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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%

#61

I'm sure it applies to Xbox too, but I priced out today's PS to the PS1 and it closely follows the inflation rate that M2 has undergone. M2 expansion is the prime driver of prices, after supply & demand. Normalize SPX, gold/silver, etc, to M2 and see that they all run in fairly horizontal channels. You can even see nominal GDP normalized to M2 having been flat initially and then transitioning into a downward sloped c…

Sounds about right. "Prices double every 10 years" is a fairly standard economics benchmark.

Also known as 7.2% inflation.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#62
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds about right. "Prices double every 10 years" is a fairly standard economics benchmark.

Also known as 7.2% inflation.

Inflation is different.

Rule 72 is nominal prices.

Inflation accounts for a 2026 xbox being significantly more advanced technology than a PS1

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like an opportunity then for you to create a competing company that functions the way you feel it should function Sure, if one has millions and millions in capital. Because why would an investor put a money in my company that works the way it “should” according to me if it produces lower profits as compared to my competitors?

Because buyers choose to spend less money, so if a business comes around that can offer the same product/service at a lower price, the investor will want to own a piece of that business rather than the one that is about to lose buyers.

Right, because we never see investors making decisions that are suboptimal in the long term because they're too focused on short-term gains. Everyone is perfectly rational, and high initial costs have never discouraged anyone from trying to displace an established dominant player; it's purely because the dominant players are perfectly efficient and don't ever try to rent-seek.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#64
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because buyers choose to spend less money, so if a business comes around that can offer the same product/service at a lower price, the investor will want to own a piece of that business rather than the one that is about to lose buyers.

Right, because we never see investors making decisions that are suboptimal in the long term because they're too focused on short-term gains. Everyone is perfectly rational, and high initial costs have never discouraged anyone from trying to displace an established dominant player; it's purely because the dominant players are perfectly efficient and don't ever try to rent-seek.

I did not claim any of that, so not sure if your reply is misplaced.

It’s an easily observable fact that throughout the previous decades, investors have invested in businesses that reduce profit margins. Amazon being one of the most famous with the slogan “your margin is my opportunity”, but also Walmart, Costco, and other businesses that end up winning because they delivered acceptable products or services at lower prices.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#65

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…

The new leadership that was installed clearly has no idea what they’re doing. I get the sense they’re just trying not to get fired. Asha had no games industry experience coming in.

They were also dealt a pretty bad hand with the humongous Activision acquisition and a pretty poor slate of games year over year basically since the start of Covid.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#66
post #52

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.

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…

> Overall gaming is a dying business.

What? Both PC and mobile markets are growing by any reasonable metric, and consoles are propelled by stellar Switch 2 sales.

The gaming market is ripe with money, it is total failure on Microsoft side that they failed to capture any of that. Xbox is on life support, and Windows platform tax is captured by Steam, where Valve funnels it into Linux to make its own platform.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#67
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also known as 7.2% inflation.

Inflation is different. Rule 72 is nominal prices. Inflation accounts for a 2026 xbox being significantly more advanced technology than a PS1

Ah, you're right, I did forget to account for the part where the CPU being 1000x as fast means that prices actually fell 99% even though they went up 10x.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#69
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

The best part is that the era isn't gone; you can buy those and the games, and it's not even an expensive hobby. And people also know how to / can repair them.

Re: Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%

#70
post #43
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.

While she has some experience, she well may be a total outsider for the assigned role. This is often the case in Satya's Microsoft. Spontaneous program managers from that special village somewhere in the world (nepotism) who have near zero prior participation in the industry (incompetency).
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