Yes, like the villagers who dressed up the witch simply
because they didn’t like her, it seems almost everyone is out to hate Microsoft
for what they’ve done. There are a few voices of reason in the pack, that see
the pricing as a logical move towards different demographics of players, but a
lot of people feel betrayed, gouged, and downright angry at what has happened.
The different SKUs for the Xbox 360 entail two entirely unique
setups. With the pricier option, you get way more bang for your buck. Besides
the Xbox 360 itself, there’s the wireless duo of a controller and headset,
cables for you HDTV junkies, the media remote, ethernet cable to connect your
box to the internet, interchangeable faceplates, Xbox Live Silver membership,
and the mother of all package upgrades: the 20GB hard drive. The cheaper
option, at $299, features the bare bones package of an Xbox 360, wired
controller, standard AV cables, and the same faceplates and Xbox Live Silver
that come with the premier package.
What seems to be happening are a large number of people screaming at Microsoft for the sole purpose of hearing themselves speak. Lest we forget that what you’re getting at the $299 price point is nothing new. Unless players have suffered some sort of amnesia since the last generation’s release, every single console came with the system, a wired controller, and standard AV cable. It’s not a “publicity stunt,” as some industry analysts would have you believe. It’s standard industry practice. To Microsoft’s credit, the $399 package deal is a great bargain, with included peripherals like the hard drive costing $99
in retail alone. Have we so quickly forgotten the “package” deal of the Sony
PSP when it was released? You could choose between the $250 value pack, and the
$250 value pack. Gee, what a great deal. There wasn’t the same venom released
towards Sony at the time, so there seems to be a double standard when it comes
to judging certain system launches.
Anyway, the biggest issue seems to be with the exclusion of
the hard drive from the cheaper bundle. To understand why this was done you
need to look at the gaming market itself, which has more casual gamers than
ever before. That’s the market that the core system is going to be aimed
towards. GameSpot’s Alex Navarro puts it the best: “The cheaper model is geared
toward the more casual player—the people who buy a few games a year and don't
care much about any of the ancillary benefits.” He hit it right on the dot.
It’s not as if Microsoft expects the core system to be a big
seller, either. In an interview with IGN, Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore
explained, “I think that a large majority of people all over the world will be
buying the Xbox 360 systems ($399).” The fact that there is a $299 option is a
nice gesture, signaling that MS knows that the industry isn’t a uniform set of
people who will buy every hardware accessory in sight.
Not every player is going to have access to an insane HDTV
to leech the maximum amount of graphical pleasure from each title. Certain
players just won’t hold on to their original Xbox games. You’ll find a lot of
people trading in their systems and games in order to purchase the 360, as has
happened in generations-past. To those people, the inclusion of a hard drive
would be a moot point. Microsoft has already informed developers not to rely on
the hard drive, so you can forget any rumors you’ve heard to the contrary about
games not working on the core system.
There’s a funny thing about rumors though. While a lot of
them will be false promises and empty air, every once and a while one will turn
out to be true. As far back as November of 2004, rumors swirled around the
Internet about a possible three-tier system of Xbox 360 releases. The base
model came with no HD, the mid-range system had the drive included, and the
highest price point was both a 360 and an entry-level PC. In GameSpot’s weekly Rumor Control feature, the ruling was
inconclusive: “Here's hoping this rumor is not bogus.” Regardless of the ruling
on the rumor, the fact is that it ended up—to a certain extent—being true. I
can understand the anger if the 360 pricing announcement came out of nowhere,
but this was something circling through the air for the better part of a year.
There’s no reason for serious gamers not to buy the pricier
$399 model. No matter what you think of Microsoft, it is a bargain considering
the retail costs of the individual accessories. For the casuals who are going
to stick with their annual Madden and GTA purchases, the core system is the
perfect solution.
