There's fresh rumors of console prices being cut again as we heard into Shopping Season 2003. As the financial world pays more and more attention to the video games industry, we can now expect to hear claims like this every couple weeks. The usual price points are $150 for PS2 and Xbox and $100 for the GameCube. Currently, the PS2 and Xbox are locked at $180 (with an online-ready PS2 bundle at $200) and Nintendo staying at $150.
We've long held consoles to the "give away the razor but sell the blades" scheme. In fact, Microsoft gives away so much of the Xbox that they reportedly lose $100 to $200 on each Xbox sold. So the quickest way to drive Microsoft out of the video game race is to buy a ton of Xboxes... and no games. Hell, go buy Halo. Then you're only costing Microsoft $50 to $150.
What interests me most about these alleged new prices is what in the heck Nintendo is going to do. The GameCube is already the best value going, and that's because they didn't include DVD capabilities or packed-in online peripherals. But Nintendo can't seriously field a $100 GameCube and a $100 Game Boy Advance SP. I love the SP, but it feels much safer to have the portable priced significantly lower than the console. Plus Nintendo makes a ton of money from the Game Boy empire, so I don't imagine they're willing to cut the GBA / GBASP down to $30 and $50.
To further complicate matters, the cheaper Nintendo hardware gets, the better it gets. Not just from a selfish consumer standpoint, but due to the upcoming games roster. Nintendo's push is towards LAN and same-screen gaming in place of online gaming, meaning you either need a lot of equipment or a lot of friends with equipment. What good will Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles be if your pals don't have GBAs? If the Cube gets to $100, I'll put one on every TV in my house, along with Mario Kart Double Dash for in-house LAN bliss. And if the SP gets down to $50, I'll pick up one in every goddamn color, plus extras to give out to all my family and friends. Super cheap hardware makes Nintendo's case for multiplayer Cube / GBA games all the stronger.
But I'm an extreme case. Most people probably aren't interested in setting up a 4P GameCube LAN with four copies of Mario Kart. Which, under this fictional pricing scheme, would come out to $600. $400 for the Cubes and $50 for each Kart. (Plus another $100 or so for a quartet of broadband adaptors, actually.) Unlikely.
But something has to break soon. All this ill-advised rumormongering is scaring sales away, if nothing else. It's price and word-of-mouth that truly drive sales, despite what raving fanboys might say.
