Battle of the Consoles: Can Xbox 360 Win the Price War?
Xbox 360 chases Sony Playstation market in Elite console price drop. Can Xbox 360 conquer the seventh generation console market?
The Xbox 360 games console operates as Microsoft’s prime competitor to Sony and in the midst of rising industry speculation Microsoft has confirmed a significant price cut on the high class Elite model of the Xbox 360 console. Additionally, Microsoft is also phasing out its popular Pro model.
The Xbox 360 video games console is available in two formats; the “Arcade” and the “Elite” and is a central player in the seventh generation console marketplace. However, whilst the Xbox 360 boasts an interwoven live service, marrying the multiple media platforms with content streams ranging from movies to game demos; the Xbox 360 has struggled to infiltrate Sony’s market lead with the PlayStation.
Reviews of the Xbox 360 have been mixed. On the one hand, there is clearly a user consensus that Xbox 360 comparatively provides the most comprehensive features to its competitors. For example, Xbox Live enables a multiple online gaming platform, where users can connect with other gamers around the world. Additionally, the console has developed in excess of 1000 games for the Xbox 360 in 2008 alone, leading to a product attach rate of approximately 8 per cent, with the popularity of the Halo and Call of Duty 2 games strengthening the Xbox 360 brand.
Furthermore, positive reviews of the Xbox 360’s multimedia platforms have fuelled Microsoft to launch market specific product attachments. For example, Xbox 360 has partnered with Sky television to enable UK and Irish users of the product to stream online content from Sky television. Moreover, the interactive aspect of the Xbox 360 brand is further being developed through the creation of the XNA community with the XNA Creators Club enabling user generated content.
Notwithstanding the unique features of the Xbox 360 console interweaving pre-existing gaming models within the digitised consumer marketplace, sales have failed to challenge Sony’s lead. Indeed, Microsoft’s gaming division is making a loss. However, whilst Microsoft solely attribute this to deficiencies in its supply chain strategy in the Xbox 360 marketing campaign; positive reviews of the console’s features have been hampered by numerous technical problems with since the Xbox 360’s release date in 2005. Additionally, reviewers have consistently highlighted the inability of the Xbox 360 to stand up to technically to the PS3 particularly as regards hardware proficiency.
Another common problem with the Xbox 360 brand is the problem Microsoft has encountered with retaining development for the product. As such, the technical reliability issues coupled with the problems in getting the product to market at the right time have reinforced consumer loyalty to the Sony PlayStation.
Nevertheless, it has been reported that 2009 has seen a healthy sales increase of the Xbox 360, however overall the gaming industry has been suffering. Therefore as a prelude to the holiday season, Microsoft unsurprisingly announced a price cut, which may spark the game console war Microsoft is hoping for to entice the customer base of PS3 and Nintendo Wii. Microsoft has now cut the price of the Xbox 260 Elite by $100, effective this week.
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