Sunday, May 13, 2007

Chapter 6 - Determination of National Income

Blu-ray Possibility for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Game Console?

In the article i found, ITMedia, Microsoft head, Peter Moore talks about a rumor that the new Xbox 360 game console will have an add on blu-ray drive launched for it in the future. Right now there is a "DVD war" with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, two of the newest advances in the video market, for the next standard of video disks. The new Sony Play Station 3 is currently using Blu-Ray (which was created by sony) and Microsoft Xbox 360 is using HD-DVD. Moore stated that if Blu-Ray wins the DVD war then it is most likely that there will be a Blu-Ray add on to the Xbox 360. Although the Xbox 360 prefers to use HD-DVD, it has an external DVD drive which allows them to adapt to whatever standard wins.

Now how does this have anything to do with chapter 6? Well first of all, there is a huge aggregate demand for video games. Almost every family household should have a game console. In order to buy one of the next generation consoles, you need money. When new video game consoles are released, they are usually priced around three hundred to seven hundred dollars. The distribution of income will affect the number of people who can afford one. If the consumer is wealthy, they will be able to buy the more expensive consoles by taking money out of their savings rather than transferred from other purchases. On the other hand, if the consumer is not wealthy, they might not be able to afford a console or the more expensive ones. Since the prices of newly released consoles will usually be fairly expensive, consumers can expect to have to save some money. But since consumers can expect prices to be high, they may want to wait for prices to drop. Which means no money going into the circular flow of money. Consumers might be persuaded to buy a new console because of psychological reasons. If all the cool kids at school have the latest gaming console, one could be influenced into getting a new console as well.

Microsoft is pressured to make changes in technology because it is expected that Blu-Ray is going to win the DVD war. Xbox will have to make replacements from their HD-DVD to Blu-Ray. I predict that the prices for the updated console will increase by a bit because of the cost of capital goods.

Personally, I think that Blu-Ray is going to win the DVD war because it's so advanced compared to everything else on the market. I can guess that Microsoft will probably have an add on for Blu-Ray as well because it is getting very popular. I do not have one of the new gaming consoles yet because of the price. I am going to wait until they drop then i will consider buying a new console. I will probably go with Sony's PS3 if they have any better games comming out.

2 Comments:

Blogger victorye said...

I doubt the Microsoft would switch their HD-DVD to Blue-Ray for their Xbox 360, but it might be added to the next console by Microsoft. Most of the games that are out for 360 are only able to be play on a dvd drive, and if they were to switch it to a Blue-Ray drive, all the games will have to be replaced, and games that will come out in the future won’t be able to play on the original Xbox 360. And Microsoft might suffer economically; people will return their console, etc.
+ I don't know how Sony is making money off PS3, since a Blue Ray rom/drive cost more than a PS3.

--Victor Ye

2:51 PM  
Blogger tobylee-- said...

I think that the DVD war isn't really as important as it seems. As long as the game runs well and smooth,the consumers won't mind that much and they probably wouldn't even notice. It is just like the new CPU's. When you have a 3.5GHz compared to a 4GHz, you wouldn't really notice the difference when you use it. However, thinking economic wise, the winner of the DVD war, would show to consumers that this we are better than the other one. As a result, promoting sales and increasing the demand for the product. When we have a increase in demand, which means consumption will increase, as long as the profit and the wealth is generated from the products.

7:43 PM  

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