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Why Microsoft Embraced Gaming
wjousts writes "A interesting take on the birth of the Xbox from Technology Review: 'When the original Xbox video-game console went on sale in 2001, it wasn't clear why Microsoft, known for staid workplace software, was branching out into fast-paced action games. But Microsoft decided that capitalizing on the popularity of gaming could help the company position itself for the coming wave of home digital entertainment. "Microsoft saw the writing on the wall," says David Dennis, a spokesman for Xbox. "It wanted to have a beachhead in the living room." ... Now Microsoft is linking Xbox 360, its most successful consumer-focused brand, with others that have not been as well received. It is integrating Bing, its search engine, into Xbox and Xbox Live to enable people to search for multimedia content. By the end of the year, Microsoft is expected to unveil an updated Xbox Live design that is more in line with the look of Windows phones and the forthcoming Windows 8.'"
They wanted to play games? Trick question?
For money.
Next!
[cough] bullshit [cough]
well even tho they succeeded on launching their gaming business, I believe they really REALLY need to start building brand loyalty, NOBODY likes microsoft as a company, you might like windows, xbox, and games for windows live (why like GFWL is beyond me but whatever),but if MS went crashing and burning down today, nobody would really care about the company, about the services, yes; but about the company.. not really.
Is not "brand unification" it removes the distinct identity of the product running your UI.
I bought my Sega because I believed it would lead me into a larger world.
I bought my Playstation because I believed I would become more self actualised (whatever the heck that means.)
Funny how they are in boxes, gathering dust, which I continue to use a desktop computer.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Microsoft got in to gaming because it's profitable. $200 10 year old hard drives are pretty profitable too.
There, now that I've written your entire article for you, can I have your ad revenue?
Microsoft has always been about acquiring new products and new marketplaces. From buying the companies that made the software we now know as Microsoft Office to making hardware, MS has never shied away from an opportunity to become bigger and make more money.
By the end of the year, Microsoft is expected to unveil an updated Xbox Live design that is more in line with the look of Windows phones and the forthcoming Windows 8.'
If I were them, I'd unveil a new Windows 8 that looks more like XBox Live. I don't own an XBox, but from what I understand the online support from Microsoft for XBox is better than what is offered by Sony for PS3 and Nintendo for Wii. I do actually own those two systems and have generally found the online support to be pretty terrible.
should consider working together on a home game unit. They have more in common than they think.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This would be the only way I would use bing, but honestly I probably wouldn't mind. Xboxes are for gaming. When they do other things fine. And ok I'll just use whatever search comes with it. Actual good move by M$.
Operating systems and word processors, etc. have become commodities - products that sell for little more than the marginal cost to produce another copy.
And the marginal cost to produce a copy of software is about zero.
Which is why Microsoft is so hung up about vendor lock-in and crushing Linux - they're utterly doomed if they don't do those things. It's also why Google scares the living piss out of them.
So Microsoft is utterly desperate for other ways to make money.
Too bad Microsoft hasn't REALLY embraced gaming, they're just competing with Sony for console hardware.
Windows 7 is still extremely naive about handling games. There should be options in the OS to disable the windows key when full-screen applications are running, windows should be MUCH better about recognizing games, Games For Windows Live is a JOKE (this I especially don't understand, Xbox Live is actually very impressive, and it should be EASIER to provide that kind of service on a PC. Gamespy has been doing it for FREE for years, but MS continually just releases a crap of DRM they call GFWL with no "features" a gamer would ever possibly use).
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
Because they want to make money, by selling people things? Bear with me, but my theory is they think they can make consoles at a cheaper price than people will be willing to pay for them. So crazy it just might be true.
Microsoft got into the console market because they wanted to maintain and increase the number of developers hooked on DirectX.
End of story. Everything else was a "So, where do we go now" afterthought.
They heard Sony planning for Linux on PS2 and threw something together quickly, which is what most of Xbox was, "pretty quickly", hence its huge size.
But it was too late, PS2 had taken a huge chunk of the market despite their efforts.
Meanwhile, Sony never really done much with Linux anyway. It was left in a bit of a state, and the community pretty much was the only thing keeping it going.
Then they decided to release 360 early rather than let the original stagnate any longer.
Sorta worked, for a while, but I believe both consoles are battling it out for the silver.
They certainly made a dent in the market though, and it will be there to stay for a while.
And again, Sony pretty much never done anything with Linux on PS3 this time either. Then eventually officially killing it off after some talks of hacking instead of stealthily releasing updates to nuke whatever it was that was broken again. Leaked keys, rage, lawsuits, revenge, explosion, fixes and free stuff.
Maybe PS4 will finally be the day Linux makes it as a 1st class citizen on the console. One day... one day Linux, one day you will be loved.
The article states "Ten years later, the Xbox 360 is the best-selling video-game system of its generation in the United States, where more people plug it into their TVs than either Sony's PlayStation 3 or Nintendo's Wii (emphasis mine), and it's making Microsoft a contender in the fierce battle to serve up entertainment on demand, especially from Internet video services. "
That makes for a nice story but the Wii has worldwide sales of almost 90M compared to the Xbox 360's 55-57M. If you take into account the poor reliability of the 360 relative to both the PS3 (which is neck and neck in total sales) and the Wii, it's easily third in consoles currently in use.
The last thing Microsoft wants is for people to find out or realize that you can do "computery" things without a computer running one of their operating systems. It's why they had shills in the late 80's early 90's saying: "Hey, don't buy an Amiga or ST, because you'll need to bring home work from the office and those machines don't use the "industry standard" software".
Or when Microsoft bought WebTV, which allowed people to send e-mail, use USENET, IRC chat, and view webpages on a consumer oriented piece of hardware that hooked up to the TV and didn't run Windows, and then let it languish.
Sega, Sony and Nintendo probably scared Microsoft silly when their hardware became capable of running PC style games without being cut down so much Sega's netlink and Sony's prototype PSone modem probably gave them the impetus for entering the market. "If we don't enter their makret, they'll eventually enter ours and make game consoles that people can use to browse the net." Sony's use of Linux tools for developing probably gave them fits as well.
And think of the PS2...acknowledged capable of running Linux from the start, with a slot for a hard drive and networking, and USB ports. Microsoft knew that Cony could do some kind of "web kiosk" software for the PS2 any time they wanted to, or worse, do a general release of the Linux kit. SCEE apparently had a "Live" version of the distro in the Linux kit that they tested out. Let's also not forget the Japan only release of the BBN software which let Japanese PS2 owners do a lot of stuff that we Americans only got to do upon release of the PS3.
Then came the PS3...which at one time, ran Linux out of the box, all you needed was install media. And there was at one time a plan to install it by default on all PS3's alongside GameOS. The PS3 also does media, and has a built in web browser, and support for downloadable apps (though Sony didn't add an "app" section to the PSN store till recently). That thing was Microsoft's worst nightmare come to life. Who needs Windows to play complex games? Who needs Windows just to visit facebook.
So Microsoft has to stay in the market just to keep Sony and/or Nintendo off balance enough to prevent them from getting any more ideas.
Now Microsoft is linking Xbox 360, its most successful consumer-focused brand, with others that have not been as well received.
Can't wait for MS Bob w/ avatars on XBox!
I8-D
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=693858&srkey=m17-7726
Nathan
Everyone knows Microsoft wants that living room spot. What else is new? However, Seamus Blackley had to fight to convince Microsoft that the xbox was the way to go ahead. It seems as if most of Microsoft's success stories tend to happen despite itself.
MS may have wanted to enter a new market with their console, but it could also be seen as a desperate move to keep their customers. Don't forget that MS had monopoly control of the gaming market through their desktop OS dominance prior to the consoles opening the market.
Twas the game Halo that pulled the Xbox from a race to
the bottom with the Game Cube. PS2'ers looking down waiting
to see which one folded first.
Being a PS2'er I remember when Xbox started being talked about
in a positive way, just before the release of Halo 2.
Now Xbox is manipulating game producers for perks, Being a PC
"Call of Duty" player watching as microsoft claims CoD as their own.
Seriously home media is fine but it's the games that sell the system.
I have a PS3,, the last version that was backwards comparable with PS2.
Right now I only use it for the occasional Netflix, but I bought it for the games.
www.debian.org
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I can tell you what Microsoft was telling business about the Xbox when they were rolling it out. I was at one of their "digital home" shows for businesses, where they were trying to convince the attendees that everyone would soon have 3 or 4 Xboxes in their houses which they could use a networked PVR/gaming systems.
The presentation was pathetic with obvious Microsoft employee "shills" in the audience who lobbed softball questions to the presenters. Even worse the "networked" PVR demo was faked, they hid an extra computer to feed video to their "remote" TV in the "bedroom". It was, overall, a pretty disgusting bit of charlatanism.
The point, of course, is that it was pretty obvious to anyone who cared to know exactly why Microsoft got into the Xbox business, they were hoping to shore up the Windows monopoly by producing a gaming console that they could eventually parlay into a monopoly on digital homes. They needed to do this to prevent anyone else from establishing domination in this arena, imagine if Linux became the standard for consumer appliances, it could potentially erode the Windows desktop monopoly.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, all the digital home stuff was way too early, they didn't actually have viable products to back it up at the time, and Nintendo and then Apple stole their thunder with the Wii, and iPhone and the iPad respectively. They've been trying for a very long time to figure out how to use the Xbox 360 to expand the reach of their monopolies without tipping their hand to the regulators. Now that the regulatory period is over, they no longer have to worry about making blatantly anticompetitive moves.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
seriously. ms sidewinder controllers and their forcefeedback controllers were _the_ best. they also dipped into game publishing before xbox - AND in the late '90s pc gaming became _the_ platform for high class gaming(which it still is) - on microsoft os, which despite everything made it possible to have pretty much random hardware and things would just work(compare that to early '90s pc gaming where if a game didn't support your soundcard you were fucked so you were better off just staying with blaster clones and other "standard" parts).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Microsoft benefitted entirely by IBM's more open system and they used to get the monopoly they have now but that they're the dominant one they want a lock-tight system and everyone's pretty much decided desktops will go away. The idea of set-top boxes have been pushed for so long and failed. MS realises its consoles that will become the set top box.
So they got into gaming and they're making something that is expensive and locked down from the beginning so there are no expectations that you can have any sort of freedom like you have on your desktop. The MS fanboys are lapping it up too. I prefer to stay with the much cheaper and open PC gaming.
http://www.contiki-os.org/
Computers are so much better than video game consoles. :)
I agree with you, except in one case: when you have friends over. Not a lot of PC game developers anticipate a situation with a gaming PC hooked up to a TV and four USB gamepads.
If you're a developer and want to give something away then forget about it.
This is just as true on the other platforms. Neither Wii nor PS3 has promotional free games to my knowledge, or even any approved indie scene to speak of. At least Microsoft has Xbox Live Indie Games in select markets.
No included wifi so you can buy a pricey adapter
This was fixed in the Xbox 360 S revision.
I think it's safe to say that this particular AC has no idea about what he's babbling about.
Oblivion Awaits
Microsoft saw what the hacker community is doing with the original xbox and great stuff like XBMC, they put that in Xbox360. They did not see any writing on the wall, as always they were smart in realizing the potential of what the hacker community bought to the xbox, bought that to 360. They did the exact same with Indie games on xbox 360 as people on the original xbox were writing indie games. They just capitalized on what the consumer wanted. A smart thing to do, but I would give credit to the innovators and original xbox hacking community.
I did not RTFA.
Well it hasn't worked too well. Instead of Sony, Apple has shown consumers that they don't need a PC to do computery things, and what's more, they've shown the world that you can deliver custom applications to any computery device if you just provide developers with a cheap API.
Microsoft may have been right with the Xbox but they were wrong to neglect WinMo so badly for so long.
Which is why Microsoft is so hung up about vendor lock-in and crushing Linux
With a market share of less than 1%, and a trend line as flat as the Kansas prairies, what is there left to crush?
Microsoft did nothing except sell a bunch of Xboxes. They positioned themselves for nothing. I particularly love the bit where it says:
"Crucially, Microsoft also leveraged its networking experience, adding an Ethernet port to every Xbox as standard".
Awesome.
Let me guess: to extend and extinguish them... isn't it? Isn't it?
<duck>
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Really? Really? You don't know why Microsoft embraced gaming? Haven't you figured it out yet? Microsoft made zillion$ in operating systems and application software. Did they need a game or game console, NO! But the US military did. They started with Bungie and the Mac thinking they would prepare a small select group, but it wasn't enough. So they enlisted Microsoft to take it to the next level and get it out there on a game console. Oh, yea, now do you get it?
IT'S NOT A GAMING CONSOLE, IT'S A TRAINING SIMULATION!
They are trying to prepare us for the day when the Covenant get here! Urban combat, space combat, huge tracts of devastation, get it? GET IT?
THE COVENENT ARE COMING AND THEY ARE BRINGING THE FLOOD!!!! I'm going to be ready. I've trained in the simulations again and again. I've read all the mission reports. I'll be READY. I have my shotgun! AAAAAAAAAA! No, NO! Leave me alone. You're not turnin' me into one of those things! AAAAAAA!!!!!!!
I still have my PS2 Linux kit.