What we heard: There's a certain segment of the gaming culture that loves nothing more than to dig into sales figures, and few sales figures have been speculated on as much as the holiday hardware sales now that all three next-generation consoles have arrived on the market. While the industry-tracking NPD group announced its hardware tallies for the Wii and PlayStation 3's debut month of November, December was the first full month the consoles went head-to-head on shelves.
So when a GamesIndustry.biz article surfaced offering preliminary NPD hardware figures from November through Christmas, people took note. The Xbox 360 reportedly won the holiday hardware race with 2 million sold, with the Wii moving 1.8 million units, and the PS3 a distant third with 750,000 systems sold.
However, the trade site was attributing the numbers to a video on CNBC.com that first aired December 29 and which can't be viewed unless visitors register an account and give up a credit card number to view the segment. If one actually jumps through the site's hoops and watches the video in question, it can easily be determined that those numbers aren't coming from NPD...
While on stage with Dina Bass at The Bloomberg Technology Summit the President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, was asked about the Xbox studio closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios
Of course she did. She's part of the problem and will just tow the company line.
Bloomberg’s Dina Bass could barely read her scripted question without looking at her notes, whilst Sarah Bond who WAS expecting the question spoke without saying anything of substance or answering the question in any meaningful way. Clearly she’s had the same expert PR training as Phil, but this avoidance was disrespectful. In time the short-sighted decision to shut down Tango Gameworks will be seen as of the most notorious examples why Phil Spencer messed up his tenure in charge of Xbox. That’s a fully built out talented team that could’ve been put to work on any project.
Additionally, Phil Spencer should not be using Sarah Bond as a patsy for his mistakes- he should be answering that question.
I think you are all really overselling Tangos value. Hi-Fi rush was a lot of fun. Ghostwire was incredibly dull. Evil within 1 and 2 were just okay.
Evil within 2 was incredibly under rated. I thought that game was surprisingly good
She's playing her role. There's absolutely nothing any of them can say other than the truth, this is about profit margins and not quality, so they just don't answer anything and wait for gamers to forget.
I always wondered why xbox had multiple leaders with similar titles like Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, like, how many heads do you actually need?
Seems to me it would be more cost efficient to cut 2 of them instead of all those studios.
Frankly, I suspect she is the most competent of them. I don't mean that I like her more, I mean that she's the best at articulating herself and giving the talking points MS wants to give. The others are starting to sound more like her than her sounding like any of them.
Are any of these people "responsible" for what's happening? No. This reeks of Nadella. But that being said, I don't see any of the Xbox heads stepping down in protest.
"Don't shoot the messenger", sure, but at the same time, the messengers don't seem to take umbrage with the message. Not enough to remove themselves from it, anyway.
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
Might be a great game but it clearly did not make enough money to justify having the team make another game (under the MS umbrella).
It's never been just about whether your game is good or bad. The industry is full of great/underrated games that have a cult following or critical acclaim, but that fail to make great sales. Sad but true. It's a high stakes game, and at the end of the day, companies have to be profitable and make profitable investments. At the very least, there has to be the expectation of a long-term profit even if not profitable today. That goes for anything, no matter if the company is gigantic or a tiny mom-and-pop. We don't have to like it, but our buying habits played a hand in creating this monster.
I will keep harping that the industry has overreached its actual market and that it will implode. That implosion is already starting.
I partially agree with what you're saying in that companies need to sell well to make it in the industry. Something I've said again and again. Sony and Nintendo understand this about gaming by selling the game for as long as you can, then drop it on a service for additional revenue. It's why you won't see Sony and Nintendo expensively developed games on a service day one. It doesn't make business sense to do so.
The thing is about Tango is that they weren't given a chance after the acquisition when their game was shadow dropped on a console where gamers are told to not buy games but to rent them on a service for pennies. That kills day one sales even for small indie like developers who have big budgets for their company size.
Microsoft destroyed them in favor of pushing their services over investing in these developers futures or their games they created.
“…make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down.”
I got chills. It shouldn’t have come to this.
Interview with Stephen Russell, Actor for (Nick Valentine, Codsworth, My Handy) in Fallout 4 which is a vast open world role playing game set in the apocalyptic wastes of Boston, the Commonwealth. The career goes further with other Bethesda games from Starfield to Prey to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
That was a good explanation of the earlier article so now we know exactly what happened....doesn't seem like anything intentional just a honest mistake....either way like they said the numbers could be very close to accurate it was just a matter of clarifying the source.....its funny 'cause only hardcore gamers/video game news geeks like us even care.
seems misleading to say the 360 won, if there had been more Wii's and PS3's available, then the figures would have been very different. My guess is the Wii would have beat the 360 hands down this holiday season.
IT TURNS OUT THE SUPPOSSED 2M XBOX 360'S SOLD WAS MADE UP LOL!
How is it misleading to tell the Truth? Sure we all can come up with excuses to why sales were un impressive. But it doesn't change the Fact that the 360 is the winner of this last Christmas. People will always make excuses. And nothing in life is even stevens fair. Credit MS for a wonderfully thought out statedgy of launching a superior console ONE whole year early...giving them an advantage for Christmas 2006. I still am amazed at how MS had so many tricks up its sleeve and how well thought out the hardware and software was when they created the 360. Some of you don't understand the video game industry or business for that matter. We can all sit back and say "what if". But its up to the companies to deliver a quality product to the market. Thats whats so amazing about MS hitting the 10 million sold mark. Not just that they sold it...but that they manuafactured it as well. Its not just whether there is enough people to buy your product...but can you manufacture it at a record breaking rate? MS has delievered on every front. Its been a flawless plan....But us Americans are born winners. Who actually thought MS would settle or be satisfied with second place again? Americans always shoot for the Gold. Its pride. MS will not and can not be outdown. The zune is the same way. When vista comes out....The zune will intergrate flawlessly with it. MS can't take over the video game market over night. Same with the Mp3 player market. But, you can guarentee they will push both markets in the right direction for consumers. Offering the best quality coupled with the best prices. WOW... Where would the video game market be right now if MS wouldn't have entered it. No Dreamcast since it used the MS operating system....No xbox and all the great games that came with it....No 360 or xbox live.... You have to be thankful....Me personally.....I have a grand sense of pride. MS is home grown....and delivering and shaking up the old japanese video game ran industry. The industry is now ran by the USA and Europe...with Japan in a distant 3rd....
i see the ps3 fans are getting jealious and dont like it that the 360 sold 2 million consoles over christmas.just to show that the ps3 isnt worth the money and no games to show for it the console war is already won and ilove it if there,s one company i love to see go down the drain its that big headed sony company.360 all the way better console and easily the better exclusives and ore powerful machine.