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New Xbox 360 Dev Kits Shipped Out
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Microsoft has sent out new versions of the beta development kit for the Xbox 360, replacing the Apple platforms used up to this point. From the article: "Prior to E3, developers reported that a very small number of these more advanced kits had been manufactured, but it's only in recent weeks that they have begun shipping to Microsoft's development partners on a wide scale."
You may test, but apparently you've never developed for a console. Sending alpha and beta development kits is pretty standard and people have been doing it for years without much problem.
:P
Now, some developers may not fully take advantage of the final hardware because of the lack of time spent with it before launch, but it's pretty common for the first gen titles to suck anyway
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
I am!!
First off, How can you call any project that has averaged losses in the BILLIONS every year a success? The only reason the XBox has survived so long is that Microsoft believes that they can buy their way to market dominance. Face the facts, all XBox fans were saying that the Power Difference and Microsoft's ability to buy exclusive games was going to 'win the console war'; all Microsoft can say that they did was to virtually tie a company that has a fraction of the financial assets (Nintendo) while bleeding out money.
I would be surprised if there is a third XBox if the 360 is nearly as unprofitable. I think that only an idiot would think that Microsoft would continue to produce the XBox if Microsoft's entertainment division doesn't break even in 5 years.
all Microsoft can say that they did was to virtually tie a company that has a fraction of the financial assets (Nintendo) while bleeding out money.
Yes, because a $2 billion loss (for a $8 billion profit on $36 billion revenue) last year is "bleeding out the company". Nevermind that the $2 billion loss of their Xbox division would have made a nice tax writeoff.
And let's pretend that Sony didn't only make $0.8 billion profit last year on $71 billion revenue! What are they doing wrong over at Sony?
I would be surprised if there is a third XBox if the 360 is nearly as unprofitable.
Come to think of it, Sony's not been particularly profitable recently, especially given the failure of the PSP - maybe they should give up too?
Does anyone know what happens to the old dev kits from the old consoles?
I mean the snes and megadrive kits and others from time past.
I mean I know you needed certin hardware to run your games on when you made them but can they not be emulated?
Any information on what happens to the old kits would be appreciated.
-Jason
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/30/ 1346221&tid=212&tid=98&tid=187&tid=233
Sony isn't an angel either.
Sort of off topic...
I haven't yet worked on any next-gen titles, but I have experience on current-gen Xbox, PS2, and PC games. Our game logic has a lot of branchy code, really branchy, spaghetti code, with lots of indirect branches, etc. This code represents the majority of the actual volume of our source, but in practice only takes something like 3-10% of CPU time. Everything else in the game is suited to parallelisation.
So we have this 10/90 split (at worst) of time spent excecuting the wacky code vs. the pure number crunching. Why on earth would I want a processor that is better at doing the 10, when I could have one that is better at the rest?
Lets get facts straight here:
The Xbox is now making a profit for Microsoft, meaning that the entertainment division will break even quickly. What you casually forget, is that while the console sales were averaging a loss, the games were making a considerable profit. Microsoft is not stupid, it knows that the Windows and Office business streams can make enough money to subsidise the entire company (Microsoft is making an overall profit). The best scenario for Microsoft is to sell Xboxes at a loss, in large numbers, and make the money on software licensing. This is exactly what Microsoft should be planning to do with the early 360 launch... sell as many units as possible and tie those people into buying games at $50 a pop for the next 4 years. If one person buys 20 games (a conservative estimate) at $50, thats $1000 dollars. Thats where the real money is... not in the $400 hardware.
Look at the installed userbase for the Xbox.. last time I read, it was 29% compared to Sony's 60%. That doesn't sound great... but compared to Nintendo's 11%, Microsoft has been very successful at pushing into a new market. The reason that PS2s count for 60% is clear.. Sony had a whole year's headstart on the other two. This is EXACTLY what Microsoft want to replicate with the 360 launch.. even though they'll only get 4-5 months, they'll get the all important holiday sales. They'll build up a userbase quickly, and make a fortune on the games sales. Provided brand loyalty doesn't stop 360 sales, they'll be in a very good position to fight against Sony in the next 4 years. Nintendo is no longer a true competitor to these two; Microsoft has muscled them out of the running in the current-gen consoles and unless they pull something fantastic out of the bag, it's unlikely they'll recover. (Which is a shame, as Nintendo made some very good games.)
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