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Why does Microsoft not just end this generation earlier than planned?

I don't know whether you're laughing because of the implication or because you think my claim was funny?

Because a lot of what Sony did this generation is what MS did last generation, and bits of it arguably since the Xbox.
No I was agreeing with you. But all companies copy off each other, it's not a bad thing.
 
As a PS4 owner I hope Microsoft can shift things around and keep the competition close.
 
I have no doubt this gen will end earlier than last gen, around 5-6 years.

1) Microsoft and Sony aren't selling the X1 and PS4 at loses. Thus, they don't need to years to make up it up.

2) Sold numbers were close last ten. This gen, Sony will have a noticeable big lead. Thus, Microsoft would want to jump the gun again.
 
I think MS solution will be more Deals like Tomb Raider launch first exclusives. MS will just spend money where it hurts Sony, content acquisition. But as along as PS4 consistency has better ports, I think this can be negated.

Its only been a year, so it will be an uphill battle. I still don't feel the hardware is worth $400 with a free game included. I honestly believe the sweet spot for MS would be $300 or less. They know they are down on GPU power, but acting as though you engineered this cutting edge solution, annoys me. MS is not Apple, nor should Sony get a free pass but the parts in PS4 clearly a (mostly) modern solution.

A year in, is too late to call. By the end of year three, i think you can start making judgement. Being in China officially, we have to see how things will go there. As others have stated, Xbone is not a failure, but its not a runaway success, that and marathon pacing.
 
We all know the reasons why X1 is selling as it is and in second place. Releasing early would be as crazy as re-hiring Mattrick to head up their next console. Sure, you'll have something more powerful for a bit, but then you'll have a less powerful console after Sony comes out with their new one, and everything will be back to square one.

MS will learn from their mistakes, lick their wounds, and come back swinging next time.

Fake edit: I'm not advocating that power is everything, but having a more powerful console (along with not having shitty reveals and policies) wins mindshare.
 
Haven't read the thread so I may be repeating but Sega once ended a generation early to get a jump start on the next.


It didn't end well.
 
People need to calm down and stop trying to push for a one console market. All these doomsday prophecies are laughable. Take some time to log off the forums, youtube comments, reddit, etc and play some games and have fun.

Being second place isn't bad as long as Xbox is still profitable. Even if it isn't and Microsoft shuts down Xbox, life goes on and gamers will gravitate to something else, and still have fun playing games.

Honestly, I don't think people who liked the 3DO, Sega Dreamcast, or hell even the Atari Jaguar (did anyone like the jaguar) are sitting at home mourning the loss or the collapse of a console company.

They just bought something else and kept playing.
 
People need to calm down and stop trying to push for a one console market. All these doomsday prophecies are laughable. Take some time to log off the forums, youtube comments, reddit, etc and play some games and have fun.

Being second place isn't bad as long as Xbox is still profitable. Even if it isn't and Microsoft shuts down Xbox, life goes on and gamers will gravitate to something else, and still have fun playing games.
People go a bit hyperbolish with the whole "winning/losing" thing. You'd think MS was selling 50K a month the way some people here seem to view the situation.
 
I love how some are saying the XBO is making billions and refuse to take into account the R&D costs, the bundling of free games and the almost feverish slashing of prices.

Ayyyuup~
 
Dude. What? No.

MS won't beat Sony, but they'll compete. BTW, that Amazon line was a real knee slapper, we are talking about Microsoft here; A tech giant in their own right. MS didn't get there by making the sort of decisions you're advocating for.
 
I love how some are saying the XBO is making billions and refuse to take into account the R&D costs, the bundling of free games and the almost feverish slashing of prices.

Ayyyuup~

After all that, they're still selling well and doing well. It's still a great console with a lot of games and it isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

Have fun playing games, regardless of where you play games.
 
I currently own a PS4 and I love it. It's not without it's flaws.

I currently plan on purchasing an XB1 for Black Friday and from what I hear, it's not perfect either.

I remember how both 360 and PS3 evolved from gaming machines to goto multimedia devices. In a perfect world, both of these consoles will compete for our hearts and wallets, while adding crazy value to their respective systems.


I hold no allegiance to a console. I am a video game mercenary.
 
After all that, they're still selling well and doing well. It's still a great console with a lot of games and it isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

Have fun playing games, regardless of where you play games.
Losing your two strongest territories is considered doing well now?
 
This idea isn't that bad to be honest.

Ms has plenty of money.
Ms does not like competition.
Ms like to outspend the competition.
They can launch a console compatible with one but more powerful (think new 3ds).
Set xbone to half price, new one at ps4 price.
Try to kill Sony with this.

Not that crazy. Its a lot of money upfront but if they manage to get Sony out of the way they would get one of those monopolies that they like so much.
 
I understand Sony is winning right now but we're 11 months in. PS3 was getting destroyed compared to 360 in the beginning and was able to basically catch up world wide by the end. I understand Microsoft is unable to make up their loss worldwide as easily since they're success is much more US based, but at this point only 9 millionish next gen consoles have sold in the US. There are 10's of millions of consumers who will get a next gen console at some point who have not picked a side yet.

To act like the war is over already and they need to make a new system is insane.
 
Losing your two strongest territories is considered doing well now?

Second place isn't last place or isn't a bad place. Games are still fun no matter how many copies they sell to other people.

I'm playing Forza Horizon 2 and having a lot of fun. Not once did I stop playing and say "Man this game sucks because the Xbox One isn't outselling the PS4 in North America! If only it sold more than the PS4, this game would become even more fun!".
 
Gee fellas, looks like the competition released a more powerful system. We're going to have to cut the life of our new system short and hope to get 'em next time!
 
Dude. What? No.

MS won't beat Sony, but they'll compete. BTW, that Amazon line was a real knee slapper, we are talking about Microsoft here; A tech giant in their own right. MS didn't get there by making the sort of decisions you're advocating for.

If the xbox business isn't as profitable as they expect they can either spin it off, sell it to Amazon or Google, and focus their capital and cashflow on their more profitable business sectors. The whole point of "in it to win it" is kind of moot, what are they winning at the end of the day? Gaming is migrating to mobile and they're literally getting their heads kicked in when it comes to mobile phones and tablets, and the risk is their OS monopoly is now being threatened.

Second place isn't last place or isn't a bad place. Games are still fun no matter how many copies they sell to other people.

I'm playing Forza Horizon 2 and having a lot of fun. Not once did I stop playing and say "Man this game sucks because the Xbox One isn't outselling the PS4 in North America! If only it sold more than the PS4, this game would become even more fun!".

We're talking about MS, are we not? "Doesn't matter how many copies are sold as long as the game is fun" is not a viable business strategy, they're literally burning through money by giving away games for free right now just to stay in the game, they'll never get Japan, Europe is overwhelmingly uninterested in their console, their base in the US and UK is eroding, how many games do they have to give to turn it around? Two? Three? Four? At the end of the day what would they get out of this?
 
XBO isn't doing better than the PS3 on a global level. PS3 didn't turn things around, it just didn't sell as strong as the 360 in the US / UK. It's sales were always strong everywhere else from what I remember, hence managing to overtake the 360 global lifetime sales even though it launched a year later.

Actually the XBO is currently doing far, far better than the PS3 was at a comparable point in it's life, worldwide or otherwise. I would hedge and say that it probably won't sell as well as the PS3/360 but it's tracking to do much better than most people on GAF realize. It will likely sell more than the SNES, NES, and 3DS, and maybe even the PSP. It's decline in Europe from the 360 is marginal as is the drop in the US/UK.
 
I've read the first few pages of this thread. And all I have to say is that there is nothing wrong with being second place and making $$.

Secondly, most owners of the ps3 generation (gamers/hardcore, not casual gamers) jumped right into the ps4 console. The Xbox 360 still has a huge user base with many of the people and its users waiting to jump into next Gen, due to costs and or games on the market.

For example I did not jump onto the Xbox 360 until I found out about the Halo 3 release. And that was what 2-3years after release. And that was right around the time when mass effect was releasing too. The consoles should have released this year. Sony did force MS hands very smartly btw because they needed something to release to help save and breathe new life into the games division to help there company. But they just like me were not really ready but benefited far greater by releasing sooner. A lot of their great games are delayed releases. That is proof enough of a premature console release.

And everyone has to factor in the economy of the world. This Gen has proven that consumers are not willing to purchases the latest Gen of consoles unless its in the $400-450 range. Now that they are essentially PCs with there architecture, maybe next Gen people will be more likely to jump on a higher priced system if the specs are up to snuff. I mean who knows maybe the next Gen releases will have swappable upgrade slots of gpus depending on what processor they put into the consoles. That would be pretty cool and smart for future proofing.

Just my $0.02
 
Secondly, most owners of the ps3 generation (gamers/hardcore, not casual gamers) jumped right into the ps4 console. The Xbox 360 still has a huge user base with many of the people and its users waiting to jump into next Gen, due to costs and or games on the market.

I really don't know what you mean by this. Are you saying that most of the ~80m PS3 owners have bought PS4s, but that conversely most of the ~80m Xbox 360 owners have not yet bought Xbox Ones?
 
I imagine they are already planning what comes next, and i do hope that the top of the page says

NO Kinect


NO TV


MOAR POWERRRRrrrr

That's all the target audiance wants

seriosly this. also now that HBO is going stand alone more and more people will cut cable out all together. My ps3 and now ps4 has been my complete living room entertainment machine for almost a decade now. apps and music is cool but the focus must be games. also netflix is a must of course.
 
This idea isn't that bad to be honest.

Ms has plenty of money.
Ms does not like competition.
Ms like to outspend the competition.
They can launch a console compatible with one but more powerful (think new 3ds).
Set xbone to half price, new one at ps4 price.
Try to kill Sony with this.

Not that crazy. Its a lot of money upfront but if they manage to get Sony out of the way they would get one of those monopolies that they like so much.

Terrible idea. What better way to grow your business than to piss off the fans who have been buying your console for the last year or so.

Plus a new xbox One with upgrades akin to the New 3DS vs Old 3DS (only internal hardware improvements are the increases cpu speed) would probably only just make it as powerful as the PS4 rather than being weaker than the PS4 as it currently is.
 
Why wouldn't they be able to release to a beefed up console that would outclass the One and PS4? Nintendo does revisions to their hardware all the time especially their handhelds. Also, they are different products, but Apple releases yearly revisions to their tablets,phones, and laptops every year. I think most people are used to just upgrading their hardware. If they did release an upgraded model, wouldn't the current One just be able to play current gen games at lower settings, they're basically locked down PCs at this point, so games would still run.

I'm not saying they should do yearly revisions, but at least an updated One model could work after all.
 
OP...just because the Xbox One isn't in first place sales-wise doesn't mean that it's a failure. It is selling better than the 360, and turning a profit.

I'm no Xbox One fan, but the system still doesn't have a critically acclaimed exclusive yet (neither does PS4). Sales will pick up more once it does. The masses don't care that much about the weaker hardware.

The X1 would probably be much closer to the PS4 in sales if MS didn't fuck up its message and marketing last year.

It's a bad idea for MS to rush out a new console in a few years. Rushing tends to lead to mistakes and half-baked solutions.
 
Assuming Windows 10 is what it is, we don't have the Xbox One they envisioned yet.

Also, powerful hardware being the only thing what determines what wins a generation is when I feel sad for the industry.
 
Pretty much nonsense.

The Xbox One might be selling poorly in comparison to the PS4 but it is still selling well in comparison to the 360. Initial sales are not an indication to the longevity of a product and content is what is king and will ultimately make or break the console. Over the life cycle i think it will be more than ok.

I personally think the Xbox One could have been a much bigger success from the beginning if they dropped the Xbox brand as the main devices name and marketed the device as the Microsoft One or something along those lines. The main problem the console has had is that it was a brand tied up with the gaming community and they tried to market it as home entertainment system that targeted gamers rather than the masses. It was a product that by large the gaming community didn't want (until the change in direction) and was too focused on properties like Halo to be interesting to the non/light gamers.
 
I really don't know what you mean by this. Are you saying that most of the ~80m PS3 owners have bought PS4s, but that conversely most of the ~80m Xbox 360 owners have not yet bought Xbox Ones?

Yes basically..not most but more have switched. And yes I also understand that some old 360 owners switches to PS4, but they are loving' that PSN network at the moment (sarcasm =P) What I'm saying is that more ps3 owners have made the transition to next Gen. Everyone has a game/price that they are willing to make a move on. Sony made this far more appealing than MS did. And add the fact the devs still provide last Gen support people don't want to make the jump unless they are going to be wowed. And Sony wowed people especially with there 8gigs of gddr5 memory which was pretty much unheard of in both the PC and console market today.

Since Pc gaming is on the rise (imo) people are becoming more plugged in about tech. I am a die hard PC gamer, but play/owned consoles this Gen and last Gen for exclusives and media consumption. It basically the next year or two will be when this Gen and especially MS show there true colors with more of a surge in user base because thats when the real games come out. Also the generation of gamers used to be in middle school/highschool when the last Gen was out. Now lots of people are finishing with college or are in the working world and have less time to devote.

I know I have a lot less time. Idk even know how I will be able to give star citizen the time it deserves. Yet when it is released.
 
easy, if the analyst you heard believe Sony will be gone in 5 years, MS could just wait 5 years and bam, Xbox One would be number 1!
 
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