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Microsoft: "We're no longer just competing with console companies"
- Thread starter shinobi602
- Start date
Iacobellis
Junior Member
I'm in the same boat as you. I bought a 360 after owning a PS3 for a couple years because all of my friends had one. Xbox Live was miles ahead of PSN, and Uncharted 2 wasn't even out yet. PS3 was just getting on its feet. If Sony can pull another PS2 in terms of pricing and software support out of the gate, then sign me up to buy a PS4. I already have a Vita to accompany it!
EternalDarko
Member
Is this the same Phil Harrison that was at Sony and Atari?
The man really gets around.
The man really gets around.
I read the OP and i am not seeing how they are attempting to "detach" themselves from the game industry at all.
Fox Mulder
Member
If they can turn the Xbox into a mass market do everything wonder media machine, they can ignore the gamers that built the brand entirely.
TwEE-N-Toast
Banned
I was just going by the amount of money they lost,$4 billion I think. The amount of xboxs sold and the system's life time being cut short.
If that happened to Sony or Nintendo and their fans were saying "its all part of the plan" it would sound just as weird.
Except the Wii U is more powerful then the 360 so I don't know what your talking about.
Same for me, I'm this close to completely tuning out MS. I miss the first half of the 360 before it found mainstream success with the kinect.
The saddest thing is that they got complacent and lazy to the point where PS+ is now superior to xbox live. Although Sony worked hard to improve their premium service, the fact remain that MS regressed with live. These days, deal and discount won't go over 50% while you could get 75 or 80% discount even last year. -_-
It's not really about the Xbox for me. They've got a bunch of divisions working on core games for the Xbox, and their leaked roadmap indicates they'll be beefing up their core games support.
It's the stupid focus on connectivity/online/service-oriented games that's upsetting me. Major Nelson tweeted earlier today about the Steam sale, and my reply to that was "sorry, but the Microsoft games I want are things like Age of Empires 2, Impossible Creatures, and Halo." And it's true. I want those kind of experiences from Microsoft again. At the time, they were some of the best games in existence.
I'm guessing MS was his aim all along but the betraylton would have killed his career.
Also, I don't think MS will be able to jump from dudebros to mainstream.., dudebros are more profitable...why would you want to give them up? They spent shitloads and are the holy grail for most companies...mainstream audiences are stingy.
one of the shopping centers near me has a microsoft store and an apple store across from each other, the stores are indistinguishable from each other except for the MS or Apple logo on the front.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
As opposed to all the competition there is selling stuff on Xbox at the moment...
ehhh... I don't get it.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
I just want my game console to be a game console. :-(
gaming_noob
Member
They entered the market one year after the PS2, which was already wildly popular, and next to the Gamecube that was coming off of the successful N64, as a newcomer. It still outsold the Gamecube in the end. Continuing down the road of competing against the PS2 would've lost them more money..they essentially had to release a next gen console to differentiate itself. I wouldn't call it a success nor failure...Xbox 1 was the necessary groundwork for its successors.
Current game consoles aren't just game consoles.
Then you better not buy any of the next gen consoles then. Funny watching MS get shit over this when Sony is interested in doing much the same thing. "It only does everything "
Baconsammy
Banned
Minecraft 360 has sold 6 million copies in less than 9 months. Dudebro what?
I just find it funny that Microsoft spent billions up billions to get into the console space because they thought that Sony would be a huge threat to their dominance in the OS space.
And yet they both got beat by a company which clearly has no idea how to make operating systems, and then paid no attention as their real competitors (Apple and Google) completely dominated the phone and tablet market, something which Microsoft should have had a competitive advantage in.
Talk about a misread of the market.
And yet they both got beat by a company which clearly has no idea how to make operating systems, and then paid no attention as their real competitors (Apple and Google) completely dominated the phone and tablet market, something which Microsoft should have had a competitive advantage in.
Talk about a misread of the market.
Fox Mulder
Member
Those days are over. Might as well be in an old folks home now.
Beelzeboss
Member
I'd be happy if they took Xbox Live gold as it is now and turned it into a subscription for their set top box.
Than give free online gaming with the nextbox
Than give free online gaming with the nextbox
Yeah man it sucks that I can watch movies on Netflix, tv shows on Hulu Plus, sports games on ESPN, listen to music, etc. etc. :-(
Then don't access it's multimedia features.
Most important quote in the article. Solidifies their shift in self-image from primarily a desktop OS company to the Apple style of proprietary devices with proprietary software/services.
I think as MS shifts out of the "classic" open desktop OS model towards walled gardens, someone (Google?) is going to make a play at filling that gap and will likely start pulling in the enthusiast PC gaming market and potentially business/enterprise. If the next xbox succeeds I think they'll accelerate the closing off of Windows and move everything through their store if they think the long term profit will outweigh the negative reaction/abandonment from business/games.
XBOX to me feels like the embodiment of the cynical corporate cash grab, "those videogame guys are making money, we want money too, keep dumping money from our infinite cash reserves into this "xbox" until we kill all the competitors and get all the money". Sure every company is guilty of this to some extent, but when you think of Sony or Nintendo you think of visionaries like Kutaragi and Miyamoto with loftier goals, who is the MS visionary?
flyinpiranha
Member
Ha, yep. While I don't agree with everything they do after 2 minutes of learning "the Fall update" I'm back to getting to everything I need within seconds.
I like an everything box. I remember my setup when I was younger ... VCR, DVD, and who knows what else all in a 10 tier shelf, looked like a display at Best Buy or something.
Sounds like the console I want. I game less and less on my console and use it more and more for consuming content, and media. Movies, music, TV are all a part of my Xbox experience these days. I still game a ton on it, but consoles need to be more these days.. consumers expect more from their electronics these days and expect for value for their money.
In the era of smartphones, the idea that consumers in large are willing to continue to support an industry that is centered around static gaming boxes with limited services is just downright lunacy. I know some here on GAF are die hard in their opinions, but the fact is we are being breed out as consumers. With each passing year, more and more kids enter the market. These kids are growing up in a world connected to everything. Some of them have probably owned more smartphones than many of you here. They demand more from their consoles, their parents demand more.. Times aren't changing, they changed long ago.
Nintendo MiiVerse, Sony PSN.. both are trying to catch Live, an infrastructure that is 10 years old now, with improvements added along the way. Live in essence is trying to now keep up or stay ahead of the smartphone market. I suspect MS is going to interlink Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 8 (heh) on a level that neither Google, Apple, Sony nor Nintendo has the capability of doing. Years ago, back in 2006 MS talked about "Live Anywhere" a vision of unifying all 3 of these platforms into one seemless service. We are very, very close to that happening now so I fully expect a next gen Xbox to integrate transparently with Win8 and WinPhone 8. Matter of fact, they will tout this feature at launch.
In the end, I can't speak for others tastes.. to each his own. But as a 30 something year old gamer now and head of the household.. I expect MORE from my console in 2013. If the next Xbox or Playstation cannot even service up the same feature for feature content that my smartphone can.. its dead on arrival and failure out the gate. Early adopters will support anything, lets be honest.. but the success of these console cycles comes later in the generation, later in the cycle when development costs are drastically reduced and you have a large established install base. Surely a Xbox 8 or Playstation 4 will sell great out of the gate ... but the question is ... if MS or Sony doesn't innovate, and push the console limits to keep up with the tech industry will those console sales sustain for another 5-10 years?
I don't think so. And as a consumer I want 1 device under my TV. I want that device to play the latest games, I want access to movies, music, television and more. I want integrated social networking and I want this device to be built with the future in mind, with 2016, 2017 and beyond ... in mind. This box needs to have the overhead to sustain growth in services over the next decade to keep up with other hardware platforms on shorter refresh cycles.
Change or die if you ask me.
In the era of smartphones, the idea that consumers in large are willing to continue to support an industry that is centered around static gaming boxes with limited services is just downright lunacy. I know some here on GAF are die hard in their opinions, but the fact is we are being breed out as consumers. With each passing year, more and more kids enter the market. These kids are growing up in a world connected to everything. Some of them have probably owned more smartphones than many of you here. They demand more from their consoles, their parents demand more.. Times aren't changing, they changed long ago.
Nintendo MiiVerse, Sony PSN.. both are trying to catch Live, an infrastructure that is 10 years old now, with improvements added along the way. Live in essence is trying to now keep up or stay ahead of the smartphone market. I suspect MS is going to interlink Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 8 (heh) on a level that neither Google, Apple, Sony nor Nintendo has the capability of doing. Years ago, back in 2006 MS talked about "Live Anywhere" a vision of unifying all 3 of these platforms into one seemless service. We are very, very close to that happening now so I fully expect a next gen Xbox to integrate transparently with Win8 and WinPhone 8. Matter of fact, they will tout this feature at launch.
In the end, I can't speak for others tastes.. to each his own. But as a 30 something year old gamer now and head of the household.. I expect MORE from my console in 2013. If the next Xbox or Playstation cannot even service up the same feature for feature content that my smartphone can.. its dead on arrival and failure out the gate. Early adopters will support anything, lets be honest.. but the success of these console cycles comes later in the generation, later in the cycle when development costs are drastically reduced and you have a large established install base. Surely a Xbox 8 or Playstation 4 will sell great out of the gate ... but the question is ... if MS or Sony doesn't innovate, and push the console limits to keep up with the tech industry will those console sales sustain for another 5-10 years?
I don't think so. And as a consumer I want 1 device under my TV. I want that device to play the latest games, I want access to movies, music, television and more. I want integrated social networking and I want this device to be built with the future in mind, with 2016, 2017 and beyond ... in mind. This box needs to have the overhead to sustain growth in services over the next decade to keep up with other hardware platforms on shorter refresh cycles.
Change or die if you ask me.
outunderthestars
Banned
Go buy a gamecube.
Baconsammy
Banned
Dont stick an ethernet cable in it. Voila! Games only.
Raven77
Member
Unconfirmed but heavily believed to be legit due to legal action, yet still not official. Also, 2-3 years old, plans change in business...A LOT so take everything in that document with an enormous grain of salt, confirmed or not.
Baconsammy
Banned
Bill Gates made billions and is now giving billions away to charitable causes in order to save lives and prevent diseases. Ken and Shiggy have goals that lofty? Here's the secret: they're all doing it for the money.
Jaded Alyx
Member
We Know!
They couldn't even get Nintendo's logo correct.
what did he have to do with xbox?
Sanctioned the whole thing.
Pretty much, well MS and Sony at least are going this direction.
Amusing to watch the usual knee-jerk reactions on GAF though.
True but its only a bad thing when MS does it.
Back in 2000, Microsoft had (and still does have) tons of money just sitting around. Investors were clamoring for them to do something with it. They were also concerned that Sony was taking over the living room with Playstation, and that the PC and the living room would eventually converge, squeezing Microsoft out of its most lucrative market. It's true that Nintendo or Sony couldn't easily swallow a $4 billion loss, but Microsoft can. Microsoft said back when the first Xbox launched that they didn't expect to turn an overall profit until their third hardware generation. They knew this was a relentless, cutthroat market. So far, the Xbox platform has gone exactly according to plan.
gutter_trash
Banned
watch Sony align with Google for PS4, lol
Thats been the talk for a few years now that they might team up. Idk if it will happen tho
gutter_trash
Banned
same for I
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I think the idea is PS4 becomes a Google TV. Sony already make some devices that run it.
It doesn't make sense to me. I don't see why Sony would be so willing to pay someone else to provide such infrastructure when they're already so heavily invested in doing it themselves.
PopcornMegaphone
Banned
With the laws of diminishing returns in effect with graphical output it makes sense to differentiate your console with services and devices. Personally, I have no problem with that. I look forward to this industry evolving. In my opinion, the traditional core gaming output is getting really stale.
edit -
I've never understood the love Sony's console hardware has gotten. I mean, the PS3 is pretty ridiculous.
edit -
I've never understood the love Sony's console hardware has gotten. I mean, the PS3 is pretty ridiculous.
Shtof
Member
Sony has some of the best hardware in the world, Google has some of the best software. Seems like a perfect match.
Baconsammy
Banned
Serious question?