Microsoft in deep trouble?

Fishy Fingers - 403 days 4 hours ago

Almost thought Bruce had written a negative MS article, but no, he spun it around at the end to belittle Sony (surprising) and Nintendo. Even though Nintendo are destroying both MS/Sony. But that doesn't count because it's not in HD right? Or is it easier to simply ignore the competitor beating you to make you chosen platform seem better?

Is he suggesting that MS may move more toward gaming than concentrate on their falling OS share? Because thats ridiculous, Windows (and corresponding software) is MS cash cow, it's what allows them the opportunity to fund their gaming division.

"Microsoft are in the middle of one of the biggest shifts that any major corporation has ever made. From an IT company that did a bit of gaming to a consumer media company that does a bit of IT." Ummm... No.

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Bruce Everiss - 403 days 3 hours ago

I'm such a dumbass...

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Ilikegames76 - 403 days 3 hours ago

stick to making software, at least you can patch the software.

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el_bandito - 403 days 3 hours ago

" Sony, decided to make so many strategic and tactical mistakes and to basically throw away their market dominance"

How can mistakes be "strategic and tactical"?

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Kushan - 403 days 3 hours ago

"Four of Microsoft's biggest products are under attack. What does this mean for Microsoft and the Xbox 360?"

Simple: Bugger all - it's a completely unrelated market. The only effect it has is reduced profits for Microsoft as a whole, but they're still making shedloads of cash.

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Danja - 403 days 3 hours ago

The thing is..ppl now have alot more choices now than they did back then...

IE is no longer the best browser everyone knows it..Vista was just a compete disaster on a whole different level..

Zune isn't taking off as M$ had hoped...MSN..is just there but no-one uses it...

the Xbox 360 is the only thing that's going really well over at M$ these days , but they're the worlds biggest software publisher so...they'll be fine with a couple of failures and shrinking market share....ppl are just smarter and prefer quality these days..

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tudors - 403 days 3 hours ago

will not remain in business, MS have there fingers in a lot of pies and are smart enough to be aware of the problems they are facing and will always be working on a solution, DLC will be big and there gaming division will survive and do well. There OS and other software problems will need a big overall, it will not be so long before we have OS software/webmail/browser etc built into our TV's, but we will always need security and we will always need a company like Microsoft to be a part of softwares involved in having a good online source with the proper security. Firefox is fantastic but the only reason that Explorer has had all the security issues is because it has been the choice of the hacker, the more main stream Firefox becomes the more likely it is to be hacked, MS are always a target for hackers which makes thing more complicated, as far as the OS is concerned MS need to offer Vista buyers free upgrades to there next windows version.

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ultimolu - 403 days 3 hours ago

Love how this guy manages to throw Sony and Nintendo in the mix when his title states: 'Microsoft in deep trouble'?

What the hell does Nintendo and Sony have to do with the article to begin with? He couldn't go without mentioning those two companies could he...

Sony didn't throw away anything. They were just arrogant in the beginning and are learning things the hard way. They're getting back on track and will continue to do so as time passes by.

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Marceles - 403 days 3 hours ago

bruce and hiphopgamer should join forces

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Mutley416 - 403 days 3 hours ago

M$ in trouble...
With the Global economy the way it is, alot of companies are in trouble.

People are really starting to like there Macs, and Linux-

but XP is still the Gold Standard- Watch to see what happens with Yahoo-
M$ will be fine. Bill can Roll with the Punches!!!

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theEnemy - 403 days 2 hours ago

Bill Gates retiring is a smart move on his side I guess.

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SprayandPreycom - 403 days 2 hours ago

theres a sony in trouble article then 2 hours later theres a microsoft in trouble how peachy when you really think about it were all in trouble. AHHHHHHHHHH

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Jdoki - 403 days 2 hours ago

As Fishy said in the first post - it almost looked like a Bruce article taking a swing at MS!

MS has it's fingers in a lot of pies - that's not going to change. The MS we know now is going to evolve over the next few years - and possibly become a much smaller, leaner and more agile company.

But I'm not entirely sure I agree with Bruce that the entertainment division is going to be a huge part of their continued dominance or success.

The Zune isn't making any impact on the mp3 market.

The 360 has been a big black (red!?) hole for money since inception - and although I can see the long term strategy MS is working towards they have a lot less leverage in this area and I don't see a clear strategy for dominance beyong changing their 'A PC on every desktop' mantra to 'An Xbox in every living room'.

The most worrying thing for MS' entertainment division (in my opinion) is that even though they control the OS market, there's not a lot of synergy between Windows/PC's, Xbox, Zune and so on.

For example. I own both a 360 and PS3 - yet I use my PS3 for streaming media, not the 360. I have no 'fanboy' allegiance to either console, I just want to use the best tool for the job - and the PS3 provides that.

Why are MS not encouraging Zune owners to manage their music libraries on the 360 by providing a class leading music interface and store front on the 360? Why are they not launching accessories that encourage Zune users to dock their Zunes with a 360 to take advatage of the fact that many TV's/360's are hooked up to 5.1 sound systems?

MS need something to distinguish themselves from the competition and really make an impact on the living room, media centre space.

It would seem obvious that considering most people are using Windows, that the 360 would integrate best with this - but it's not the case at all. No one I know with a 360 uses it as a connected media centre device - and those people I know who own both consoles also use the PS3.

This generation MS have proved they can make a good games machine and 'steal' market share. Removing the 'gaming' side of both consoles what does the 360 offer that is better or unique compared to the PS3? That's where MS are losing out. The Next Xbox will need to address all those areas where they are lacking compared to the PS3 and compared to what consumers actually want.

The worrying thing is, by the time the Next Xbox launches (and assuming it adds a lot of value - like web browsing, bigger hard drive, access to 'cloud' computing, better PVR features and so on), Sony may have found they have gained a lot traction in this space because they are already offering many of the features MS is not.

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militant07 - 403 days 1 hour ago

i dont own any share in microsoft.
so i dont care if that dosnt effect xbox360 and i guss its WILL NOT and just fanboys bullshit talks

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titntin - 403 days 1 hour ago

It could be an interesting talking point, but instead of any in depth thought or analysis it degenerates into unproven assertions and the usual b*tching about the competition.

If MS were committed to being a long term player in the entertainment market, they would be concentrating on building and keeping first party studio's for the long run. They actually have enough money to be able to do this. But they have ditched most of their studio's and have no significant presence developing software now - with Blue Box and Rare being the obvious exceptions. I guess none of knows their ultimate long term 'plan', but ditching software dev houses the way they have in the last couple of years is NOT a prelude to seeking dominance in this market.

As for increasing market share - if you step back a bit, that doesn't appear to be the case. The 360, fine and succesful as it is, has only shifted as many units as the first xbox to date. Compare this with how much the market has grown (there are so many more people who now own game systems) and you can see that as a percentage of a much bigger market, their current market share is actually smaller. Of course sales are strong, partiularly after the recent price slashing, so the share continues to rise, but it can't be claimed to be a 'qunatum shift' in market share, unlike the WII which has stolen the show.

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mirroredderorrim - 403 days ago

IMO, Vistas failure is everyone's gain, the competition.

I am wondering if Bruceongames was a man constructed from within the bowels of Fortess Von Microsoft.

Because you're spinning me right-round-baby!

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somekindofmike - 402 days 23 hours ago

I personally belief what Microsoft need to do is start from scratch with Windows. What I don't mean is forget everything they've done already. What I mean build the new version of Windows from scratch incorporating things which work from older versions of windows (like Direct X & the user interface) but just start with a clean slate. No Copy and Pasting lines of code from old versions windows.

This would hopefully result in a version of windows which does all the things we are familiarly with, but is written with as few a lines of code as possible. hopefully resulting in few a problems as possible and also resulting in a less resource hungry OS.

(I am of course referring to the rummours that Windows Vista is just patched code from XP, XP patched code from ME, ME patched Code from 98, 98 patched code from 95)

I have heard rumours before that Microsoft have deals with hardware manufacturers to make each version of Windows more Resource hungry than the last forcing the Customer to purchase a new system each time they want to upgrade to a new OS. I take this with a pinch of salt, and think it is just lazy developing on MS behalf. but it does make you think when if I were to choose to upgrade from OS X Tiger to OS X Leopard on my Mac, I am meant to see a performance boast because Leopard has been coded to better make use of the hardware, because they have had "X" number of years to get use to the hardware inside the machine and know how to code for it better now then when they wrote the old OS (or something like that).

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alexM - 403 days 3 hours ago

OMG people are approving articles from that site again.

everyone please report it as SPAM

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gamfreak - 403 days 3 hours ago

already in deep SH*T to have got involved in the gaming console since the XBOX era and not to mention now, nothing is gotta save them but themselves. Hope they will learn a lesson and not to treat the BOTS as a moron. BOTS FTW.

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snoopgg - 403 days 3 hours ago

was a major flop. They need to get thier heads out of their arses!!!! Hey Bill wake up and smell the piss, your products suck ass!!!!

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heyheyhey - 403 days 2 hours ago

Microsoft don't make as much money as Nintendo in the gaming market... not even close

if they lost IT marketshare, that would be hugely detrimental... Microsoft can't survive on gaming alone, if they were to do that- they would have to lay off most of their staff and shrink their company significantly

while they still have a monopoly in IT.... people are starting to see the advantages of the alternatives.... Firefox is vastly superior to IE, who the hell uses MSN as a search engine? and freeware software negates the need to use any MS software like Word and Excel

Vista is a massive failure too.... if Windows 7 fails on a similar level... Microsoft could be in for some dark times

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DarkSniper - 403 days 1 hour ago

Microsoft has not returned to their software dominance like they achieved in the 90's. With far more superior products in every category, Microsoft has clearly gone the way of the dinosaur. Xbox 360 is an endangered product as hardware failures shoot through the roof with each and every dying console every hour. Dark Sniper can truthfully state that when it comes to quality, Microsoft will never be synonymous with that word.

As this generation of technology moves forward, it's time to send Microsoft it's final goodbye as the consumers have made a choice to abolish all Microsoft products to move forward to much greener pastures (pun very much intended) with software and hardware that is reliable, easy to use, and functional.

From the heartfelt words of Dark Sniper, RIP Microsoft. Rest In Piss.

$niper

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timmyrulz - 403 days 1 hour ago

To all those small minded juveniles who thinks MS been in trouble is a good thing need to wake up and smell their morning breaths, MS have hundreds and thousands of employees, contractors and subcontractors. Less money for MS means less money for all of these people, and that means less money for the people connected to them, so on and so forth

Love them or hate them, for the worlds economy its important that these giant corporations make money otherwise everyone loses out

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xaviertooth - 403 days ago

360 which is almost a freebie now is on a lifeline! next stop will be another pricedrop plus a free game.

so part of microsoft as a whole is in very very deep trouble!

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Magic_The_Celt - 402 days 23 hours ago

I got no problem with Microsoft, just the division that does the 360

even though i own a 360, im not going to lie and not point out its obviously a crappy piece of hardware cheaply made.

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DFresh - 402 days 21 hours ago

In a way that's kinda true.
Most of the music player market is owned by Apple w/ the iPod.
Practically all of the music production is owned by Sony.
Ninety Percent of the movie industry and 100% of the movie production industry is owned by Sony.
Sony had created DVD even now they still own a good 70% of all movies being produced on a disc and they own the new format Blu-ray.
Sony created CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray CD, etc.
I'm glad to see Microsoft in a industry they're good at which is video games but even then that won't last forever since Sony is catching up real fast w/ the Playstation 3 and there's a price cut in 2009 so Sony might just overtake the 360.
The one spot I can stay Microsoft will be safe in are things like Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point because all computers have it even Apple uses Word and Excel.
So, we'll see what goes on in the future but the only thing going on for them entertainment wise right now is the Xbox 360 and some PC gaming.

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sak500 - 402 days 21 hours ago

SONY is in even bigger trouble.

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karlostomy - 402 days 21 hours ago

It means Bruceongames is looking for hits on his blog.

You are a pathetic old loser marketeer, bruce.

Stop spongeing hits off the internet and
Please, please... oh please get a real job!!!

For Fvcks sake!

Bruce, you are lower than Nasim!

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eagle21 - 402 days 20 hours ago

LBP wipes the floor with 360's underdelivered game trash.

LBP > any game on RROD box. Bots continue to support TRASH and pretend to ignore SUPERIOR GAMES only on PS3.

botz: Go play 2 huMan, fLaBle, NalO, and gEErZ over again. You had nothing in 08' and crap in 09'. :)

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smurfie4 - 402 days 17 hours ago

Ironically, I'm using firefox right now. lol. I still use IE but it has a tendency to lock up a lot.

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jack who - 402 days 15 hours ago

good

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captainjy - 402 days 14 hours ago

N4G is garbage. Boot me!

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cactuschef - 402 days 7 hours ago

Whats with all these stories implying that Xbox/Ps3 are in trouble? First with HipHop gamer with his show titled, 2009 : Last Chance For Sony?, now its Microsoft in deep trouble.

I was under the impression that Xbox and PS3 are both doing quite well. Will all these pessimistic articles I would assumes that Nintendo will be the only ones left.

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