Ballmer Justifies 360's Costs

Next Generation follows up on news last week of the enormous financial burden the 360's launch has placed on Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer sent around an email discussing the company's bright outlook with the new console. From the article: "While Xbox 360 hardware itself is the most prominent area of videogame-related investment, Ballmer indicated that further development of Xbox Live is also integral to the success of the platform and its respective division, saying, "We must execute our Live strategy with speed and precision." Relatedly, Live's downtime yesterday has resulted in an underwhelming feature addition: messaging.

Comments

Speed and Precision

[oahazmatt]

"We must execute our Live strategy with speed and precision."

a. Speed
b. Precision

You know the rules, Steve. You pick one or the other.

Re:Speed and Precision

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

I think he understands that, your just missing the rule:

a. Speed
b. Precision
c. Low Cost

You can pick two but cannot have all three. From what they've been spending, it seems obvious they choose the first two. I more or less think they done a good job of it (except let me download from the marketplace in the background while I'm watching TV!!!!!) I use my 360 as a Media Center Extender to watch TV, movies, internet radio, etc, etc but the damn thing cannot yet begin a download from XBox live and keep that going in the background while I switch to the media center to watch TV! Really my only complaint, but VERY annoying.

Metaphors...

[Kuukai]

Microsoft has always said that the console race is a marathon, not a sprint. However, this initial costly sprint remains important during a period when the company boasts the only next generation system on the market.

A marathon where you're bleeding money for most of the race. Sure hope another company doesn't zip past you on a bicycle or something.

You must not be following Vista's development.

[Valdrax]

Microsoft has chosen to forge a bold, third path: (C) None of the above.

DX10

[Anonymous Coward]

Well.. MS Vista doesn't really contain any benefits for gamers, in any way.

However, MS Vista does contain DirectX 10-- and as far as has been announced so far, DirectX 10 will only be available for MS Vista. Before long, DirectX 10 is going to be required to play any new video games. So if you want to keep playing video games and get all the features and whatnot, you are going to have to upgrade to Vista. So you just have to learn to think like Microsoft. The way you probably think, "focused on gamers" means "designed to appeal to gamers and make gamers want to buy it". The way Microsoft thinks, "focused on gamers" means "we will be forcing gamers to buy it".

In other words, Vista is "focused at gamers" the same way a sniper rifle might be "focused at" someone unexpectedly running across the White House lawn.

360 is a decent machine, still needs work

[Nightspirit]

I had a 360 for about a week, took it back, and got a ps2 (for a specific game, plus some cash in the pocket). First of all, they did a great job with the dashboard, it looks slick and you can customize it. The achievements, gamerscore, and interaction with other gamers are genius. Geometry wars and burnout were some of the funnest I've had playing games ever. Downloading demos was genius as well, I had as much fun downloading and trying new games as I did playing ones I paid for.

So why did I take it back? Well, perhaps I wouldn't have if street fighter II was out already and Oblivion wasn't such a bugfest (and runs suprisingly slow at times for a 360 game). The machine is noticibly loud (I even took it back and got another and it was still loud). If I had an enclosed cabinet, this wouldn't have mattered as much. The future announced games didn't hold much interest to me. But the biggest factor was that the 360 sucks as a media center, and it couldn't replace my hacked xbox with Xbox Media Center. Lack of divx support and video only available to MS XP Media Center Edition killed it as a media center. My TV only has a couple componenet video inputs, so my decision was to keep the xbox and take back the 360.

What MS needs to do is quiet down the console (they are already taking steps towards this with a smaller chip), add divx support (and FLAC tag support, but that doesn't have as wide an appeal as divx), remove the "XP media center" lock-in for videos (they are taking steps towards this, but we will see what they actually do), improve the media features in general (better media player features), and add more games to xbox live (porting abandonware would be cheap and make a killer system IMO).

Re:360 is a decent machine, still needs work

[Osty]

Just some nitpicking:

Well, perhaps I wouldn't have if street fighter II was out already and Oblivion wasn't such a bugfest (and runs suprisingly slow at times for a 360 game).

While Oblivion does have its share of bugs, the only slowness I noticed was after playing for a while and letting the game cache get fragmented. There's a work-around to clear the cache by holding down any button on the controller when you start the game (hold it through the BethSoft logo. Once the 2K logo displays, you can let go). Not the best solution, but it is a solution. I'm right there with you, wishing for SFII. What ever happened to shipping it in March?

The machine is noticibly loud (I even took it back and got another and it was still loud).

You should clarify that the DVD-ROM is loud when it's spinning at full speed. The machine itself (fan noise) is very quiet, and the DVD-ROM is also quiet while watching DVDs. There's not a whole lot you can do about drive speed when it's running that quickly (the 360 DVD-ROM is something like 16x, compared to the 4x in the Xbox or PS2).

But the biggest factor was that the 360 sucks as a media center, and it couldn't replace my hacked xbox with Xbox Media Center. Lack of divx support and video only available to MS XP Media Center Edition killed it as a media center. My TV only has a couple componenet video inputs, so my decision was to keep the xbox and take back the 360

You're dinging the 360 for not doing something it never claimed to do. The 360 is a Media Center Extender. In other words, it's completely dependent on a Windows Media Center PC to feed it media. It sounds like you want the 360 to be a stand-alone media player (or mostly stand-alone, while occassionally pulling media from the network).

As for having limited component video inputs, get yourself a mux. I'm preferential to Audio Authority's 1154A, but you don't need to spend > $200 on a mux. You can find decent ones (minus auto-switching, audio format conversion, and the cool rack-friendly form-factor) for less than $50. You do realize the PS2 can do component output, right? The graphics will still look PS2-bad, but the color and sharpness will be better (and if you have a game that can support 480p, like GT4, you can only do that over component).

add more games to xbox live (porting abandonware would be cheap and make a killer system IMO).

There is no such thing as "abandonware", legally. Either the games are released to the public domain, or they're not (or they're released under a license that makes it possible to port them without legal troubles). "Abandonware" games that are still technically under copyright cannot be ported without proper consent. The question is, who gives that consent? How do you get permission to port a game that's been out of print for 15 years, and the original developer/publisher has been out of business for 10? Who currently owns the property? You have to track down the series of sales of IP until you hopefully find the right company you need to deal with. This is painful.

I do agree Microsoft needs to add more games to XBLA, but I don't think that's really going to be a problem for them. I think we're just in the lull before the storm right now, having not had any new XBLA games since Jewel Quest. Prepare to be bombarded (good thing I just finished up Oblivion, so I'll be ready to play some new arcade games)!.

Re:Good grief...

[Anonymous Freak]

Since when did MS even know Operating Systems?

Stick to Office Suites.

Kudos to MS

[i am kman]

At least MS recognizes they can't live on keyboards and mice alone and the future of computing for the masses will not be driven by PCs, but by game consoles, TVs, iPods, cars, and many other non-PC based that integrate into everyday life.

It's all about the user experience, not the keyboard.

But it still remains to be seen how well MS competes in a world dominated by primarily device-driven devices - particularly since this seems almost the exact opposite of their business model and strengths.

Re:Good grief...

[AuMatar]

Except thats totally wrong. They got blown out of the water by Sony, and lost to Nintendo in 2 out of 3 markets (only winning in the US). In total, they ended up about on par with nintendo, while losing 3 billion over the lifetime of the product. Thats not a success, if I owned MS stock I'd be wanting the people in charge fired.

Downtime NOT just for messaging

[radish]

Relatedly, Live's downtime yesterday has resulted in an underwhelming feature addition: messaging.

This is a myth. Microsoft have said repeatedly that the downtime was not for any specific new features but to prepare the various systems (Xbox Live, xbox.com, forums, etc) for future upgrades and the onslaught of E3 (masses of trailers, demos, etc). The messaging addon is nice, but you can't seriously believe they took down the entire network for a day to add a feature like that.

I can understand the 13 year olds on the forums not understanding the need for downtime for infrastructure upgrades and rework, but I'd expect a little more from the /. crowd.