It's been six long years, but the inevitable has finally happened. People are starting to give away consoles! In just the past few months alone, I have seen three deals in stores where if you buy whatever, you get a free 4 gig Xbox 360. For late adopters and recent red ring sufferers, this is like a godsend. But for guys like me who had to buy TWO 360s, it's kind of scathing.
Just recently, I saw two such deals happening pretty much simultaneously. In Canada, both Staples and Futureshop are both offering a free Xbox if you buy a select brand of laptops. Buy a small computer for $800, get a $200 console for free. Not a bad deal, and it's no a surprise that the Staples site has already sold out of their Toshiba machines. I'm not sure about Futurshop though, who is offering the deal for Samsung buyers. A few months before, Rogers was offering a free Xbox if you do one of their bundles (with Kinect, even, if I remember correctly).
Now I'm not privy to the deals, but I doubt it's truly for free in the sense that Microsoft is just giving them away. I don't know if reimbursements are coming from Rogers, or Toshiba, or Staples or whoever but I doubt Microsoft is just letting retailers or manufacturers use their console without any kind of catch. And even though gamers are getting a very good deal, it's still more of a bait than a windfall. Any core gamer can say that a 4gig 360 isn't at it's full potential without a hardrive (another $100) and a Live subscription ($60/year). An exciting deal overall? Yeah, but just know what you're getting into.
But I seriously doubt late adopters care. All they want to see is probably what the console hype is all about and don't have to pay a penny for it. Microsoft is probably loving the installed base. Sure, they might have 30+ millions of Xbox consoles out in the world, but a million of those didn't have to pay a penny for it, and the machine might not even be out of the box. But if Microsoft just wants the numbers, there are worse ways to go about getting them.
I don't have some super sharp insight into all of this, just a cynical observation that the company who can afford to give away so many consoles also happens to be one with the deepest pockets. Not sure if that's fair. But, before anyone starts feeling sorry for Sony, it's best to keep in mind that they started it.
Remember that Rogers deal? Well, before they gave away 360s, they did it first with the PS3. If the timeline is any indication, it looks like Sony gave their rivals one excellent idea.
But the true winner in all of this? The folks who got a PS3 from Rogers. With no hard drive to upgrade and no subscriptions to maintain, it truly is for free.
My take on Microsoft giving away Xbox360s is just their way of increasing the install base, and trying to reach the "casual gamer", and -- more importantly -- to sell more games.
ReplyDeleteConsoles have always been an expensive investment -- much more now than ever. But I hear that selling consoles have always been a loss to the company -- that every console that's sold is a loss than a profit, because it costs more than the selling price to make it.
Games, on the other hand, aren't as costly, and they can bring a profit. I'd imagine that once somebody owns a console/handheld, the next step is to buy games for it and enjoy/experience it. So... I think right now, Microsoft is "taking the hit", giving out their Xbox360s as a way of reeling in future profit (from future game purchases).
Sometimes, just buying the console is the obstacle between somebody buying a game or even considering it (I know of a lot of people who would-but-won't buy a game because they don't own the console/handheld for it). Once that obstacle's removed, besides financial situations, there is really no excuse.
I hope this all makes sense, lol. I think I went off on a tangent, but oh well.
And I also believe the people who got a free PS3 from Rogers had it good. But I think the offer was for one of their higher-end subscriptions, which may not have made it as worthwhile.
This makes perfect sense. In fact, what you described was pretty much what Nintendo did to get a foothold in the industry back in the NES era. They called it back then the 'Razor and Razorblades Model'. The idea is to sell razors for cheap, or even give them away, and then sell razors at a profit, which is pretty much your idea here. Nintendo took this idea and applied it successfully to games, offering an irresistible package (the console, ROB, a light gun and Gyromite/Duck Hunt and maybe even Super Mario too) for a good price and then make the money off later game purchases by the installed base.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, the Rogers deal isn't that great. If I remember correctly, it's to activate two smart phones on contract. You can easily spend 100 bucks a month for a couple of years just to get a product worth about 300...
Thanks for the comment!
If I didn't have a phone I would have gone for the free console deal. Especially the PS3 deal because you don't see a deal like that everyday :D
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! Because you want a PS3. You KNOW it! :p
ReplyDelete