Spencer: Scorpio targets requirements of high-end costumers - means a higher price

I wonder if there will be SKU options like the One S. I'd rather have a lower price and a 500GB internal hard drive. I already have a 4TB external drive that I use for my Xbox needs. I don't want to pay $100 extra for a 2TB internal drive I will never use.
 
Guessing they'll still push for $399 on the cheapest sku. Will be interesting to see how far Sony drops the Pro price in response and if Nintendo does anything for Switch.
 
Unless they are going for some magical CPU that AMD said isn't available yet, I don't get why it would be more that $449, ideally $399.
 
If they go for one cent over $499, they may as well just cut out the middle men and bury it in the desert with the Atari 2600 games.

$499 is itself teetering on the edge of disaster. Echoing the launch price of Xbone is not a good strategy. Particularity when the Xbone came with an expensive peripheral, which presumably Scorpio won't. At the time MS sold the Xbone was the most powerful console they could make for that price, including the kinect. To then sell their most powerful console for 2017 at the same price without Kinect will look bad.

$449 is the highest they can go whilst retaining the oxygen of positivity and avoiding the worst of the backlash. They might retain the price differential above Pro simply to demostrate it;s "premium" status, but why do that at the expense of sales?

$399 is the sweet-spot. Probably higher than the Pro by the time it releases and significantly higher than the $249 or less S. The $150 difference between the two Xboxes means that sales won't cannibalise each other as the two demographics (S=value/Scorpio=premium), won't overlap. If the price difference were only $100 I'd imagine that S sales would suffer at the expense of Scorpio sales.
 
In my opinion releasing this a year after the pro and being in the same console gen is a mistake. They aren't ever going to get the lead back or even come close, especially worldwide. They should have gone next gen with a bigger upgrade and maybe release it fall 2018 and just clear the slate. This targeting the high end of the market isn't going to make a dent into Sony's lead, especially in a year. The pro will be cheaper plus with a game, probably COD will clean up for the holidays. And didn't Phil say something like "We are optimistic in hitting our goal of holiday 2017". So who knows if it will even release then, i think it will but you never know.
 
Since they're selling this as a 4K box, I would rather them shoot high and have a higher price tag, rather than only get halfway there, with some obvious bottlenecks, like the PS4 Pro.

While I think the PS4 Pro is going to replace the current model soon enough, I suspect the Type S and Scorpio will co-exist for some time.
 
Anything less than 450 wouldn't make sense. A premium console should cost more than a budget redesign of an old console. I wanna pay for better hardware not save a hundred bucks and get a slight upgrade.
 
449$ is the highest I see them going for and only if the difference between the Scorpio and the Pro is super obvious to see.
 
Bitch Pudding said:
Sounds like it will cost more than that. And with $399 being that magic price tag for successful new consoles these days, it's a bold move to go beyond.

That said, I think all is about bang for the bucks, so if Scorpio really turns out the be a full-blown high-end console, it will still sell well even if it costs more than that.
Click to expand...

I paid £429 for a launch Xbox One with Kinect. That was 3 years ago.

Take out the Kinect, add in lower manufacturing costs and I think we're looking at £399. It's not going to cost more than £400 here in the UK.
 
I think a $500 price tag would be excessive, specially when the PS4Pro is likely to drop to $349. Even with the specs difference, a $150 gap would be too much in my opinion. As far as I can remember, the console with the highest price rarely wins the battle.

However, it also depends on what is Microsoft's strategy regarding the Scorpio. It seems to me that Sony has clearly made the Pro their go-to console with their pricing scheme. Will Microsoft do the same? Or they are simply aiming for a high-end customer and they don't aim to sell shit loads? Personally, I think the latter strategy is a bit dangerous, a console is generally meant to be a product for the masses. If you want power and high-end stuff, people with spare money can always build a PC with whatever specs they want.

Bottom line, exceeding the $500 mark I think would be a no-no, but 499 also seems a bit too much, something like 429-449 would be the right amount.
 
dunno why it's a debate if sony can make a 4tf box in 2016 for 399
there is little doubt you can make a 6tf box the year later for same price
 
irrotational said:
There is a market for premium products (Apple and the Elite controller are two examples).

If MS get the messaging right then they can sell quite a few to early adopters, and then sell it in as a phased replacement for One's as people look to upgrade over time, and the hardware gets cheaper.

They are firmly targetting 4K gaming, with the cost that comes from that and the expectation that the customer will also have a 4K TV.

MS don't need a mass market price on day 1...unless they want to buy market share from Sony.

Any info on customer demographics would be interesting actually. There is the kids/parents market and the 20-30's market...I have no idea how large the 30+ market really is, but I suspect it gets bigger all the time
Click to expand...

I agree. They can use Scorpio as their premium device and S model as the cheaper alternative. There definitely is a market for high end devices, but in the end it's up to MS to create a good marketing campaign for this thing and have good messaging. They may just want to differentiate themselves from PS4 at this point.
 
simatron3000 said:
Sorry to labour the point but assuming it is £500, why wouldn't you spend £700-800 on a PC that's fully modular and has cheaper games. At this rate, Halo 6 could be the only exclusive the xbox has.
Click to expand...

It's an interesting question I think, the PS4 Pro can be had for £329, so stretching to a PC is much further off. If the scorpio is £500 then I think it will cause some people to just spend and extra £100 or so and build something.

I'm not sure I would buy a console at around £500, I really wanted a PS3 but went with a 360 until the PS3 came down significantly. I think some people may do the same over the next year.
 
Is there a change that Scorpio comes with two versions. One with a 4k bluray drive and one with no disc drive at all? Happy to pay less for a version with no disc drive. Or does it price wise not make a difference much?

Would btw retailer even sell a no disc drive console? I mean you gonna pick it up and you probably will get some bad looks haha.
 
It's designed by the guys who designed the surface book..

yeah, this thing isn't going to be cheap.. it will look aesthetically pleasing, in mute, gentle colour hues, rimmed with gold leaf. The name with be Xbox Ultimate, this too will be outlined to espouse the higher quality this device is.

This is a device aimed at the uncompromising gamer, the working man's graphics ditched in favour of the executive man's graphics.. the kind of man that expects higher quality, full pixels and 6 teraflops of power..

And you all think it's going to cost no more that $399.99? lol..
 
Lothars said:
Yup and it will be rejected if it is but I have no doubt in my mind it will be way more expensive than most people realize.
Click to expand...

It's likely being designed with the Oculus Rift in mind. $600 for a PC-tier VR box, maybe launching with a cost-reduced Rift around the same time. Also does proper (I'd hope) 4K games, 4K Blu-Rays, etc. That's not so bad.
 
martino said:
dunno why it's a debate if sony can make a 4tf box in 2016 for 399
there is little doubt you can make a 6tf box the year later for same price
Click to expand...

This.

Sony felt that 4.2TB is the maximum for that price and Phil Spencer agreed that this year was too soon for 6TF. Now, we know that 6TF is parently doable right now, technically speaking, so the only real justification for holding off until next year is the price issue. MS must feel that, right now, 6TF would increase the costs to a point that becomes counter productive for MS. They are acutely aware of the 2013 launch debacle.

By next year, construction costs etc for a 6TF machine will be equivalent to a 4.2TF one right now.
 
The way he talks about it makes it sound like this is gonna be at least $499. $399 wouldn't need this pre-emptive pricing justification, IMO.
 
irrotational said:
There is a market for premium products (Apple and the Elite controller are two examples).

If MS get the messaging right then they can sell quite a few to early adopters, and then sell it in as a phased replacement for One's as people look to upgrade over time, and the hardware gets cheaper.

They are firmly targetting 4K gaming, with the cost that comes from that and the expectation that the customer will also have a 4K TV.

MS don't need a mass market price on day 1...unless they want to buy market share from Sony.

Any info on customer demographics would be interesting actually. There is the kids/parents market and the 20-30's market...I have no idea how large the 30+ market really is, but I suspect it gets bigger all the time
Click to expand...

Yep, these are my thoughts. They might have a $449 or something "entry" model to get some people to bite who wouldn't at that $499 or $599 price points, or to help push people towards the more storage SKU, etc, but since they've got the Xbox One S which is doing good business for them at the lower price point I don't think they have much to worry about. Microsoft this gen and Sony the previous gen hosed themselves with pricing because that's *all* they had to offer for the current gen.
 
Dredd97 said:
It's designed by the guys who designed the surface book..

yeah, this thing isn't going to be cheap.. it will look aesthetically pleasing, in mute, gentle colour hues, rimmed with gold leaf. The name with be Xbox Ultimate, this too will be outlined to espouse the higher quality this device is.

This is a device aimed at the uncompromising gamer, the working man's graphics ditched in favour of the executive man's graphics.. the kind of man that expects higher quality, full pixels and 6 teraflops of power..

And you all think it's going to cost no more that $399.99? lol..
Click to expand...

They designed the Xbox One S also. So. ;)
 
Azure Dream said:
It's likely being designed with the Oculus Rift in mind. $600 for a PC-tier VR box, maybe launching with a cost-reduced Rift around the same time. Also does proper (I'd hope) 4K games, 4K Blu-Rays, etc. That's not so bad.
Click to expand...
If it's the specs that it's believed than it won't be able to do proper 4k games, I'd imagine it would do similar to how the pro does 4k. It will be a step up from Pro but for such a price difference it won't matter because again being 499 and higher is a huge negative on it.
 
This is my monthly reminder from Phil to start squirrelling away some money each month such that my wife doesn't notice ;)
 
SensibleSucker said:
This.

Sony felt that 4.2TB is the maximum for that price and Phil Spencer agreed that this year was too soon for 6TF. Now, we know that 6TF is parently doable right now, technically speaking, so the only real justification for holding off until next year is the price issue. MS must feel that, right now, 6TF would increase the costs to a point that becomes counter productive for MS. They are acutely aware of the 2013 launch debacle.

By next year, construction costs etc for a 6TF machine will be equivalent to a 4.2TF one right now.
Click to expand...

So it'll be 399$? That's not premium.
 
It will be 500 or just above it ..

They keep using the wording premium machine they never said it would replace the Xbox One s so they have position them selfs to release a system that has a high end price but it's "not" a next Xbox ..

US around places like Gaf are crazy to think 399 ..
Best bet 499 and that's pushing it
 
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