All Channels
Popular
740°

Microsoft Would Commit Suicide If Xbox Scorpio Is Priced More Than $399 – Pachter

For all the flak the PS4 Pro has been receiving, there's no denying that it has an intriguing price point. $399 for what's now the default PS4 model but with better hardware and additional visual touches to supported games isn't all that bad. That being said, with Microsoft's Project Scorpio aiming to deliver true native 4K and VR, how will it price its next big console?

Read Full Story >>
gamingbolt.com
3502d ago Replies(9)
mad-dog3502d ago

Well good luck with that. It will be hard to price hardware like that at 399 i think.
Not that i would mind of course ;P

Prubar3502d ago

I don't know people say a lot of things. They said the pro controller was to much but it found its audience being a premium product for people willing to pay for it. People also said that the S was being sent out to die because of the Scorpio announcement but it sure seems to be doing fine. I'll take this statement with a grain of salt and take the wait and see approach

RosweeSon3502d ago

Yeah like 5-10% their entire user base, Scorpio is great for the people with 4K or are all about power but we've seen majority were happy with last gen consoles until last year or so. Scorpio is all well and good and more choices great but it's not gonna be cheap certainly not to start with and yeah it's not the console that's gonna push their sales forward massively in the future Xbox one S was that console and I must say I'm a little under whelmed it's slow and man the store is a mess. 1 download at a time can't install patches or discs at the same time... next gen?

saywat2473502d ago

i thought microsoft was already dead.

shiva13502d ago

If anything needs to die then it should be patcher. Didnt he cross his retirement age already?

XanderZane3502d ago

When you make billions in profits every year, it's pretty hard for a company to die. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Angeljuice3502d ago (Edited 3501d ago )

Microsoft are profitable but they aren't Apple profitable by any means.

@Mystogan

Apple are the most profitable company in the world. I know MS aren't in the top 5, don't even think they're top 10 (could be wrong but I only read the first few pages (up to number 5).

never4get3502d ago

PS4 PRO would sell a lot, driving down manufacturing cost for Scorpio. Would Scorpio sell a lot at $399? Time will tell. Scorpio comes with Windows 10? Day One. For College!

Ju3501d ago (Edited 3501d ago )

How can it "drive down manufacturing cost" for a yet released product where MS already cemented the specs 18 months before release? This was a bold move. And not hitting those 6TF will also hit the bad - if that would happen - but totally locks them into a promise not giving them much headroom to play with specs to cost optimize manufacturing. This was almost stupid. They could have left that number out, and be vague but target the best they could get for $399 in 2017 which with almost certainty would have given them a competitive edge over the PS4Pro,

lipton1013502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

PS4 pro is its perceived 1:1 competitor and Sony set the bar early. They're (Microsoft) now in a defensive, reactive position. If it's higher than $399 USD, it will be a flop of monumental proportions.

mad-dog3501d ago

Well, we'll see. You won't hear me complain if it turns out to be 399.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3501d ago
Double_O_Revan3502d ago

Thank you. Took the words right out of my mouth.

sk8ofmnd3502d ago

Thats how i feel about phil spencer

Obscure_Observer3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

So why do you care? :p

UltraNova3502d ago

Hmm lately Phil doesnt seem to be able to shut up, he constantly comments on everyone and everything. Its kinda bad for xbox's image tbh. Make xbox great again with your actions not empty words.

SegaGamer3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

He does like to talk a lot doesn't he ? I don't know why we get so many news articles about what he has to say on here. I mean, who gives a damn ? To be honest, i don't even really know who he is. That is how much i am NOT interested in him.

Obscure_Observer3502d ago

That's the same idiot that once said Xbox One would destroy the PS4. And here we are. Xbox is losing for a 20 million gap.

Now he's jumping on Sony's bandwagon trying to steal some light from it.

The true is: He can't tell sh*&!

donthate3502d ago

I remember when analyst said, announcing Scorpio would kill Xbox One S sales. Turns out, Xbox One S sales has been beating PS4 Slim 3 months in a row in the US, and has also spread to other regions like UK and Australia.

Angeljuice3502d ago

It's still getting thrashed in overall sales though.

shiva13502d ago

@angle

What is getting thrashed? Keep that ps4, slim and xbox one s side by side and check features and support that each system gets. If there's a fire sale then xbox one s would disappear in a second off the shelves....

Still theres plenty of people telling others about DRM which never even existed in the history since day one. So with all the negative media and people spreading lies it survived this much...

donthate3501d ago

Angel:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Xbox was behind in every region, now they are ahead in some regions, next stop, in all regions except maybe the rather nationalistic and discriminatory Japan.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3501d ago
ArchangelMike3502d ago

C'mon man,it's not going to be $399 - not if they really are going to put out a premium 6TB 4K console. They are not going to want to be making a loss on this machine, so they'll price it so they get a nice profit margin, especially when there won't be a proven software line up to guarantee a return on software. You're more likely to see it priced at $449, or maybe even $499. Phil Spencer has come out and said it's a premium console so expect a premium price http://www.techradar.com/ne...

AngelicIceDiamond3502d ago

450 is very reasonable and highly realistic imo. 500 is too much though MS nearly got away with it bundling Kinect and surprisingly selling million units that week. That's when the good story and ends and the sad one begins.

Either way MS knows not to sell it at 500 even if other consoles before it have done it. But 450 is reasonably fair price point.

Whirlwind_Fanfare_083502d ago

2 words: 'Premium console', so i doubt it'll be $450. Know that elite controller?
MS called it a 'Premium Controller'! came out at $149.00! so in my opinion from what i searched on Philly boy
calling the Xbox Scorpio 'Premium', it's not gonna be cheap.

LastCenturyRob3502d ago

True, but I wonder how well it wold have done say it had 12 gig of ram, where it wouldn't have had frame rate and resolutions issues early on... The $499 price point didn't help but I think the resolution issues are what really held up sales in the begging.

sk8ofmnd3502d ago

They could offer 200$ on the xb1s trade in making the scorpio 300 if it was priced at 500.

Obscure_Observer3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

@Angelic

Forget it! A 6TFs machine with 320GB bandwidth (probably GDDR5X) and an unknown 8CORE CPU that may turn out to be ZEN? Bear in mind that Spencer and Xbox team are aiming for balance between Scorpio's components to avoid bottlenecks, so, don't expect to MS to give you all of it for cheap.

399 is fantasy, fiction, illusion or whatever I may call it. This price tag is all but realistic.

Ms are no looking for mainstream with the Scorpio. If the elite controller price is anything to go by. Don't be surprised if the Scorpio's price turn out to be even higher than 599!

Angeljuice3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

@Obscure

"Bear in mind that Spencer and Xbox team are aiming for balance between Scorpio's components to avoid bottlenecks,"

That is exactly what they said about the X1 design. Talk is cheap.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3502d ago
ShadowKnight3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

12GB of memory, new CPU, UHD drive, 6 teraflops gpu which cost a little over 400 dollars (GTX1070). Ain't no way it will be $399, more like $499 imo. If its $399, they will lose money on every Scorpio they sell. Do you truly believe a console that's $399 will play games in Native 4K 60fps with a 6 teraflop gpu? I see Microsoft using the checkerboard technique as well.

freshslicepizza3502d ago

even if its $499 its still going to be quite a bit cheaper than a 4K pc gaming machine and i beleive sony is going to be making money on the ps4 pro which can produce 4k games like nba 2k. in a year from now we all know how technology advances and prices go down.

it's also silly to compare a pc to a console, look at how low the ps4 is in comparable parts yet can produce amazing visuals like uncharted 4 and horizon at 1080p.

ShadowKnight3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

@Moldybread
If the Scorpio is $499 it will be dead in the water because Sony will lower the price of the PS4PRO to $349 and I have to agree with Patcher on this one, even though I don't agree with him most of the time. $500 is to much for a *console* imo and Sony learned their lesson with that price. Last but not least it's going to always come down to exclusive games and not just power. Sony has a lot of games coming out next year. Until Microsoft starts to invest in more first part studios they will be in the same position and that's my biggest problem with them.

donthate3502d ago

shadow:

Which suggests Scorpio won't be $499 doesn't it?

But MS could price it at that if they included a game into the bundle. I mean $100 more than PS4 Pro with a game sounds like a deal to me. Heck, they can bundle a few older games like Gears 4 and Halo 5, and push those to native 4K with HDR! Yeah!!!

TheVigilanteCode3502d ago

"6 TFLOPS!!!!!11" doesn't automatically mean it's Nvidia or it's equivalent in metric. There are no direct comparisons as they're many factors involved in throughput. Basically, both AMD & Nvidia use different metrics to measure their chips' single & double precision floating points in theory. You're looking difference of roughly around 1.5 TFLOPS higher for AMD chips (eg. GTX 1060 4.4 TFLOPS and an albeit slower GPU like the AMD RX 480 with 5.8 TFLOPS)

The Scorpio uses a custom SoC made by AMD. Whatever GPU/CPU is on that die, is up for speculation, but it certainly isn't nvidia, as they're making a custom SoC only for the Nintendo Switch.

Realistically what you're gonna see is an OC'd jaguar or a puma core for the CPU (no way does it come with a zen as it's not even in AMD's roadmap for custom SoC's) and a mildly OC'd Polaris 10 (RX 480 is 5.8 TFLOPS already) to hit that 6 TFLOP mark. I highly doubt that it's gonna be an entry level Vega chip because of the cost associated with it on mass production, despite being smaller. Polaris makes more sense, because it's on 14NM and highly affordable during production next year, to keep the console price at $399 or surprisingly, even lower to match the PS4 Pro then price point, during Scorpio launch. This way they can both, price match Sony and still have a minimal profit on hardware. Just like what the Xbox 360 did.

ShadowKnight3502d ago (Edited 3502d ago )

@TheVigilanteCode

A RX 480 cannot run native 4K 60fps unless it's a crossfire configuration and it still struggles in that resolution. If what you say is true the Scorpio will not be as powerful as people think. I still think it will have the Zen cpu which will make it expensive. If Microsoft sell it at $399 they will sell it at a loss and make no profit unless they don't care about that 😕 :/

@Obscure

Scorpio will still be $499 I can almost guarantee it

donthate3502d ago

Come next year when price is announced, I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised, and a lot of people will have to eat their words! :D

Obscure_Observer3502d ago

@ShadowKnight.

Don't try and compare a console gaming dedicated architecture with PC.

Ps4pro is already running current gen games (NBA, PES and Ni-oh) at Native 4K and you truly believe the Scorpio will run most games upscaled and checheckerboarded?

If you talking about highly demanding games like The Witcher 3, RDR 2, Cyberpunk 2277 or GTA VI, than I would agreed.

But make no mistake, most games will run at native 4K on Scorpio ;)

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 3502d ago
LastCenturyRob3502d ago

I have to agree. My guess is $449 with a slight/small profit per system.

BlackTar1873502d ago

The guts they are talking about make 449.00 not a feesable price imo.

Look Consumer level UHD are 299-399 right now they may be $100 cheaper next year who knows but on those 190 UHD they are not good and upsclae most things. The GPU is in the $300 range for consumers. The RAM is expensive. $399 -449 is just not feesable.

RosweeSon3502d ago

How much is an Xbox one S? They'll never get Scorpio with all this extra power for less than $100-200 more than the Xbox one S currently sells for. Not on launch.

lastking953502d ago

Yea 449 seems like the sweet spot as ive said before.

@ blacktar ms isnt paying consumer prices for those items. 4k blu ray are 400-600 bucks yet xbox s is only 300.

Had an extra $50- $100 worth of specs to the pro how much more powerful would it be? My guess.... 1.8tf more

LastCenturyRob3502d ago

Don't forget MS as well as Sony does not purchase parts at the same cost as retail consumers. They purchase in large volume.The price per part is significantly less than if you or I purchased separately at what ever retail store.

Angeljuice3502d ago

@LastCenturyRob

By the looks of things (and the disagree) some Muppet believes Sony pays retail price for components.

The manufacturer makes the item, it is then sold to a vendor with a profit mark up. The vendor then sells the item to the consumer at an even greater mark up.

If you are buying 10's of millions of units, you won't pay the final mark up and will probably pay less for the initial mark up due to economy of scale.

I know this is obvious to 99.9% of people, but I thought I'd point it out to whoever disagreed with you.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3502d ago
MasterCornholio3502d ago

It will probably do well at 499$.

RosweeSon3502d ago

Yeah it's not expensive for people who change their console every year or 2 or buy a new telly every time HD, 3D or 4K comes around for the other 80-90% us we'll make do with the fantastic games.

Show all comments (189)
60°

Take-Two CEO Once Again Side Steps Grand Theft Auto 6 Price Point

Strauss Zelnick says price of GTA 6 is being carefully considered and that Rockstar is focused on "making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth."

Kuma38d ago

If GTA 6 abandons everything that made GTA 5 great, it will crash and burn right out of the gate. GTA 5 was funny and not at all PC. My worry is that they will cave to the PC crowd and ruin the vibes.

Eonjay38d ago

They got freaking BBLs twerking on the top of trucks for the gram, the freaking Flordia joker, and dude running down the stree in their undies and you are worried about it being 'too PC'? The internet has runied gamers. It doesn't matter how non-PC they make the game, you will all listen to the grifters telling you not to believe your lying eyes lol.

gigoran838d ago

"Rockstar Games’ co-founder and former VP of Development Jamie King said he envisions GTA 6 as a game that’s “maybe not quite as edgy or quite as funny” as its satirical predecessors."

oh yeah, totally internet grifters spreading rumors...

blacktiger38d ago

That's part of the plan, they destroyed you but they need to destroy the shareholders? Only 1 shre holder is the true elite that don't care

1nsomniac38d ago (Edited 38d ago )

Meh.., if it’s above £55 I ain’t buying it.

Rockstar are genuinely not half the company they used to be. I was a die hard GTA fan I’ve purchased every game and expansion and spin off day 1.

My opinion of GTA6 is that I can take it or leave it. Not bothered. They burnt too many bridges.

DaReapa38d ago (Edited 38d ago )

So they're actually leaving the door open for an L.A. Noire sequel? Nice!

VaNdAl38d ago (Edited 38d ago )

He should just come out and say it already it's getting stupid it's going to be a 100 bucks $200 for the special edition🤡🤡; 29315;🤣♿

Storm2338d ago

I won't be getting this game until I can get it for $70. SHoot, I could wait for it to be even lower. I don't need the game that badly as my backlog is still huge and I am enjoying playing other things.

Show all comments (13)
40°

Talking Aliens: The Video Games With Author Mike Diver

Skewed and Reviewed have posted an interview with Author Mike Diver about his pending book on Aliens video games.

70°

Xbox boss: Memory crisis could impact next-gen hardware pricing

Xbox boss Asha Sharma has discussed how component shortages will impact the company's plans for Project Helix.

Read Full Story >>
gamedeveloper.com
Eonjay40d ago

When does this end? Its killing everyone. Consoles and PC. And for what? AI? The benefits of AI are completely outweighed by the negatives. And the government should have never allowed one company to buy up all the RAM.

Lexreborn240d ago

This kind of proves this is an after thought product, most products like this are in r&d 5 years before they start mass producing. So they typically have the cost of components and things worked out long before assembly starts.

This is an assumption still, but I wouldn’t be surprised if project helix is similar to Scalebound,perfect dark and sod3. They had an idea but no actual execution other than concept stage. Being impacted by the ram shortage likely would also put this device 3-4 years out.

I’m not even sure MS has that endurance with Xbox yet

Fishy Fingers40d ago (Edited 40d ago )

I mean.... what?

We're at a point that Samsung wont even provide their own phone department ram because they can sell it at higher prices to 3rd parties (AI). Its more profitable to sell the ram than make their own devices with it.

You think because R&D starts 5 years ago the 3rd party component manufacturers will honour that price? They'll sell it to whomever is paying the most today, not some gentlemens agreement they made years ago. AI farms will buy more volume at higher prices than any console manufacturer will. It'll be the same for Playstation.

Lexreborn240d ago

Contractual agreements are not the same as “gentlemen” agreements. If you think that they work with their distributors a month before production then their entire business model is trash. They work with companies like nvidia constantly for building the graphics cards they need. They work with companies that build motherboards years in advance. This is what proper business planning does.

They are not buying components on a whim like a consumer. So again, considering the ram isn’t a singular module and is integrated into the motherboard I highly doubt they wouldn’t have a final schematic that they are supposed to be building around.

If they are delaying production another 3 years then it’s obvious again this is an after though project and is just trying to be responsive to their bad execution they had the last 14 years.

It also isn’t far fetched to use their failure to produce first party titles the last 7 years including the highly anticipated games I mentioned all being cancelled. That they would continue to you know… lie

Sitdown40d ago

You don't really know how this works huh?

Profchaos40d ago (Edited 40d ago )

Helix is going to be stupidly expensive

Instead of leaning into smarter upscaling techniques they're brute forcing hardware that will cost them dearly and it remains to be seen if it's genuinely going to provide a meaningful differential

I know in the oc.doace people like to brag about not using frame gen or dlss to get to high on a game but for the majority of players they happily use those technologies without a second thought

That's going to be ps6 vs Helix

Eonjay40d ago

Yeah with FSR 5 they should be able to offer a much cheaper version of Helix.

Eonjay40d ago

While this does seem to be the case, I am encouraged by the statement from Microsoft about wanting to provide affordable options. If this means a Series S style Helix, at least there will be something affordable being offered.

XBManiac39d ago

Series S is what has killed Xbox Series so... Will they dare?

blacktiger40d ago

It's called systematic inflationary. Yes we get it Microsoft, keep raising in the name ofall kinds of stuffs

pwnmaster300040d ago

Honestly if there was thing I learned from this generation is that new consoles arnt day one anymore.
I can wait 1-3 years.

DarXyde40d ago

Another important lesson from this generation: while Nintendo showed us that prices don't necessarily need to ever drop, we've now learned that waiting 1-3 years does carry some risk that prices increase. This generation is just bizarre in all the wrong ways.

LucasRuinedChildhood40d ago (Edited 40d ago )

The factors are largely external. Covid and Russia-Ukraine war causing inflation led to the first price increase in 2022.

Then we get Trump's tariffs increasing hardware prices, AI boom causing a RAM crisis, war on Iran causing a worldwide fuel crisis which impacts the cost of everything.

Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum. The last few years have been a shitshow and lot of it was definitely avoidable.

DarXyde40d ago

LucasRuinedChildhood,

For sure. No disagreement on the external factors doing a lot of this. Where I have to gently push back however is on two fronts:

1. The pandemic definitely caused some issues: asynchronous development was a big issue and really complicated timelines and affected game quality. At the same time, when it comes to price hikes, it's really difficult to know what was genuine necessity and what was taking consumers for a ride. The pandemic brought about "stag-flation" which was increasing prices and stagnant wages, which was a problem caused by supply chain constraints. There was also "Greed-flation", where companies that were slightly affected or had no issues took advantage of the situation and squeezed everyone citing supply chain issues when there were none.

2. It's definitely true that the tariffs, AI boom, and RAM crisis were all things enabled by tech broligarchs throwing money at this caricature of a world leader, one of them being Satya Nadella. I don't think Sony and Nintendo have contributed much to this problem if at all, but Microsoft's Nadella I feel was instrumental in causing every one of those issues. Microsoft as a company contributed to both candidates (though they gave Harris 4x as much if I recall), but Nadella was all in on letting AI run wild. He paid for unregulated AI, and got a war that's not a war (even though Trump called it that at least five times on television) that screwed up helium access. So for me, I feel that one of the players in the gaming industry is a key architect of these issues, and for that reason I struggle a bit to think of it as "external".

Show all comments (28)