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

Are 3rd party ready to support a new console when they still support ps3 and xbox360?
We don't know if X1 make Microsoft lose money or not and selling less then your competitor dosn't mean it selling bad.
 
Don't forget the one year headstart Sony gave Microsoft, the weaker multiplats, the significantly inferior network experience, etc.

(As a PS fanboy, I find it much easier to acknowledge the above now that the PS4 is out. ;-) )

Valid points. I failed to mention these things, and XB1 faults, simply for the sake of brevity.

EDIT: I don't feel that weaker performing multi-plats have a lot to do with it.
 
The only console maker that flooded the market with new game hardware I know was Sega. I mean, people bought the 32 X, only to be coaxed into buying the Sega CD, only to be pushed into buying the Sega Saturn, then the Dreamcast, all that in the course of a 8 year cycle.

I still think the main reason why Sega failed was because the guys there did not realize that if you constantly push for new hardware, then support it with the bare minimum amount of games and then jump right into the next hot piece of hardware, people are no longer willing to spend on your hardware. After all, nobody wants to buy a 500 bucks console, only to realize one or two years later that it is getting abandoned in favor of yet another 500 Bucks console.

Buying an expensive console requires trust in the company and in a cycle that will allow you to get your money's worth. Nobody pays 500 bucks for hardware that will be abandoned a year later, which is precisely why console cycles last 8-10 years. That way, people feel confident in investing in a console knowing it will give them many years of gaming.

If Microsoft or even Nintendo were to pull the plug on their respective consoles early, that trust would be broken, and as such, I doubt the existing fanbase would want to jump right in on the slightly improved hardware. Better for them to bite to bullet, struggle for a few years, then bring the new gen earlier.
 
Are 3rd party ready to support a new console when they still support ps3 and xbox360?
We don't know if X1 make Microsoft lose money or not and selling less then your competitor dosn't mean it selling bad.

Doesnt matter, bring back the BC aspect and have xbox one still in there, many were buying PS2 games still with their New PS3 consoles, having it even better looking upscaled and all that.
 
Man, reading this board could make you believe the Xbox One is hanging out with the Wii U, Vita and Dreamcast in failure-land. I have no plans of buying an Xbox One until Phantom Dust, but jesus. The FUD has crept into literally every topic, spawns a 200+ discussion thread every week, and often makes me wonder about what the hell is going on through many posters' minds.
 
I really enjoy my Xbox One, monthly updates, good exclusives, seem to be responsive to their audience..... think I'll keep it.
 
As the constant internet and server problems we get with nearly every big game release, it shows that the worldwide internet infrastructure is no where near good enough yet for a DD console or streaming console so i believe they will go with shorter generations and cheaper consoles for the next 10+ years.

Man, the arguments about this last year were really something else.
 
So what's stoppin MS trying going the Nintendo route half way through the generation with a soured up Xbox one that games can be run on both hardware?
 
Man, reading this board could make you believe the Xbox One is hanging out with the Wii U, Vita and Dreamcast in failure-land.

how many months has Xbox one won in NPDs since Nov 2013?....

Face it man MS doesnt want that, nobody in a business wants to be selling less and seeing a gap growing. If MS wins a month people shouldnt go wild, the sales gap in the US is what matters.
 
Investors doesn't make things personal between ps4 and xbox. It's not about who sells the most, but how much profit there is. Xbox makes money, the brand keeps living on.

This is it. Only the fanboys care about who wins. The companies care more about the money. If MS thought they couldn't make money with the XBO, then they would stop selling I immediately.

The company I work for is possibly the #2 or #3 in it's niche industry. Just because we aren't #1 doesn't mean we aren't pulling hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions in profits every year.
 
how many months has Xbox one won in NPDs since Nov 2013?....

Face it man MS doesnt want that, nobody in a business wants to be selling less and seeing a gap growing. If MS wins a month people shouldnt go wild, the sales gap in the US is what matters.
Some of you just dont get it? You just cant see past 'console warriors' and 'my favourite console sold more than yours' mentality.

Its already been pointed out in the thread, investors and accountants arent looking at us vs them numbers, they are looking at the bottom line.
 
how many months has Xbox one won in NPDs since Nov 2013?....

Face it man MS doesnt want that, nobody in a business wants to be selling less and seeing a gap growing. If MS wins a month people shouldnt go wild, the sales gap in the US is what matters.

Only to console warriors.
 
OP seems to have taken the "If you're not first, you're last!" business model.

Seriously. My favorite platforms are second and distant third place consoles and computers. If anything, the things done in the process of competing against the dominant positions has produced some of the very best software and best values in video game history. Nothing wrong with not being first, unless you're some kind of dipshit fanboy, I guess.
 
Man, reading this board could make you believe the Xbox One is hanging out with the Wii U, Vita and Dreamcast in failure-land. I have no plans of buying an Xbox One until Phantom Dust, but jesus. The FUD has crept into literally every topic, spawns a 200+ discussion thread every week, and often makes me wonder about what the hell is going on through many posters' minds.

Looking at Microsoft's initial goals of taking over the living room and making the Bone an entertainment lifestyle product... They did fail spectacularly. Now they are busy playing catch up with Sony and far from reaching any new audiences. Just my subjective analysis of course but I doubt MS is satisfied with the Xbox division.
 
I think MS should commit to this generation to show goodwill not end it early. They still have a powerful console (relative to last gen, not pc of course). They have the online infrastructure and the business relationships to keep great games coming to their platform. So no, they don't need to bail and piss customers like me off, they need to dig in and keep doing what they're doing.
 
MS might have cash coming out their orifices but shareholders already aren't happy with the entertainment division, another round of huge r & d and launch marketing costs aren't likely to go down well.
 
This is it. Only the fanboys care about who wins. The companies care more about the money. If MS thought they couldn't make money with the XBO, then they would stop selling I immediately.

The company I work for is possibly the #2 or #3 in it's niche industry. Just because we aren't #1 doesn't mean we aren't pulling hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions in profits every year.

Whats this ridiculous statement?
these "fanboys" you speak of are whats
keeping these business going,

who you think were there day 1 paying $550+ games etc for Xbox one? Or $650+games for ps3 it wasnt casual charlie.

These companies love fanboys support, they know first week software/hardware sales are from the main fiends they catter to them at all times, they spread the word to the others to get into certain games to, games casual charlie would never realize exists.
 
how many months has Xbox one won in NPDs since Nov 2013?....

Face it man MS doesnt want that, nobody in a business wants to be selling less and seeing a gap growing. If MS wins a month people shouldnt go wild, the sales gap in the US is what matters.

Especially in a market with significant network effects. If Microsoft could get Windows apps working in a big way on the bone, they might be able to get network effects working in their favor across phone, desktop/laptop, and console, but otherwise..
 
Whats this ridiculous statement?
these "fanboys" you speak of are whats
keeping these business going,

who you think were there day 1 paying $550+ games etc for Xbox one? Or $650+games for ps3 it wasnt casual charlie.

These companies love fanboys support, they know first week software/hardware sales are from the main fiends they catter to them at all times, they spread the word to the others to get into certain games to, games casual charlie would never realize exists.

Speak for yourself. I bought a Xbox One on day 1, and a PS4 a few months after, and I certainly don't consider myself a fanboy of either. I consider myself a gamer who likes new tech.
 
Looking at Microsoft's initial goals of taking over the living room and making the Bone an entertainment lifestyle product... They did fail spectacularly. Now they are busy playing catch up with Sony and far from reaching any new audiences. Just my subjective analysis of course but I doubt MS is satisfied with the Xbox division.

As an entertainment device and a set top box, I'd bet it's still selling much better than the majority of Roku-class devices that are 1/4th the price or less. Living room set top boxes encapsulate more than just consoles. Hell, by my measurement it's selling better than the Apple TV, which most people would mark as a success.

I do wish MS did a lot differently, and I'll have to see how this Windows 10 integration goes, but it seems like most forum posters here are focused on painting it to look like something it's not. They're taking marketing bravado at face value and now that the game has been played, they're ignoring all realistic goals and forecasts and going back to "Well Microsoft PR said they wanted to take over the living rooms of America. America has 112M households and MS only sold 3.5M XBox Ones so its a massive failure! MS Can't be happy!"

Like, of course PR mouths are going to spout that their console is going to kick ass and chew bubblegum. It's how they try to build confidence and WoM. Only difference is it's cute or "Shots fired!!!! PWN" when Sony does it.
 
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On topic, if Microsoft were to cut this generation short in order to put out a future console faster, it would probably make many of those who bought the current console less confident to rush out with their wallets open for the next iteration.

I said it earlier in the thread.. Next console Gen release the Xbox# with a nice powerful processor and a gpu that can be swapped out like the HDs were for the 360, then /mid cycle offer a gpu upgrade for $100-150 and boom there you go.. You then have an instant refresh on a system.

Thoughts on that?
I think this might fragment the market (some games later down the line may not be able to perform on the lower-tier hardware), and it would likely undercut the developer advantage of being able to focus on optimizations for a fixed platform.
 
I said it earlier in the thread.. Next console Gen release the Xbox# with a nice powerful processor and a gpu that can be swapped out like the HDs were for the 360, then /mid cycle offer a gpu upgrade for $100-150 and boom there you go.. You then have an instant refresh on a system.

Thoughts on that?
 
Speak for yourself. I bought a Xbox One on day 1, and a PS4 a few months after, and I certainly don't consider myself a fanboy of either. I consider myself a gamer who likes new tech.

I am saying a casual charlie would never pay
$800 dollars on day 1 on games/console, these gaming companies have a pure fanbase that will spark up their product sales instantly if they release it, you know who that fanbase is.

Same with Apple man, you know casual charlie didnt get the $700 Iphone 6S
he might still be rockin a unlocked Iphone 4 with Tmobile for a while.

As for you, you said it youre a new Tech fanboy, you probably want a $2,500 4K Curve tv and all that casual charlie rockin that 32 inch toshibA for $250.
 
I am saying a casual charlie would never pay
$800 dollars on day 1 on games, these gaming companies have a pure fanbase that will spark up their product sales instantly if they release it.

Same with Apple man, you know casual charlie didnt get the $700 Iphone 6S
he might still be rockin a unlocked Iphone 4 with Tmobile for a while.

Who is this Casual Charlie you speak of, and how do you know so much about his or her spending habits?
 
This thread is ridiculous. Since when is business all about being number 1? There is gonna be only 1 leader in competition but that doesn't mean the rest of the competition should quite. It's all about making money and market share. Xbone is still making money that's why MS still support it. It's like saying Dr.Pepper and MtnDew should quite the market because they can't catch up with Coke.
 
This would work if they patched out all of the capability of the Xbox one to play games, had it only be used as an entertainment console thing, then released an updated version that can still run the Xbox one games.
 
This thread is ridiculous. Since when is business all about being number 1? There is gonna be only 1 leader in competition but that doesn't mean the rest of the competition should quite. It's all about making money and market share. Xbone is still making money that's why MS still support it. It's like saying Dr.Pepper and MtnDew should quite the market because they can't catch up with Coke.

Exactly. You hit the nail right on the head.
 
This thread is ridiculous. Since when is business all about being number 1? There is gonna be only 1 leader in competition but that doesn't mean the rest of the competition should quite. It's all about making money and market share. Xbone is still making money that's why MS still support it. It's like saying Dr.Pepper and MtnDew should quite the market because they can't catch up with Coke.

Its all about numero uno, not sure what planet youre from but realize the fact...all bronze medal winners shot for Gold they didnt start going for Bronze.
 
That would be a bad idea. Microsoft caught a lot of flak for doing that with the OG Xbox and the market generally doesn't respond well with quick turnover consoles, that doesn't even begin to mention the wasted R&D costs. They should worry less about "winning" (do they even care as much as their fans?) and focus more on profitability.

It's a pretty simple question: why is Microsoft even in the business of making consoles?

If you apply this question in the recent term, then this'd be a good question to ask. I'd assume that currently, some folks at Microsoft view the Xbox brand as some money sink sideshow and that they should focus on what does bring in the big bucks. I'd miss the Xbox brand if they discontinued it beyond the XONE in the traditional sense, but I wouldn't be surprised nor blamed them if they did. Being a traditional console maker just isn't a hot commodity in this current era.
 
I would be perfectly happy with a 5 year cycle, but not because Microsoft isn't doing as well as they could be.

Rather it's because cycles longer than that are much too long and fucking suck. 8 years of the same hardware is RIDICULOUS. The RAM situation alone in the PS3 & X360 held back game design in horrible ways forever and stunted the growth of engines and tools. We need much faster hardware refreshes for technological growth.
 
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