Tag Archives: Signal Hill

Signal Hill’s Todd Greenwald has warned that a small install base and expensive pricing model could stifle Cloud gaming service OnLive’s growth.

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Analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence has told Industry Gamers that it won’t be long before Microsoft released a slimmer version of Xbox 360.

“I think it is a question of when not if,” he told the site. “However, the when part is a big uncertainty … rumors have been going on for a long time. I think people were asking me the same question last year at this time. As cost efficiencies allow smaller and more reliable is always a good thing. However, you also have something like Project Natal which could also tie in with hardware redesigns.

“There are a lot of questions Microsoft must weigh internally and there are always going to arguments on both sides of the fence around timing. So I don’t know, but in our DFC forecasts we anticipated a major redesign in 2010….so I guess that was our bet.”

While the other three analysts the site spoke with, Tom Greenwald of Signal Hill, Arvind Bhatia from Sterne Agee and Broadpoint AmTech’s Ben Schachter, do not agree with him, each do foresee a new SKU redesigned with Project Natal for 2010.

More through the link.

Signal Hill’s Todd Greenwald has issued a damning statement on Microsoft’s E3 360 price adjustment today, saying that it’s not enough to differentiate the machine from PlayStation 3 in the US.

“We remain very sceptical of Microsoft’s pricing strategy and competitive positioning versus the PlayStation 3,” said the analyst in a research note.

“At $349, with a 60Gb hard drive, we just don’t think it is a compelling product compared with the PS3 at $399 with an 80Gb hard drive (along with more processing horsepower, Blu-ray, Wifi, HDMI, and going forward, more exclusive content),” he offered.

“We’d also note that the Xbox 360 has just been surpassed by the Wii in the US, despite Microsoft’s one year head start over Nintendo.

“We do think that the Netflix announcement is a significant addition for Xbox users, though its far more of a positive for Netflix than it is for Microsoft in our opinion.”

Microsoft dropped the price of the 20Gb US 360 SKU and announced a new, 60Gb machine just before E3 last week.

Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald has told GameRush that an imminent PS3 price cut is unlikely due to the victory of Blu-ray over HD-DVD and a strong line of exclusive titles, such as GT5 and Metal Gear Solid 4.

“We do not expect a price cut on the PS3 just yet,” Greenwald said.

“Sony appears to be focused on profitability right now, and actually has some momentum behind it now with the Blu-ray win, and its strongest line-up of exclusive titles since the console’s launch (Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, etc).”

The comments come, of course, in light of an near-certain price cut for Xbox 360 at E3 next week.

By Jerry Burns

Speaking in a pre-E3 research note, Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald has claimed that dropping 360′s price won’t be enough to stave off successes of both Wii and PS3.

“We think the 360 has lost significant momentum to both the Wii and PS3, especially in Europe, and is in need of both a price cut and new features to bring in mainstream gamers beyond the Halo/Call of Duty/GTA crowd,” he said.

“Hopefully, Microsoft will have something else up its sleeve [at E3], such as a new motion-enabled controller (to better compete with the Wii).”

Thanks, Next-Gen.