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X07 Not Happening This Year
For the first time since 2004, there won't be an XO event in Europe this year. Gamespot suggests that Microsoft's annual press event is superfluous this year, as last year it fell directly within the timeframe of the Halo 3 launch. "Speaking on the E3 podcast of Microsoft fan site Squad XP, Xbox Live marketing manager Aaron Greenberg flatly said that 'There's not a real X07 this year.' And while Microsoft's official spokespersons refrained from comment, last night Xbox Live director of programming Larry 'Major Nelson' Hyrb posted a small note (pictured) on his heavily trafficked blog morosely confirming X07's demise."
It would have been nice to at least give a short description of what XO is. From the blurb, we do understand it has something to do with Xbox, but for those of us who aren't Microsoft zealots, XO means nothing.
Even Microsoft can't afford to throw money down a hole forever. Console gaming was supposed to be Microsoft's big hope for future growth. Instead Microsoft has lost billions of dollars subsidizing console hardware for gamers. Microsoft still hasn't even managed to become more popular than the companies that were actually making a profit. The PS2 destroyed the XBox in the last generation and the Wii is looking to clean up in this generation.
Worse, XBox gaming actually weakens Microsoft's hold on the desktop. Computer games are one of the few legitimate reasons to buy a Windows box over a Mac (or even a Linux box).
Why post as an AC? Sony won't know who to send the check to.
I seriously doubt that Microsoft is ready to give up the fight yet. At the moment, they have Sony's "hardcore gamers" market by the balls. It would be foolish to give it up now, no matter what happens.
No, I imagine that Microsoft is regrouping and rethinking their strategy. They're examining what worked for them and what didn't so that they can focus on doing more of what works. Useless trade shows that no one has ever heard of probably fall under the "not working" category.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I highly doubt this. Xbox live is to big of a success, and most of xbox's profits come from the games it sells, not the consoles it sells. Hard to believe that this comes from an Anonomous coward...
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
XBox gaming actually weakens Microsoft's hold on the desktop.
Maybe for casual gamers. Keep in mind, there are a ton of games available for Windows that won't run on the X-Box - World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, older games like Quake and Systemshock 2, Wolfenstein : Enemy Territory, etc.
As a casual gamer, I use my Windows box as a 3d workstation (no games installed), and I'm quite happy with my Nintendo DS. The only games Microsoft has that I might want are Halo 2 and 3, and it's not worth plonking down money for an XB360, two games, and a television just to get an FPS fix.
In my opinion, Microsoft is missing a mark Nintendo has been hitting for a long time now - most gamers just want fun games. Not Team Deathmatch with grotesque system requirments. They're also missing a killer franchise - Halo may be a good series, but it lacks the brand recognition and the slavish "buy-on-sight" fanbase that the Final Fantasy series or the various Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, etc) command.
Hell, outside of Halo I can't think of a single X-Box title. Let alone one I'd be interested in.
There are so many inaccuracies in this post that I don't know where to start.
1. The 360 is selling poorly? Look at the user base.
2. Peter Moore was fired? Uh, no, he resigned, and he received a 7-figure golden hello from EA to compensate him for lost earnings at Microsoft. Why would EA give him over $1 million if he was on the street?
3. Execs sell shares all the time. At a company the size of Microsoft, I'd be shocked if you could find a single month in the last 10 years where one exec or another wasn't selling off some of his stock.
4. HD-DVD is dead? Most people don't even know what HD-DVD or Blu-Ray are but you're ready to declare a winner already? What else can you see in your crystal ball?
And those are just the ones that jump out. Almost every statement that you've made is challengable on some level.
I'm sure that most people who know Microsoft will tell you that losing money on Xbox in generations 1 and 2 probably doesn't faze them at all. Screwing it up the first time, making a semi-decent product the second time and then getting it right on the third attempt is practically a tradition at Microsoft.
Right now, this generation of consoles looks like being a big win for Nintendo, with Sony and Microsoft slugging it out for second place. But write off Microsoft at your peril.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Now that is provably false. The XBox sold a mere 24 million units in the 4+ years it was on the market. In comparison, the 360 sold about 10 million units in the first year. Unless sales fall off dramatically, Microsoft is still in a better position than they were with the XBox.
In addition, movements like Wii60 are causing many gamers to see the 360 as a companion to the Wii rather than a competitor. This has driven the consumer thinking of, "I'll use the Wii for 'fun' games, then use the 360 for FPSes, Simulations, and HD Entertainment." I see this thinking on a daily basis, so it would appear to be working.
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but they've done just as much right with the 360 as they have done wrong. I'm actually *happy* that they've screwed up the hardware yields so royally as it's one of the few things keeping them from getting a stronger hold on the market.
This is true. However, Microsoft doesn't actually need Japan to sell well. Japan is the center for quite a bit of gaming, but there's enough game development elsewhere in the world to keep Microsoft's machine running.
According to VGCharts, Microsoft has managed about 3.18 million in non-Japanese international sales compared to their 6.5 million domestic sales. That's hardly "a fairly small number". In fact, it's about 30% of their market.
The truth is that the 360 has expanded Microsoft's hold considerably. It's costing them a very large fortune to hold it, but it would be foolish to let it slip through their grasp now.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
the big reason behind no X07 is the fact that there is no point paying to set up something like this, when others do it for you. ie E3 just gone, and the TGS (Tokyo Game Show) coming up shortly...
portfolio
My favorite Xbox title is Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas; IIRC it was on PS2 first, but the control scheme is much, much better on Xbox (changing weapons is a little trickier to hit in a firefight, but the Xbox has real triggers.)
I played Halo on the Xbox very briefly once. My response was "fuck this controller crap". I got it for PC and played through it there; it was a competent (if not amazing) FPS. I'm kind of interested in playing Halo 2 but I'm moving away from Windows (NONE of my machines boot Windows - if it doesn't run on Linux, at least through wine, I'm not interested any more) so unless it runs in Wine I'm not interested. Cedega is NOT acceptable either, I am not giving Transgaming money until they start releasing patches upstream immediately, not after substantial delays, and their product doesn't support games I want to play anyway, nor is their product at all reliable between versions.
My Xbox performs two main functions. It runs XBMC and it runs classic console emulators. Occasionally I play some GTA:SA. I have some other games but they all suck, as do most console games (let alone Xbox games.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Uh, this kind of thing happens all the time.
CEOs and the like are often under contract. It's easier to get them to go away voluntarily than to fire them, which you have to explain. And firing your CEO makes you look very bad.
So most of the time, the CEO is just kind of pushed gently out the door. They are treated as if they had done a great job. Nary a word is said about them being ejected.
As a result, they get to go into their next enterprise smelling like a rose. They're greeted with open arms. then they get to damage another company.
I agree with your other assertions, but this one is just plain ignorant. We don't know, and never will know, if he's leaving under good terms or not.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If, as you say, we don't know then how can the AC to whom I replied assert that he was fired?
The facts, as agreed by Microsoft, EA and Peter Moore himself have stated are that he resigned. If nobody directly involved has anything different to say then how can someone claim with any degree of certainty that he was fired?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
And Nintendo is proving that wrapping up the "hardcore gamer" market is the classic Pyrrhic victory, especially if you have to subsidize the hardware so that normal folks will even buy it. Microsoft has lost billions of dollars chasing this mythical hardcore gamer, and Nintendo has consistently made profits, even when its console was the least popular console on the market. What's even more ironic is that the technology battle between Microsoft and Sony is likely to knock Sony out of the running for this generation as well. Both Sony and Microsoft are heavily in the red selling their uber-systems at a loss, and Nintendo is still cleaning both of their clocks selling game consoles that casual gamers can afford.
Yes, there are some gamers that will gladly drop ridiculous amounts of money on hardware and then turn around and spend even more money on games. However, there aren't enough of these people to make them a viable product niche. The second you start worrying about the "hardcore gamer" you have basically guaranteed that your console will flop.
So I'm not surprised there is no X07.
But, given the continuing losses for xBox, isn't another event just more dollars down the drain?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Lets say they have sold a million of them. Lets say that out of the first 100.000 X% came back defective. Since they don't know the problem, but strongly suspect it is a design flaw, they can only assume X% of the remaining ones will also come out defective. Multiply by number of units sold and the price by replacing each unit, and I would say that is a fairly good statistical estimate of what it will cost them.
Where's my XXXtreme edition?
Err, the xbox division is very very profitable in the long run. Aside from Nintendo, all consoles are money losing ventures. They make up for it by taking a chunk out of the games sold. Microsoft was been surprisingly successful with the xbox/xbox360. I dont think of MS as an exceptional company, but I see them as a decent company. If they can waltz into the gaming market and take all this marketshare, its further proof at how incredibly inept sony, sega, and nintendo have been with their products. nintendo seems to be learning and SOny is delivering the humdum ovepriced crap its always been doing. Hopefully, this shake up will lead to better products through better competition.
Oh right this is slashdot. Replace the above with "fsck M$"
I don't think Microsoft really cares about HD-DVD. Otherwise it would have appeared in the XBox 360 Elite.
Sure they released an HD-DVD add-on but I suspect they did it more to piss on Sony's parade than any particular commitment to the format. I bet Toshiba shouldered most of the cost too. Their VC-1 codec is in both the HD-DVD and Blu Ray specs so what do they care either way, just as long as people choose their codec? It sucks if you bought their add-on though. It wouldn't surprise me if MS ultimately jumped ship and went with Blu-Ray if for no other reason than to close another perceived advantage of the PS3.
I think some of your other points are valid but some are FUD. The 360 has terrible quality problems but Halo 3 is going to sell many, many copies, and many systems. Personally I don't know why people care about the game since first person shooters are coming out of the 360's and the PS3's ears but it's an undeniable fact that Halo will sell.
If you're using SD there is no cheaper way to get better TV out.
It doesn't have the horsepower to do HD, but it doesn't do HD anyway.
Basically I just can't seem to get a PC that is in the same form factor or smaller, and as good or better, for less money. And, let me remind you, you can run Linux on the Xbox. But mplayer is super-lame compared to XBMC (at least as an appliance.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In that case, the future timeline of the XBox series:
About seven years after that, we'll have the XBox Vista, which will refuse to operate with 90% of the games for the previous models, be underpowered despite using the latest processor and copious amounts of memory, and which will come in numerous confusing variations, some of which allow you to host an older version of the XBox (namely, the more expensive versions).
Very profitable in the long run? Please, put down the crack pipe son.
The Xbox is BILLIONS in the red. It better start making some spectacular returns pronto to pay back the money that's been poured into it, plus interest otherwise I predict large shareholders are going to start asking questions like "why are you pissing that money away when you could be giving it to us as dividends or investing in something profitable?"... you know, opportunity cost and all that.
Like he said. This is Slashdot, replace his entire post with "fuck M$".
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
"Who said anything about TV?" -- Smug PC weenies
I agree with you that a set-top box should be the best solution for some entertainment environments. But unfortunately, all stand-alone set-top boxes that are significantly cheaper than a Mac mini are thoroughly Tivoized. I want to help us come up with some ammunition against smug PC weenies who almost unconditionally prefer the 2-foot experience over the 10-foot experience, so here are four of their objections in increasing order of devil's advocacy:
- I can't buy a modded Xbox in U.S. retail stores or on eBay; where else should I buy a modded Xbox?
- If you mean that I should learn to mod one myself, can version 1.6 be modded without soldering? Does your "no cheaper way" estimate include training for somebody who has never soldered before? And I still can't buy modchips in U.S. retail stores or on eBay for the same reason as above.
- Does your "no cheaper way" estimate include the potential $750 to $30,000 statutory damages (per 17 USC 504 and foreign counterparts) for infringement of the copyright in the Xbox BIOS and/or the XDK libraries against which XBMC and most of these emulators are compiled?
- Per several comments in other console vs. PC discussions on Slashdot, isn't television output overrated? Isn't it "better" to buy one set of PC, monitor, keyboard, and mouse per person and play multiplayer games over the LAN, because that way each player has a hundred triggers for discrete actions and can't easily cheat off other players' screens?
And, let me remind you, you can run Linux on the Xbox. Yeah, as a server: "A 1.6 Xbox (softmodded) is known to not work with 2.6 kernels, the screen will lock or the tv will lose video sync." But then you lose the TV output advantage of the Xbox chipset, and you might as well use an old paid-for PC.Why did Microsoft enter the console race anyway?
This rings of IE. Microsoft used it's game division to put all small designers out of business, as they planned. So don't expect anything out of XBox for the next 6 years.