I REALLY hate Microsoft's marketing people

[Fusion]

Every single one of my friends apart from one or two has an Xbox. I don't know what it is but people seem to like ****e games over here.

Not at all. We just like having a cheap "living room" PC that sits nicely under the telly. Everyone I know who has a brick bought it for the Media Player, the Emulation, and the DVD. The games are secondary, and quite frankly I would of still bought an xbox even if there were no games at all because it's a damn sight cheaper and less noisy than a PC (even a shuttle-case model).

i'll take that into account next time i have to do some spreadsheet design or XML, thanks.

[Vaipon]

Every single one of my friends apart from one or two has an Xbox. I don't know what it is but people seem to like ****e games over here.

Not at all. We just like having a cheap "living room" PC that sits nicely under the telly. Everyone I know who has a brick bought it for the Media Player, the Emulation, and the DVD. The games are secondary, and quite frankly I would of still bought an xbox even if there were no games at all because it's a damn sight cheaper and less noisy than a PC (even a shuttle-case model).

i'll take that into account next time i have to do some spreadsheet design or XML, thanks.

eh?

[Burai]

Hmmm. How to do it differently?

You look at exactly how Sony did it. You didn't see Sony releasing a machine during the 16 bit era with a slightly-more-powerful-than-the-competition 16 bit machine of their own. Launching against the Mega Drive and SNES in 1993 would have been suicidal - as 3DO and Atari found out. You gotta come out when there's a level playing field.

Instead, I would have held back the Xbox until 2005. In the meantime, you begin the hype machine, the trash talk, you look at what works and what doesn't. And you spend. Spend billions advertising an online service no-one wants? Why not buy exclusive games and dev teams instead? They could have bought Squaresoft, they could have bought Sega. (they could have bought them anyway) With those developers under their belt they could have even published games for PS2. Square games sell so well on PS2 and come 2005 when Xbox launched against PS3 they could have just said "Ha! Final Fantasy is exclusive to us now! Buy an Xbox or no FF for you!"

That's how you win Japan, by the way...

Then you time your E3/ECTS/TGS showings to come just after your opposition. Sony say PS3 is ?300? You say Xbox is ?250. That's what Sony did in 1994. Saturn ?400? PS for ?300 then. That's what Nintendo did pre-PAL GC launch. Better that than have to face humiliating price drops every five minutes just to stay in the game.

Cos that's the thing - you really can't come into this new and play catch-up because you'll always play catch-up. Microsoft have never been able to strike out on their own and do their own thing because Sony are dictating the market to them. They should have waited and done all the dictating themselves.

[SonicMarmite]

I`d just have bought Sony. The I`d have bought Cadburys, and spent a lifetime eating an endless supply of minrolls while being "attended" to by my army of Sarah Michelle Gellar clones.

[JRMacumber]

I`d just have bought Sony. The I`d have bought Cadburys, and spent a lifetime eating an endless supply of minrolls while being "attended" to by my army of Sarah Michelle Gellar clones.

I want that life.

[SonicMarmite]

I want that life.

Can you get Cadburies minirolls in america d00d?

[Mr Spew]

They didn't buy out every single half-decent developer, because they wanted to prove that they could start off small, and build it all up. Going in and buying every developer would mean too many games coming out at once, and being complete overkill.

I don't see how Sony are dictating the market. Microsoft are the ones who first came out with the broadband LIVE service. They're the ones with a decent networking structure (no crap i-Link here matey). And they're the ones who had the intelligence to see that people don't want to pay extra after they've bought their console (for memory cards, so they included the HDD).

It's going slowly, but it'll get there eventually.

[SonicMarmite]

They didn't buy out every single half-decent developer, because they wanted to prove that they could start off small, and build it all up. Going in and buying every developer would mean too many games coming out at once, and being complete overkill.

Thought it was because they all said "err. no thanks" when MS waved the cash.

I don't see how Sony are dictating the market. Microsoft are the ones who first came out with the broadband LIVE service. They're the ones with a decent networking structure (no crap i-Link here matey).

If you can`t see how Sony dictate the games market you need to look at things that actually seem to be shifting consoles and games, where XBOX Live isn`t very high on the list.

And they're the ones who had the intelligence to see that people don't want to pay extra after they've bought their console (for memory cards, so they included the HDD).

So they included free dvd playback features that you had to buy a remote control to actually USE. And charged more across the board for games, peripherals etcetcetcetcetc.

It's going slowly, but it'll get there eventually.

Yay. Lets all look forward to a stagnant gaming future in the mould of the current PC OS market, except where we get predictable PC based upgrade consoles every couple of years.

By the way d00ds. Did anyone ever find out if the uber xbox attach rate was actually because of the 4 games free bundle?

All this guff about there being room for 3 consoles that people were spouting a few months ago is total ****e, because most of the larger devs are making exclusives for each machine which is insanity. Thus instead of the good old days where all 3 would get the same game, we now get one games on one machine, and one on another, meaning that devs resources are stretched pretty thin. Its even worse because its spread over 2 territories so that they either make games for a foreign machine that is dominant in its home market, or for a home machine that is strong where its from.

At the moment Sony seem to be the only one in a position to actually control and drive the industry forward, as MS seem too concerned with throwing cash at a future attempt to take the crown which isn`t giving stability in the short or long term, and doesn`t have a lot to do with gaming anyway. And now my brain hurts and I need minirolls to recharge it.

[Azelpds]

First let me say hi again to all and sorry about my english , then, about this, somewhat pointless discussion regarding mine is better than yours and whatever, since everyone forgots all the players in this market talk errr sorry the language, bul**** about their stuff. Being Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, yes, i don't forget some interviews with all of them..., all of them want, in the end, the same, and all of us should be blind only remembering now Microsoft and forgetting some other words in the process spoken by the others too...

But anyway, thing is, the things that matters are the games, at least for me, and a topic like this sometimes makes me sad because i see people many times loosing time with stuff that it should no matter much in certain ways. The games is "where is at". I dont care about the other trivial stuff, i got Kotor on the second time playing, i got F-Zero GX and for example i got Pro Evolution Soccer 3...The rest, is some bul**** everyone of them wants to promote to you, so you can have this, i say again, somewhat pointless discussions because most of you have already your size chosen no matter what. and will not change it.

As someone 8) would say

"You can't change the nature of a man..."

But you can start enjoying games and leave behind these empty arguings about who is better than who. Games, having fun, enjoying life...

I really like this site, because in someways and things reflects some stuff i do too on my job (i write for 2 Portuguese mags full time btw) and love some of the discussions on this forum, but topics and things like this? Not really, specially when i see some people that i "loved" (yeah, i am a lurker since the older forum disappeared) reading their stuff in other discussions loosing so much time, and sometimes temper too, with things like this. People in the industry talking smack and bull**** about the others? wow, no surprise, it happens almost everyday and with all of them. So that's why i prefer the "who cares anyway about they say" posture and loose my time playing the games.

And here i reach a certain paradox, because me, writing this same reply here, is too somewhat, loosing my time, the same time i talked about all of us, with the pointless discussion, with an so extensive and maybe tedious reply. Talk about irony, but as i said, sometimes i feel sad when see again and again things like the ones going on this topic and similar ones, and decided to share with you those same thoughts. So sorry about that.

Hey... in the end

"What can change the nature of a man?"

8)

[Burai]

They didn't buy out every single half-decent developer, because they wanted to prove that they could start off small, and build it all up. Going in and buying every developer would mean too many games coming out at once, and being complete overkill.

Were you honestly keeping a straight face when you typed that?

I don't see how Sony are dictating the market.

And you're honestly telling me you weren't absolutely pissing yourself when you typed that?

It's going slowly, but it'll get there eventually.

Can you put a specific date on that?

[Manta Ray vs Guitar]

Did anyone ever find out if the uber xbox attach rate was actually because of the 4 games free bundle?

You know, that's an excellent point.

They didn't buy out every single half-decent developer, because they wanted to prove that they could start off small, and build it all up. Going in and buying every developer would mean too many games coming out at once, and being complete overkill.

This is just ****ing scary.

[JRMacumber]

I want that life.

Can you get Cadburies minirolls in america d00d?

Not minirolls, but they do put out these candy eggs, where the shell is chocolate and the inside is this rich and sweet concoction. Oh my good, it's so good you're sure it can't be legal. Ummm......

[Manta Ray vs Guitar]

You're American?

[eghamninja]

Last 2 markets Microsoft have attacked with as much vigour as the Console market?

Server OS
Office productivity

Don't hear much of Novell and Lotus anymore do you?

[ObsessiveCompulsive]

wrong thread