This is very convoluted. We're just evaluating the value of an XBO with 1TB of memory. Best way we can do this is by subtracting the costs of the bundled games and 1 year of Live Gold. Based off of Amazon's pricing, total value of MCC, Unity, and Live Gold is ~$106, meaning that a 1TB XBO has a value of $293.that is bad / erroneous math... the price of the xbox does not change in this situation... again you have no idea where they are cutting the cost for the bundle.
The cheapest XBO package consumers can get is the MCC bundle (500GB XBO + MCC), which costs $349. Subtracting the cost of MCC, the value of a 500GB XBO is ~$321. This is the part where it's backwards because the 1TB XBO is cheaper in the context of the bundle Microsoft is offering at its store.
the main point is you cannot purchase just one part of this bundle separately with a new value you assign to it via your funky math.
No one is buying the bundle for a sum of its separate parts at lowered prices. The total bundle is "X" and they are a combined package which cannot be bought separately outside of this bundle for their bundled pricing. You do not know what costs MS is eating or from what. We only know (at best guess) that purchasing all of these separately would be "C" which is more than "X". The only factual data you can extract from that is a consumer value in regards to savings. Which would be C - X = S
You cannot then go back and say X - S = C1 as there is not enough factual data to state what cost of C1.2...n are at all. In this situation Microsoft knows the cost of each item for them, but that does not equal the cost of each item to the consumer as MS still wants to make a profit so we do not pay their prices. We do not know how much money they are eating or potentially losing on the bundle if any at all.
We can say that we know that separately the sum of C1.2...n = C, but that sum does not change because of the savings the consumer enjoys because of a bundle deal. You cannot reassign value to any of those items only MS can do that, which they do as "X" in a bundle deal. However, this does not mean at all EVER ANYWHERE that any parts of the whole now have different value anywhere else.
MS could say they are discounting this or that in the bundle (ie: save $100 off xbox with this deal, or buy this and we'll give you 'that' for free). This, however, still does not mean that there is a price drop on the xbox one now because of this bundle or you can get any of those items for free outside of the bundle.
You can only factually extrapolate the Consumer Savings of the cost of the sum of the parts in the bundle versus separately.
Saying "it's like only paying 293 for an xbox one" is incorrect as you are not paying for it separately and cannot buy it for that price outside of the bundle (save for maybe craigslist or ebay...) the bundle does not rewrite the cost of the xbox one for the consumer outside of the bundle. Assuming you are only paying 'e' for it is not possible to know unless MS actually comes out and says it.
Overall it is just bad and erroneous math to revalue something that has no reason or purpose to be revalued as part of the bundle as it only exists in that situation, and effectively is meaningless data even if true (which can only be proven by MS and is only best guess by us). The only meaningful data is the cost difference to the consumer as a whole to whole comparison.
In all honesty i think they are effectively giving the other stuff away for free, but I would still have to pay $399 to get the free stuff making the free value I've give to the other stuff effectively meaningless. I cannot get the free stuff for free separately and only works as an incentive to buy the bundle. By no means does it at all mean that the extra stuff is only worth $0... it is still worth its MSRP there is no new value magically given to it by bad math that makes it worth less. Much unlike the math being used to reassign MSRP...
Things like this completely depend on how you want to look at the problem.it is "like" is not a factual statement it's an opinion.... none of the options mean the value of anything has changed separately and trying to use such "perceived" data would be erroneous
What am I saving from getting this bundle?
Well, I'm saving say 50$.
Why that'd be like getting one of the following
-getting an Xbox One for 299$
-getting two free games
-getting free Xbox Live for a year
We could construct 3 equivalent scenarios from the bundle.
-Man walks into a store and buys the bundle, leaves the store with 400$ less than when he went in.
-Man walks into a store, buys a 299$ Xbox One, 2 games and XBL, and leaves the store with 400$ less than when he went in.
-Man walks into a store, buys a 349$ Xbox One, 2 free games and XBL, and leaves the store with 400$ less than when he went in.
-Man walks into a store, buys a 349$ Xbox One, 2 games and free XBL, and leaves the store with 400$ less than when he went in.
Understandably, there is no flexibility with the bundle, as he can't walk away with a 299$ XBO, but regardless of that, in all situations, provided he buys the same things, the result is identical.
If one wants to look at the glass half full vs half empty or vice versa, as long as they are identical scenarios, one should be able to look at the scenario any way they like.