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[Biker19]

Sorry, double posting.

 

[Netherscourge]

Q: Could Sony buy the rights to Halo/Forza/RYSE/DR3, etc... if Microsoft sells off the Xbox Division?

 

[tino]

Q: Could Sony buy the rights to Halo/Forza/RYSE/DR3, etc... if Microsoft sells off the Xbox Division?

Out of these, only Halo worth any money. I am sure Activision will outbid everybody.

 

[Doffen]

I never even posted about Sweden & Denmark. I was out for a while.

Fixed the quote. Now take a look at my post.

 

[Imperfected]

Q: Could Sony buy the rights to Halo/Forza/RYSE/DR3, etc... if Microsoft sells off the Xbox Division?

As far as I'm aware, Capcom and Crytek have not relinquished the rights to Ryse and Dead Rising in their entirety, they've just made an exclusivity contract with Microsoft. The rights would most likely revert to them in full, leaving them free to shop around for another console. (Though, PC would probably be a priority for both.)

 

[Alchemy]

Sony or Nintendo needs to buy whatever part owns Rare, strip the valuable IPs from it and kill Rare. Let a competent developer make a new Banjo or Conker game.

 

[H_Prestige]

Sony would be shaking in their boots if Samsung ever bought the Xbox. Those guys don't fuck around. MS is basically a joke company these days.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Sony or Nintendo needs to buy whatever part owns Rare, strip the valuable IPs from it and kill Rare. Let a competent developer make a new Banjo or Conker game.

Retro Studios Banjo-Threeie believe

 

[Asherdude]

And now Samsung does not make any money from TV's anymore either.

No successful company will buy Xbox business or Playstation business because they wont pay to lose money. It is very simple really.

If they can't find a buyer, I don't think that it's that far fetched for them to pull a "Sega" and outright kill the division.

 

[Anuson.Phan]

I will be sadden if it's true. Can't have one company dominate.

 

[Eusis]

If they can't find a buyer, I don't think that it's that far fetched for them to pull a "Sega" and outright kill the division.

I wonder if they'd sell things piecemeal as some of that will have a buyer, or actually go third party? Might be worth staying as a game publisher and accessory manufacturer even if gaming hardware's no good. Though they could just as easily be repurposed as a PC supplemental service too.

 

[Neoxon]

Sony or Nintendo needs to buy whatever part owns Rare, strip the valuable IPs from it and kill Rare. Let a competent developer make a new Banjo or Conker game.

Nintendo should be the only one who gets the Rare IPs back, if at all.

 

[Maxrunner]

Sony or Nintendo needs to buy whatever part owns Rare, strip the valuable IPs from it and kill Rare. Let a competent developer make a new Banjo or Conker game.

Nah. let Nintendo buy all of Rare IPs and the brand too. They need more western stuff...

 

[Xater]

Yeah, Elop managed to tank the company in a quarter. This is the equivalent of people blaming Obama for the economic downturn in his first year of office.



Moving to Windows Phone was actually a logically sound move. If you move to Android, you're competing with pretty much every mobile manufacturer on the planet while conceding a head start in the proccess, but moving over to Windows Phone gave their devices a unique attribute and Microsoft's advertising machine.

It really wasn't logical at all. Windows Phone was already tanking and a Nokia designed Android phone would have done amazing in the market. They still have some great hardware design. I do t think I can count the times tech websites said or wrote that the Lumia phones are great hardware but would be much better with Android on them.

 

[Arc Christelle]

Sega buys the Xbox Division, and saves Capcom. The prophecy is happening. The return is coming.

 

[Billen]

I haven't seen/looked for any numbers regarding Bing usage. I wonder what the results for that division is.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Q: Could Sony buy the rights to Halo/Forza/RYSE/DR3, etc... if Microsoft sells off the Xbox Division?

I'm sure plenty of publishers would be circling MS brands and studios like vultures. Although buying 343i and Halo would be very expensive and I'm not sure Sony would see the need if it's going third party and they've no need to compete with MS Game Studios any more. If anything I think EA would be more likely, as Activision are cosied up with Bungie and Destiny for the next 10 years.

Out of these, only Halo worth any money. I am sure Activision will outbid everybody.

Nonsense. Forza and Fable sell up to 4 million units each, so they'd be very desired were that the case. It would be very interesting were there to be a THQ-style auction, as MS have loads of older IPs under their belt that they refuse to do anything with.

It really wasn't logical at all. Windows Phone was already tanking and a Nokia designed Android phone would have done amazing in the market. They still have some great hardware design. I do t think I can count the times tech websites said or wrote that the Lumia phones are great hardware but would be much better with Android on them.

I can see some logic in supporting Windows Phone, but doing it exclusively made no sense. I remember the press release when it happened and the wording suggested that WP was their focus, but not exclusively. They should have still freed up some effort to pour into the Android marketplace too. No point in putting all of your eggs in one basket.

 

[disap.ed]

No, I'm saying it's ridiculous to suggest that a nose dive occurring a quarter following Elop's hiring is the result of his policies. He's not the one who doubled down on Symbian in 2010 after every other manufacturer abandoned ship for Android. He was handed a ship that was perfectly in tact and seemingly plush, but moments away from crashing into an iceberg. The policies and devices in development had to run their course before he could take action.

His announcement of ditching both Symbian and Meego more or less over night definitely had an effect though. He more or less killed customers trust in a platform in one day, so I would agree he takes a big piece of the shit cake.

 

[deputyspade]

Sega buys the Xbox Division, and saves Capcom. The prophecy is happening. The return is coming.

If only Sega had $11 billion to buy the xbox division. That's what some analysts estimate its worth. I think only Apple, Google or Amazon would have the capital to buy xbox.

 

[numble]

No, I'm saying it's ridiculous to suggest that a nose dive occurring a quarter following Elop's hiring is the result of his policies. He's not the one who doubled down on Symbian in 2010 after every other manufacturer abandoned ship for Android. He was handed a ship that was perfectly in tact and seemingly plush, but moments away from crashing into an iceberg. The policies and devices in development had to run their course before he could take action.

The drop occurred 3 quarters after he became CEO. He made the decision to announce a platform switch and not actually release anything on the new platform until 3 quarters later, too--announcing the switch in February 2011 and not releasing a Windows Phone until November 2011, 9 months later. A better strategy might have been to NOT Osborne your current smartphone sales for 3 quarters while you switch platforms, and announce when you are ready to release the new Lumia line. Only Microsoft benefited from Nokia announcing a platform switch 9 months early.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

If only Sega had $11 billion to buy the xbox division. That's what some analysts estimate its worth. I think only Apple, Google or Amazon would have the capital to buy xbox.

That's a massive overvaluation, IMO. That's more than the whole of Nintendo.

And I still think that were the Xbox brand/division to be bought, it would likely either be by a board set up specifically for the purpose (probably with MS still having a hand in it) or Tencent. I think Tencent have shown a lot more activity and interest in the field than the likes of Google, Apple and Amazon.

The drop occurred 3 quarters after he became CEO. He made the decision to announce a platform switch and not actually release anything on the new platform until 3 quarters later, too--announcing the switch in February 2011 and not releasing a Windows Phone until November 2011, 9 months later. A better strategy might have been to NOT Osborne your current smartphone sales for 3 quarters while you switch platforms, and announce when you are ready to release the new Lumia line. Only Microsoft benefited from Nokia announcing a platform switch 9 months early.

Funny, that. The only ones to benefit from a lot of Elop's Nokia decisions were Microsoft...

 

[crazygambit]

Yet the core audience is still there as 3DS continues to thrive. Clearly the market for dedicated game consoles is still alive and well regardless if these generic do everything media devices claim they can play games. It's like saying since there are flash games that people can play on their PC, the hardcore PC gaming market is going to collapse and become less relevant.

A quick look at an NPD report from 5 years ago vs today would tell you it's not. The supposedly super successful 3DS is selling about the same as the PSP was at one point and to my knowledge no one called the PSP a runaway success.

It's an indisputable fact that the dedicated handheld market has shrunk significantly since the appearance of the smartphone. The niche is still big enough to make sense to pursue and the way that Sony's trying to position the Vita as the perfect PS4 companion might be the way to go forward, but let's not pretend this business is thriving please.

 

[Asherdude]

If only Sega had $11 billion to buy the xbox division. That's what some analysts estimate its worth. I think only Apple, Google or Amazon would have the capital to buy xbox.

There's no way that Apple or Google would take it. And Amazon would ruin it with tons of cutbacks. If Elop doesn't change his mind, then the Xbox brand is history. I got burned by the Dreamcast so I know what the fans will go through.

 

[Terrible Majesty]

Sega to buy XboxOne rename it Dreamcast Two

 

[zomgbbqftw]

The drop occurred 3 quarters after he became CEO. He made the decision to announce a platform switch and not actually release anything on the new platform until 3 quarters later, too--announcing the switch in February 2011 and not releasing a Windows Phone until November 2011, 9 months later. A better strategy might have been to NOT Osborne your current smartphone sales for 3 quarters while you switch platforms, and announce when you are ready to release the new Lumia line. Only Microsoft benefited from Nokia announcing a platform switch 9 months early.

Not just that but MS seemed to actively sabotage the move by announcing WP8 just after the first WP7 Nokia came out and being very opaque about the update situation.

 

[Guevara]

Ars Technica defends the Xbox (and Bing)

Xbox: The part of Microsoft people actually love

The Xbox finances are a lot muddier. Sherlund claims that Microsoft loses about $2 billion a year on Xbox, but manages to mask this entirely with $2 billion a year in Android patent royalties. While this was possible under Microsoft's old reporting structure, which grouped all of this revenue under Entertainment & Devices, Sherlund's claims are harder to reconcile with Microsoft's most recent figures, where licensing revenue and hardware revenue are handled separately, and one can't be used to offset the other.

According to the current reporting style, the Devices and Consumer Hardware business, which spans Surface, Xbox 360, and peripheral sales, third-party Xbox game revenue and Xbox LIVE subscriptions had a $0.2 billion gross margin on revenue of $1.5 billion. That's not as lucrative as the licensing segments, which, being software, have essentially zero marginal cost, but it's not the $0.5 billion per quarter that Sherlund thinks Xbox is losing, either.

The profitability of the Xbox business varies over the course of the year—it tends to do better at Christmas—and through the lifecycle of the console. Early units will be expensive to build, potentially even loss-making. Later ones will be cheaper to build. As the console grows older, more games will be available, and hence more game revenue will be earned, too.

As long as the Xbox One avoids Red Ring of Death-style debacles, the Xbox One business should be profitable over its lifetime, if not from year 1. If nothing else, between Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Microsoft should be able to attract 40-50 million Xbox LIVE subscribers paying around $40-50 a year. That's about $1.6-2.5 billion for doing essentially nothing: it's money for old rope.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...hire-any-ceo-who-wants-to-kill-bing-and-xbox/

Interesting numbers

 

[Soyongdori]

MS should buy Sega and sell both Xbox and Sega to Apple.

 

[stilgar]

MS should buy Sega and sell both Xbox and Sega to Apple.

Happy three friends.