Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Dvorak On The Future Of The Xbox

Posted by simoniker on from the curmudgeon-gamer dept.

Thanks to PC Magazine for its John Dvorak-authored editorial discussing his view of the present and future for Microsoft's Xbox game console. Dvorak rages: "Microsoft has over $56 billion in the bank and should be dominating the console market. Unfortunately, the company's overall strategies have failed and may continue to fail, leaving the Xbox in the dustbin with the last great American hope for a super game machine, the 3DO box from circa 1993", before continuing: "I think it can be argued that high-expectation syndrome was partially responsible for the deaths of both the 3DO machine and Sega. It definitely plays into the Xbox story... Compare this rollout to the original Sony PlayStation 1's debut... it just kind of appeared and worked its way to the top by attrition." He ends by musing: "Keeping the Xbox alive is important to Microsoft. Its pride and prestige are at stake... We will see an Xbox II. Whether it fulfills Microsoft's dream or becomes a collector's item remains to be seen."

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Xbox isn't dying by AliasTheRoot · · Score: 5, Informative

    First up, the article stated PS2 risked being outsold in the US market. Not that it was being outsold. Sales figures for consoles are notoriously difficult to get, and for every Analyst quoting one set of figures that they "predicted" another analyst will predict something wildly different.

    Secondly, irrespective of Microsofts domestic market advantage, the xbox sells poorly in Europe and Japan compared to the PS2. Hell it probably sells poorly compared to the GC in Japan.

  2. Re:Xbox isn't dying by atlasheavy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, if memory serves, XBox is currently being outsold by the Bandai Wonderswan and the PS1 in Japan currently. MS Game Studios in Japan is doing a lot of work to create games for that market. Hopefully, we'll see the numbers pick up in Japan before too long. I doubt XBox will outsell the GCN in Japan at any point, but it should at least be the 3rd most popular console. Also, as far as the ENU market is concerned, the fall/holiday game lineup for XBox is strong enough that Sony really should have some concerns. Fable, Halo 2, Sudeki, EA games for XBL, blah blah blah. You get the idea.

    --

    iRooster, the Mac OS X a
  3. Re:A point by point rebuttal. by jmauro · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just be cause you don't believe it to be true, doesn't meant that the loss is false.

    Here's a story talking about MSFT's December Quarter of 2003. It talks about how they lost $394 million in that quarter. Here's another story discussing how they lost $273 million the quarter before that. Both of these stories were easy to find and based on MSFT's reports to the SEC.

    I always thought it was common knowledge that the XBox department was burning money like it was going out of style. Guess I was wrong.