New 360 SKU in 2008?

I was recently told about some info that J Allard passed onto members of Microsoft's games division about a the 360 hardware situation in 2008. Seems like its Microsofts way of competing with any rising success of the PS3. J Allard complemented members of Microsoft Game Studios on the success of the 360 console and said that there were hardware revisions to be made in 2008. Firstly, the Arcade SKU will no longer be manufactured and any remaining models will be sold off at retail. Secondly, there will only a Pro and Elite SKU, not including any future limited edition consoles, at a price of $299 and $399 respectively. Thirdly are the hardware revisions to both models. Both the Pro and Elite models are to be manufactured with the 65nm CPU and GPU, Wifi will come standard on all new models, hard drives will become standard with a 40gb Hard Drive for the Pro SKU and 120GB for the Elite SKU, extra fans will be added to dissipate any extraneous heat from the CPU and GPU, and improvements will be made upon the current DVD drive found in a number of the current Xbox 360 consoles.

This is just what I heard and is a rumor, I can see it being true though to compete with any growing success the PS3 may have in 2008.

... i just don't understany why they are bringing out so meny SKU'sMikeyspikey0

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[QUOTE="Mikeyspikey0"]... i just don't understany why they are bringing out so meny SKU'sg5velocity

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Sir, I believe that is classified under the category of : TRUE STORY

Competition drives prices lower and quality higher.

It sucks to realize what you just bought may be outdated next month, but that happens in a free market society all the time.

I don't understand why people complain about it so much.

if it is true, then ive just spent like £345 ($690) on an elite and brought the wireless adapter too,for basicly somthing i could of got cheaper... i just don't understany why they are bringing out so meny SKU'sMikeyspikey0

That's how it always is, No need to think "ohh crap" because there is always going to be hardware revisions. You will never get the "best deal" unless you got it for free. So just be happy with what you bought.

Will adding Wifi and 40GB is stupid. Because for the 360 to sell to masses it has be less than $200. That's when consoles make most of their sales. Also, if you saw last months sales the 360 was whooping the PS3's butt by almost 400,000 sales, this is even when the PS3 price dropped to $399. But the wii outsold the 360 by 100,000. Why is the Wii selling other than the new way to play? Because of its price.

So the best thing for Microsoft is somehow get the price down to $200 to spur sales.

Will adding Wifi and 40GB is stupid. Because for the 360 to sell to masses it has be less than $200. That's when consoles make most of their sales. Also, if you saw last months sales the 360 was whooping the PS3's butt by almost 400,000 sales, this is even when the PS3 price dropped to $399. But the wii outsold the 360 by 100,000. Why is the Wii selling other than the new way to play? Because of its price.

So the best thing for Microsoft is somehow get the price down to $200 to spur sales.

LoserMike

Profit matters way more than sales numbers. The 360 and PS3 have a lot more horsepower and therefore the hardware costs more. If they lower the cost too much more their profits will be cut. The Wii can be sold much lower because it's hardware isn't even close to the other two systems. The Wii can turn a profit around $200 while the 360 and PS3 never would.

Simple economics.

Most of that info is either already essentially confirmed or just the obvious trend of console development. Dean Takahashi among others have all but confirmed there is a new MB in the works called Jasper that will bring 65nm GPUs and 45nm CPUs in either late 2008 or early 2009, it would not be shocking at all if they upped the HDD size on the Premium to 40 gigs since there is now so much content and so many games out there with Demos and DLC, and anyone upgrading or in need of a new console will have had 3 years by then to accumulate stuff on their console.

The Wifi is questionable, but if they throw it in, fine. The Arcade going by by isn't necessarily a huge thing either, I think it was a good idea to get in a cheaper core with more value for this holiday season, and sell off a bunch of old stock and older parts on the cheaper console, then when they can afford to drop the premium down to at or nearly at the current price of the Arcade, maybe they don't see a need for the Arcade anymore, just write it off as a limited edition. There are hundreds of those things sitting in most stores, while the Pros are either almost gone or sold out, and the Elite's are almost non existant after the Holiday rush.Maybe the Arcades are not selling very well,so why not discontinue them then.It's a logical move that makes some sense.

The price cut is beyond obvious, it will happen, and it always was going to happen, it was just a matter of when. MS has been saying for over a year now that they believe they need to get the console cost down to around $199 to ultimately hit the sweet spot.

The biggest thing I hope is true, is that news that they plan to improve the DVD drives, because to me, they are the single biggest issue, they have failed on me twicenow, without any overheating or hardware RRoD issues, and they are also the single biggest thing that makes the 360 so damned loud. I would welcome any reliablity and noise reduction efforts on that front.

if it is true, then ive just spent like £345 ($690) on an elite and brought the wireless adapter too,for basicly somthing i could of got cheaper... i just don't understany why they are bringing out so meny SKU'sMikeyspikey0

It is obvious and has been mentioned. It is to compete with the PS3. These options have been available since day 1 on the PS3. Also, I am sure it will help the big M with keeping defective units down.

The biggest thing I hope is true, is that news that they plan to improve the DVD drives, because to me, they are the single biggest issue, they have failed on me twicenow, without any overheating or hardware RRoD issues, and they are also the single biggest thing that makes the 360 so damned loud. I would welcome any reliablity and noise reduction efforts on that front.

Schumi7WDC

I hope this is true too. Everyone talks about their 360 being loud, but I do not find mine loud unless the system is reading data from the disc. When the system is left on or streaming divx video from my computer, or playing multiplayer and the map is loaded it barely makes noise at all.

I just googled "SKU" and apparently it means Stock Keeping Unit. I see console companies using SKU alot lately to refer to their different models they have like the 40GB PS3 Sku or Xbox 360 Elite Sku. Hope this helps.

[QUOTE="LoserMike"]

Will adding Wifi and 40GB is stupid. Because for the 360 to sell to masses it has be less than $200. That's when consoles make most of their sales. Also, if you saw last months sales the 360 was whooping the PS3's butt by almost 400,000 sales, this is even when the PS3 price dropped to $399. But the wii outsold the 360 by 100,000. Why is the Wii selling other than the new way to play? Because of its price.

So the best thing for Microsoft is somehow get the price down to $200 to spur sales.

KC_Hokie

Profit matters way more than sales numbers. The 360 and PS3 have a lot more horsepower and therefore the hardware costs more. If they lower the cost too much more their profits will be cut. The Wii can be sold much lower because it's hardware isn't even close to the other two systems. The Wii can turn a profit around $200 while the 360 and PS3 never would.

Simple economics.

You never learn of the razor-blade model have you? It's what printers do. Sell printers for dirt cheap but jack up prices for ink. It's what videogames have been doing since the NES days. Game companies always lose money on hardware but make it up on software sales. Remember for every game sold by a 3rd-party Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft gets $10 each, more profit of course from 1st-party games.

By having a larger install base, more games will be sold. More games sold=bigger profits.

Competition drives prices lower and quality higher.

It sucks to realize what you just bought may be outdated next month, but that happens in a free market society all the time.

I don't understand why people complain about it so much.

KC_Hokie

At least with console SKU revisions you still know that you can play all the games. Anyone who compains about console SKU upgrades/revisions or outdated consoles has never built a PC just to see it become obsolete in 6 months.

I have been a happy owner of a 360 since Summer 2006, and if I could go back I'd buy it and do everything all over again even if I was armed with the knowledge of the elite/better Pro's/etc. The way I see it, you should just be happy with what you have.

Anything Microsoft does to keep the 360 competitive and ahead of the PS3 works for me as long as they continue to support their fan base.