ZDnets John Carroll:
To my mind, though, a Microsoft that is first to the price reduction punch is a nightmare scenario for Sony. Though Nintendo might be the current sales leader (trumping both PS3 and XBOX monthly sales), from a competitive standpoint, XBOX 360 is more the direct competitor (at least outside Japan). Both target hard core gamers, and both offer more performance and graphics capability than the lower-cost Nintendo Wii.
An even lower cost XBOX 360 with a larger selection of games and larger installed base is a situation to which Sony will not be able to respond. Sony is limited in how much it can reduce the price of the PS3. They might try, but the higher cost of the PS3 (partly driven by the costs of the mandatory integrated BluRay player) limits their maneuverability. Sony's PlayStation group has been laying people off, and though PS2 still sells well, that isn't sustainable long-term.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
I just noticed it says this at the bottom of the article "John Carroll has delivered his opinion on ZDNet since the last millennium. Since May 2005, he's been a Microsoft employee."
My opinion is if Microsoft did drop its prices Sony would probably be forced to do the same pretty soon which if that happens lower prices for all us gamers would be a great thing so in the end we win!
Yea consumers would win, M$ would most likely win, Sony would end up eating madd $$$$$. They'd be forced to drop their price, when they didn't want to, with no titles still out.
If M$ wanted to kill Sony I think they could right now. Just by dropping the price. Sure they'd eat a lot of losses, but wouldn't it be worth it for them to win this thing?
Do they really have to price drop first?.
Right now 360 is beating PS3. So i think there is no reason to lower its price. Untill the PS3 sales pick up when that happends which the real question is "When" i feel MS will drop the price to make it even harder for those increasing PS3 sales to increase. Games make the console but 1 or 2 games isn't going to sale 10million copies.
another article by MS chatterbox