Is There a market for the Premium anymore?

dazza74

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Now that the elite seems to be being released at £300 including a game in some places I just wonder whether there is a market for the premium anymore.

The core has now been reduced at a price level to compete with the Wii for entry level gamers but have to say with only a £50 difference between the Premium and the Elite (only a bit more than the price of a game) why would anyone bother with the Premium now? 20GB don't go very far and was always a weak point IMO in the Premium's armoury and HDMI connection is I feel pretty important to have on a device in this day and age.
 
I know what you are saying, but if the premium gets a few bundle deals, then it is still good value. They are also bringing out the Premium now with a HDMI connection in America, and this will shortly follow over here in the UK. If I was buying for the first time, I'd get an Elite for sure. However, how much of the general public will know about HDMI and are bothered about 100gb more? Most will just see the price and colour difference.
 
New premiums have HDMI. So it's a £50 gap for an extra 100GB of disk space. Some people won't need the disk space so there's no need for them to buy it.

I suspect we'll see some rationalisation in the range in the future though.
 
I think HDMI is more understood amongst the general public than component. Just to me seems a strange strategy from MS I can't see the market for 3 models surely you have the cheap version "The Core" and then the machine with all the bells and wistles on it "The Elite". Once you get outside of that your just confusing your average punter IMO.
 
New premiums have HDMI. So it's a £50 gap for an extra 100GB of disk space. Some people won't need the disk space so there's no need for them to buy it.

I suspect we'll see some rationalisation in the range in the future though.

It's going to be a very dear upgrade though if you did suddenly decide you needed the extra space
 
Once they do the price drop on Friday, i still see the Premium being the most popular of the 3 sku's
 
I think HDMI is more understood amongst the general public than component. Just to me seems a strange strategy from MS I can't see the market for 3 models surely you have the cheap version "The Core" and then the machine with all the bells and wistles on it "The Elite". Once you get outside of that your just confusing your average punter IMO.

So what do you think they should have done out of interest? Drop the price of the core to £179.99, stop making the premium and do the Elite for £299.99? The problem with that is then in theory Microsoft are putting the price of their system up. Or do you think Microsoft should have made the Elite £279.99 and just taken the hit?
 
So what do you think they should have done out of interest? Drop the price of the core to £179.99, stop making the premium and do the Elite for £299.99? The problem with that is then in theory Microsoft are putting the price of their system up. Or do you think Microsoft should have made the Elite £279.99 and just taken the hit?

I would have done away with the Premium and like you said launched the Elite at say £279.99. I just think from a manufacturing point of view it's got to be easier just to make two models than three. Also let's face it they haven't go to do much in the way of price reduction as the competition from the PS3 just isn't there.
 
I would ditch the core completely and just have the premium at £229 and elite at £299.

Both have wireless controllers and a Hard Drive and are both alot cheaper than the PS3
 
I would ditch the core completely and just have the premium at £229 and elite at £299.

Both have wireless controllers and a Hard Drive and are both alot cheaper than the PS3

Agreed. That to me sounds the best solution, but I suppose Microsoft do have to factor in the Wii. It will be interesting to see if Nintendo and Sony make any price cuts in the next few weeks and months before Xmas.
 
I would ditch the core completely and just have the premium at £229 and elite at £299.

Both have wireless controllers and a Hard Drive and are both alot cheaper than the PS3

Essentially it seems to me that MS are doing like what they did when the 360 was launched pricing the Elite just above the premium (look what extra you can get for an extra 50 notes!!) same as the Core V Premium when the 360 was launched, let's face it the only reason the core sold in any sort of volume at launch was because it was so hard to get hold of a premium at the time (what a debacle that was)
 
They should drop the core and just have two identical machine both with HDMI but one with 20Gb and one with 120Gb.

Lets face it, you only really need 120Gb if you will be using the video marketplace, I don't care what anyone says, 20Gb is ample if you're not.
 
They should drop the core and just have two identical machine both with HDMI but one with 20Gb and one with 120Gb.

Lets face it, you only really need 120Gb if you will be using the video marketplace, I don't care what anyone says, 20Gb is ample if you're not.

Maybe 13GB ( the actual free space on a 20GB HD ) is enough of you but it doesn't mean it's enough for everyone. Why you would make an assumption like that is beyond me. When I had my Premium I was always deleting stuff to make room for new content. On my Elite I have already used 26GB and I haven't had to delete anything. The fact is some pepople like keeping demos and other stuff on their hard drives for the long term and for them a 120GB hard drive comes in handy.
 
I believe we are talking stone age now still equipping the 360 with a 20GB hard disc IMO that's why I feel now if they plan to do that for the foreseable future I don't believe there is much point in the premium still being on sale
 

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