The Big Bad Console Thread - Sway your Station with an Xboner !

What you said is that Microsoft ignored Japan. Microsoft did no such thing. They tried to have success in the japanese market and failed. The first time horribly and the second time badly. That's encouraging for the third time!


Oh and I know it's a temporary name, but:

I said they started ignoring it after the first couple years, not that they ignored it entirely. Did you miss the part where I said they released a bunch of JRPGs the first couple years and it was no contest that the X360 was a better platform for it? Do you even read bro?

Microsoft fostering the Xbro image

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Please, I hope they continue to do so... and that they get all sorts of exclusive 2015 madden achievement avatar hats...

And I hope they are successful, in that market, but giving Sony a reason to court other types of gamers.

The only way I picked up the Xbox 720 at launch is if Killer Instinct 3 is a launch title. It is the only compelling first party IP they have that would warrant a system purchase form me. That's also if they don't turn it into some sort of stupid Kinect fighter. Fuck Kinect right in the ass.

Sean_sl said:

Btw Cor, this article says that Nintendo had a positive net income for the last fiscal year:http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...disclosed.aspx

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Yes, because of the currency changes with the Yen.

If you want to judge the success of a company, you need to look at their operating income, not their net income, as the operating income gives a much more accurate picture of the company's performance and health.

Tuco_sl said:

I know virtually every payment plan has this, but 72% of users subscribing to a payment plan that's 1.6 times the lowest cost? Incredible.

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Yeah, it's crazy, right? My jaw hit the floor when the owner of the product told me.

At first, he only offered the upfront $127 option, but he eventually introduced the monthly pricing option in a bid to improve conversion rates. Through split testing and further optimisation of the product's landing page, he was able to slowly increase the numbers and shift all the focus onto the monthly payment option.

Obviously this wouldn't work with every type of product, but it's a good example that shows how poor general consumers are at doing maths and handling their money.

I recommend giving this article a read; it's very interesting -http://conversionxl.com/pricing-expe...an-learn-from/

So the subsidized one is $40 more over 2 year? That's not some crazy amount for getting it in your hands RIGHT NOW. I get that it's smarter to buy up front, but $2 a month isn't something that's going to make you avoid the product until you can save up another $200 to afford it.

I'm curious BTW, does the $499 version come with 2 years of free Live? Because otherwise.....yeah.

He said it was just his speculation that it would be $10/month, which seems abnormally low to me. Lease-to-own contract crap like that usually fleeces you for a hell of a lot more.

Yeah and I can't imagine any way that version ends up cheaper than the full one, which it would at $10 a month if you have to pay that same monthly for the full one. Just speculating based on whatever baseless rumors pop up latest, just like the rest of the thread.

I've actually been thinking about that quite a bit. At first, $10 seemed a little too cheap, but I'm slowly coming round to the idea.

Microsoft wants an Xbox in every living room. They want people's lives to revolve around them. To do that, they need to get as many people as possible to buy in to the device.

What will happen is that people will buy the subsidised Xbox and they'll happily pay $10 a month without a second thought. Then, when their two years are up, they'll continue to pay the $10 a month because they'll have forgotten that it's optional/they're too lazy to cancel. Microsoft then has a subscriber paying $10 a month for a period of 5+ years.

A few years ago, I used to promote an online product using a rather innovative twist. If people bought through my affiliate link versus someone elses, I'd refund 100% of the total cost of the product after 180 days. All they had to do was email me their receipt and paypal address. Surprisingly, only 2 in 100 people would remember to email me and ask for their rebate. This was a $297 product, too, so it was hardly an inconsequential sum of money.

Consumers have really short memories. If Microsoft convinces people to pay for Xbox live for two years, they'll probably continue to pay for it for the rest of their lives.

Wasn't the PS3 originally like 600 bucks at release?

I think that was their biggest problem in establishing a user base.

I went through four 360's in the first two years and outside of the first purchase, I didn't pay for any of them. Microsoft replaced all my consoles for free of charge, even paid the two day shipping. If not for the fact Microsoft did that I wouldn't have looked back after the second one. They rightly so get a bad rep for having such a high failure rate but they paid for it as long as the customer knew to call. All they had to do was go the Xbox website and all the information was right there. It was even on the front page for a long time so it's not like Microsoft tried to hide it.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if Microsoft introduces a 100 dollar lease plan with the new Xbox. The box isn't what makes them money, it's the Live service that makes them money. The more people with a box the better and that 499 lease plan isn't going to sell boxes. That plan is for people that have already decided to buy one. An extra few dollars a month isn't going to break people when they want the two year sub and like to have a little more cash to purchase games with on release day. Microsoft is going to try to give that box away and then take a huge cut for every purchased done on Live.

Eyashusa_sl said:

Wasn't the PS3 originally like 600 bucks at release?

I think that was their biggest problem in establishing a user base.

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Main reason why I never got a first gen PS3.

Rumor: Next Xbox Gives Publishers Control Over Always-Online Features

Sounds more reasonable as a way to appease publishers. Could be a fustercluck still.

American's love their payment plans so that will be a hit. Might be enough to save them from the other stupid decisions. People are fucking stupid here.

The rest of the rumors, well, I really don't know what the hell they are thinking. Although I've been saying that about large parts of all their major initiatives lately. Take a good idea and some how fuck it up as been their SOP since windows phone / metro was first announced.

Xianthe_sl said:

$600 was also why I didn't get one. Had it been more reasonable during that time frame I would have gotten it.

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Their plan to win the blueray/hd war definately worked so I am guessing they at least came out even for the lost early PS3 sales

ganthorn_sl said:

Their plan to win the blueray/hd war definately worked so I am guessing they at least came out even for the lost early PS3 sales

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I actually think that was a good definition of phyrric victory - as it turns out, the winner of the blu-ray war got to have the market take a shit on them. I'd be amazed if they ever break even on the blu-ray war front.