Why does game hardware never fall in price anymore?

[recursivelyenumerable]

I told myself I'd buy a PSP when it fell below $150, but it's sure taking its sweet time.  And why is PS2 still over $100 at retail?  grumble grumble

[Rman]

I told myself I'd buy a PSP when it fell below $150, but it's sure taking its sweet time.  And why is PS2 still over $100 at retail?  grumble grumble

Those are Sony's most profitable machines.  Why would they cut the prices of those machines when they are bleeding money on the PS3?

[recursivelyenumerable]

they're not getting any profit from me if I don't buy them!

[demi]

jerk off into a cup and make some quick money

[Bocsius]

Because nobody is making any money except for Nintendo.

[littlemathletics]

Pretty sure the 360 is profitable, actually. Or it was, anyway.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Pretty sure the 360 is profitable, actually. Or it was, anyway.

It is but I think that they want to recuperate the losses of the past several years.  I thought it was $6 billion that MS has spent overall on both systems.  I could (and probably am) wrong about that but I do know that it is in the billions.

[littlemathletics]

MS have been pretty good with price drops, anyway.

[Bocsius]

MS have been pretty good with price drops, anyway.

Nice joke.

[littlemathletics]

360 is $100 less than a Wii here. I'd say that counts as being pretty good with price drops.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

You're in Australia, right?

[littlemathletics]

Yeah.

[Oblivion]

Pretty sure the 360 is profitable, actually. Or it was, anyway.

It is but I think that they want to recuperate the losses of the past several years.  I thought it was $6 billion that MS has spent overall on both systems.  I could (and probably am) wrong about that but I do know that it is in the billions.

It was more around $4-$5 billion iirc.

And I'm pretty sure MS is indeed making a profit on the Xbox division now. Though, enough to make up for that gigantic deficit? I don't think that's ever gonna be possible.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

[littlemathletics]

Shouldn't take longer than 10 or 15 years, I wouldn't think.

[Oblivion]

Oh and to answer the op's question:

Nintendo doesn't need to, Sony isn't able to, and MS doesn't want to.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

One thing to point out is that the Wii has a high resale value.  So once you're done beating Mario Galaxy, you could probably sell the thing for $225 or so or higher if you sell it around the holidays.

[littlemathletics]

Even the games retain a distinguished mentally-challenged amount of value.

Well, the Nintendo ones, anyway.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

It amazes me that Nintendo doesn't have a Player's Choice type thing this gen

My mouth is hanging agape right now

[cool breeze]

what's amazing is that the Wii cost $250

I still can't believe people think that's a good deal when you get pick up a Gamecube for about $15

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

The Wii is ridiculously overpriced for what's there but the way it's selling you really can't blame Nintendo for not lowering it.  The public is eating that shit up at $250 and in many places quite a bit higher than that.  The DS is in the same boat.  There's no incentive for them to reduce it.

I believe the 360's price would've been lowered a hell of a lot faster if it wasn't for the RROD tsunami.  It probably set them back from lowering the price by a year or so.

The PS3?  Pfft.  Well, at least it's not 600 bucks anymore.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

Actually youd have to start raising the price until it gets to the point where it doesnt sell out every month.  Ultimately, consumers decide what theyre willing to pay.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

The wii would be worth $250 if it had more light gun games. Where the fuck is Time Crisis?

Buy 200,000 copies of HOTD and maybe namco will notice.

[littlemathletics]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

Actually youd have to start raising the price until it gets to the point where it doesnt sell out every month.  Ultimately, consumers decide what theyre willing to pay.

I think you missed the point there...

[Rman]

It amazes me that Nintendo doesn't have a Player's Choice type thing this gen

My mouth is hanging agape right now

Nintendo said their done with Player's Choice.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

Actually youd have to start raising the price until it gets to the point where it doesnt sell out every month.  Ultimately, consumers decide what theyre willing to pay.

I think you missed the point there...

No I get it.  Wii is a technological piece of shit yadda yadda yadda what a scam bla bla ad nauseum.  The wii is desirable to alot of people, if theyre willing to shell out the money and it happens so every month since launch it sells out, whatever a hardcore (lol) thinks is moot. If all people wanted was a gaming machine why didnt 360 come out on top after the price drop? "Value" means different things to different people, and the wii apparently offers something they cant find on a cheaper console.

[Bocsius]

You still missed the point.

[EmCeeGrammar]

It amazes me that Nintendo doesn't have a Player's Choice type thing this gen

My mouth is hanging agape right now

Nintendo said their done with Player's Choice.

Iwata pretty much figured out that alot of people just wait on pricedrops. You have to wonder how many potential new customers theyre losing.  Im sure new customers would be willing to try mario/prime/brawl if they dropped to 30 dollars after the initial sales rush. Endless Ocean is budget priced and is the #10 selling wii game this year.

[AdmiralViscen]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

Actually youd have to start raising the price until it gets to the point where it doesnt sell out every month.  Ultimately, consumers decide what theyre willing to pay.

I think you missed the point there...

No I get it.  Wii is a technological piece of shit yadda yadda yadda what a scam bla bla ad nauseum.  The wii is desirable to alot of people, if theyre willing to shell out the money and it happens so every month since launch it sells out, whatever a hardcore (lol) thinks is moot. If all people wanted was a gaming machine why didnt 360 come out on top after the price drop? "Value" means different things to different people, and the wii apparently offers something they cant find on a cheaper console.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that geriatrics want a gaming machine. I don't know why we should care about geriatric non-gaming.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I wonder how long it will be until the Wii's price drops to a point that it's worth buying.

Actually youd have to start raising the price until it gets to the point where it doesnt sell out every month.  Ultimately, consumers decide what theyre willing to pay.

I think you missed the point there...

No I get it.  Wii is a technological piece of shit yadda yadda yadda what a scam bla bla ad nauseum.  The wii is desirable to alot of people, if theyre willing to shell out the money and it happens so every month since launch it sells out, whatever a hardcore (lol) thinks is moot. If all people wanted was a gaming machine why didnt 360 come out on top after the price drop? "Value" means different things to different people, and the wii apparently offers something they cant find on a cheaper console.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that geriatrics want a gaming machine. I don't know why we should care about geriatric non-gaming.

As long as there enough people buying the wii at its current price so that it sells out, it is never going to be inline with what Guybrush and many others want in terms of cost.

Most of the detractors knew exactly what they were getting themselves into away, yet guilty of buying the system for maybe one or two games.

[AdmiralViscen]

Incorrect. Nintendo struck a fine balance of gaming and nongaming with the DS, and there was no reason for me to think they couldn't do the same with Wii.

I don't think any Nintendo fan predicted that Nintendo would release all of 3 actual games for the thing in 2008, and that's why their defense of it is so poorly formed.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Yeah but even the effort from Nintendo on the DS has taken a slide since 2005 or so.  Still haven't seen games from them on par with Mario Kart DS or New Super Mario Bros.  Even their amount of training games have taken a slide.

Nintendo just seems content.  As long as they're making money off of every system sold, enough of their software is selling enough (which probably doesn't have to be much), and still collect royalties from third party software, I don't think they really care.

Still, Nintendo will probably put out another Zelda on Wii.  I'd love it if they made a Mario Galaxy 2 but I know that just won't happen.

[AdmiralViscen]

I don't think DS' slide started until last year. Wasn't 2006 still pretty strong? 2004 sucked and 2005 was pretty good, I remember that following through most of 2006.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Yeah.  I guess NSMB came out in 2006.  Either way, Nintendo isn't putting out the quantity or quality of games for the DS like they have been 2004-2006.  Nintendo is just getting lazy in general.

[Human Snorenado]

Different hardware configurations and bundles are the new price drop.

Yup.  Remember the scorn that the Artist Presently Known As Arcade was greeted with?  (Guilty as charged, by the way)  Now it's probably the most popular 360 system sku.  Of course, having a bunch of different configurations hasn't worked out so well for the PS3.  Wii obviously doesn't count because it's not a video game system.