Rumor: Microsoft planning to announce Xbox 360 price cut thanks to Falcon

[Zeus]

New information has surfaced on Microsoft's strategy which indicates that the company is planning to slash the price of the Xbox 360 to counter-act the price reduction of the PS3. The whole strategy is known as 'prjoject Falcon' which is a key part of MS's goal to make the Xbox 360 profitable by fiscal 2008.



Microsoft is in the process of qualifying the new Falcon chips and motherboard this summer. I expect it will launch Xbox 360s with the new Falcon innards this fall. That is why the company has been able to say that it has solved its manufacturing quality problems. Microsoft is likely to spend a little more money on heat sinks to make sure that the overheating problem doesn’t resurface with Falcon.

The good thing about the smaller chips is that they will likely be easier to make in mass quantities and they shouldn’t fail as often. Quality should automatically go up. That’s what folks said about the 90-nanometer generation. But the 65-nanometer production process is a known quantity at this point at places such as IBM for sure and possibly at other suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. So rather than fix the problems with the 90-nanometer machine, Microsoft has the easier problem now of getting a 65-nanometer machine to work right. I suspect that is why Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices group, said on Thursday on a conference call with analysts that the company has “its hands around it at the engineering level.”


News Source: <A href="http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/07/microsofts_next_move_code-name_falcon.html" target="_blank">Mercurynews.com</a>

[iratasan]

that's a lot of blah. bottom line: sonys strike is a price reduction, microsofts counterstrike is a price reduction. nothing more nothing less.

[KainXS]

they'd better fix their manufacturing problems first

[{{909}}]

thats exactly what this is KainXS.

It doesnt really sound like the price drop will be possible any time soon if they are coinciding it with the introduction of the new falcon hardware, surely it would take atleast a few months from this stage to getting it to market. Especially if they intend to clear the current 1 or 2 million thats in warehouses and shops first.

[pezjono]

that's a lot of blah. bottom line: sonys strike is a price reduction, microsofts counterstrike is a price reduction. nothing more nothing less.

If they are in fact switching to 65-nanometer chips and focusing more on the heatsinks and are introducing a price cut, than this is much more than blah buddy.
Not only would this knock out the overheating problems, this would increase gaming performance along with making it less $$ which would make it much more of a value.

[iratasan]

If they are in fact switching to 65-nanometer chips and focusing more on the heatsinks and are introducing a price cut, than this is much more than blah buddy.
Not only would this knock out the overheating problems, this would increase gaming performance along with making it less $$ which would make it much more of a value.

if your "if" was a "spliff" we'd be all fu*ked up. :D

i believe it when i see it.

[pezjono]

if your "if" was a "spliff" we'd be all fu*ked up. :D

i believe it when i see it.

Don't get me wrong, I will only believe it when I see it too.

I was just replying to the fact that you downsized the rumor to a mere price drop when there was so much more involved with it.

[ku16610]

Don't get me wrong, I will only believe it when I see it too.

I was just replying to the fact that you downsized the rumor to a mere price drop when there was so much more involved with it.


I severly doubt the consumer will see a price cut ,microsoft are so much in the hole from the returns and warrenty issues that if they dont make some profit they wont ever come out.
even if money means nothing to microsoft.

[Xenogears V]

By now the market 360 is stopped, I believe that by now both a struggle between Wii and Ps3.

[sigma8]

If they are in fact switching to 65-nanometer chips and focusing more on the heatsinks and are introducing a price cut, than this is much more than blah buddy.
Not only would this knock out the overheating problems, this would increase gaming performance along with making it less $$ which would make it much more of a value.
How would it increase gaming performance? Oh you mean by not crashing and dying? Yeah, I guess that's technically an increase in overall performance.

Anyway, they can drop the price all they want, it means less profit to them. Good luck pulling into the black with the repair bills and all. Halo3 better sell big time. They should charge $90 for it. People will pay.

[iratasan]

Don't get me wrong, I will only believe it when I see it too.

I was just replying to the fact that you downsized the rumor to a mere price drop when there was so much more involved with it.

ah, ok.

i even think that they planned everything else mentioned long time ago. i just think that they want to make us believe that they just pulled that out of the hat so that they CAN actually drop the price. they would have switched to the falcon chips and motherboards anyways, but if it was not for sonys price drop they would have just kept charging the same for the console. the better cooling would have been possible long time ago and they did nothing until they were forced to do it.

[snipersnake]

add that cost to the one billion.

so if stringer strips, will moore strip as well?

[daps83777]

well with falcon there are supposed to be making both the gpu and cpu move from 90nm to 65nm. which will get rid of tons of the heat. it could free up enough space to put the power supply inside of the 360 as well. it could even lead to a smaller 360 if ms wanted to take the time to dev a new version.

its very promising and looks like it will be out by the fall. it could be why some regions are experiencing shortages. they have been getting rid of the 90nm 360's so that once the 65nm falcons are ready that all new 360's will be much more reliable and cooler. helping them deal with the failures of the previous versions. and by selling fewer consoles right now it could save ms money from having to warranty these older versions for 3 years that keep failing.

[Jar Jar Insano]

It makes sense that they would do a price drop after Sony cut theirs down to the same price as the 360. Last I checked Sony sold over 100 mill ps2's and Xbox almost sold 25 million. Bottom line is there's a lot more PS "fanboys" out there than there are xbox and with both consoles being same price, M$ is going to have less of an edge over the ps3 in sales. It only makes sense that M$ would do a price cut following ps3's price cut.

[daps83777]

It makes sense that they would do a price drop after Sony cut theirs down to the same price as the 360. Last I checked Sony sold over 100 mill ps2's and Xbox almost sold 25 million. Bottom line is there's a lot more PS "fanboys" out there than there are xbox and with both consoles being same price, M$ is going to have less of an edge over the ps3 in sales. It only makes sense that M$ would do a price cut following ps3's price cut.

last reported numbers i saw had the PS2 selling around 117 million consoles as of the end of march. 87 million of those consoles sold after the PS2 dropped to $199.

the xbox started selling super well once it hit $199 as well. thats the sweet spot for console sales. question is will the PS3 ever be able to hit that mark. because thats the mark the PS2 did alot of its damage. i expect price drops from all of the 360 versions. if they can keep the core and get it down to $199 the 360 will really pick up in sales. and if the wii gets to $199 or lower, well thats just a scary thought.

[felixm477]

that's a lot of blah. bottom line: sonys strike is a price reduction, microsofts counterstrike is a price reduction. nothing more nothing less.
i cant wait to see nintendo's responce if they delve into their price area lol. im praying for a 199 wii or even a 149$ wii lol.

[felixm477]

If they are in fact switching to 65-nanometer chips and focusing more on the heatsinks and are introducing a price cut, than this is much more than blah buddy.
Not only would this knock out the overheating problems, this would increase gaming performance along with making it less $$ which would make it much more of a value.
that would make sense why give a project name to just a pricecut, i think ms is going to add some extras to the pricedrop just to 1up sony

[felixm477]

I severly doubt the consumer will see a price cut ,microsoft are so much in the hole from the returns and warrenty issues that if they dont make some profit they wont ever come out.
even if money means nothing to microsoft.
didnt stop sony from making a pricedrop, and they are in the deepest hole out of all the contenders.

[catfish24]

Do you think MS will drop the price of the 360 a few weeks before 65nm 360's are on the market? It would make sense if they wanted to clear inventory of the 90 nm 360's, but then again maybe they would lose more money. Just a thought.