Twilight Princess
Member
what? microsoft wants to defeat sony so the former the win the latter's love and be its friend? sounds like some mange level shit plot.
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Former MS exec: Microsoft entered the console race solely to "stop Sony"
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
metareferential
Member
Theirs is a three-step plan.
Three generations. This too is common knowledge.
Let's wait.
That whole episode of "Windows CE for the Dreamcast" is quite interesting. IIRC, once Sega understood the intentions of Microsoft, they just abandoned the idea of developing anything with Windows CE.
You need a Wii/PS2 kind of success to make the kind of money that makes gaming worth it for companies as large as MS. I'm sure the main goal at the time was to put a stop to Sony's total dominance as most of the article suggests. And if they happened to make a little bit of profit on the side then all the better.
Don't forgot the Rareware buyout.
Microsoft was taking hits on everyone they didn't like!
Sapphire Dreams
Member
But who will stop Apple and Google from taking over the world now?
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
I honestly didn't know this. What was Microsoft's plan before? Some sort of media box that didn't include gaming?
This sorta true, right? Didn't sony playstation come from a sour business deal between the two.
The Bookerman
Member
Hmm Didn't Sony do MSX Computers... Which were Computers built with specs provided by microsoft japan?
I guess you could take it back to entering the PC market to stop Apple... Does MS get into anything for any reason other than to stop someone? My mind is slowly beginning to blow here.
TheLucifer
Member
I would buy two of those. I always had Sony consoles, but that would be pretty amazing.
Clay Davis
Member
and after taking a large chunk of marketshare away from them in the US and UK, they decide to fuck it all up by introducing some bullshit always online, no used games features. :/
iamshadowlark
Banned
Sony wanted to work with Nintendo. Nintendo spurned them so we got the Playstation. MS wanted to work with Sony. Sony spurned them so they joined forces with SEGA. SEGA got out of the console business and Sony taunted them and MS so we got the Xbox which had a lot of SEGA support when it launched.
What do people use a Windows PC for these days apart from work?
Playing games
Storing and playing media
Surfing the internet
Maybe some light editing of home movies and uploading to Facebook etc.
The PS3 does ALL of those things without a Windows licence. Unfortunately the implementation of most of them is complete garbage but you can see why MS saw Sony as a threat.
As noted though the real threat to MS was never really Sony, it was Apple and Google.
Playing games
Storing and playing media
Surfing the internet
Maybe some light editing of home movies and uploading to Facebook etc.
The PS3 does ALL of those things without a Windows licence. Unfortunately the implementation of most of them is complete garbage but you can see why MS saw Sony as a threat.
As noted though the real threat to MS was never really Sony, it was Apple and Google.
HD DVD ring any bells?
sakipon
Member
Dude. There are things a man does not need to know.
MisterHero
Super Member
It was, but then it turned into Sony vs Apple. They couldn't get Walkman/PSP over iPod, but they eventually got Bluray to succeed.
Sony wanted the rights to anything Nintendo published for the system. It wasn't going to work out.charsace said:
Nintendo going to Philipps was their own bad play, though.
Yep. Although I believe another reason was that HD DVD used more of Microsoft's proprietary software than Bluray
The Dutch Slayer
Member
its HD DVD vs blu-ray again.
Ms just wanted Sony to wast money on partners for BR and make it drag out as long as possible because MS knew back than that streaming was the future.
Ms just wanted Sony to wast money on partners for BR and make it drag out as long as possible because MS knew back than that streaming was the future.
kingkaiser
Member
Yes, and like that MS strategy to "retake" the living room it is also well known for quite some time.
Heh, I wouldn't take it that far.
But yeah, this is pretty obvious and known for a while.
The Playstation brand was taking the gaming focus away from Windows.
Ruud_Luiten
Member
Sony entered to stop Nintendo
I think everybody here realizes that when somebody says "Microsoft" they mean "those in charge of the soulless corporate entity known as Microsoft."
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
To be honest, if ever there would be a move out of the resellable license to fixed license model, now's the time to do it. Microsoft would be taking a risk, but it's not outside of the realms of possibility that their gambit will work. Remember that second-hand sales don't actually contribute to their bottom line.
It's a smart move they'd be making; a recklessly, nakedly, cartoonishly evil move, yes, but smart.
Of course, smart for Microsoft is dumb for the industry as a whole as it means fewer people playing games overall, lower install base and shrinking retail presence, but that's another discussion entirely.
But why did Nintendo?
Wiz
Member
& Nintendo entered to stop uh...Atari?
They saw the PS1 selling 100mill consoles and Sony talking about ruling the living room and having a fully featured OS on the playstation. If the Playstation was only popular in Japan like other Japanese computers MS probably wouldn't have cared. The fact that Sony was big in the US and Europe and talking about turning the playstation into a media PC with a development environment scared MS so they tried to get in bed with them. MS wanted to provide the OS for the PS2 and other consoles, basically adding consoles into the Windows/DX fold. SEGA was the only one to bit and Sony was cocky as fuck so they didn't hide their intent of being the MS of set top boxes.
That's how Sony basically fucked themselves. MS would have kept on putting out non-gaming set top boxes in an attempt to capture the livingroom if Sony didn't scare MS with how they were talking about the PS.
First thing I thought out. MS's 360 gimped HD DVD add-on that can't even do lossless surround on the 360. What a pathetic joke.
Pai Pai Master
Banned
Sega was just collateral damage.
Sony entered because it had tech it developed for Nintendo, and Nintendo backed out at the last minute.
Nope. They just respawned an almost dead project which turned out to be quite successful.
Little Green Yoda
Member
When he/she is mentioning the Xbox division is "little bit above breakeven", is that including the massive losses from the first XBox and the early days of the 360? Very doubtful but it's just as doubtful that they aren't making money hand over fist from the console space at the moment with all that XBox Live revenue.
Conflict NZ
Member
360 is well profitable by now, however if you look at the complete history of the xbox they are still probably a couple billion in the red, but since they have written that loss off it doesn't really matter.
Exactly. Much like Atari and Nintendo.
And they have much bigger threats now. Outside of gaming communities like GAF, the home PC is effectively dead and becoming an antiquated idea overnight; very few consumers have need for more than an iPad (well, with a keyboard) for 99% of their computer uses, and MS is going nowhere in that part of the market. If not for Xbox, the MS presence in the home would be quickly approaching nonexistent now.
MisterHero
Super Member
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Sony entered because of Ken Kutaragi.
No they entered because they went on a date and made Sony pay for dinner and the movie then didn't call them back. Even though they said they totally would call them.
Duane Cunningham
Member
So really, Nintendo backing out of the Play Station project led to Sony and Microsoft getting into the console business. Nintendo created its own enemies.
BluePigGanon
Member
Those aren't mutually exclusive. Especially if you tweak "to make money" to include not losing money to a competitor.