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Xbox Boss Admits Mistakes, Bashes Nintendo
Thanks to C+VG for their interview with Microsoft's Peter Moore about the state of the Xbox, following on from their recent interview with fellow Xbox bigshot Ed Fries. In this piece, Moore talks about early problems for Microsoft's console, saying: "I look back at the first E3 Xbox had and it was an unmitigated disaster. But that was a wake-up call." He also discusses the company's rivalry with Sony, saying: "It's difficult to expect Xbox to challenge PS2 when the starting gun had gone off a year and a half before and it was already on the third lap", before turning on Nintendo: "I think Nintendo is surprised - it's kind of slipped away from them pretty quickly over the last couple of years. I don't think they really anticipated how well we would do in the business."
As Nintendo swims in profits, they probably are surprised by Microsoft. They're probably surpirsed that Microsoft doesn't even seem to care if their console is profitable. Sure, Nintendo may not be making the profits they're used to, but when the competition is willing to flush money down the toilet all day to woo your customers, a half a billion a year in profits is nothing to shake a stick at. Nintendo is in it for the money, and they certainly know how to rake it in.
Honestly. Did anyone think the Xbox would do as well as it's doing?
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
the fight for gaming hardware supremacy is between the Xbox, PC, and PS2, why isn't the Xbox outselling the Gamecube?
... not to mention the debugging shitfight that LAN parties have managed to devolve into. Honestly, why bother? This was supposed to be fun.
... but it's a fucker to code for.
Because it has - and I think this is becoming clearer over time - absolutely nothing to do with hardware.
Modern PC's are vastly more powerful than any of the above. The PC as a platform, however, is screwed. Really. I'm a really typical maturing gamer: Software engineer for a living; Own home; Recently had first child. My PC doesn't even have a hard drive in it right now. Between using an iBook for "computer" tasks, gaming on the PS2 and the rapidly declining (for me) LAN party scene - I'm done. The upgrade for HL2 and Doom3 is going to be somewhere in the vicinity of NZ$2k. I can get Jak and Daxter 2 for $120, or GT4. Hell I played an hour and a half of GT3 this morning - two years after getting it. It's an amazing value proposition.
All this fails mention that my upgrade fee will include feeding our friends in Redmond, feeling sick about it, and suffering the resulting security hell
Looking purely at console hardware I think it has become clear that the PS2 is, at it's core, phenomenally weedy. Almost exactly a 300MHz MIPS core bolted onto a Voodoo3. Where it shines, of course, is when the vector engines get going
I believe, based on very few actual facts, that the GC has a lot more grunt than we give it credit for.
What I find more intriguing is the relationship between the three companies and the software development community. Do we, as developers on the fringes of the industry, matter? Microsoft certainly think so, and the "piece of piss" portability from DX8 to the XBox has lead to the development of maybe half their games.
Sony think so, a bit. PS2 Linux is a step in the right direction, and I imagine that gaining a PS2 development license is made significantly easier by having the basics of your stuff going on Linux before you even ask.
Nintendo really don't give a shit and are quite open about it.
Should they care about us? Given that it's a million dollars just in artwork to ship an FPS now, are any blockbusters really about to appear out of the back bedrooms? Is it the Halo's and GT4's that are responsbile for the majority of earnings, or does the enormous library of "b league" playstation games have an equally important part to play?
If anyone knows, I'd be interested to find out.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
It's interesting that the name of Nintendo can be found on almost every paragraph... why spend your time talking about #3 when you already are #2?
Well, indeed it could be that being #3 while making money still funnier than reach the 2nd place loosing millions on the way to.
Peter Moore used to work for Nintendo of America in a pretty high position. During the course of a week where he quit to work for Microsoft his comments varied between
'Nintendo is in a firm position to claim back the market, yada yada yada'
To
'Microsoft is in a firm position to claim the market, yada yada yada'
The insight to the industry this guy gives is directly relevant to who he is working for.
How about the one when they recalled the XBox over the spinning disc during ejection? They didn't expect Japanese gamers to be so finicky. Great, insult your customers. . .
They didn't insult their customers. The spinning disc issue didn't hurt the disc or the system. But a urban myth sprung up over there that it did, so many Japanese wanted their console replaced. I like Japan, and I like Japanese culture, but there is only so much you can expect MS to do when it comes to Japanese xenophobia.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Honestly. Did anyone think the Xbox would do as well as it's doing?
Doing well? You mean that having one fifth of the PS2's marketshare is considered "doing well" now? Man, I must have stepped into bizarro world by mistake...
When the XBox came out, their expectations was Total World Domination and crushing the PS2 and its "inferior hardware". It never did.
Turns out that their "superior hardware/graphics" was (what a surprise) totally overhyped. The Xbox's graphics are ever so slightly better than the PS2's, but their software offerings are greatly inferior.
They aren't doing well, they are struggling for 2nd place, wich is acceptable, but is failure if you take into account their initial plans.
You can't take the sky from me...
Key words. THEIR expectations. Hell, Nokia probably things the N-Gage can actually compete with the GBA. Thats not the point. You had the Xbox fanboys, and then everyone else thought the Xbox was a joke. Considering all of that negative press up until and shortly after release, if it is now battling for second place against Nintendo, an established videogame entity with your first console attempt...that is still an impressive feat.
Of course the graphics are overhyped. What do you expec? When was the last time a company didn't overhype its own system.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
I wish these xbox threads could manage to keep one basic truth in mind: Xenophobic Japanese consumerism is a myth! It's a standard cop-out that foreign goods manufacturers use whenever _they_ fail to design something the Japanese would want to buy. Anyone who has been to Japan can confirm this. Many young Japanese people (the same segment who plays the most games) are particularly keen to non-traditional, non-Japanese trends - as long as they are well-made, functional, and/or fashionable. Things have been like this _since the war_. Analyzing the xbox, it fails the "well-made" criterion because of the widely-publicized disc-scratching debacle - serious or not. It fails the "functionality" criterion because of the dearth of Japanese-style software support. Finally, xbox fails the "fashionability" criterion because it is anything but cute or sleek; instead, it is HUGE.
When a product suits Japanese tastes, it doesn't matter where it's made or who designed it. The xbox simply does not serve this market at all. Not a single aspect of its hardware design or software lineup was created with "conquering Japan" firmly in mind - "Project Midway" misnomer be damned. That is why it sells piss-poorly in Japan, and that is also why it sells relatively well (despite its flaws) in the U.S. It was designed to suit Western tastes, glossing over flaws that Westerners would not consider important (like huge system size, huge controller size, low Japanese 3rd-party support, the tacky puke green system highlights, etc.). When their flagship title is an FPS and they have no strong offerings in the form of linear or strategic RPGs, party games, mascot platformers, puzzles, or even freaking arcade shooters, Microsoft is NOT targeting Japan. They are targeting America and Europe, the lands of Quake-happy h4x0rs who grew up in PC-centric (not arcade-centric) cultures.
A final thought: If Nintendo had released the xbox hardware and its software lineup, and Microsoft had released the GameCube and its software lineup, do you really think Nintendo would still be outselling Microsoft there, hand over fist?
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.