Xbox 360 to have a "long run" says Microsoft

SausageKing - 603 days 19 hours ago

Microsoft simply doesn't have the exclusive first party studio lineup for people to continue buying 360s much longer. And it is years too late to start to build up a strong first party array for Microsoft.

The 360 hardware STILL isn't profitable with the online charges and other services keeping the division out of the red. And Microsoft has given no timeline for when they think they will start to break even on the 360 hardware according the most recent conference call.

A gimped smaller than last gen disc format
The smallest first party developer lineup by a huge margin compared to Nintendo and Sony
Approaching three years on the market and they still can't even break even on the hardware costs
RRoD still plagues the system
7 billion dollars in losses racked up since the start of the Xbox project

That's not a viable long term business model in the console market. Microsoft really needs to just drop their half-assed attempts at console hardware and focus on PC gaming. Continue to bring the good parts of the Xbox to Vista and put all this money they are wasting on their futile attempts in the console market to making PC gaming better.

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pharmd - 603 days 19 hours ago

yeah, what kind of company wouldnt say that? i think all devs plan on a long run for all consoles otherwise why would they make them?

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kevoncox - 603 days 18 hours ago

Saugue king-
What are you talking about? MS has reduced the price of the 360 by $50 in two and a half years. Do you really think they aren't turning a profit on the hardware? Remember the 3600 wast costing MS less than 100.00 per console sold at luanch! Do you think that wih the price of the hardware only being reduced 50.00 in 200 years that MS isn't making a profit? Look at the Elite at 450.00 Ms is making close to 150.00 per console sold. HDD is about anoher 100 dollars on HDD sold.
Next time sop bing a d*ckridding fanboy and talk about crap you know.

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Hatchetforce - 603 days 18 hours ago

They have forseen what is coming and they are trying to stem the blood flow. Why? Simple.

They already know what tomorrow's NPD figures are going to say. Bad news for the 360.

Besides that whole Xbox lifespan discussion by them is a bunch of tripe. They said the same thing about the first Xbox and look how that was forgotten.

And Kevincox it is called an act of the desperate. MS still has debts from the first Xbox. They also coupghed up a billion dollars to extend the warranties to 3 years on the 360 and that wasn't enough cash. You need to read more. Just because a company cuts prices doesn't mean they are making a profit.

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John Madden - 603 days 15 hours ago

I wonder if they are going to extend the 3 year warranty. Currently the hardware failure rate is still not yet acceptable.

@ kevoncox and bladestar Microsoft has reported they have positive revenue but we all know that little revenue they made does not cover the losses they have accumuated. And how can you not know what the losses the xbox 1 amounted because that has been in the news before. It's known the xbox 1 put the MS gaming division to $4 billion in debt. The 360 has been profitable for 2 quarters the quarter before Halo 3 and the quarter of Halo 3, but as I said before that does not cover the losses such as paying Take 2, xbox 1 debts, and faulty hardware costs. So in short 360 nor the xbox brand is profitable. Stop trying to spin things.

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Ureval - 603 days 19 hours ago

I agree with you, but it kinda looks like Xbox is doing exactly that with this years line up. Too Human and Fable for example.

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The Round Peg - 603 days 19 hours ago

Too much damage has already been done on that title. And I've looked at all the videos. Too Human really does NOT look good.

Yeah, Fable 2, I give you that much. But seriously, Microsoft should have TWICE as many titles than they have now for this year. For every big IP Sony planned for the PS3 this year, (like MGS4 and Little Big Planet,) Microsoft should have TWO hot IPs to counter it.

Microsoft has just been very stingy and conservative on the money it spends on creating and acquiring IPs, and that's a recipe for losing in this generation.

Microsoft could afford to drop $45 billion to buy Yahoo. Surely it can drop a couple billions to give its gamers some more hot new IPs and totally decimate the PS3.

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Atomic - 603 days 18 hours ago

let me say that you have no idea how investment works
dropping 2 billion buying exclusives left and right doesn't mean that they will recoup the money spent , without mentioning that this approach is counter productive and could easily ruin innovation and discourage new IPs

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ReBurn - 603 days 18 hours ago

The 360 is a great machine with a great lineup of games. I own neither Gears of War nor Halo and I still have many great games to play. I think that Microsoft Game Studios has done a great job of releasing great games since the console released.

It's too early to count anyone out yet.

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dxmnecro - 603 days 19 hours ago

I agree. The playstation 2 is a perfect example of how long a console last.

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Tmac - 603 days 20 hours ago

Lol, easy...

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Breakfast - 603 days 20 hours ago

Whats with spelling 'fail' as 'phail'...are you trying to be cool?

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AzzidReign - 603 days 20 hours ago

I have no desire to impress you or anyone else on this site. It had nothing to do with being cool or acting cool over the internet. Why act like a d!ck head over the internet?

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Breakfast - 603 days 20 hours ago

It had nothing to do with being a d!ck or acting like a d!ck over the internet....lol....didnt think youd get so upset.

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cmrbe - 603 days 19 hours ago

Don't be a spelling nazi or whatever they call them. Just remember that not everyone posting on this site has English as their first lanuage. I am one of them.

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Zeevious - 603 days 18 hours ago

Once the new smaller chips are in production in August/fall it should finally have THAT problem behind it. (It that must not be named...)

I could see them supporting the 360 long-term. It's profitable once in the normal range of anticipated repairs and mean time between failures, under 5%.

With the new chip and motherboard revisions, increased reliability and lower costs, they could get to the mass adoption price of $200 faster than any other platform.

Remember that Microsoft is following the same 3-Version road to dominance that has worked so well in their software division.

Word 1.0 - ARRggghhhh!!!! The pain! THE PAIN...just typing that!!! ARGGGHHHH!

Word 2.0 - Works OK, Some pain, no so bad with extra fiber and some Tumms.

Word 3.0 - By this time Wordperfect, and just about every other wordprocessor had been killed off...dead.

This is the middle step.

If we reach a point and cost level for mass-market appeal, even another hardware crisis wouldn't hurt bad enough to stop, before following through to the third part of the plan.

This doesn't rule out similarly great sales of a $299 or lower PS3. Competition is good, it makes ALL the systems better!

I'm glad they've stated they are going to stick with the 360 through 2013. I was a little concerned that the losses where too great, and we'd have another abandoned brick. (and I don't mean the powerbrick...lol)

The smartest step for step 3 is a 360-compatible core, with full backward compatibility, just 8 times the processing power.
Developers would already know the system, and just be able to include 8 times the textures, sounds, playability, and for GODS sake YES...STORAGE this time...a nice flashdrive at least!

That I'd like to see...I'm glad by sticking it out till at least 2013, Microsoft would too.

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Tmac - 603 days 19 hours ago

Looser? When your trying to criticize some one, make sure you spell the noun properly.

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Varsarus - 603 days 19 hours ago

They can't fix it

HAHAHAHAHA

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juuken - 603 days 18 hours ago

And once again, 4D talks jibberish.
You have nothing to back that jibberish with, do you?

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