Why XboxOne UK Price Reduction isnt a MiddleFinger to Anyone

This story has been spun into a negative somehow with people saying it's a middle finger to early adopters in the UK and I wanted to explain why it isn't.

The deal is, a £30 price reduction AND Titanfall thrown in.

Versus the £429 price tag the 'early adopters' were paying, However, I don't know if the following point just got lost or was simply forgotten by people outside of the UK.

But everyone who pre-ordered the console in the UK got either Fifa 14 or Forza 5 thrown in.

Now for the early adopters, this offsets the Titanfall part of the deal, because they still got a decent game at launch.

So it is literally just a £30 price reduction, which is a sweet spot, because MS need to reduce it to under £400 realistically, but without pissing off the early adopters. And £30 isn't really going to piss anyone off.

If it was £40 to £100, that would be way too much of a reduction.

Fifa 14 is a big deal in Europe and will sell way more than Titanfall. And Forza 5 is probably the highest scoring launch game this gen. Also Titanfall is a multiplayer only game, so it's less useful to most buyers.

Even now you can still get non 'Day One Edition' Official Fifa 14 X1 bundles for the same price of £429.

Its a win win situation for all 3 parties involved, consumers (who haven't bought one yet) , Respawn and EA, and Microsoft (if this strategy proves to move many units). However, what is interesting is wondering what made Microsoft make this decision. It almost seems like a panic move this early in the console's cycle. Are they really that behind the PS4 in terms of sales in the UK? Would love to see this bundle out in the states as well.

Are Microsoft's sales numbers based on units sold or units shipped? Because every store I go to has an overabundance of XB1 consoles while they're all sold out of PS4.

I don't understand why anyone really cares. Ever single early adopter, regardless of platform, pays the highest price for the lowest quality. Seriously I just think people are looking for something to complain about. I mean heck with Steam's early access program games are getting their prices slashed in half or more before they are even considered complete. On consoles it is even worse, as it takes them a years to build up a triple digit game library, the games look horrible compared to later in the cycle, there are always hardware kinks, and early on the biggest titles are always gimped to play on last year's hardware.

I think the Playstation 2 was the last time a console was put out where the early adopters weren’t slapped in the mouth and expected to reply with a prompt and enthusiastic “Thank you Sir may I have another!" and that was like a decade and a half ago.

I don't think it's about sales in comparison, but how steady the sales are in general. I imagine at £429 the sales slowed dramatically after Christmas.

lol

And it's certainly not unusual for a console to be sold at a loss at launch. Why are you spinning it into all this other stuff as well?

Are you having a laugh?????

how the hell isn't it a middle finger to the people who bought a console in December or january or even last week, not only did they only get an Xbox One for their money, now they have to see a £30 reduction and a AAA game thrown in, I mean Fifa and Forza 5 was only given out for the first few weeks of the console not forever, and Titanfall beats both of them games when it comes to AAA games, not only that but what about the adopters who bought just last week.

I would be absolutely hecked off at MS for doing this, it isn't literally a £30 reduction,it's £30 plus a £50 game??????

But this just proves how desperate MS is right now, and those ratios of PS4 to X1 were correct and now it's in a desperate bid to get sells. but something tells me it still wont outsell the PS4. last ditched attempt to get sells,

I don't think i have seen anything like this before in any system launch it honestly must be bad.

Most got it in a pre-order, it was sold out before Chistmas. And you can STILL get a Fifa Edition console for launch price, which is official because it has a DL code instead of a physical copy, just like the Day One Edition.

There are always going to be people who buy a console JUST before a price drop, that's nothing to do with the people who bought it at launch and in fact many like Amazon unofficially sell it at £400 standard.

I think the whole point is that sales dramatically slowed after Christmas.

And we don't know how good Titanfall will be. Is it better or more important than Fifa 14? Absolutely no chance in hell in the UK, in sales and quality. It might have more of a buzz, but Fifa doesn't need that, it just sells and has a massive European following. Is it better than Forza 5, highly unlikely.

I completely agree with you on Fifa, not Forza 5 I've seen that quality and that was rubbish 14 tracks, xbox original backdrops, no weather, i do see your point titanfall online only.

But your right they need a price drop to compete, but i still think it's a middle finger i mean this has only just come out this news, it's not like they announced it for a later date and it's been 3 months since launch lol thats bad very bad, i've never seen anything drop in price that quite, here's hoping it drops to £99 and then i may buy it but until that day o and seriously i need a remodeled version because that thing is to big and for what it does or doesn't do well is not worth my time or money at this point, but fingers cross price drop by end of the year to a more sensible price for what it offers.

Early adopters get buttfucked and here's HalcyonScarlet doing damage control. Thought it would be StormyJoe or Kuu2.

Not your blog, mods please lock.

Is 70 pound you most count Titanfall price..

Worse on retailers like gamestop UK is been sold for 369 pound with titan fall,

http://www.gamestop.co.uk/Xbox%20One/Games/45883/xbox-one-titanfall-bundle?previousUrl=http://www.gamestop.co.uk/SearchResult/QuickSearch?q=titanfall?&utm_source=tradedoubler

Retailers are desperate to get those units out of their storage rooms,that is 10 pounds more than the PS4 cost without games,so yeah desperation is really kicking in.

70 pounds is more than $100 dollars,most bundles with free games are based on an old game or a crappy one,bundle with new games are never ever given with a game that hasn't even release and that is basically the best you have to play on said console and a very hyped game,so yeah it is a middle finger to every early adopter,and just so you know not every one got Forza or Fifa as those were limited deals many people got it without anything..

So you buy 2 weeks ago an xbox one with nothing.? screw you...

Yeah that is what MS say saying to people.

And is not a 30 pound reduction is 70 that games was suppose to cost 40 pound which mean that is a more than $100 dollars free.

On US they are giving you the game free which is $60 dollars MS is desperate,i wonder how many millions this move will cost them..lol

They should at least give us early adopters a free game.

Not the case. Asda were allowing pre-orders for xbox vanilla... just the standard machine. no game included

LOL DC

as of the beginning january 3 million sold, 3.9 million shipped

if you didnt pre order at launch, what happens?

i think its a big eff u to early adaptors.

Exactly what I was thinking. Some were comparing it to the 3DS price drop, but it isn't that damn drastic. People like to exaggerate.

Slightly OT, but getting Fifa/Forza bundled sounds like a terrible deal.

Who the **** wants Fifa 14? I have not played it and don't want to. Not much use getting a free game at launch if it's something you have no intention of playing. But to be fair I don't play anything on my Xbone atm, it has nothing I want to play.

Um, lots of people? You do know that FIFA is ferociously popular in the UK right?

Gamestop thing isn't official, why is it relevant? And if it is, deals didn't start yesterday, Amazon are selling the standard for £400 before this Fridays deal. The majority got Fifa/Forza.

Also there is NO relation to people who got it two weeks ago and those who got it at launch. If they release a console a year ago and suddenly cut the price by £50 eight months in, there are still people who bought the console two weeks before the official price cut of any console who are fucked anyway.

For the majority who bought it in the launch window, they got a game anyway so no, it is offset.It's £30 for the vast majority of sales. A few who weren't smart enough to shop around for deals are always fucked no matter what the product in one way or another.

Ok, I don't play multiplayer only games, so Titanfall is about as useful as a chocolate teapot to me and because it's a DL code instead of a full boxed copy, I'd be lucky to get £30 selling it on.

Its a tiny price drop bundled with a highly anticipated game to boost sales. How is this "very bad".

Its very good for consumers
very good for MS
very good for current XBOX owning community to see that community grow in size.

The sort of people who paid £429...maybe more...to own a next gen console this early in the gen are not the sort of people who are going to get angry about a £30 quid price dropped bundle.

Price drops are simply an inevitability...the sort of people that get "angry" about this sort of thing must get angry often...because its how life works.

My local game has both PS4 and X1 in stock and has done for weeks.

This was a pathetic and desperate attempt from Microsoft.

Microsoft is in full on PANIC mode. I love it. Also tells you everything you need to know

The xbone hasnt been selling as good as Microsoft PR has been claiming. I was calling that from the beginning. Microsoft PR can NEVER be trusted

If the xbone were selling, they wouldnt have needed to cut the price. BOOM!

Also amusing how they have so little faith in TitanFall to sell on its own. TitanFall is just another boring FPS after all....

At the end of the day remember,

Microsoft didnt lower the price, because they "heard complaints" or "care"

Microsoft lowered the price OUT OF DESPERATION because the PS4 is handing the xbone its ass on a platter.

Microsoft is only out to extort their consumers for as much money as possible...everything being locked behind xbox live pay wall fees being a prime example of Microsoft's BS....Microsoft did this in hopes of $

Microsoft is anti-gamer. Proven again and again. No one in gaming has ever tried to implement always online and DRM like Microsoft tried to. Again, Microsoft only pulled the plug on their henious crimes against the consumer at the very last second due to losing pre-orders

Micorsoft doesnt care or react to gamers, Microsoft reacts to $ and sales...thats ALL Microsoft has shown to care about more then any other company. Microsoft is pure corporate greed. On the other hand, Sony actually cares about putting out great affordable products that people will love (the more powerful yet cheaper PS4, the amazing value of PSN+ etc)

No matter what, the xbone is still an under powered piece of shit with a mandatory kinect spy cam and secondary focus on gaming

Even 300$ would still be too much for an xbone

TitanFall looks boring as hell too. Its just another lame FPS...Call of Duty with mechs and pointless wall jumpimg....meh !

This wont work when its said and done.

PS4 will still continue to badly out sell the xbone in the UK...Sony isnt letting up and they are going to bring the heat and increase that gap

**** Microsoft for life. They tried to take gamers rights away and the xbone is STILL under-powered, STILL has a kinect spy cam, and is still NOT about gaming....TVTVTV etc

The xbone doesnt even deserve one sale. Microsoft needs to be erradacated from gamimg for all of their BS

Thank you for saving this gen with the PS4 though Sony!

Also, this was a slap to the face of all consumers

This tells you that Microsoft doesnt care about you

They will not hesistant to OVER CHARGE you for their shitty products.

They will make you carry the burden at launch

Then drop the price when ever they see fit because they lied about their sales in their first place and so now need to make up more sales

Thats all this is

And I get that consoles get price drops all the time too, BUT how many get price drops a month after launching? Thats the issue here. Microsoft is just basically under cutting xboners and telling them, "hey too bad **** you"

But anyone who didnt see this coming doesnt know Microsoft. Microsoft has awlays been anti-consumer. Dont buy Microsoft's over priced buggy products, then we wont have to deal with Microsoft anymore

All this hoopla over "a price cut"

YET the xbone is STILL over-priced lol

SMH

Do you guys not realise that in the UK the xbone will still cost what amounts to 699$ dollars

for the pathetic weak hardware thats in the xbone, its a crime to charge that much for it

Like someone else said, the xbone should cost NO MORE then 250$ dollars. Typical greedy Microsoft over charging for another one of their awful products

Any delusional xboner whos defending a mega shady faceless corp like Microsoft, I want you to think about one thing

IF the xbone were leading in sales, you think Microsoft would have ever "cut the price" to make it "affordable"

If they cared about making it affordable, they wouldnt have charged what they did for it at launch in the first place

IF Microsoft were leading in sales, they wouldve have NEVER "CUT the price" all together

Let that all sink in.

Realise how Microsoft doenst care about gamers. Microsoft only does what they do if it means maxium extortion of profit

Brofists... Dat you?

Are you and SelfReflect the same person? Something all very familiar about you two and Brofists.

Actually it's 1.5:1

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-30-sony-uk-ps4-to-xbox-one-sales-ratio-is-1-5-1

I think the earliest price cut a console has ever had was the original xbox, but that was 6 months after launch.. and they offered free stuff to their early adopters. People expect price cuts 9+ months after release, but this is unprecedented.

You early adopt knowing you could wait 9 months and probably get a better deal. But if you start offering better deals after 3 months, you are going to have alot of people wishing they waited and regretting their purchase. Which isnt good for business and is only going to further tarnish your image among your fanbase.

Shipped I believe....

More baseless assumptions, the ratio is only 1.5:1 in sony's favour, it's actually really common here in blighty for Game retailers to sell cut price bundles when a massive title comes out, i know, i lived here my whole life, you and the rest of the cow brigade have been spinning something thats quite normal into some sort of sinister desperation,lol

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-30-sony-uk-ps4-to-xbox-one-sales-ratio-is-1-5-1

so much for the rumour that the Ps4 was 'killing' the Xbone in sales in the uk, if you think thats 'killing it' with that tiny ratio you are all deluded,lol

You realise that the Xbox 1 launch in the uk is more successful than the 360 launch in the uk right?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-25-xbox-one-outsells-xbox-360-two-to-one-in-uk-launch

So full of S*** Brofists

It's just cows finding everything they can to hate about Xbox One.

They have no games to play, so they spend their time here on System Wars.

But yeah. It's a £30 price drop, and that's it. Nobody who wanted an Xbox One on launch, or for the holidays, is complaining about £30. It's the premium that came for getting to play earlier than everyone else. It'd be a different story if the original Xbox One didn't come bundled with a game, and three months later MS was selling the XOne for £100 less with a free game.

But it's just £30.

Well people in NA got screwed. We didn't get any game at launch, nor do new customers get titanfall. I guess when you're getting your ass kicked so bad, you have to do something.

Strong damage control from OP. Slashing the price this early and including a free game is a slap in the face to early adopters no matter how you try to spin this. I'd pissed if Sony did the same so I don't know why lems are trying to damage control this.

Lol all I'm seeing is the cows trying too hard on this one.

There's no damage control here, absolutely none was needed. Damage control is when you have nothing in defence, except mines pretty damn solid. I just highlighted a key point everyone chose to ignore, forgot or just didn't know. Something like, oh I don't know, vast majority of early adopters already got a free game at launch. So what's left is just a £30 price cut.

Now cows don't know what to do, you're all sitting there thinking 'bu bu bu, I was SO sure this was ownage, it must be ownage', sorry cows better luck next time. All you actually got is 'teh lolz damage controlz' and it simply isn't true. When that's all you can actually say, it's you who is damage controlling, because you ain't got nothing.

The cows have self owned with this one, it's as simple as that.

I don't really see the problem here. This happens with all products not just consoles.

As the consumer you make the choice of buying a product at the price it carries. If the Xbox one or ps4 drop $100 tomorrow oh well. It's not an fu from them it's my fault for not waiting. All things drop in price. I made the choice to buy my systems day one. I took the risk of there being a better deal in the future.

If anyone is upset about this they are an idiot. This stuff happens alot, its the price you pay to get a product early, just like with any other electronic product.

Really, I don't think anyone is really mad about the £30.

So once again you are into full lemming move again.?

Baseless how is baseless a package that should cost 470 quids is been offer for 369 quids,how in gods green earth that is normal?

MS only do those kinds of drops when sales are going horrible wrong,and the original xbox proved that,not only that the xbox 360 re confirm it to,please show me how the xbox 360 3 months after launching in UK was been sold with one of its biggest game for 100 pounds less than the actually price,? Hell the xbox 360 in US took 624 to get its first price drop,compare that to the original xbox which was 6 month.

Gamestop never do such bargains dude,even less including a damn game that is the hit of the moment on say console,it would be like the 360 been sold with halo 3 on early 2006 for 100 pounds less yeah like that will ever happen..

Lets see the PS4 release 1 week after the xbox one,over took it on a single day of sales and have suffer huge shortage all over the world with word from sony it self that every unit been done is getting sold,yeah with better supply the lead would be even bigger,oh and that lead is the one the 360 had on the PS3 but the 360 didn't release the same year as the PS3 in UK,it had 1 year advantage and more than 100 pounds in difference,oh i remember well how vocal you were about the PS3 high price,which is funny because you haven't use the same rule to measure the xbox one which is even more expensive than the PS3 was on 2006.

So yeah even with less time and a huge shortage the xbox one is been out gunned by the PS4,and the price in UK show the desperation retailers have to move those units.

Sales will tank soon. All other markets will wait for and expect a price drop soon. MS screwing up once again.

No what is going to make them angry is the fact, some probably bought an Xbox One in mind to play Titanfall and then 2weeks before it comes out Microsoft decide to drop the price by £30 and include Titanfall for free??

Seriously that would pee me off if i'd bought one last month thinking about it. In the UK Xbox One is being out sold by 6-1 this a massive loss for them and this is desperation to get sells back, But worse they seem to miss understand what Exclusive is and most people can get titanfall on there PC i know thats where i'll be playing it, and the worst of it is, this is only Titanfall 1, this is more like a beta and just wait for Titanfall 2 which of course is going to be wait for it, a multiplatform game because respawn want this to happen for the money and EA will do anything to get more money, so Titanfall in the long run means nothing, and this just proves my theory of how Microsoft think they honestly think short term and not long term with there exclusive, look at Dead Rising no doubt that the next one or even this one will come to the PS4 by the end of the year, and then what, all they seem to care about truely is halo, gears and fable and forza thats there sauce. good luck i say but i don't think anyone really cares that much. i mean when is the other countries even going to get xbox one lol

I'd rather have the MS "F U Finger" than Sony's anyday. You know the Sony that told it's early PS1, PS2 and PS3 adopters to go F themselves after they experienced hardware issues, especially with the PS2. You know the same Sony that gave the good old middle finger to ALL it's early adopters until they got sued.

MS middle finger == price drop after 3 months...cows cry foul

Sony middle finger == early adopters hardware issues go F yourselves we're not fixing anything....cows love Sony for it.

You cows really are a bunch of whiny little bitches complaining about a product you have no intention of buying.

That sure is a big post of nonsense. Particularly seeing as you "dont think think anyone cares that much"

Isn't that a separate issue than the accusation that MS is giving the middle finger to early adopters. Because that could have happened at any point in the year.

Plus I don't really see anyone risking X1 amount of money just for Titanfall. It's unproven, NO ONE knows if it's going to be any good as a full product. Someone would have to be an absolute idiot to buy a console at launch for a new upcoming ip that might be good. Especially since they could just get it for the PC or X360.

Good point TC. But its more an indication of our society than anything. You bought the console because you wanted it. You saw it worth $500. Now that one area gets a little cut, its not worth it? Nothing in life caters to you. Man up people. Own what you did.

Its like Microsoft shills got together and decided this was going to be the offical talking point

This Microsoft shill excuse DOENST CUT IT

Very rarely has there ever been a price drop on a console that just came out

The xbone just came out!

THAT fact alone invalidates all the talking points of the Microsoft shill corporate apologists

The xbone JUST CAME out, and Microsoft "cut the price"

Microsoft is blatantly telling YOU, "hey **** you. The rare amount of loyal xboners who were actually stupid enough to buy an under powered kinect spying xbone, you all mean nothing to us. **** off. We are getting our ass handed to us in sales by Sony with the PS4 so we need to start getting sales...PRICE DROP" despite the fact the xbone JUST CAME OUT

The fact of the matter is this, people who bought an xbone at launch knew there was eventually going to be a price cut on it, BUT they never knew there would be a price cut 2-3 months after it LAUNCHED. Thats the issue. Thats what shady. Lets this be a lesson, NEVER BUY Microsoft products.

And whats funny is that the xbone is still over priced. Only Microsoft can cut the price of a product and its still over -priced. That just shows you how greedy Microsoft is.

There is one thing I did learn from this thread though. Anyone who even attempted to defend Microsoft in this thread is a Microsoft shill /corporate apologist. They are NO LONGER to be trusted by REAL GAMERS. Real gamers will always prefer playstation (the brand of real gamers)