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Xbox Losses Double, Xbox Shrinks
seldo writes "According to ITWorld, losses in the last quarter at Microsoft's Home and Entertainment segment have doubled. From the article: 'The segment, which also includes Microsoft's TV platform and PC games, posted a quarterly operating loss of US$348 million, compared with $180 million in the same period a year ago.'" An anonymous reader
points to similar coverage at news.com, pointing out that the company also reports "profits for Office, and one small note about an undisclosed presumably Japanese company that Microsoft if propping up. So, the big question on my mind is, who is Microsoft secretly holding above water, and why? The fact that they are presumably Japanese, seems to point towards an XBox partner. Could this explain the sudden flood of Sega exclusive games?" Another anonymous reader writes "Microsoft will be showing a smaller sized Xbox at E3 this May. In addition to the smaller size of the hardware, the Xbox Lite will also be integrated with Media2Go allowing Xbox users to download digital content such as music and movies. Wonder what this means for all the current Xbox Mod Chips?"
I wonder just exactly what the content and delivery methods for media to the xbox will be? Surely it will contain the DRM tools that Microsoft is so proud of. Will you just be able to download pre-approved things from xbox live connection, or will you be able to share on a home network?
Make the mod chips legal ..the linux users will buy the boxes by the hordes! :)
Don't Tread on OpenSource
Sega's not making exclusives only for the XBox. Monkey Ball, anyone? Both were exclusive to the Gamecube, and big sellers also. Interesting that the company would choose to make exclusive titles for separate systems.
And I so wish they had released Jey Set Radio Future non-exclusively, as I would have so bought that for my Cube already.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Current XBox hard drives are full size 3 1/2" IDE hard drives. The DVD Drive is a full 5 1/4" bay drive too. Both can be upgraded. Are they going to be replaced with more expensive notebook hard and dvd drives? If so, won't it drive costs up? Will the hard drives increase in capacity from the current 8, 10 or 20 GBs to make room for the music and movies?
The thing that I've noticed with the XBOX games is the lack of replay value. Buffy game - great for about 7-8 hours, then once it's beaten, it's done. Halo -great game, but you're tired of it after a little while. Etc, etc... The X box live has been a huge disappointment for myself personally, anytime it's been used it's been without the sound, due to the number of 12 year olds who think they're Eminem... 2 cents...
OK, M$ was NEVER going to profit from xbox sales without getting the cost of the box itself down to either lower their loss on each box, or maybe show a profit (don't know exactly which point they're at right now). What's curious is that even though their using "commodity" parts, it has taken them this long to get the thing shrunk. You would think that with all the resources of the various portable manufacturers, they'd be able to tap into a lot of talent when it comes to making smaller/more compact packages. Heck, it's not like the things bleeding edge hardware wise, cooling should not be an issue, and performance isn't (as far as needing to increase it), so why has it taken SOOOOOO long to come up with a smaller cheaper (for M$) xbox? This is a critical time for xbox, it has to wait the entire year before the next holiday rush. In the meantime Sony will be starting to get the PS3 marketing machine into gear, so this smaller xbox is going to have to pull it's own thru this tough period. If it makes it to xmas, M$ is either going to have to rev the hardware again (smaller and faster/better) or pray that next xmas's sales are spectacular, or xbox won't live too much beyond '04.
Does Sega really need propping up? Aren't they still kicking butt in the coin-op industry? It seems more like Microsoft begging to keep their marriage in spite of lower console games sales. It seems reasonable to me that MS has projected the console sales much higher than what has come to pass, and that if it is truly Sega that is the JPN developer in question, they are not happy about devoting a higher budget to produce games on a console that isn't selling as well as they'd hoped; therefore, the games themselves aren't selling as well as Sega hoped; therefore again, Sega is threatening to quit developing on a not-quite-so-profitable platform.
<:
They may be losing money, but they have done want they wanted: become the number 2 console maker. Are they ever going to catch Sony? Probably not--but I'd bet for now they're happy beating Nintendo.
And for those of you who insist Nintendo is number 2 (it is in Japan certainly, but not overall) there have been lots of stories in the past few weeks about Nintendo sales. Here's one about Nintendo and EA. Basically, EA sees growth for the PS2 and XBOX, but not for Gamecube. Also from the article: "Shares in Nintendo have been battered by growing concerns about slack GameCube business worldwide."
And no, I'm not a PS2 or XBOX fanboy, so stop thinking I am. And no, I don't have a Gamecube, although if I could afford one I would for Metroid & Zelda alone.
-- Hobbits suck!
What Sega is doing is more like aiming their titles at the core audience of the respective consoles.
Sonic, Monkeyball, and the like make sense on the Gamecube.
Panzer Dragoon sOrta on the XBox makes sense.
Shinobi on the PS2 makes a whole lot of sense, though I wish they had made that one cross-platform in the same way they did some of their other titles.
I want NiGHTS on the Cube. That's all I can say.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Sega makes games for every company. PS2, GCN and XB all get games from Sega. If fact, Nintendo has the most Sega brand games. Withe the exception of their 2k sports games, their are more Sega games for Xbox than PS2.
None of their games are exclusive to any system (except maybe JSR and Sega GT 2002). At some point in time people equated "only out on console #1" to "exclusive to console #1". Super Monkey Ball could come out on PS2, but Sega doesn't want to make the game for that system. They like to put out different games for different systems. Sometimes they'll put one game out for GCN and XB, but not PS2 (See Phantasy Star Online). They do as they please. They are not contractually obliged to make SMB games only for Nintendo. JSR and GT 2002 maybe contractually exclusive to XB because they are pack-ins, but none of their other games are exclusive.
It's news because now we know; we have the numbers to support the hypoht...hypthos... theories we've discussed earlier.
Yes, the idea of hard facts as opposed to speculation may seem un-/.-ish , but it does server a purpose.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
The version 1.1 XBOX that started shipping in September of 2002 was hacked in about 1-2 weeks. This means that unless MSFT has really upped the ante with security, it will be more of a fun challenge to the MOD community, rather than a deterrent.
It's been 6 months since they've changed anything significant on the XBOX, so I'm sure the MOD community is waiting for a new challenge.
Microsoft is a person?
Yes. The Supreme Court said so, so it must be true.
The "buy an x-box, screw linux" theory holds that if you want to screw Microsoft, you should buy an Xbox, a mod chip, and then run Linux or something on it.
The reasoning behind this is that Microsoft loses a certian amount of money on each Xbox sold. They traditionally make the money back by selling games to the consumer, but if you just make your x-box into a computer, Microsoft doesn't make any money off it!
Now, there is an argument against this is that if you don't buy an xbox Microsoft can't sell money off the system, and thusly makes no money off the xbox at all. But its easily countered. If you don't buy it, someone else probably will. Stores are unlikely to sit around with tons of Xboxes in their warehouse. Someone will, in time, probably buy every Xbox Microsoft makes. But if a "screw Microsoft" geek does it, Microsoft will make less money off it.
However, there are other problems inherent in this theory which I haven't yet managed to counter. That is, that Microsoft might not be the one who gets screwed. Microsoft might have maneuvered it so that money only gets passed to Microsoft when the xbox is purchased by the store. I am not really sure how the Xbox Trade works, so I might be wrong on both counts, but it might be more complicated than the theory models it.
~User "Is it good or bad or not?!?!" Googol~
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's Razor
Like in Nintendo patent 6,468,160
This could actually be a good thing for two reasons:
1) Game makers would make games that are actually worth playing. Nothing's worse than shelling out $50 for a stinker and being stuck with selling it back as a used game for $15 if you;re lucky.
2) Making games with longer playing times and/or high replayability. As you said, a 20 hour game can be beaten easily within a rental period. This is not so with longer, more involved games that have a lot of hidden content in addition to the main story, such as Grand Theft Auto. (Companies like Gamefly.com that offer unlimited game rentals for $20 a month change that argument though, it's still cheaper to rent two games and keep them for 2 months than it is to buy both and then resell them)
I dont see Blockbuster putting anyone out of business until they can a) offer a monthly unlimited rental plan and b) keep games that are actually worth playing in stock. (And don't forget that there are like 2000+ blockbuster stores un the US, with each of them buying 50-90% of the games for every available console...that's a pretty good subsidy, many of those games are awful and wouldn't have sold near that many copies)
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imagine... imagine. Let me explain in clear terms. I worked in the game industry for 6 years, during the 3dO times, for example.
There is NO DOUBT. The industry thinks that desktops are not the true consumer device and suspect they never will be! The true consumer general purpose computer is expected to be a console, it has to look right for the Stereo/VCR rack, it probably can't have a keyboard shipped with it because people fear the keyboard, but it will probably have to have a way to sneak one on (USB, etc).
This is strongly believed and the only question is When, and What Price Point Wins. 3DO was an early bet, proven too early.
Anyway, there is NO doubt (in my mind at least), that the Xbox is a specific attempt to use the Wintel platform to fill that imagined role as the ubiquitous "general" computer. It's also an attempt to own this platform, which so far they have just taken part in (a major, but not controlling, part), that is to de-commodotize it.
Further, it's the smartest thing about the Xbox. Having to enter through the gaming industry is rough, however, very rough. It might have been easier to just sell the Xbox as a cheap PC to begin with...?
-pyrrho
Just because he's a savvy buisnessman as well as a philanthropist does not make him evil. Evil would be sheltering the majority of his funds offshore so that they benifit no one but himself (that is tax evasion). While he may have bankrupted the BC program, does it really matter? Because of his donation, the program almost certainly has more money now than it would have ever recieved otherwise.
Also, all of the large amounts of giving you ever hear about are also cases of conditional giving, the condition being that the giver recieve some sort of recognition for his or her giving, be it having their name mentioned in association with the gift, or having a building named after them. The only giving you can truely be uncritical of is Anonymous giving and in that case we wouldnt even be having this discussion.
Also, Bill Gates' gift of 100 million to fight AIDS in no way comes back to his pocket, so certainly you can't qualify all of his giving as evil, even by your twisted standards.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
Here is an interesting article about Nvidia and their possible contributions to Xbox2/XboxNext(or whatever it's called).
NVidia cautious about Xbox 2
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=2507
It basically says that Nvidia may not be to excited to be the supplier for the next Xbox's components because of poor Xbox sales and legal problems with MS.
"But c'mon, the systme has been out this long and the good games are only now starting to really trickle in, and the best ones are cross-platform."
:)).
Every single system only gets so many great titles per year of its life. If you look at your 15 solid-gold SNES cartridges from back in the day, you fondly remember playing them. Do you remember the really shitty games no one even tries to sell anymore? How about how long it was between Mario games, or how amazing it was to get Metroid 3 years after the SNES came out?
Launch titles are a mixed bag, with most of them being rushed, sucking, or under-using the power of the system. There are enough great Sega and Tecmo titles to justify owning an Xbox. On the GameCube, there are enough great Nintendo, Sega, and other titles available to justify buying it. Same for the PS2: how many RPGs do you want? I bought Suikoden 3, Legaia 2, Wild Arms 3, etc. These are great games that are reasons to own a system. If you look at your library, and you see only games you'd rather not play or sell.. then you should be picking more carefully.
My GC library is around 17 games, my PS2 is 7, my Xbox is 7. With every console/portable I have, I'm sitting around 175 games. I do have crappy games, but years of experience have taught me how to quickly spot something I'll enjoy. And if you're in doubt, rent it -- or ask the people at the store (assuming it's EB, not Wal-mart
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