i hope xbox makes it

[googlefest1]

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/...2872320,00.html

ive also seen a japanese company refusing to release a rpg on the xbox because of its status there and instead will release it on PC -- why not both

i realy want to get one but i dont want it to turn out to be a bad purchas

what do you guys think of the xbox hybrid thing that was mentioned in that short article

 

[cww80]

This is old news on a tired subject ??? Hell, i posted that very same link on another thread...

 

[ExCyber]

i realy want to get one but i dont want it to turn out to be a bad purchas

Microsoft isn't going away. Everyone familiar with the industry knew that MS was bleeding money like mad on the Xbox launch, including MS. They're doing this intentionally to attempt to grab some sizable portion of the market. That's how the console market works - investment first, profit later (hopefully over the course of 5 years or so, and I wouldn't be surprised if MS is shooting for longer). Of course, most console companies don't dump that much money into their platform, but that's because they can't afford it.

ive also seen a japanese company refusing to release a rpg on the xbox because of its status there and instead will release it on PC -- why not both

Because publishing for a game console is a pain in the ass. On PC, they don't have to get Microsoft's explicit approval for anything, don't have to pay per-unit royalties or publishing-related license fees to MS (on top of whatever they might be paying for middleware), don't necessarily have to ship a bug-free product at launch, and can potentially sell more units. If additionally publishing on Xbox would only provide minimal sales, it's entirely likely that they wouldn't want to go to the trouble.

what do you guys think of the xbox hybrid thing that was mentioned in that short article

This is kind of interesting. I'm almost expecting Microsoft to get even more ballsy. Here's what I imagine - not that I really expect this, but it seems vaguely plausible: in two to three years (read: the moment they sense PS2's market presence wavering), MS axes the Xbox and UltimateTV and begins exclusively selling UltimateTV+Xbox units (stripped down ones that don't require DirecTV) at the same price. Even if people buying this unit for one purpose aren't initially interested in the other, it's a lot easier for someone to start paying for it if they don't have to go out and buy another $200 unit. This means that MS gets to integrate manufacturing of the two product lines and invest less money to get a "deeper" user base, in the sense that there's now more stuff that each UTV+Xbox owner can pay MS for on a regular basis.

Was that wacky or what?

 

[googlefest1]

im sorry cww80 this was news to me and its not a tired subject for me -- i knew they were loosing money but not that much

also i haven't seen your thread and 80% of the time the links don't work for me

i had the same feeling excyber, before i saw an actual figure for the loss and figures for how bad the xbox is doing world wide (from a recent post)

i didn't think they were doing that bad since the videogame retailer i shop at tells customers that xbox is king in the US, but world wide PS2 is

i don't realy like microsoft but ive been wating for a system like this to come out and to see it end up in the craper before i get some life out of it makes me uncomfortable

also i thought those TiVo things were doing badly on the market - personaly i dont like the idea -- but i gues what they are trying to do is to get rid of the vcr -- especialy because of the copyright violating . so i gues a few years from now it would be a good idea

hey did ne1 happen to read anything about the new dvd player they want to put out ( blue laser) -- which the movie industry is trying to push for so they can try a new copy protection scheme -- also it would not be compatible with current dvd movies -- the article i read said the movie idustrly wants it asap (basicaly fucking over everyone that has current dvds)

 

[cww80]

im sorry cww80 this was news to me and its not a tired subject for me -- i knew they were loosing money but not that much

Thats fine, you should go back about 11 pages or so, and find the, "finally got it thread"

i didn't think they were doing that bad since the videogame retailer i shop at tells customers that xbox is king in the US, but world wide PS2 is

whoa, i dont know where you get your info from, but your source(s) are on crack!PS2 is the undisputed leader worldwide, and Sony continues to move more hardware than Nintendo & M$ combined...

 

[Zero 9]

Microsoft has always expected to lose big money on the Xbox, infact, they lose over $100 on each one sold. But, in fact, they don't care, they are doing it on purpose. $750 million is nothing to Microsoft anyway.

 

[googlefest1]

before i started to look on the internet i just listened to the conversations at the video game store i shop at

thats what they were telling people that were interested in buying a system but couldnt decide which

but now i see all the news about it -- when i tried to look up if there were any plans for japanese rpgs on the xbox

i knew it was 100$ per unit but i didnt realise that it would equate to such a loss

 

[ExCyber]

It's $100 per unit, plus a $500,000,000 (IIRC) marketing campaign, plus developer manpower costs, plus whatever it cost to buy Bungie, plus whatever other expenses that are individually too small to pay attention to...

edit: I guess the $500,000,000 was supposed to include everything for the first 18 months, but at that time the PS2 price drop may not have been accounted for, which would probably explain a significant chunk of the difference.