What price are you comfortable with new consoles being released at?

[Aerrae]

Apple markets to the technologically ignorant that pay exorbitant amounts of their money so they can flash their shiny brick as a sign of prestige while everyone who has two braincells to rub together sniggers in the background.

Kind of like how the poorest people spend 200 dollars on their shoes while a rich person will probably just settle for 50 since they know past that point, they're just paying for a stupid name brand that doesn't mean anything.

If sheep are willing to pay 1k for a slow pocket tablet.... well then by all means. I don't even blame Apple for doing it.

[Blue Stinger]

RepentantSky Exactly ! And that's why MS should do the ELite / arcade / core thing again. The X1X proved that some people are willing to spend the extra cash to get a premium product.
My bet is : a $500 console that will basically be a X1X slightly boosted (don't expect much...), a premium version that will cost an arm and a streaming platform that will be "cheap".

[Blue Stinger]

You're contradicting yourself. Because if I forgot to take those expenses in consideration, it only makes my point stronger !
Either it means that MS will not advertise its next console, or not put effort into engineering. At the end of the day, if the console is $500, you can't tell me that the console will cost more than $500 to make.

And why aren't you talking about the iPhone ? https://www.businessinsider.com/how-...7-11?r=UK&IR=T
See, $370 to make an iphone X. Add to that the "hidden costs", how much for that ? We're talking about advertising and engineering the most sought after phone on the market... Can I assume $130 of marketing and what not ? Because it makes $500... just like the price you want your "next gen" console to cost...

Notice something ? No profit !

So, let's assume MS spends 2 times less in engineering and marketing, so they can either make :
$65 of profit per console
or
being $65 more powerful than a smartphone from 2018

See ? You've only made my point stronger. I've only talked about cost of the components and profit and it already looked concerning, with added costs, it's even worse !

So yes I was wrong, because I should have been more accurate to show exactly why I was right.

But I'm willing to listen, tell me why I'm wrong and why a console cheaper than anything else on the market can realistically be better than anything we previously had ?
Because all I'm seeing is basically people not willing to spend more than $500 (again, I'm not willing to pay more either), and denying reality just to make them feel better and less anxious.

And don't get me wrong, I think the Xbox Two will most probably cost $500 in stores. And I can already predict the first Digital Foundry video about it : "Xbox Two underwhelming ?" that will be the title.
Here's the content : 25 minutes of "it's underwhelming" and at the end a reassuring message to make sure they don't piss off the entire Xbox community. (and if the PS5 is $500 too, it will be exactly the same story) Mark my word !

[PriestTroit]

Wrong!

You're only thinking about the material cost and are forgetting everything else from developmental costs to marketing costs, and you're only thinking about costs on the individual unit level. The reason they sell units for so much more than the manufacturing cost is because they either expect not to sell very many or have other significant costs to make up for.

[RepentantSky]

I'm never an early adopter with a console, as in I usually wait a year to get one so a good bundle at the same price as the original which has nothing like that at the start. That said, the prices probably won't change in that year, so I think somewhere around the $500 to $600 dollar range is acceptable if there's a high end version. If not, they shouldn't sell for anymore than the current gen consoles at around $400 and then should depreciate to at least $350 in a years time with a $400 dollar bundle version out there.

[Blue Stinger]

Aerrae Yes, of course ! But consoles are becoming more expensive than PC and even if it's the same price, a PC has more versatility, usages etc. And if you take my "Apple iPhone" example, the real price of the iPhone X is $400, they sell them for at least $1000 so it's $600 of profit.
Let's say that MS sells the Xbox Two for $600 and they take 3 TIMES LESS PROFIT than Apple (so $200) it makes the Xbox Two THE EXACT SAME PRICE AS THE iPhone X !!! (so $400)

Isn't that worrying ?! Your "next gen console" costs the same price as a phone (from 2 years ago...)that most 12 years old girls have in their tiny purse !!!!

I'm not joking btw, the iPhone X cost $400 and their newer model is around $340, you can look this up. And it's a big company buying components in huge quantities for the cheapest price ! So, do you really expect MS to either :
Get better prices than Apple ? Doing substantially better with the same budget ?

And what about the next iPhone ?! Let's assume it releases at the end of 2019 and the Xbox Two as well, and it costs $1499 for the consumer and $750 to make... While MS sells a $500 "next gen" console... Watch one of the last Digital Foundry video about Fortnite on mobile... If you take the screen size in consideration, the portability etc, smartphones are almost on par with the consoles !!!

So again, try to remove yourself from the equation. Try to do the math without thinking about the fact that you're talking about the next cool console that you're going to own. Try not to think about the price you'll have to pay. Really, honestly, do you think a new next gen console can (SHOULD, really) cost as little as 500 or 600 dollars US in 2019 ? And if it's out in 2020 ?!!!

[Aidy]

Wow, such abuse, insults and strawman arguments....you must really know what you're talking about. Y U MAD THO?

[Aerrae]

The difference is that console manufacturers get a FAR superior price for the hardware than us normal customers.That's sort of the foundation of most businesses they get a wholesale price for something and flip it after modifying it in some way to add even more premium.

[Aerrae]

Look my dude, you can't say you're right about anything when you either lack the intelligence or simply the balls to read and debate down my entire post.
This forum doesn't seem right for you, have you considered Tumblr? That seems more your speed.

So y'know. Debate all of my post or don't reply. It's ceased to be amusing and become something of a genuine concern. You can READ yes? Cause there were way more words in my post. You don't get to cherry pick my post and argue the parts that are easiest. Do it right or just keep quiet.

You also seem to have an intolerance of people discussing PC so again, probably not the forum for you. The rest of us are adults here, we can discuss PC and Consoles without flying into a biased rage like you do literally every single time someone says anything even slightly bad about console.

[Blue Stinger]

CONTROVERSIAL ANSWER : ALERT LEVEL 4 !!! You've been warned !

$800 to $900. Why ? Let's take the MicroSoft consoles as an example :

2014 => Xbox One => $500 => disappointing because not a true generational leap
2017 => Xbox One X => $500 => compared to the Xbox One, not a true generational leap. (Yes, I know it was a mid-gen refresh, but pay attention to the $500 price tag)

Though, if we compare the Xbox One X to the Xbox 360, this is a true generational leap. But how much it would have cost to release the Xbox One X in 2014 ? The answer is : more than $500 !

2019 (2020 ?) => Xbox Two => if $500 => PROBABLY disappointing because PROBABLY NOT a true generational leap either.

Now, take the Xbox One X... And remove all the parts you've already paid for when buying the Xbox One... Plastic shell, DVD or Bluray Drive, USB ports, WiFi card, controller etc. So that's $500 minus "the-price-of-those-things".
So, the jump from Xbox One to Xbox One X cost $500 just to get, let's say, a $200 or $300 upgrade basically.

If you have a PC that you want to upgrade, you want $200 worth of additional power, how much would it cost you ? Well, $200 !

Conclusion : to get a $200 upgrade on a PC, you need to pay $200, but you'd have to pay $500 for the same upgrade if it was a console.

Which brings me to my point : The next console NEEDS to be expensive to be impressive, to be a true generational leap. Or, this means that console players will have to pay $170 per year to get specs that start to deviate greatly form their PC counterpart in term of graphics and/or performances. Add to that the fact that the price of the online service, the fact that sales are less numerous and less interesting (in term of price) and you have the-single-most-expensive-way-to-play / year : consoles.

And, ironically, that's why the next console NEEDS to be expensive ! Because this is already expensive and it becomes obvious that we're going to pay $500 for our "next gen" console, be happy for a week or two... and then watch another Digital Foundry video about the Ray Tracings (and/or the next big improvement) will never get and we'll be jealous of PC owners just a few days after starting the "next gen".

So, be careful what you wish for. Do you want the immediate satisfaction to get access to the disappointing "next gen" because you could afford it right away or do you want to pay a premium price to get a real next gen console ?

FULL DISCLOSURE : I'm basically an Xbox fan, I don't like to play on PC. This wasn't some sort of "PC master race" propaganda, this wasn't anti or pro SONY or MS either. This is just how I see things. And honestly, I won't buy the "next gen" if it's cheap for the reasons listed above and if it's not cheap ($800 or $900), there's no way in hell I spend that much money !!! So, be honest with you, why do you want the next console to be around $500 ? Because you'll be able to afford it right away ? Or because you want what's good for the next gen ? Because, an iPhone X cost $400 to make...

Do you really want your "next gen" console to cost the price of an iPhone from 2018 ?!

[Ryan]

Well, they didn't really "force me" to buy anything - and at the time it was actually integrated with the OS, so there was a function to it. That being said, I never was a fan of it anyway. I don't get bothered by that stuff though. When you are an early adopter you commit to the success and failures of the product. It's a risk, but it often pays out well. If everyone stayed away from expensive toys, we wouldn't have cars, phones and computers as accessible as they are today. Or television. Or radios. Or Blu-rays... I think you get my point.

[Merlin]

I'll pay the $500-600 so those that want a cheaper price can thank me later for being an early adopter that helped bring the prices down.

Economics.

except in the case of the Xbox1 because they forced you to buy a spy camera that always watches you.

[Ryan]

I'll pay the $500-600 so those that want a cheaper price can thank me later for being an early adopter that helped bring the prices down.

Economics.

[fenrif]

Honestly that's why I like consoles and hate PCs sometimes. Since consoles don't have legs, they don't try to run away. I got a security system not to keep people out, but to keep my PC from escaping into the wild. It can be quite the hassle.

True, but to be fair you can just cable-tie the legs to the inside of the case and then your PC isn't going anywhere.

[fenrif]

It's not more difficult at all. All you need is a plank of wood, a piece of cardboard, a larger than average book, etc. Basically anything at least the size of a mousemat that is flat.

You don't even need wireless. USB extensions are cheap as chips.