Thanks to finely tuned hardware and massively successful launches, Microsoft and Sony have the luxury of starting to think of reducing their prices. For people who are holding out for an affordable next-gen console come 2014 may need to rethink their desired timeline that they want to use to take the plunge.
The current month’s Xbox One and PlayStation 4 launches have given Microsoft and Sony a reassuring and definitive answer to the question mark that looms over high-end gaming for the living room. This means that until one of them begins to aggressively undercut another, we are not likely to see options decrease in cost until we are well into the life cycles of the devices.
Colin Sebastian, a Baird Research interactive media analyst, said that they would certainly reduce the prices of hardware as a result of the demand issue. For instance, GameStop has about 30 million members for PowerUp Rewards that are not dormant gamers, and they were only making a prediction of six million total unit sales. This was the combined PS4 and Xbox One sales and the growth amount that 2014 held.
During launch, the demand issue was nowhere in sight. For instance, when in the month of November of 2006 Sony made a debut of PS3 in United States – for an unappealing 599 dollars and the following year when Microsoft released Xbox 360 – the console made sales of a paltry 197000 consoles in the first fortnight. Eight months later, Sony went ahead to reduce the price of all its gaming consoles. Move seven years down the drain and the change can be said to be eye-opening. In Canada and the US, Sony sold a staggering 1 million PS4 consoles in less than 24 hours.
The company is not alone in its success. The launch of Xbox One by Microsoft – albeit in 13 international markets – may not have a similar strength as Sony’s the previous week, but it also experienced more than one million sales and surpassed by far the sales of Xbox 360. At every major retailer, both consoles have now been sold out.
Even though the launches have been the cause for celebration for the health regained by console gaming, the main issue that every fence-sitting consumer must grapple with is the best time to make a next generation dive. Unfortunately, since Microsoft and Sony have had such ‘out-of-this-world’ launches this time, it is highly unlikely the PS4 or Xbox One will be privy to some discount at the common six or eight month mark that is favored by manufacturers of struggling systems.
It is quite evident that the both new consoles will not have any official price cuts until the spring of 2015. This was a forecast done by Matt Mathews, who is the game industry analyst known for his works in Gamasutra, during a CNET interview. This statement is true according to historical occurrences.
The Xbox 360 was launched in November of 2005 to a warm reception. However, it did not see a drop in price until August 2007. Even then, the drop was a measly $20 on its high and low-end models, and $50 on its models in the middle-tier. All the same, the Nintendo Wii launched at a price of $249 in the month of November 2006. As a result of the strength of the sales, it did not reduce its price for almost three years. It ended up outselling all of its competitors by units in the tens of millions and broke the sales record of December after it made its price cut in 2009.