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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?"
They might have had a bigger market in Japan if it did!
On the one hand, Microsoft are losing money, yay! But on the other hand, if they're losing money they must be selling more and more units, boo!
Help, tell me what to think!!!
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
Nice Engrish
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Wonder what this means for all the current Xbox Mod Chips?
:)
It means that MS profits for next quarter will be higher from all the people flooding the market buying old XBoxes.
Obvious. The current mod chips are doomed, of course.
If Microsoft goes through the trouble of reconfiguring the case, then rejiggering the motherboard is trivial. Wouldn't be surprised if they put a bullet-proof kryptonite cover over the chips or soemthing.
The same thing it meant the last time a change was made to the xbox.
Time to make new mod chips.
Now what will I use to crack open coconuts?
It would have been much cheaper for Microsoft to bundle some of their own games, like Halo, with the Xbox. Instead they chose to bundle two games which Sega made exclusive to Xbox, and which didn't sell very well in their own right: Sega GT and Jet Set Radio Future.
My guess is that Microsoft did this to appease Sega and boost sales of their titles, in order to keep Sega making Xbox exclusives.
maybe i'm missing the point, maybe i'm old. but why are features like streaming video becoming more and more popular with consoles these days? am i the only person who use his game consoles for, well, games, and a pc for more 'useful' features?
Increase the size of your XBOX in 10 days with our Herbal XBOX Viagra!
Trolling is a art,
The only logical answer is Sega. There is no other developer out there that is giving the Xbox any kind of serious support in JPN. Xbox is only getting games from them that are on all three systems or nothing much at all. MS needs to figure something out with the JPN market if they hope to really fight in the Consoling gaming market. I don't see them getting any major head way though (but that doesn't upset me at all) due to these already tight partnerships: Nintendo has Capcom, Namco, Square, Sega (amusment vision) Sony has Square/Enix I know I am not listing all the JPN developers..but those are the big buys (for the most part)
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
In Japan, XBox IS a room and the controllers are garages.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
MS bought Rare in late Sept. for $375 million. I wonder how much of the $348 million reported as losses can be attributed to that acquisition.
Like them or not, MS is in the console business for the long haul whether they turn a profit within the next 3 years or not.
It doesn't say XBox per se, but the division that makes XBox, along with other products is losing more money. For all we know, they're developing all kinds of crazy stuff, which is why losses are larger.
Microsoft's Home and Entertainment segment, which includes the Xbox, PC games and the company's TV products, posted an operating loss of $348 million in the quarter on revenue of $1.28 billion. A year earlier it had a loss of $180 million on revenue of $833 million.
MS has a history of going long-term with high-profile products, and it's paid off for them. This venture was no different, and losses were expected. Maybe if this story was posted say, 3-4 years down the road, it'd be newsworthy, since that's when MS is expected to BREAK-EVEN with the Xbox.
This sounds like editor & zealot bait - fanning the flames of hate. Woo-hoo, MS is losing money?
Woo-diddley-hoo, they knew it before we did. Get a grip.
i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
Just wait for spam e-mails advertising "Xbox Enlargement Pills". It'll be here soon, seriously.
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would 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?
So if MS keeps posting losses on the xbox like this, the real question is, which will happen first?
-Microsoft runs out of funds and has to close its doors.
-Our sun dies
Coming from a big PS/2 background and advocate, I was converted to the Xbox from my brother. For the same price of a PS/2, I got Dolby 5.1 in all games, network adapter, built-in hard drive, etc. The Xbox is very cool, and from what I've read, the #2 console. So despite the current losses, I think there is a lot Sony has to live up to in its next gen console to even catch up to what the Xbox now offers. And #2 ain't bad for a 15 month console life span!
I think Microsoft has to learn that they can't just make incremental additions to their hardware, or current customers will feel cheated. Although I don't personally own an X-Box, I know someone who does, and if Microsoft doesn't offer this Media2Go service to current X Box users, I know he'll be angry (What they're describing is actually pretty much what he wants, he has broadband, and wants to be able to get things like music and movies, but still pay for them, etc)
Small typo in your link. The correct link is here
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
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...
You do realize that MS sells each one of these systems at a loss
Contrary to popular belief, the console makers do not sell the consoles for less than their marginal cost of production and distribution. The "loss" lies mainly in the expenses of product development and promotion.
Will I retire or break 10K?
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.
Dude. Completely untrue. You may very well hate Bill Gates and Microsoft, but do it for the right reason.
Bill and his wife have donated tons of money to shelters/cancer treatment centers/fine arts, etc.
You may hate his company, but he's donated a helluva lot of his loot.
Sent from your iPad.
Help, tell me what to think!!!
It's Monday, so we like video games, so this is bad news. But it's February, so this is good news. But the day of the week is odd, so we're supposed to only bash Sony and Blizzard. But the day matches the 2-digit year, so we only especially make fun of Macintosh users. But it was posted AFTER lunch, so this is good news.
Got it?
I bet you when the Xbox2025 comes out and is the last console on the market, MicrosoftAolTimeWarnerDisney will jack the price up to $2500. Which should just about offset the AOL losses...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
just like Iraq is using PS2 for their SCUDS
...but no PS2 has ever been or will ever be used for missiles. There was an export restriction put on the hardware (as with all computers of that class/speed, AFAIK) because of it's ability to crunch numbers, but any rumors of military applications are nothing more than sensationalism at it's finest.
Okay, I'll take what you say at face value about your position at Nintendo, and etc...
Everyone seems to be assuming that those losses can only be attributed to selling a ton of xboxes (at a loss.)
0 0. html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129749,
says differently.
Osha now expects Xbox-related revenue for Nvidia's fourth quarter, which ended 26 January, to total $40m on 800,000 units, down from previous estimates of $85m on 1.7 million units.
According to that, they shipped less than *half* of the number of xboxes they expected to ship in the 4th quarter.
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!
I thought you worked at Sega?
How's your Smell-o-vision project going?
Your educational background is pretty impressive too.
What about Super Marx Brothers?
(Thanks Klaruz.)
Xbox is the #3 system.
Sony Playstation: 50 million units
Nintendo GameCube: 16 million (or 10-12 million depending on who you believe)
Microsoft Xbox: 8-9 million
Microsoft is not doing so well. Microsoft says sales of Xbox are on track. Yet what did Microsoft project they would sell? 9 million to 11 million. How many did they sell? 8 million, and they hope to sell 1 million more by June 30. Therefore Microsoft might possibly meet the low end of their projections.
Sources...
CNet: PlayStation 2 shipments top 50 million
CNet: Microsoft says Xbox sales on track ("We expect to finish our fiscal year with just over 9 million units sold worldwide," Koch said.)
And finally, for the Microsoft shills that think Xbox will take the world by storm...
Suppliers dim Xbox sales picture
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
OK - so the new X-Box will have more/better security, perhaps with the key in SEVERAL tamper resistant chips, so no one grad student could possibly afford to crack them.
Think the funding for this will not be found? No, because Bill Gates has pissed off a lot of very rich people.
Larry Ellison of Oracle, for one, HATES him and Larry Ellison is a billionaire. There's many more.
Think the new X-Box will go uncracked? No way. Unless chips are coated with Unbelieveium, the toughest material in comics, a quiet team of well funded electrical engineers with electron microscopes etc WILL open the new x-box and print it's guts all over the internet.
Bill's Karma will catch up with him.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Slashdot LOVES articles that cast the Xbox in a poor light.
Here's my take:
Let's just say they 'cut bait' and stop production on the Xbox. What happens?
My 8-10 games continue to function.
The 6-8 games I'd like but don't yet own get CHEAP. (we have an Atari 2600 and 80 odd carts that we bought for pennies on the dollar in garage sales)
My Xbox still makes a killer DVD player.
I dunno 'bout you, but I feel I got my money's worth. On a dollar per hour basis, it's been a pretty good purchase.
And yet, I doubt it's future is in jeopardy less than 4 months after announceing Xbox Live.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
"Wonder what this means for all the current Xbox Mod Chips?"
Not much, they'll just come out with new chips that will work with the new systems, much like they do with sony continually coming out with new ps2 models.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
Still, MS generates $1 Billion in pure profit every month. They could absorb a money-losing Xbox division for 50 years if they wanted to.
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.
Sega is a public traded company and as such they can not have a secret deal with Microsoft. At least in theory,... Enron, Cough Cough
Help fight continental drift.
The PS2 is a remarkably inferior platform, but it does have a very large number of very high quality games. I will immediately be one of the first to point out that the PS2 lacks a great RATIO of good games vs. bad games, but that's a universal complaint anymore.
I have several pretty good games for the PS2, and several really good PS1 games. I havea lot of crap for the system, too... but at least I can say I have that many great games for the PS2.
For the XBox, I only have a few that I can honestly say I like. I've rented several, and the better ones weren't exclusives. I've even given away XBox games that I thought were total trash.
Halo is fab, and Buffy is neat. DOAX is neat. But overall the system IS lacking in great games. I mean to pick up Panzer Dragoon sOrta, since it'll be worth it. 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.
That hardly says good things about the XBox.
The Gamecube is doing marginally better, since I can honestly say I only have one Gamecube game that I would honestly say I think sucks. Not that there aren't shitty games for the Gamecube, too, but most of those are obvious trash. The Nintnedo first party titles have all been top notch, and even ANIMAL CROSSING (as strange and childish as it is) has been a greater source of amusement to me than anything on the XBox.
Oh, and yes, I do have all three systems.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Hell they have sold 8 million units when essentially in competition with a system that had a year+ head start. Not to Mention Xbox figures to have a longer life than PSII and is in a great position to provide the higher value second tier system when PS3 hits the shelves and PSII game development falls off. Rough guess is at that point X-Box will be selling for 150 or less with a number of PC game ports hitting hard and heavy with alot of first efforts by primarily PC developers at the second teir game prices.
I think PSII is going to have a rough second tier life... I think they really goofed not having more memory or making it upgradable and the lack of an intialy integrated hard drive. Hard drive space is likely going to be very very necesarry in the console market before long and Xbox will be sitting pretty as a value system while it will cost to upgrade PSII and its system memory is fixed with less than Xbox.
Step two after PSIII hits the market they again hit the bleeding edge market late but this time with a system designed with all of their lessons learned ( IE better controller, smaller footprint ). They hope to break even but don't care if they take an ultimate loss again and take direct aim at whatever sony offers after the 3erd generation play station. The goal the next time around is to establish the system is worthy. Not to mention folks Xbox is not a garounteed loss yet, it may well break even or proove profitable in the long run.
Frankly I think MS could deal without penetrating the Japanese market so long as they can garner game design support for US titles or generate a stronger console content generation industry over here. My guess is they are after making the US market able to stand on its own feet in competition. at that point its anybodies game... however penetrating Japans very protective domestic market in an area with so much domestic pride is to me is a very very very difficult.
I am no Xbox fanboy.... my console system is a PSII and I love it... but it has its limitations and by all accounts it is a far more difficult system to develop for. X-box by contrast represents a set PC type of environment with similar development needs where you don't have to account for widely varying consumer hardware choices. This means given time and users the ease of porting PC titles will lead to more content from US game designers that have largely kept to the PC to date.
It will be interseting to see what Sony does to pre-emt these strengths.... a late market PSII with budget price ( no more than Xbox), upgraded memory, and with the hard drive/ network card included might deliver a real coup de grace to Xbox sales of any sort and put M$ at a severe disadvantage with Xbox V2 if they don't launch with PS3 in the battle for the next genration whether its worthy or not.
I hate M$ and little annoying things in their Xbox release like extra $$ on top of a too expensive release price to unlock DVD playback and an utter crap controller design seem to doom their venture. However, M$ is in it for the long haul and regardless of the people who back it I would love to see a stronger US console development market develop.
I don't ask you to be me. I only ask you not expect me to be you.
It was out 3 days after the Xbox in the US, but 5-6 months *earlier* than the Xbox in Japan. That's where it got its lead from.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Let's see, IIRC, Microsoft has $40,000,000,000 in cash. If we call the "average" of the last 2 quarters a loss of about $200,000,000, that means Microsoft only has 50 years to turn this product around, or they're history.
They're probably quivering at my math right now.
adeu,
Mateu
"And we're happy here, but we live in fear, we've seen a lot of temples crumble..." - Concrete Blonde
Just not true:
"November marked the seventh consecutive month in which Xbox console sell-through outpaced that of Nintendo GameCube." GameZone.com
This was also confirmed by the author of "Opening the Xbox" Amazon who was interviewed on TechTV not too long ago who stated that total Xbox sales were significantly higher than the GC. BTW, the PS2 had an 18 month lead on Xbox and GC. A huge amount of time to build a game and player base.
Try supporting your "facts" next time.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
It's always sad to see a monopoly fail when it muscles it's way into a new market :)
I must say though SEGA has made some amazing games for the XBOX-- not enough to warrant a purchase from me.. I have a gamecube and a ps2(one that has a defective discdrive...disc read error blah)... The Gamecube has been insanely fun- more fun than most of my PS2 games... Metroid was tons of fun, and even though the games are pretty stylized and bright they are still great fun.
I don't think Microsoft will be able to stay afloat in the games industry personally- They are just getting started from their perspective- while companies like Sony and Nintendo are already working on releasing new consoles by 2005...
How long will it take for Microsoft to try and move into the handheld market?... Nintendo practically subsidizes their console business with handhelds until they can produce them cheap enough to stand on their own.
3 consoles-- and the market is already saturated...personally I hope microsoft fails- they produced an inferior product in many respects-- I'm am glad that the gaming public has enough taste to avoid the heap of plastic the XBOX is.
I'm sorry, but this is more than $500 million MS has lost so far on Xbox, and that is big news no matter how you slice it. Does anyone honestly think MS got into this business in order to lose money? What would be the point? There are two possible reasons for MS to have gotten into the video game business, and only two:
1. To make profits. This is self explanatory.
2. To use the system to leverage their Windows business somehow, selling the system at a loss in order to eventually put some modified version of Media Center in your living room.
They're failing at #1, and as far a I know, #2 would be illegal - it's basically exactly what they were found guilty of in court already.
No company can continue to lose money at something forever. I'm sorry, but this is a publicly traded company and if I were holding MS shares there's not really anything MS could do at this point to convince me that getting into this business has been a good idea. Sony's profitable, Nintendo's profitable, MS is losing *large* amounts of money. What's wrong with this picture?
Almost lost in this story is that MS is now saying they're barely going to hit the low end of their sales forecasts. You think they expected to lose $384 million? They probably wouldn't have if they'd sold as many consoles as they'd hoped - this means less software sold, and fewer royalty payments. The fact is the Xbox is not doing well, however MS wants to spin it.
And regarding this Japanese company they're "propping up" - I would honestly doubt it's Sega, though it's possible. However, all of Sega's recently-released Xbox games were announced over a year ago (at the E3 prior to the Xbox's launch), and the only recent Xbox game I can recall being announced by Sega is Virtua Cop 3. That's honestly not a lot of support. More likely, the investment is in Tecmo - which has been devoting almost exclusive support to Xbox ever since its release, and which has two of the highest-profile titles ever released for the console - Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball, not to mention the recently announced Dead or Alive: Code Cronus and the hinted-at Dead or Alive 4. All Xbox-exclusive. Sega, by contrast, hasn't released any million-sellers for Xbox, not even close, and hasn't announced much for the system lately.
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)
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
I recognized that some people think that since MS loses money on Xbox, and MS is losing much more money on XBOX now, that means MS XBOX sales are good (meaning more Xboxs are being sold at a loss). This is untrue.
& Ar t_ID=11492
Xbox is selling poorly.
"the company lowered its total Xbox sales forecast to 9 million to 11 million units by the end of June 2003. The company originally expected to ship that many units by the same point in 2002.", for comparison playstation2 has sold 50 million units.
http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.cfm?ID=17
Another bad sign is component manufactures like Focus (and likely Nvidia) are being told that they don't need to make more components for the Xbox (mentioned in above link).
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.
I realize that there is less aversion towards Xbox here than there is towards their PC software, since most people can respect the fact that it's a great console, but I saw some people voice concern about how "the Xbox isn't stopping at videogames, they plan on having Xbox 2 be a multimedia center that would give them control like in the PC industry, scary".
What do you think of the alternatives though? By that I mean Sony, who have openly stated they plan on doing the very things MS wants to do. Allow me to showcase their current product:
-Far weaker system that doesn't even include basic graphical features like anti-aliasing and proper textures
-It doesn't support any internal save slot, so you're forced to buy a memory card
-It had no hard drive, and the fact that the upcoming one is an add-on (historically, not a single add-on EVER was a success) means that the amount of developers who will make their games utilize its features is about the same as that of PC developers who port their games to Linux
-It has no network port, so for online play you're forced to buy it seperately
I can't help but feel that Sony is holding the gaming industry back, while Microsoft gives gamers more than they've ever received from any manufacturer. Whatever happened to supporting the best product?
Huh? The Japanese *adore* foreign-made products. It's also that they're quite a bit pickier about the (perceived) quality. Look at the bunch of dokushin-kizoku driving BMW's, or all those girls with Louis-Vuitton bags. Both are indicative of perceived quality, and both are "foreign" goods to them. Let's see, culturally, it's still "cool" to be American. That's still foreign. I have been in this country for a few months, and I have *yet* to hear the gov't say "buy Japanese".
The reason Xbox isn't doing well isn't the foreign vs domestic bit, but the fact that the genre popular in Japan (RPGs, puzzles, etc) aren't there on the Xbox.
Yes, if you go to my journal, this is prettymuch what you'll find. I was kind of impressed with how it turned out, though, so here we go.
Okay, so Xbox losses doubled. The question is, does anyone care? Most people today get Xbox for one of two things: Halo or Xbox Live. It's not like people are saying "Why look, honey, another fine Microsoft product. We'll go pay a whole bunch for a brand new one!" And Halo is not receiving the near-divine praise it once was. Now it seems to be a precedent (and I have no objection to that, Microsoft does a good job of publishing trend-setters) that most other games compare themselves to (Ex: Tribes Aerial Assault). So they think releasing "Xbox Lite" will solve this problem. Yes, that makes sense, spend even more money to pump into a system that is attracting a smaller and smaller audience.
This seems like another famous Microsoft Act of Desperation (MAD). So maybe they need to step back and realize that maybe console gaming isn't their thing. It was released originally at a prime time, but the market for the PlayStation 2 was enormous, cutting down tremendously on possible sales. After all, someone spends $300 on a new PS2, it's not very likely that they'll spend the same amount on an Xbox while they're at it. So they need to pull out of console gaming for a while, and stick to what they're good at: successful publishing of PC Games. This is where they have my deepest respect. Sure, they make it seem like they're the ones making it, but you'll notice somewhere, maybe on the CD, maybe on the case, that some other company, usually one most people haven't heard of (Ex: Fasa Studios - MechWarrior Series, Gas Powered Games - Dungeon Siege, Ensemble Studios - Age of... Series) actually produced it.
EA and MS comprise about 90 percent of my PC games, which is impressive considering my gaming site requires me to have the 'latest and greatest' of the bunch. So stick with something you're good at, Microsoft. PC's are your specialty, and stay the hell out of console gaming. Remember, the Xbox is down, and nobody cares.
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
"If MS legalizes the mod chips then the Linux folk would completely abandon interest. "
No, there are always people who like to modify things. I'm happy to just buy Sega games, Tecmo games, and the odd non-Sega/Tecmo game (Splinter Cell, for example) for use on my Xbox. Legally, I have the right to do whatever I want with my Xbox, including using it as a toilet. I can put any chips I want into it, even PowerPC chips!
People don't want to modify their Xboxes because they legally restrained from that action, they want to modify them because it's a fairly compact (compared to a full tower PC) unit with all the important hardware for DTS/DD and HDTV in one unit.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Yeah, I had the same vision, but without the action button.
In essence, a true Jobs-ified gaming platform for the morally elite.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
"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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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
When they filed their year end statement, I distinctly got the impression that that XBox did well - at least they were bragging that the sales were better than expected. Now the say that it's loosing money. Is that misleading investors, or what? XBox is important to MS becuase the Office and OS buisnesses are mature and won't be able to sustain the company forever. This shows that the company is failing to grow into other segments.