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Xbox had to spend millions to compete with a dominant PlayStation

t_wilson01

Member
Honestly, if you are Microsoft, with the resources they had/have... it really is that simple.

MS came in in 2001, and they had Bungie... they even got GTA4 exclusive content at some point, and had Epic making games for them and being one of their biggest third-party partners.

Then look at every studio Sony has acquired since, every partnership made, or the fact that MS had COD marketing rights before Sony and let go of that license because they felt Halo was better.

MS isnt where they are now because they couldn't have competed, or even beat Sony at every game Sony tried to pull. MS are where they are now because they made bad decisions after bad decisions. Over and over again.
This is clear as day, yet some people somehow fail to see it or simply don't want to because of reasons.

Microsoft had success with the 360 and what did they do? They basically gave up on the system during the end of that generation. They were too busy brainstorming ways to screw gamers with all the policies and restrictions being introduced with the Xbox One.
 

JackMcGunns

Member
So what? Now they spend billions to take away content from the competition.


Sony spent billions on Bungie, a former internal studio of MS, they also spent billions on Insomniac, now Xbox will never get a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Combined acquisitions over the years is as big, if not bigger than Activision.

Pot meet Kettle. MS having deeper pockets doesn't make the situation more evil.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I think its not true that people will blindly buy hardware. Look at the PS3 launch. Sony struggled for years. MS actually managed to beat them in some key markets. Its just that MS managed to succeed the 360 with the shitty Xbox One. Or rather they misread the market. They were unto something with 360, then chased the motion control fad but kinda went all in on it alienating their userbase. Then they continued forcefeeding it with the Xbox One, making this worse system more expensive as well.

MS also kinda failed to build a software empire. They banked on short term third party deals, pretty much how Sony started out with the PS1. But instead of purchasing and expanding studios like Sony did they let developers like Bungie and Bizarre go and it seems they never attempted to secure the likes of BioWare despite their handful of Xbox exclusives for a good while.

MS should look at themselves.
 

X-Wing

Member
Sony spent billions on Bungie, a former internal studio of MS, they also spent billions on Insomniac, now Xbox will never get a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Combined acquisitions over the years is as big, if not bigger than Activision.

Pot meet Kettle. MS having deeper pockets doesn't make the situation more evil.

Yeah, both of those are wrong.
Insomniac was bought for 229M USD.
Bungie keeps releasing multiplatform games.
 

AngelMuffin

Member
'Bricks', eh? Well, that's an ironic headline given the date. I remember those days and my 360 bricked itself twice. I had to send off for, admittedly free, repairs each time. After the 3rd red ring of death (RRoD) I threw in the towel and bought the OG PS3; that thing was built, and almost weighed, like a tank. Lasted, without fault, all the way until 2014 when I sold it off to buy a PS4.
Should have just wrapped the console with a towel for 20 minutes, turn off and then reboot. 😂

Amazingly, I’ve owned 7 different 360s over the years, to include a launch console, and never has the RRoD.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
CoD went to Sony because console sales DRASTICALLY shifted in Sony's favor at that point. MS felt that CoD was too tied to the Xbox brand that it would have minimal impact and the cost was likely too high. I can't say MS made the right or wrong decision to let CoD marketing get away, but it was definitely a good move for Sony.
Not true... sony got the COD dea in 2013. At a time when the 8th generation had just started. Xbox was the home of COD to that point. XB Live was the defacto way to play online games on consoles. MS could have easily retained that COD deal (we sure as hell can't say they lost it because they got outbid by Sony), they were in a position of power at that time. They let it go because as you said, they felt it wouldn't matter. That was just one of many bad decisions they made.

And ps, no one should ever ta about costs being too high when it comes to MS and everything they have done so far with the Xbox. They just spent $70B buying COD for crying out loud. How much do you think a marketing deal would have cost them back then? This is even more ridiculous when you consider how exactly those deals work. Contrary to what people think, not a lot of money really changes hands.
 

JackMcGunns

Member
Yeah, both of those are wrong.
Insomniac was bought for 229M USD.
Bungie keeps releasing multiplatform games.

Not wrong.

Your comment: "So what? Now they spend billions to keep content away from the competition"

Has Sony spent billions on studio acquisitions and exclusive contracts to keep content away from the competition? ✅

Have a nice day!
 
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X-Wing

Member
Lol Xbox have Little Dick Syndrome so bad, constantly have to make out like they are hard done by, that they’re the underdog.
You NEVER hear Playstation or Nintendo whinge the way Xbox and its executives do, they truly are pathetic.

Well, they are used to always having it their way by just throwing money at it.
 

Esppiral

Member
Isn't the thread title a bit misleading? The Xbox was way more powerful than the PS2, so it makes no sense to demand parity, except if the meant parity in release dates, why is this bad? Lol
 
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Gambit2483

Member
Isn't the thread title a bit misleading? The Xbox was way more powerful than the PS2, so it makes no sense to demand parity, except if the meant parity in release dates, why is this bad? Lol
Yea, this is referring to parity with developer support and game releases, not parity regarding hardware capabilities. Kinda misleading considering the current topic of "parity".
 

Unknown?

Member
Sony spent billions on Bungie, a former internal studio of MS, they also spent billions on Insomniac, now Xbox will never get a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Combined acquisitions over the years is as big, if not bigger than Activision.

Pot meet Kettle. MS having deeper pockets doesn't make the situation more evil.
All of their acquisitions are no where near the size of Activision. Try again.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
7wwwc5.jpg
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year

Jup just stick you head in the ground.

Yeah, both of those are wrong.
Insomniac was bought for 229M USD.
Bungie keeps releasing multiplatform games.

Right, haha are these people above this dumb? They really think Insomniac and Bungie is bigger then ABK :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: . Well if that was the case for that price, them Sony had a AMAZING deal. I mean 250 million for Insomniac and their ouput is world class and more interesting then whatever ABK has.

I mean Xbox took away Halo from Mac, but yeah let them keep crying...

Lol Xbox have Little Dick Syndrome so bad, constantly have to make out like they are hard done by, that they’re the underdog.
You NEVER hear Playstation or Nintendo whinge the way Xbox and its executives do, they truly are pathetic.

Jup, none of the PS or Nintendo executives do these 7 days a week 24 hours interview with a lot of bullshit coming out of them. Since the start of Bethesda buyout, they try themselves to look like some indie underdog studio. It pretty weird how they are constantly cry in the media. Now it's some ex executive, the other moment it's Phil and his big mouth again.
 
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Sony spent billions on Bungie, a former internal studio of MS, they also spent billions on Insomniac, now Xbox will never get a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Combined acquisitions over the years is as big, if not bigger than Activision.

Pot meet Kettle. MS having deeper pockets doesn't make the situation more evil.
Bungie are Multiplatform. Insomniac released one Xbox exclusive in their decades of existence - how many PlayStation ones?

What about DoubleFine?
What about Ninja Theory?
What about Obsidian?
What about Bethesda?
What about Compulsion?

They’ve all made PlayStation games but won’t any longer.

The facts are that Microsoft are actively buying multiplat developers, publishers and IP to squeeze Sony, or control the market more and dictate terms.

Which has been more harmful?
 

Unknown?

Member
Bungie are Multiplatform. Insomniac released one Xbox exclusive in their decades of existence - how many PlayStation ones?

What about DoubleFine?
What about Ninja Theory?
What about Obsidian?
What about Bethesda?
What about Compulsion?

They’ve all made PlayStation games but won’t any longer.

The facts are that Microsoft are actively buying multiplat developers, publishers and IP to squeeze Sony, or control the market more and dictate terms.

Which has been more harmful?
And we see how terrible the operating system market is under their control.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
There was,
Then show me. I watched the whole documentary, where did they say they have to delete there competion or they will fail?
but in other words. But they clearly wanted to be the market leader and dominating the console living space. YET, the ABK trail has RECONFIRMED their purpose.
So, there was none. For your information, every platform holder (and that includes Sega and Nintendo back then) would love if their competition went bankrupt, maybe not current Nintendo. They are all competing.

But since you originally insisted that Xbox was established only for removing their competition (otherwise it would be considered a failure) and it was mentioned in the documentary, maybe you can properly timestamp where in the documentary they made that statement?
I mean that was the case based on their documentary, now you failed.
Well, you must have seen the documentary right? The purpose of the Xbox was to delete Sony's machine from the living room.
Common Snake29 Snake29 , where was this in the documentary?
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Then show me. I watched the whole documentary, where did they say they have to delete there competion or they will fail?

So, there was none. For your information, every platform holder (and that includes Sega and Nintendo back then) would love if their competition went bankrupt, maybe not current Nintendo. They are all competing.

But since you originally insisted that Xbox was established only for removing their competition (otherwise it would be considered a failure) and it was mentioned in the documentary, maybe you can properly timestamp where in the documentary they made that statement?


Common Snake29 Snake29 , where was this in the documentary?

However, we think it's a bit of a stretch to say they've never been competitors. Microsoft got into the console business to essentially prevent Sony from 'dominating the living room', and there's always been some rivalry there.


The main reason was to stop Sony. You see, Sony and Microsoft…they never had a very friendly relationship.

Common Snake29 Snake29 Snake29 Snake29 , where was this in the documentary?

The moment they were pitching the Xbox and saw that Sony was dominating the living space.
 
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Mr Moose

Member
Sony spent billions on Bungie, a former internal studio of MS, they also spent billions on Insomniac, now Xbox will never get a sequel to Sunset Overdrive. Combined acquisitions over the years is as big, if not bigger than Activision.

Pot meet Kettle. MS having deeper pockets doesn't make the situation more evil.
Sunset Overdrive bombed, it was never getting a sequel.
Bungie is making multiplats that will be on Xbox.
Wind your arms back in, Stretch Armstrong.
 

Gojiira

Member
Sunset Overdrive bombed, it was never getting a sequel.
Bungie is making multiplats that will be on Xbox.
Wind your arms back in, Stretch Armstrong.
Ironically Sony owns the Sunset Overdrive ip, came with Insomniac. One day it will get a rerelease for sure. Hilarious if it was a smash hit on PS
 

Gaelyon

Gold Member
It's hard to feel bad for trillons dollars company Microsoft who try to stay relevant in the video game industry by spending dozens of billions purchasing long time multi platform publishers. It fail again and again to manage its growing studios teams and it's outclassed by both Sony and Nintendo. But it was never been a money problem...
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
So, you still won't link anything from that documentary as you initially claimed?
However, we think it's a bit of a stretch to say they've never been competitors. Microsoft got into the console business to essentially prevent Sony from 'dominating the living room', and there's always been some rivalry there.
The main reason was to stop Sony. You see, Sony and Microsoft…they never had a very friendly relationship, okay?
Now, how is that same as
The purpose of the Xbox was to delete Sony's machine from the living room.

THEY FAILED.
In fact, they are deleting themselves atm.
They made Xbox to compete in the living room. Where did they state they will FAIL unless their competition Sega'd?
It was all about competing in the living room, where they did not have a Windows machine.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
It's hard to feel bad for trillons dollars company Microsoft who try to stay relevant in the video game industry by spending dozens of billions purchasing long time multi platform publishers. It fail again and again to manage its growing studios teams and it's outclassed by both Sony and Nintendo. But it was never been a money problem...
Lets not kid ourselves. If it was anyone else other than Microsoft, and entered the console market in 2000, they would not have succeeded. Saying Microsoft did not put effort is just wrong, if you think anyone can just enter this market and easily compete. Tencent is still trying to make their own console. There were so many companies that tried to enter the console market in the 90s and early 2000s.
 
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Brucey

Member
Jup just stick you head in the ground.



Right, haha are these people above this dumb? They really think Insomniac and Bungie is bigger then ABK :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: . Well if that was the case for that price, them Sony had a AMAZING deal. I mean 250 million for Insomniac and their ouput is world class and more interesting then whatever ABK has.

I mean Xbox took away Halo from Mac, but yeah let them keep crying...



Jup, none of the PS or Nintendo executives do these 7 days a week 24 hours interview with a lot of bullshit coming out of them. Since the start of Bethesda buyout, they try themselves to look like some indie underdog studio. It pretty weird how they are constantly cry in the media. Now it's some ex executive, the other moment it's Phil and his big mouth again.
Not sure if the pity party they are throwing for themselves is a deliberate move until Activision acquisition approval decision is finally made or a more organic thing
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
So, you still won't link anything from that documentary as you initially claimed?


Now, how is that same as

They made Xbox to compete in the living room. Where did they state they will FAIL unless their competition Sega'd?
It was all about competing in the living room, where they did not have a Windows machine.

It's the same. They didn't want Sony to have the living room. The words "compete" doesn't mean anything. They wanted to stop Sony and in the documentary, they said they didn't like it that Sony was dominating.

Now the whole ABK trail showed again what Microsoft wanted to do.
 
Omg MS had to travel the world to convince and to pay developers and publishers to release games for an entire new eco-system that hadn't been able to prove itself and didn't have a single console released yet? I'm shocked! SHOCKED!

Specially back when Sega was leaving the industry and Nintendo was selling like 20M consoles per generation. Sony didn't even have to do much, lmao.

Sony also had to do that job from 1993/1996 when the first Playstation started. They didn't just have things handed to them because they were Sony. They were also newbies.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
I think its not true that people will blindly buy hardware. Look at the PS3 launch. Sony struggled for years. MS actually managed to beat them in some key markets. Its just that MS managed to succeed the 360 with the shitty Xbox One. Or rather they misread the market. They were unto something with 360, then chased the motion control fad but kinda went all in on it alienating their userbase. Then they continued forcefeeding it with the Xbox One, making this worse system more expensive as well.

MS also kinda failed to build a software empire. They banked on short term third party deals, pretty much how Sony started out with the PS1. But instead of purchasing and expanding studios like Sony did they let developers like Bungie and Bizarre go and it seems they never attempted to secure the likes of BioWare despite their handful of Xbox exclusives for a good while.

MS should look at themselves.
This is exactly right, that’s how markets work. Make the better product, and people will purchase.

Microsoft have also done a piss poor job this gen of marketing. Now it’s more expensive to compete. I don’t know if they can turn it around this gen the way SNY did with the PS3, but they need to start pumping out software, and fast.
 

mrcroket

Member
Bungie are Multiplatform. Insomniac released one Xbox exclusive in their decades of existence - how many PlayStation ones?

What about DoubleFine?
What about Ninja Theory?
What about Obsidian?
What about Bethesda?
What about Compulsion?

They’ve all made PlayStation games but won’t any longer.

The facts are that Microsoft are actively buying multiplat developers, publishers and IP to squeeze Sony, or control the market more and dictate terms.

Which has been more harmful?
Bend Studio (acquired by sony in 2000)
Bluepoint Games (acquired by sony in 2021)
Bungie (acquired by sony in in 2022)
Haven Studios (acquired by sony in 2023)
Housemarque (acquired by sony in 2021)
Insomniac Games (acquired by sony in 2019)
Media Molecule (acquired by sony in 2010)
Naughty Dog (acquired by sony in 2001)
Savage Game Studios (acquired by sony in 2022)
Sucker Punch Productions (acquired by sony in 2011)

Clearly it's only microsoft who buys studios... Some of you are living in a bubble of amazing self-delusion.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
It's true. It's like Apple fans. It takes years to nurture that kind of fandom. Props to them. Imagine trying to sell an android phone to an apple fan.

But that fandom only happens due to customers enjoying the goods and services from Playstation and Apple. All props to them.

But your friends will all know, and think lesser of you for it

Then I don't need those friends if they think less of me for having an Android phone that allows open customizations.

Well, they are used to always having it their way by just throwing money at it.

This is a lie. Both Sony and Nintendo have secured big fanbases due to their good planning and hardware\software solutions. The foundation of what they do isn't just to throw money at a problem. They engineer their way out of their issues.
 

X-Wing

Member
This is a lie. Both Sony and Nintendo have secured big fanbases due to their good planning and hardware\software solutions. The foundation of what they do isn't just to throw money at a problem. They engineer their way out of their issues.

Relax, son. Was talking about Microsoft.
 

Gaelyon

Gold Member
Lets not kid ourselves. If it was anyone else other than Microsoft, and entered the console market in 2000, they would not have succeeded. Saying Microsoft did not put effort is just wrong, if you think anyone can just enter this market and easily compete. Tencent is still trying to make their own console. There were so many companies that tried to enter the console market in the 90s and early 2000s.
I never said it didn't require tons of money. I'm saying Microsoft (and Google, and Amazon) have more money than they ever need to compete. But they struggle for other reasons. Money is absolutely necessary but in itself doesn't solve the problem. Why Nintendo stay relevant with a fraction of MS budget ? Because of creativity, studio management, high standard of quality and marketing. You can do nothing of that without money, but money do nothing by itself.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Developers being in Sony's pocket is bad for industry. As of now, Sony isn't a sort of company that can ensure industry growth.

Look at what happened in Japan. Developers are clueless as to what sells well in Japan and rest of the world.
I agree, because clearly MS knows how to foster growth or how to nurture internal studios to create great games. Wait a sec...
 

K2D

Banned
"Xbox had to spend millions to secure parity with PlayStation"

You know what.. I don't have an issue with this.. The money went straight to the developers.

If the adoption rate is say 1:4 between Xbox and PS, and the extra sales don't cover the extra dev cost of porting to Xbox, why even go through the trouble?

There hasn't been anything stopping MS from building up their existing studios or opening up new ones. Instead we have the wealthiest platform vacuuming up existing publishers that would have thrived even without being bought by MS.

Remember Xbox had a clause that games had to release day and date on Xbox?

This is just Microsoft brass' usual crying to the media and fanbase for sympathy points and "virtue" ammunition - for the acquisitions they've been going through.
 
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