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[guek]

while sony are the one facing financial ruin, i can still see them riding console hardware all the way into the abyss.

i think the gaikai woman is implying that the next xbox won't be a gaming console, which makes absolute sense and mirrors much of what we've been hearing. xbox will become a supplementary service brand, incorporated into microsoft's new living room convergence device. it's been their end-game since the beginning. a metro/kinect powered tv box with hd gaming functionality - or atleast, as much hd gaming functionality as a <100w gpu can afford.

if xbox was microsoft's ipod, nextbox will be their iphone. sure, you can still play music on it, but it's far from its primary function.

Yeah, good points. I've been thinking the similar things for awhile now.

I wonder if MS is going to just put out a console within the same spec range of the Wii U (though don't worry you tech-whores, it'll still probably be more powerful), combine it with living room functions and an advanced kinect like ghst suggested, and call it a day. In the current state of the video game industry, 3rd parties aren't going to be able to afford not supporting whatever the largest common denominator is (Wii U + Nextbox). The games will come flowing freely, I don't think MS will ever have to worry about that again unless they put something out more akin to the Wii in relation to modern consoles. So if the games are going to be coming no matter what and they have the best online space already, what's the point in bleeding money from costly hardware? Xbox is really close to becoming a household name, if it isn't one already. They could use that as their trojan device to get windows 8 to dominate the living room.

Think about their current 1st party lineup. Is it fair to say it's pretty pitiful? They've got Halo (which will always be the console's main mascot game), and a bunch of kinect sports stuff. Even if they abstain from spending a cent on incentives for third party next gen, the games are still going to come. Xbox live and dev costs will make sure of that.

 

[Lightning]

I am out of the loop here. Are Sony in finanical trouble?

 

[guek]

I am out of the loop here. Are Sony in finanical trouble?

Yes and no. They're not likely to go under anytime soon if that's what you mean, but they've had a hard time making money for the past few years and they're horribly mismanaged if I'm understanding things correctly.

 

[Psychotext]

What the fuck? How could someone think that Microsoft as a whole was losing money?

Maybe that person is "special".

Seriously though, there's really only one division that's losing money for Microsoft consistently at the moment, and it's not entertainment. Microsoft as a whole is still making billions in profit.

 

[Curufinwe]

Yes and no. They're not likely to go under anytime soon if that's what you mean, but they've had a hard time making money for the past few years and they're horribly mismanaged if I'm understanding things correctly.

I think that's about right.

I found this rather awesome site that shows in graph form various financial statistics of corporations, and the contrast between Sony's net income and Microsoft's net income over the last ten years (and especially the last two years) is very stark.

http://ycharts.com/companies/SNE/net_income#comp=&startDate=9/30/2001&endDate=9/30/2011&zoom=

http://ycharts.com/companies/MSFT/n...e&startDate=9/30/2001&endDate=9/30/2011&zoom=

 

[guek]

I think that's about right.

I found this rather awesome site that shows in graph form various financial statistics of corporations, and the contrast between Sony's net income and Microsoft's net income over the last ten years (and especially the last two years) is very stark.

http://ycharts.com/companies/SNE/net_income#comp=&startDate=9/30/2001&endDate=9/30/2011&zoom=

http://ycharts.com/companies/MSFT/n...e&startDate=9/30/2001&endDate=9/30/2011&zoom=

oh man, what's with that crater in the first half of 2011?

 

[Combichristoffersen]

I am out of the loop here. Are Sony in finanical trouble?

Like guek said, they won't keel over and die tomorrow, but they've been mismanaged for a long time. Their TV division has been unprofitable for years (and they shut down production of OLED displays for the consumer market), no one gave half a shit about their tablet, the PS3 was a massive moneysink that wiped out all their profits from the PS1+PS2 (although their games division has been profitable as of late IIRC), their Walkman brand was killed by the iPod, and I don't think their laptops sell much either. The one sector of Sony that has supposedly been profitable is their insurance business.

oh man, what's with that crater in the first half of 2011?

Probably due to the earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima meltdowns, I guess.

 

[Dave Long]

So was the whole www.microsoft-sony.com revelation ever really explained?

 

[watershed]

So was the whole www.microsoft-sony.com revelation ever really explained?

Maybe we'll find out at E3 that they are making one super console so this rumor will be true in a way.