Play.com have the XBOX 360 for sale at a staggering £399 ! But the estimated retail price in the US is $300!

Amazon, Game.net and Gamestation all have the Xbox 360 listed but with no price details.

So what the hell have Play.com done to the exchange rates and how on earth did Play.com come up with that price, when the actually price has to be confirmed ?

I can't see many people buying them at that price (if it's true) when you can buy a bloody good TV for that!

[Jarrak]

If the official price is less than that quoted Play will amend any order to reflect this, they are probably just hoping to get some pre-orders on the books.

Is there actually a UK release date?
Couldn't be bothered to watch the full presentation that was doing the rounds last week although the High Def video clips of the games look impressive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarrak

Is there actually a UK release date?

According to play (again) the Xbox 360 will be released on 29/11/05. But no word at Xbox.com

[overlord]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewUk

Play.com have the XBOX 360 for sale at a staggering £399 ! But the estimated retail price in the US is $300!

Amazon, Game.net and Gamestation all have the Xbox 360 listed but with no price details.

So what the hell have Play.com done to the exchange rates and how on earth did Play.com come up with that price, when the actually price has to be confirmed ?

I can't see many people buying them at that price (if it's true) when you can buy a bloody good TV for that!

If that's the correct price, It'll kill the Xbox 360 dead in my opinion. I'd pay £299 but not £399. However I think by putting such a high price on their website Play.com have basically covered their arse. It's looks far better for a trader to drop a price on pre-orders than increase it! Don't you think?

---

Last edited by overlord : 29-05-2005 at 08:54.

[ntlhellworld]

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord

If that's the correct price, It'll kill the Xbox 360 dead in my opinion. I'd pay £299 but not £399. However I think by putting such a high price on their website Play.com have basically covered their arse. It's looks far better for a trader to drop a price on pre-orders than increase it! Don't you think?

xbox 630 will be very expensive (its essentially a media center PC), I would think a £499 price tag would be more realistic, possibly with a 20gb hard disk.
-Chris

[overlord]

I'm sure I saw during one of the presentations / interviews with Xboxs' J. Allard. That the console would come without a hard-drive. It would be an add on (with a game pre-loaded on it. Halo 2.5 for example).

[ntlhellworld]

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord

I'm sure I saw during one of the presentations / interviews with Xboxs' J. Allard. That the console would come without a hard-drive. It would be an add on (with a game pre-loaded on it. Halo 2.5 for example).

Yes, it apperas that the hard drive add on will allow you to play xbox1 games and will add support for the media center features, maby a reduced price xbox360 without a hard drive and a higher priced xbox360 with a hard drive will be avalible.
-Chris

[overlord]

From a BBC interview :-

Microsoft drops 360 price.

Microsoft officials have hinted that the next Xbox might cost around $300.
In an interview with financial website, TheStreet.com, Xbox chief J Allard said the Xbox 360 would be "in the neighbourhood" of the first console's launch price. Microsoft went on record to say they won't be pricing Xbox 360 too high as this was a mistake they made with the first Xbox. He said the final cost of the console would be decided in about two month's time.

Personally I think it'll be £249.99 without a HDD and £299.99 with a 20 Gig HDD.

According to Official Xbox Magazine:

Will launch worldwide in 2005.

The price and actual launch packages have yet to be finalised. The basic Xbox360 will ship with 20 GB hard drive, console, and a wireless controller with non-rechargeable AA batteries. Ethernet will be standard but not wireless networking.

The 360 could change regionally before and after launch.

[Shaney]

It should be noted that a few months before the Nintendo DS came out in the UK, Play.com advertised it for £199.99, so I don't think Play.com are too reliable when it comes to prices...

[Smerph]

Stores taking pre-orders have to over-estimate so that in the event of price-changes, they can only lower the price. If the price was hiked up, people would cancel orders and the companies would lose face.

Personally, I think pre-ordering a games console so far away from its release is daft. No console has ever arrived *before* its intended release date, more usually a few months later.

[steven123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smerph

Stores taking pre-orders have to over-estimate so that in the event of price-changes, they can only lower the price. If the price was hiked up, people would cancel orders and the companies would lose face.

Personally, I think pre-ordering a games console so far away from its release is daft. No console has ever arrived *before* its intended release date, more usually a few months later.

Actually those who remember the ill fated Sega Saturn will remember that it did actually arrive a good few months earlier than intended in the UK. June instead of September of 95.

Of course it was a complete disaster and part of what killed the machine.

Personally im just not as bothered about the launch of these new consoles as i was about any of the previous big console launches such as the Playstation/Saturn era or the Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/X box era. I think part of the reason is in my opinion there just isnt the same need for improvement as there was before. Current technology albeit it five years old in the case of the oldest console the PS2 is generally still very impressive in its capabilities, graphics still look very realistic and convincing (look at GT4 if you need a example)

The X Box is still the most powerful console out there at the moment so really Microsoft have the least need to rush out a new console and releasing the system without a HDD seems like a serious retrograde step to me, HDDs are so cheap these days that even after buying just a couple of memory cards you could have bought a HDD anyway.

Having said all that providing the new console is not a complete failure im sure that i will end up owning one at some stage but i have no intention of being a early adaopter.

[sanderton]

The XBox 360 is a high definition capable Media Center Extender with a built in DVD drive. Oh and for the kids it can play some games.

[rfarn@gotadsl.c]

hidef maybe...but then if it cant play hd dvd/blu ray then then hd content is games limited.

price speculation this far ahead is just that speculation. Fanboys can debate the issue as much as they like, but its largely pointless.

[Chparmar]

What kind of next generation Digital Media Center doesn't have Blue-Ray or two 1080p display outputs!

[skoom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlord

If that's the correct price, It'll kill the Xbox 360 dead in my opinion. I'd pay £299 but not £399. However I think by putting such a high price on their website Play.com have basically covered their arse. It's looks far better for a trader to drop a price on pre-orders than increase it! Don't you think?

I personally think that more than £199 will kill it. Recent competitors have struggled to sell their consoles higher when competing against Sony, and I would imagine it would be the same in this case.


If it's substantially higher, most gamers will wait till Playstation 3 comes out and compare, with Microsoft losing out on it's biggest plus point (i.e. coming out months beore the competition)


just my personal view

[Stuart P]

£299 for sure - may get it for £269 if we are lucky but i'd bet on the former

[Giblets]

Just a thought - if it's going to be $300 in the states why don't we order one from there for about £170 and get the games from across the pond where they'll all be half the price too - the only problem would be if you wanted to use the PAL output which kind of defeats the idea of the HD advantage - all DVI and HDCP ports are the same the world over aren't they?

[sjh1402]

i have heard that the price will be around 200 pounds

[Dan27]

It usually works out that if the Americans are charging $300, then we will pay £300. Thats how its been with all the previous consoles released over there and that are released here.

[john newhouse]

if you are budgeting £200 for the 360 then i would suggest you get another hobby . microsoft have said that they want their gaming section to be profitable by 2007. and when you look at the components (and our tax) there is no way they could make more than a £200 loss per unit and still be profitable in the next 2 years.

wishfull thinking is all well and good but i dont think santa will be that good to us.

the only saving grace is that when the (expensive) ps3 comes out, microsoft will be in a position to drop the price and severly dent sony's plans. so in about 12 months time you may see sub £250 prices for the 360 but definately not prior to that.

[frightlever]

The original Xbox came out at over 300 quid in the UK didn't it? Microsoft said that was a big mistake on their part but as mentioned earlier the US price in dollars usually converts to the UK price in pounds. However since the original Xbox came out the exchange rate has changed drastically from about a dollar 40 per pound to around a dollar 80. That gives sterling about a 30% advantage. If we see the £=$ pricing this time round they can go themselves. I would expect to see $300 (US) = £249 (UK) and that's still high.

[ntlhellworld]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntlhellworld

xbox 630 will be very expensive (its essentially a media center PC), I would think a £499 price tag would be more realistic, possibly with a 20gb hard disk.
-Chris

I would just like to point out how stupid this post is now two years on

At least I was right about the size of the harddrive

-Chris