Why are today's consoles so much more expensive @ this stage than last..?

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tony1221

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#1 tony1221
Member since 2010 • 26 Posts

Than last generations?

For example: The current Xbox 360 is 5 years old, and the cheapest costs $200. When the original Xbox was 5 years old, it was dead! So ok, when it was FOUR years old, I believe it cost $149.99.

$50 dollar difference maybe not that much but still more expensive.

Now the current PS3: The cheapest PS3 after being 4 years old costs $299.99. When the PS2 was 4 years old, I'm not sure but I think it cost $179.99.

$120 dollar difference!

Now the current: The cheapest and only Wii costs $200 and is 4 years old. When the Gamecube was 4 years old it cost $99.

So the Gamecube was half the price of the Wii in this stage of it's life!

Why is this generation of consoles so expensive compared to the last?

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mrmusicman247

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#2 mrmusicman247
Member since 2008 • 17601 Posts
This crazy thing called inflation...
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LordRork

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#3 LordRork
Member since 2004 • 2692 Posts

Development and production costs. Sony and MS poured so much money into the consoles, often making a loss on each sale for some time, that reducing the price just isn't a viable option for them yet.

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Nintendo_Ownes7

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#4 Nintendo_Ownes7
Member since 2005 • 30973 Posts

It costs more money to manufacture the current systems then it took to manufacture the last generation systems.

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tagyhag

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#5 tagyhag
Member since 2007 • 15874 Posts

The current generation consoles cost more to produce?

But that doesn't mean the consoles will cost more as the generations come, The Atari 2600 was $199 at launch. (Without adjusting inflation), the 3DO was $699, the Saturn at $399, etc.

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Phoenix534

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#6 Phoenix534
Member since 2008 • 17774 Posts

The dollar is worth less now than it was even five years ago.

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adamosmaki

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#7 adamosmaki
Member since 2007 • 10718 Posts
$150 dollars 5-6years ago are equivalent to about $200 nowdays so no actually is about the same ( maybe slighlty more expensive )
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jrhawk42

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#8 jrhawk42
Member since 2003 • 12764 Posts

Do you remember the start of this generation? $400 xboxes, and $600 ps3s... I'd say the prices have scaled correctly. As far as consoles being better tech, and costing more to manufacture it's all BS. Consoles are more expensive because consumers are willing to pay more for them.

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darth-pyschosis

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#9 darth-pyschosis
Member since 2006 • 9322 Posts

The PS3 was taking a loss per unit forever, so they need to maximize any time with a profit per unit margin.

The Wii and 360 are selling much better than the Cube and Xbox, you only drop price when you need to move units.

I'd expect Sony to actually take the price drop lead in 2011, where as MS kept dropping the 360's price, because since Kinect sells so well MS can use it to keep the 360 at $200-$300 for a lot longer, whereas a $250 PS3 price would help it.

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HaloinventedFPS

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#10 HaloinventedFPS
Member since 2010 • 4738 Posts

Wii has the same hardware as a Gamecube, 3DS's hardware is a joke (PSP is better), 360's must cost like $50 bucks to make now, if that

nothing to do with inflation, more to do with people are happy to pay

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theuncharted34

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#11 theuncharted34
Member since 2010 • 14529 Posts

Wii has the same hardware as a Gamecube, 3DS's hardware is a joke (PSP is better), 360's must cost like $50 bucks to make now, if that

nothing to do with inflation, more to do with people are happy to pay

HaloinventedFPS

kind of. The core clock speed of the wii has increased by 1.5 of the gamecube's clock speeds, and the wii has double the ram of the gamecube.

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HaloinventedFPS

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#12 HaloinventedFPS
Member since 2010 • 4738 Posts

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

Wii has the same hardware as a Gamecube, 3DS's hardware is a joke (PSP is better), 360's must cost like $50 bucks to make now, if that

nothing to do with inflation, more to do with people are happy to pay

theuncharted34

kind of. The core clock speed of the wii has increased by 1.5 of the gamecube's clock speeds, and the wii has double the ram of the gamecube.

funny, shows how stupid people are

going around saying how cheap the wii is, but its really a rip off

going around saying PS3 was a rip off, when it was a bargin (if you have a 1080p screen of course)

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carljohnson3456

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#13 carljohnson3456
Member since 2007 • 12489 Posts

It costs more money to manufacture the current systems then it took to manufacture the last generation systems.

Nintendo_Ownes7
Yup, and not to mention, this generation has a few more years left. They're gonna use the price drops to boost sells when needed.
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omho88

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#14 omho88
Member since 2007 • 3967 Posts

As far as I know, all the big three can slash the prices for as much as 50-100 $ and still make a profit ( not sure about Sony) ........ They are just greedy, as long as the console sells well and the demand is high, no need to slash the price.

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ActicEdge

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#15 ActicEdge
Member since 2008 • 24492 Posts

Higher base price plus moderate sales equals general steady decrease in price. All the prices have scaled correctly besides the Wii.

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AdobeArtist

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#16 AdobeArtist  Moderator
Member since 2006 • 25184 Posts

I don't think inflation has anything to do with it. First and foremost, the consoles of this generation started at a higher launch price (except for Wii) with Xbox360 at $400 and PS3 at $600. You might think inflation contributes to the higher costs from last generation, but from a historical viewpoint, the old atari and original NES systems cost considerably more for much less performance. And that was costing higher way back in the late 70's and early 80's when most other things like jeans, a steak dinner, and a litre of gas were cheaper.

The other major difference between this and all past generations, the SKU factor. All previous consoles had only a single model that progressively dropped in price as expected with depreciating technology. What once was new and cutting edge becomes old and by extension less valuable.

But X360 and PS3 started with two SKU's, and intead of remaining fixed in their configurations, the manufacturers kept on upgrading the specs of their systems, keeping a near level price point, while phasing out the older models that ould have rapidly dropped in price. Sure we've seen the prices drop, but today's 360 and PS3 sport higher spec standards than their original launch models, so the decrease was much more gradual than what happened in past generations with fixed system models.

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Snakemaster9

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#17 Snakemaster9
Member since 2010 • 1420 Posts

I don't think inflation has anything to do with it. First and foremost, the consoles of this generation started at a higher launch price (except for Wii) with Xbox360 at $400 and PS3 at $300.

The other major difference between this and all past generations, the SKU factor. All previous consoles had only a single model that progressively dropped in price as expected with depreciating technology. What once was new and cutting edge becomes old and by extension less valuable.

But X360 and PS3 started with two SKU's, and intead of remaining fixed in their configurations, the manufacturers kept on upgrading the specs of their systems, keeping a near level price point, while phasing out the older models that ould have rapidly dropped in price. Sure we've seen the prices drop, but today's 360 and PS3 sport higher spec standards than their original launch models, so the decrease was much more gradual than what happened in past generations with fixed system models.

AdobeArtist

PS3 didn't start at $300, didn't it start at $600 or something. And didn't xbox start at 500? or was it 400.. Forgots.

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AdobeArtist

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#18 AdobeArtist  Moderator
Member since 2006 • 25184 Posts

^^ yeah I realized my typo and corrected it. 360 launch price depended where you lived. $400 in US, and $500 in Canada, when there was a wider gap in our currency, but now they sell for the same.

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YoYo278

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#19 YoYo278
Member since 2006 • 432 Posts

BEHOLD THE POWER OF INFLATION:

USA inflation:

2004: 3.1%
2005: 3.5%
2006: 3.3%
2007: 2.9%
2008: 3.9%
2009: 1.5%
2010: 3.1%

(Figures vary significantly from source to source, but the average per year is roughtly 3.2%)

150*(1.035)*(1.033)*(1.029)*(1.039)*(1.015)*(1.031) = $179.3


But the Xbox mega price-slash happened a year earlier than that! In Easter 2004, where it went down to $150 and stayed. Which in todays money is about $185

So realistically we're arguing over $15 - $20 more, but obviously the most important factor here is that demand for 360s is hella stronger.

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JohnF111

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#20 JohnF111
Member since 2010 • 14190 Posts

Development and production costs. Sony and MS poured so much money into the consoles, often making a loss on each sale for some time, that reducing the price just isn't a viable option for them yet.

LordRork
Basically this, although MS don't make losses they did pour something like $6bill just to enter the market and then multi-millions of advertising to make people buy their stuff, Sony put all their money into development and nothing into advertising(compared to MS) and so are slowly being drowned in the console race.
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GreenGoblin2099

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#21 GreenGoblin2099
Member since 2004 • 16988 Posts

Give videogames a break and take a read:

economy

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SakusEnvoy

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#22 SakusEnvoy
Member since 2009 • 4764 Posts

Inflation isn't the reason. That wouldn't explain why PC hardware prices are cheaper than ever.

It comes down to 2 things.

1. This generation of hardware initially cost more to manufacture than that of previous generations. Although PC gamers will often vehemently point out the outdated hardware in the PS3 and 360, those two systems were essentially high-end PCs back in 2005. They required an unprecedented amount of power to run (for a console) and used relatively cutting-edge CPUs/GPUs.

Think of where a PS2 was in power relative to a gaming PC in 2005. It was not close, and it was not pretty. The gap between a gaming PC today and a 360 is simply not as large.

2. But today the PS3 and 360 are both being sold for a profit. The answer at this point is sales. Simply put, people are buying the hardware in large numbers at their current price points. The Xbox 360 and PS3 have performed much, much better than the Gamecube and Xbox 1 despite retaining higher price points, therefore making price cut adjustments less desperate.

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dotWithShoes

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#23 dotWithShoes
Member since 2006 • 5596 Posts

I don't think inflation has anything to do with it. First and foremost, the consoles of this generation started at a higher launch price (except for Wii) with Xbox360 at $400 and PS3 at $600. You might think inflation contributes to the higher costs from last generation, but from a historical viewpoint, the old atari and original NES systems cost considerably more for much less performance. And that was costing higher way back in the late 70's and early 80's when most other things like jeans, a steak dinner, and a litre of gas were cheaper.

The other major difference between this and all past generations, the SKU factor. All previous consoles had only a single model that progressively dropped in price as expected with depreciating technology. What once was new and cutting edge becomes old and by extension less valuable.

But X360 and PS3 started with two SKU's, and intead of remaining fixed in their configurations, the manufacturers kept on upgrading the specs of their systems, keeping a near level price point, while phasing out the older models that ould have rapidly dropped in price. Sure we've seen the prices drop, but today's 360 and PS3 sport higher spec standards than their original launch models, so the decrease was much more gradual than what happened in past generations with fixed system models.

AdobeArtist
I wouldn't really call a upgrade in harddrive size to be "higher specs".. The 'specs' are the same pretty much from beginning to end.. bar the HD size(and wifi on both the ps3/360.. No, not all ps3's have WiFi).
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gamer620

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#24 gamer620
Member since 2004 • 3367 Posts

Than last generations?

For example: The current Xbox 360 is 5 years old, and the cheapest costs $200. When the original Xbox was 5 years old, it was dead! So ok, when it was FOUR years old, I believe it cost $149.99.

$50 dollar difference maybe not that much but still more expensive.

Now the current PS3: The cheapest PS3 after being 4 years old costs $299.99. When the PS2 was 4 years old, I'm not sure but I think it cost $179.99.

$120 dollar difference!

Now the current: The cheapest and only Wii costs $200 and is 4 years old. When the Gamecube was 4 years old it cost $99.

So the Gamecube was half the price of the Wii in this stage of it's life!

Why is this generation of consoles so expensive compared to the last?

tony1221
This is probably the most popular generation of gaming seeing an entirely new audience flock to the medium, there is no need to lower the prices, especially with no sign of new hardware on the horizon. 4 years into the life of the Xbox, new hardware had already been announced, hence the price drops.
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BigDaddyPOLO

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#26 BigDaddyPOLO
Member since 2005 • 2251 Posts

This gen has a longer lifespan, like a lot longer.

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LOXO7

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#27 LOXO7
Member since 2008 • 5595 Posts
Because.. of the DS. Kids are spending less and less time outside.