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Gaming: Microsoft hires 2000 money-counters from Cimmeria
Tue, 23 Aug 2005

My man Apex pointed me to the Electronics Boutique (EBGamestore) page for pre-ordering the XBox 360. I have no interest in the XBox and hope to scrape by on the DVD player we already have (a PS2, purchased years after it was already old news.) But I had to post when I learned the pricing. Hold onto your chest, this could kill you.

The base system (no frills) is $599 USD. Six hundred buckeroos of the mighty greenback. The bigger brother Xboxinator package is a mere hundred bucks more and includes wireless controllers and a hard drive for saving your games. $699. Are people going to put up with this, or line up and hand it over midnight of release day?

The XBox 360 is of course the first of the next generation of gaming consoles, with the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution to follow next year. Is this Microsofts way of cashing in on the early adopters and rich preppy kids? Heck - they're probably even taking a bath on the hardware, so whats it really cost? I know theres 3 or more CPU's in there, each one twice as powerful as the fastest one I've got in my house now.. the stuff the military in War Games dreamed about.

I built a new machine lately when a server failed. It cost me about $300CDN. My car probably isn't worth this much.

Nintendo has always been very focused and price consious.. so heres their chance to turn things around. They know how to make games, they know how to price things for the thriftier American marketplace.. they just need to shake the kiddie-image. Sony, arrogant as they are, can capitolize on having their own fabrication plants to keep costs down. Course, MS will be sure to drop prices as the other guys come to the ballgame..

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