stock reports. Sony likely reduces price based on the fact that hardware gets cheaper so they can comofortably maintain the same profit margin. As long as they are price-matching the competition and making a profit while the competition is losing money, why cut your profits down?