The 360's Position in the Next-Gen War

An anonymous reader wrote to mention a great article on the Elite Bastards site looking at the Xbox 360's positioning in the next-gen market. In the first of a three part article series, the author looks at the lessons Microsoft learned from its first hardware outing, and what he feels the company's strategy will be in the near future. From the article: "Clearly my impression of the Xbox 360 is that it is positioned to compete significantly better in the next gen console race than its predecessor. The difference this time around is that although Microsoft will no longer have the decidedly most powerful console, they also won't have the most expensive console, and believe me, they will compete on price. The Xbox 360s media (DVD) and input device (gamepad) are safe choices and the CPU may be merely adequate, but the GPU is quite potent and should go far in keeping Microsoft's box in the same league as Sony's overall despite the disparity in time to market."

Comments

Re:Yeah, here's why I think they're positioned bet

[Richthofen80]

hey man, I am a videogame fan. I like my xbox 360. What can I say? should I pretend I don't? I was also one of the first people to buy a Sony Playstation, back when we all had a bad taste in our mouths from the last regular corporation to try and dump into the market (phillips 3DO anyone?). I don't have a PS2 becauseabout 75% of games released are released on the big 3 at once (cube, ps2, xbox), and the xbox had marginally better graphics than PS2.

I give credit where credit is due... the original xbox was released after the PS2, and now the xbox 360 beat the PS2 to market, by probably close to a year. I also would give credit to how the PS2 came to market even though there wasn't an imminent MS threat.

Besides, it works both ways. I used to work at Funcoland video game store and heard my fellow employees openly bash xbox to customers. we all have our agendas.

Re:View from a disinterested observer

[jmorris42]

> Personally, I don't think Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with their release...

Me neither, but the severe shortages undermined the first to market advantage without doubt. Yes a lot of boxes will be sold between now and PS3 launch but we all know the magic of the "Golden Quarter" and they could have sold a lot more boxes had they been able to supply them.

> If the PS3 debuts in June at $400, it was a horrible launch...

No, if Sony pulls that off they probably win right there. But I'd agree they probably won't make that time or price. But they are smart enough to realize they damned well better have ample supply in the system by Black Friday 06 so that means they will start pushing boxes by late Sep no matter what else gets compromised to do it.

> ...at half the price of the Sony's console...

Only if you assume Sony is totally insane does that situation develop. They know what is at stake and will compete. Being a hundred over Xbox is acceptable, them being the new system but double would be fatal, thus not permitted.

> ...that if it doesn't have DVR capabilities...

None of this crop of consoles will be DVRs and I'd bet it doesn't happen on the next generation either. Everybody talks about it but it is simply improbable. PVR means that at any moment the system must be able to devote overhead to realtime streaming, and nowadays that means the potential for HD content bouncing around the bus. Plus there are no standards for the input. You would need co-marketing agreements with each satelite and cable provider to gain access to their content, remember it is all encrypted now.