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Microsoft's Rush To Xbox 2 A Danger?
Game Boy writes "Brit games business site Gamesindustry.biz has posted a fascinating editorial asking whether Microsoft is about to shoot itself in the foot over Xbox 2 by rushing to launch the console years ahead of its rivals' next-generation platforms. It's a pretty good analysis of how Microsoft is thinking about this marketplace, and why they could be pretty drastically wrong - I work at a major games publisher, and a lot of people here are worried about exactly the same things, but it's rare to see anyone actually discussing them openly. Xbox has done pretty well so far, but Microsoft could be heading for a disaster that even Bill's billions won't dig them out of..."
Well I actually like the Microsoft plan to release it before their rivals, because to be honest, there are people who would buy this. If they release in between ps2 an ps3 they maybe able to pick up on the ps2 heads who are looking for the latest system. And if they are the only ones releasing during these years that will increase their profits, because there will be no competition, people will always buy whats new even if they already have something similar.
For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
Gaming platforms != movies
A gaming platform is an investment that you'll spend several hundred on, games, controllers, etc.. A movie is just a movie. Because I see a movie this weekend doesnt mean I won't see one next weekend, even if it's similar. However, if I buy a console this weekend, I'm definitely not buying one next weekend.
Your analogy sucks.
The XBox outsold the PS2 in April of this year due to the $150 pricing, that was rapidly reversed in May with the matching PS2 price cut.
Since PS2 dev won't have to stop for PS3, all the investment and tricks learned will still be valuable. Sure, some developers and publishers will stop PS2 coding, but look at how many PS1 games are still out there!
Microsoft won't have that, and they're also asking gamers to keep two systems. Sony is effectively saying "Upgrade to the $350 PS3 by trading in the PS2 for $100, and keep all your games!".
Much less risk to go Sony.
I still want an X2, but I know who's getting my money first!
GTRacer
- Read the FA for once!
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
The Xbox is in a catch 22 situation. Because it loses so much money on every console, the more it sells, the more Microsoft loses.
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The loss estimates so far are in the billions:
Here read this:
http://www.itworld.com/App/4201/030203xboxlosse
this is about their losses in 2002 doubling!!
in this more recent piece the Biz magazine says Msft has lost BILLIONS so far.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?s
Here's an article on its big loses in 2003
http://www.1up.com/article2/0,4364,1519194,00.a
here's an article talking about how they are losing money despite sales increases:
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
But your point is right on. Sega proved it not once but twice!
Think back in 1999, The release of Armageddon was very hyped at this time, Hell, McDonalds had a friggin contest for it.
Why not use a more parallel example of Dreamcast and PS2. Dreamcast had PS2 beat in time, but the PS2 whomped it.
I am not totally sure on this, but has the Xbox managed to outsell the PS2 in any month except for when the Xbox was first released
Yes, just recently when Xbox dropped its price to 149. The PS2 retook the lead following its own price cut.
-no broken link
The PS3 is so highly anticipated right now, that developers are already writing games for it, studios have already put aside funds. The same cannot be said for a next generation Xbox.
There are no dev kits yet for PS3, nobody is writing anything for it, unless you mean writing design docs.
MS has already given XNA to devs, and they very much are already developing games for Xbox2/Xenon.
I am not totally sure on this, but has the Xbox managed to outsell the PS2 in any month except for when the Xbox was first released?
Xbox outsold PS2 by over 100,000 units in April when it dropped its price to $150.
I think this will be great for Sony to see what they can enhance upon for their game system, considering the PS3 has been in development for what? 3-4 years now.. perhaps longer? I think they might have a slight advantage and a better product.
Xbox2/Xenon has been in devlopement for just as long, so has Nintendo's next console (Revolution). Who has the "better" product remains to be seen.
You must not have read the whole article. I think that the author made a very good point when he said:
;)
Microsoft, still a relatively small player in the games industry, just doesn't look like a company that has the influence needed to force a shift like this. It may be backed up by the biggest software company in the world, but publishers will still look at the bottom line - in this case, installed base and cost of development - and base their decisions on that alone. Herein lies the arrogance; Microsoft isn't used to making decisions as an industry small-fry, and it's trying to act like an industry leader in an industry it simply doesn't lead.
You must have missed that part
This space for rent, inquire within.
Completely different hardware architecture. It's a lot harder to emulate a hardware platform that it looks. Even with computers six times faster than the XBox there are no working XBox emulators out there. And look at the horsepower needed to emulate a PSOne on a PC.
The PS2, one of teh few consioles to bother with backwards compatibility, has a PSOne core burried inside of it to do I/O operations for the PS2. It was pretty cheap to flesh out the core and let it run PSOne games thus making the PS2 PSOne compatible.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
- Deep Impact business
- Box office: $140M
- Rentals: $67M
- Total revenue: $207M
- Budget: $75M
- Profit margin: (140+67)/75 = 176%
- Armagedon business
- Box office: $201M
- Rentals: $104M
- Budget: $140M
- Total revenue: $305M
- Profit margin: (201+104)/140 = 118%
Deep Impact did 2/3 of the business, which is hardly "destroyed". It did it on 1/2 the money, which is arguably a better investment.And IMHO, Deep Impact was a much better movie; the plot was much more believable. IMDB somewhat concurs, in that the viewer rating for Deep Impact is 5.9 and Armagedon is 5.7. I cannot confirm or refute the claim of which film was rushed to market, but the Deep Impact people clearly did a better job.
Back to video games: anyone have data on how much Sony spent developing PS/2 vs. what MS spent developing XBox?
Crispin
I'd guess that the average game console life is probably around three years.
You guessed wrong.
1985 - NES released in the USA
1991 - SNES released in the USA
1996 - N64 released in the USA
2001 - GCN released in the USA
6, 5, and 5 years
1994 - PSX released in the USA
2000 - PS2 released in the USA
6 years
I agree... the Xbox is just getting up some speed! They have a solid lineup now (Halo, Knights of the Old Republic, Crimson Skies 2, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Ninja Gaiden), with some good new games just coming out (Full Spectrum Warrior, Chronicles of Riddick) and some big ones coming in at the end of the year (Halo 2, Prince of Persia 2, Doom 3, Jade Empire, KOTOR 2). Xbox Live is kicking ass too, bringing the competition and teamplay seen in PC games to the console arena.
The idea that they want to rush in a new system that throws all this hard-fought good stuff out the window... it's mind-buggeringly stupid. This is exactly the same concept as written about in the recent How Microsoft Lost the API War article. Not having compatibility is suicidal.
There actually is an OS on all the "disc based" systems. Xbox actually has a specialized version of Windows NT and runs DirectX. Sony's PSn boxes also have a kind of OS. What do you think manages disc reads, writing to/from hard disks/memory cards, and handles all the I/O scheduling and the like? The fact that you can change an XBox to run [Linux] means that you're changing the OS on the thing.
Just because hardware doesn't change doesn't mean it doesn't have an operating system. You'd be surprised at how many things have an "operating system" - like cell phones for example. Even your automobile engine controller probably has an operating system...
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)