Looking to buy the Xbox One in India? Don’t bother waiting for the official release date.
The Xbox One will hit India officially on September 23, almost a year after the US and UK. And while gamers in India applaud the fact that the Kinect-less edition of Microsoft’s latest black box is priced on par with the Playstation 4, that doesn’t make it the best deal it can be.
(See: E3 2014: Xbox One launches in Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Taiwan on September 23, 2014)
If you were to purchase the Xbox One at launch in India, you’d be set back by INR 39,990 ($667) without Kinect and INR 45,990 ($767) with it. But if you were to venture to a host of independent stores across the country, you could pick it up for as low as INR 35,000 ($583) with Kinect and a game right now. That’s savings of almost INR 11,000 ($183). And it’s going to get cheaper down the road, in no small part thanks to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) getting some sweet deals when the Xbox One launches there in the first week of September.
The Xbox One price in the UAE via a local retailer’s Facebook page.
Yes, AED 1749 ($476) and five games, and AED 2199 ($599) with five games and Kinect makes it a better deal for most smaller retailers to import their stock, rather than resort to official options. For the Indian consumer, it’s a sweet deal since you get a lot more bang for buck and you save a healthy amount of money in the process.
Product from the UAE finds its way into India for a variety of reasons. There are more than thirty eight free trade zones in the UAE, making import and export of items (including Xbox Ones) a breeze.
Furthermore, Indian travellers to Dubai hit a massive 8.3 million last year. Combine that with airfares that keep on dropping and it suddenly makes fiscal sense to send someone to pick up product on a regular basis. While it might sound outlandish for some, import duties in India as well as customs hassles leave a large number of mom-and-pop game stores pursuing this option, either directly or by obtaining goods from another retailer who does it regularly.
The Titanfall bundle never made it officially but that didn’t stop opportunistic retailers from getting it anyway.
At such outlets, it’s a common occurrence to see games and consoles from countries as Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore as well as the US. A lot of small retail stores in the country don’t have regular access to official video game distributors or have the cash flow required to do business with them on a sustained basis. In order to cut costs and still maintain a healthy selection of products, they parallel import from other countries.
Though Indian customers could also directly import the Xbox One from Amazon’s US website, the price is similar to what you’d get locally, only with the slowest shipping method. Not to mention you’d have to source a transformer or a power brick to run it without frying your circuits.
While purchasing officially has its advantages, such as warranty (which unlike Apple is not worldwide), there’s little to no reason to suggest it would be of use given that the hardware is a lot more reliable this time around. Besides, the savings from buying an unofficial unit can be put towards games, and INR 11,000 ($183) easily nets you three to four of them.
Here’s how much it would cost via Amazon US. Sounded good until I realized I’d have to buy a power brick seperately.
The reason for such a vast difference is how the company approaches local price control. During the Xbox 360 lifecycle, you could pick up a 120GB Elite console for INR 19,000 ($316) while buying through official channels would set you back by around INR 34,990 ($583). Though both Microsoft and Sony are subject to the same import duties in India, the latter seems to be doing a better job at ensuring customers buy officially. The price difference between buying the Playstation 4 officially or otherwise is scant, thanks to uniform pricing across regions. At best, you’ll find an unofficial unit for INR 33,000 ($551). An official unit with warranty costs INR 39,990 ($667). This doesn’t factor in discounts on official units, which can bring the price down to around INR 36,000 ($600) with warranty. The difference is negligible.
So are you waiting for the Xbox One to show up officially or are you taking the plunge as early as possible? Let us know in the comments.
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