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The Next Gen Consoles - The Bigger Picture
Next Generation Magazine is running a series of articles on the next generation consoles, and what they mean in a larger perspective. The Xbox 360, PS3, and Revolution have a lot riding on them as the start of the next round of console wars gets underway. All three companies have their own goals and histories to consider when it comes to the business of games. From the 360 article: "Someone, somewhere, probably still believes Microsoft got into console games for the kudos of putting out Halo. Good for them. The world needs believers, and every time you say 'Xbox is a Trojan Horse', a fairy dies."
Read my post. Specifically, the last few lines of the last "major" paragraph. Profitability now does not necessarily translate into future profitability. Ask anybody who knows anything about business.
Microsoft and Sony can *afford* to be unprofitable for a while. In the case of MS's games division, this has been a deliberate strategy to get market share.
Revolution - Graphics can wait, lets have some fun. Who cares if you only own 10 games, you still play all of them.
Yes, Mario Bros Part 22, 23, 24, 25, 26...and Yoshi Part 13, 14, 15, 16, 17..yes, lots of fun...for your pre-adolescent at home.
MS and the 360 have essentially self-destructed before the hardware has hit the shelves.
We are basically down to a two horse race between the PS3 and Revolution. MS most likely won't outright pull the plug on the 360, but right now MS will be lucky to retain some percentage of current xbox owners.
After the five billion dollar marketplace failure of the first xbox, MS gave the xbox team one more chance with the 360 but without the luxury to burn through another five billion.
The weak 360 hardware that MS is rushing out the door is the result. MS knowing that they couldn't stand a chance against going head to head witht the PS3 and Revolution launching around the middle of '06, they decided to try to get something out the door as quick as possible. Everyone saw the result of that rush to get weak hardware out the door with MS's pathetic E3 showing. There has never been a worse unveiling for a console ever.
Notice the lack of the promised updated gameplay videos MS said would come once the real devkits got in developers hands? The devkit excuses worked for a few months, but now with only a few months to the actual release the xbox crowd is starting realize that what they saw at E3 is what they are going to get.
The xbox 1.5 label was originally thought to be just your garden variety slam, but it is now becomming clear that the 360 is going to be even weaker than the Dreamcast was compared to the PS2.
"As much as I would like to see the PS3 do well"
"Personally I'd like to see the PS3 be #1"
"I'm more of a PS fan"
Oh yeah, I'm such a fucking anti-playstation troll.
You're a genius.