I think on the whole you have really missed at least what I and most gamers and game makers out there percieve to be the point of the Xbox. I think the Xbox's true purpose comes to bear when we take a look at how Microsoft is financing its Xbox division and the creation of the product, peripherals, and the games. Basically, to start out, every Xbox for the first three (I believe its three, could be a bit more/less) years is subsidized three hundred dollars by Microsoft. While you are paying a handy 299 for the Xbox, its real cost is in the neighborhood of 600. Essentially what is happening is that Microsoft is writing a 4 billion dollar check to invade a huge sector of the industry.
You say that the purpose of the Xbox is to bring more games to the PC, or at least make it easier to move games to the PC; this is sorely not the case. As of late, it has become a hell of a lot harder to be a player in the games industry. The downturn in the economy has hurt gaming groups very hard. People don't hear about things like when Infogrames lays off all of its temp and intern people because they need to free up whatever money they can to finish Unreal2. Instead of making games for the PC, groups want to make products for the console market because its easier to produce and way easier to pull profit. For every 1 person that went and bough say Myth2 or Homeworld, 40 people went out and bought Zelda, or GoldenEye
In short, Xbox is very unhealthy for the PC games industry. For consoles though, its great. Either way, its a great example of a big company paying its way into nabbing an industry sector. While its financing is fairly silly (and from what I hear development on the inside is insanity, save Bungie) I have to hand it to Microsoft. I guess its what they do best.
Slashdot Mirror
I think on the whole you have really missed at least what I and most gamers and game makers out there percieve to be the point of the Xbox. I think the Xbox's true purpose comes to bear when we take a look at how Microsoft is financing its Xbox division and the creation of the product, peripherals, and the games. Basically, to start out, every Xbox for the first three (I believe its three, could be a bit more/less) years is subsidized three hundred dollars by Microsoft. While you are paying a handy 299 for the Xbox, its real cost is in the neighborhood of 600. Essentially what is happening is that Microsoft is writing a 4 billion dollar check to invade a huge sector of the industry.
You say that the purpose of the Xbox is to bring more games to the PC, or at least make it easier to move games to the PC; this is sorely not the case. As of late, it has become a hell of a lot harder to be a player in the games industry. The downturn in the economy has hurt gaming groups very hard. People don't hear about things like when Infogrames lays off all of its temp and intern people because they need to free up whatever money they can to finish Unreal2. Instead of making games for the PC, groups want to make products for the console market because its easier to produce and way easier to pull profit. For every 1 person that went and bough say Myth2 or Homeworld, 40 people went out and bought Zelda, or GoldenEye
In short, Xbox is very unhealthy for the PC games industry. For consoles though, its great. Either way, its a great example of a big company paying its way into nabbing an industry sector. While its financing is fairly silly (and from what I hear development on the inside is insanity, save Bungie) I have to hand it to Microsoft. I guess its what they do best.
Thanks,
Russ