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Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

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Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#51

Post by 650 »

rustcleaner wrote: post #39
inigyou wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they've been explaining away inflation for decades by averaging housing with electronics. Yes your rent has tripled, but your TV is also 3 times as big and your gamebox has 1000 times the CPU so really, things have only gotten 2% more expensive, says the CPI calculation. Now the politicians don't even have that excuse. I suppose they'll have to add AI tokens to CPI. Used to cost $1000 each, now $0.000002 each,…

There is a limit on production efficiency, life is full of logistic curves which feel exponential at first until the inflection and leveling off phases. It's going to hurt when agriculture does not see the efficiency gains it has been receiving for the last century or so. We might be at the inflection or leveling off now.

Ponzi scheme stock market is also relevant here. Productivity will max out if RSI AGI doesn't pan out.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#52

Post by websap »

ActionHank wrote: post #14
codemog wrote: post #5

The deal was they took everything from you… but at least you could buy electronics for cheap! Now they don’t even let you have that.

It’s because of the idiocy of p&l tracking. The hardware, store, and games all need to be independently profitable. Once they are, they all need to be more and more profitable. Finally when it’s no longer profitable fire half the people and strip it for parts. They’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet.

They lose money on every dollar they invest overall in xbox as a business. They pretty publicly documented this (which is unusual for Microsoft).

Overall gaming is a dying business. Everyone has a pretty powerful smartphone in their pockets, and there are so many platform vying for attention. AAA gaming is becoming a smaller fraction of the overall gaming pie, so I would expect prices to go up. Mobile gaming usage is up from 42% -> 55% from 2017. Even based on analysis from Steam's data, Indie games are 48% of sales, vs 24% in 2018.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#53

Post by VCFundedGenYer »

I really don't get what MS is doing here. They claim they care about Xbox, that they're going to turn the ship around, yet they cluelessly and carelessly laid off most of their best staff, all while raising prices multiple times and still not producing a coherent future roadmap.

Any consumer or customer would look at this behavior pattern and think they are far too unstable to put their trust into.

At this point it's time to call it for Xbox. I don't think they'll be around in six months time.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#54

Post by ebbi »

I recently purchased an Xbox Series S for ~NZD$180 to re-play GTA4 (and Episodes) as I never got to finish it when it first came out, and to get through all the GTAs before GTA6 comes out.

512GB Series S consoles in NZ are now retailing for close to $1,000. Might have an appreciating asset on my hands!

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#55

Post by rustcleaner »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #45
inigyou wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's basically saying the increase in prices has matched the increase in the money supply. Implying that we need to hold politicians accountable for the massive expansion in the money supply. Which is logic that's hard to fault. Also implying that inflation is under-measured, perhaps deliberately. Which definitely seems true for anyone who's experienced inflation.

Except the increase in prices is not tied to M2 in this case. It's clearly a matter of supply not matching demand, as a result of changes in priorities of computing equipment manufacturers. You don't have to look at M2 to understand that Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix deprioritising DDR memory over HBM for AI data centres has led to the rapid increase in prices for consumer-grade RAM.

Margins for consumer were wider vs HBM before killing Crucial, and still is today. Something else is going on...

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#56

Post by VCFundedGenYer »

kderbyma wrote: post #7

The Era of the Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2 will forever be the best in terms of consumer value and choice and commitment to quality, followed by the Xbox360 Ps3 gen....Its been boiling the frog since end of PS4 and on, but I got out of the water by the PS5...xbox was boiled long ago and were the first to turn up the temp

We shouldn't ever forget the sweet spot of the Game Boy Advance SP (proudly exclaimed "plays all games" on its box, and that wasn't a lie) and the original model of the PS3 which had full BC for every previous generation.

It's such a shame how far things have fallen since. The Switch 2 is an amicable modern day effort, but still, the industry has gotten much pricklier for the average consumer. Not to mention prices that will irreparably damage the scene.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#57

Post by coffeebeqn »

kderbyma wrote: post #7

The Era of the Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2 will forever be the best in terms of consumer value and choice and commitment to quality, followed by the Xbox360 Ps3 gen....Its been boiling the frog since end of PS4 and on, but I got out of the water by the PS5...xbox was boiled long ago and were the first to turn up the temp

We had a pretty good run there from NES onwards. Today the state of the games industry is weird - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#58

Post by ozgrakkurt »

thegrim33 wrote: post #16
ActionHank wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s because of the idiocy of p&l tracking. The hardware, store, and games all need to be independently profitable. Once they are, they all need to be more and more profitable. Finally when it’s no longer profitable fire half the people and strip it for parts. They’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet.

Sounds like an opportunity then for you to create a competing company that functions the way you feel it should function. If that's what people value, you'll take all the business since you're the only one offering it.

You have to be delusional if you think you are in that class that can spin up an xbox competitor

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#59

Post by 650 »

hhh wrote: post #43
datakan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. That’s why they gave it to a young woman with no achievements whatsoever in gaming and no reputation to build off of. Her job is to kill it in a way Satya can save face on so they can finish their push to everything in the cloud.

'No Achievements'? even just on her Wikipedia she has a great run in her career. Also the population seems to like her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Sharma

Bachelor of Science in Management from University of Minnesota

Marketing role at Microsoft 2011-2013 out of college, standard average college grad role.

---

There are thousands of more intelligent, harder working, better credentialed, better achieving college grads alone at this point.

---

COO of Porch ~2013-2017 - how does one go from a standard marketing role to COO, ok whatever maybe its a smol startup

"After departing Porch, she joined Facebook as VP Product & Engineering for their Messenger and Instagram Direct products."

lmfao - more credence to the fact that most "Product" roles are leeches. VP Product and Engineering at Meta is absolutely crazy at this point in anyones career.

Management Degree -> Marketing Role -> COO of startup (lolwut) -> VP Product/Eng at Meta (cough nepotism? cough)

---

COO of Instacart in 2021 LMAO

President of Core AI at Microsoft in February 2024 LMAO

insert "i have no technical ability whatsoever"

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#60

Post by inigyou »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #45
inigyou wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's basically saying the increase in prices has matched the increase in the money supply. Implying that we need to hold politicians accountable for the massive expansion in the money supply. Which is logic that's hard to fault. Also implying that inflation is under-measured, perhaps deliberately. Which definitely seems true for anyone who's experienced inflation.

Except the increase in prices is not tied to M2 in this case. It's clearly a matter of supply not matching demand, as a result of changes in priorities of computing equipment manufacturers. You don't have to look at M2 to understand that Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix deprioritising DDR memory over HBM for AI data centres has led to the rapid increase in prices for consumer-grade RAM.

[dead]
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