X-box/GC price in Sweden is set!!! LOL

I can understand why Bill Gates got the cream pie in his face in Brussels

Oh dear! I bet you can also understand why right now I think someone ought to slap a pie in your face right now. "sarcasim"

Please tell me why Bill gates deserves that, what has he done to you. Did he attack your family, did he screw you over on a business deal.

Just because the XBOX is downright expensive in europe, dosen\'t justify the right to slap a pie in Bill Gates face, or for you to dislike him.  

Gates is not obligated in any way to make XBOX affordable to you, so If you can\'t afford XBOX then buy a bloody PS2 or GC, but please don\'t ***** to MS and develop hard feeling towards the founder just cause you personally can\'t afford the European price tag.

Europeans are no different than you or me when it comes to money and common sense.

Yes they are, they do not make up the majority of gamers, (US/canada)-North America and Japan do, they are the primary sources of revenue for MS and SONY. Sure Europe is big, and there are alot of gammers there to, but like I said Watchdog said it best.

Well it looks like MS has decided not to lose any money in secondary markets. Let\'s face it Japan and the US are the biggest consumers and that is where MS aparently left their pocket book

MS is taking a huge risk in Japan (and even a risk in the US) and didn\'t want to jump in with both feet all around the world. It seems like smart business to me--they can\'t compete with the userbase or price in Europe so they decided not to even try.

This one is for you GmanJoe

First time for everything, I guess. I agree with NVidia256, probably more than I should. Watchdog\'s quote actually makes alot of sense, too. Who cares about the European market? If XBox is a success, then they can make XBox2 cheap everywhere.


Eric Jacob

Wow, I don\'t think I\'ve ever had so many people quoting me in agreement.

Anyway, Altered said exactly what I was hinting at but didn\'t want to say for fear of getting flamed: "Who cares about the European market"?  Once xbox is established, xbox2 won\'t be such a leap of faith for gamers anywhere and it won\'t be such a financial risk.

If Europe took gaming as seriously as North America and Japan, and spent the kind of money these markets do, this debate wouldn\'t even exist.

By bowing out of those markets, MS is letting Sony and GC waste resources competing with each other.  Like I said, sounds like a good business decision to me.

Yes, Im sure thats why we get superior versions of ICO, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2 ect. :rolleyes:

(Its not bigger than the US/Jap.. But not small either)

Europe is a pretty big market but like you said not as big as yours.
Guess we got better things to do than sit and play games all day long, then go and fight about them online afterwards.

[GmanJoe]

Heh...such ignorance. Some of you think Europe is a waste? You\'re telling me that Sony and Nintendo are losing money there?

Riiiiiiiight. :rolleyes:

don\'t under estimate the European market. It may not be as lucrative as the US or Asia, but it\'s not chump change either.

Customer loyalty gets in return brand loyalty from consumers. Isn\'t that right, Fastson, you Viking pillager?

I never said they were losing money, but they are a known entity and it is not as big a step for them to release there.  It\'s a huge investment for MS, especially if they price aggressively, but by not price matching, MS will not lose any money and can only gain.

Primary focus should be in US and Japan.

And there is no such thing as brand loyalty.  If that were true we\'d all have DCs or SNESs.  Many people who bought the PSX were owners of either a Geneis or SNES, if customer loyalty is as big a factor as you claim, there would be no PS2.

[GmanJoe]

Let\'s see.....Sega orphaned a few of its systems quite early, like Sega CD, 32X, Game Gear. Leaving its consumers with a relatively dead system.

Nintendo....when its gamers grew up, its games didn\'t. And it stayed cartridge format when it made the N64. Thus leaving many developers with little room for its big ideas and so had to move on to PSX. You can say the gamers are faithful to the developers....but not all gamers can buy every system.

Anyway....some of you insinuated that to compete in the European market would be a waste. But hey, if MS wants to sell its system at a profit like Sony, so be it. Yeah, Sony is making a profit off of the PS2 console, after all, they make thier own stuff (MS buys it parts from Cyrix, among others).

I thought Toshiba, an ACTUAL chip maker, made the chips in PS2.

Sony is an electronics company.


Eric Jacob

Firstly, Sony doesn\'t make the PS2\'s parts, Altered is quite right.

And secondly you are proving my point, gamer\'s minds can be changed, and that\'s why MS isn\'t too worried about Europe in this generation or at least this year.  Who knows, this time next year the xbox could be priced differently.

[GmanJoe]

True, consumers can change their mind. But Sony is playing things the right way. So I don\'t see any problems for Sony in that regard.

Toshiba and Sony made a joint venture to help develop the chip and then Sony built its own chip foundries to assemble the chips themselves.

I don\'t see whats so funny xbox has the best hardware out all 3 systems. It\'s internet ready and has a HDD.

But surely it will be tough with 2 other cheap systems and sony already ahead with ps2 which has had a 1 year lead and gained a nice chunk of user base there.

I don\'t see nintendo being a factotr xbox should do well in europe but not close to sony there 1 year lead seems to be too much.

Yeah, I would have mentioned that, but I\'m not sure gamers really think about the whole picture:

Buy an xbox.

OR

Buy a PS2 + memory card + multi-tap + HD + Modem.

I\'ll bet that with everything added, you are spending more for the PS2 bundle.

Originally posted by mm
twice as much?  

/me shakes head in disgust

Didn\'t you get yours at a cut down price anyway ?

so i guess it would be tripple the price in your books

Originally posted by Watchdog
Yeah, I would have mentioned that, but I\'m not sure gamers really think about the whole picture:

Buy an xbox.

OR

Buy a PS2 + memory card + multi-tap + HD + Modem.

I\'ll bet that with everything added, you are spending more for the PS2 bundle.

You would be paying more if you bought all that crap, but chances are, most gamers won\'t buy it.  The chances of the PS2 online being successful is like one in a million.  It just isn\'t going to happen this generation for Sony.

Most gamers could care less about online gaming.  The casual gamer just doesn\'t have that much interest in video games to worry about those kinds of things.  So in their minds, they can buy a PS2 for $300; a NGC for $240; or an online-ready Xbox, a feature that most of them probably won\'t ever use, for $475.

And add to that the fact that (correct me if I\'m wrong) Broadband isn\'t widely spread in Europe yet, and that makes the Xbox look even less appealing.

Microsoft must have very high expectations for their Japanese launch to be giving the Europeans the cold shoulder like this.