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[BigDug13]

not agreeing with this.. we'll have to see what MS does.... but I honestly believe this may be the last Playstation we see.. especially once Gaikai starts streaming 1080p gaming with minimal latency (5 years? 8 years?)

No WAY. Internet upgrades around the world are getting better, but not "1080p with minimal latency" better. Even full digital won't happen next gen because there will be a ton of places where the internet speeds are not good enough to even download games in a timely manner.

I want full 1080p, not compressed over the internet. I want full DTS Master Audio sound, not a 2 channel bitstream. I want immediate controller response that doesn't rely on my internet latency. I want gaming that doesn't rely on someone else's servers being up.

Gaikai may be the future, but certainly not in 5 or 8 years. And Sony still likes selling their consoles to developing nations. Gaikai won't be the future in some of these in a long, long time. The potential audience of gaming drops significantly if you go with a pure internet gaming system.

 

[borghe]

I want full 1080p, not compressed over the internet. I want full DTS Master Audio sound, not a 2 channel bitstream. I want immediate controller response that doesn't rely on my internet latency. I want gaming that doesn't rely on someone else's servers being up.

modern profiles/matrices over H.264 will give you "pristine" 1080p. Apple is already damn near blu-ray for 1080p, and I think they are streaming at like under 10Mbps for itunes content. I don't agree that HD audio is needed.. but even assuming it is, you can likely put gorgeous 1080p video and HQ/HD-ish multichannel audio in a stream for like 20Mbps. The control/processing portions of the stream are likely much less than 1Mbps..

the biggest hurdle will be latency.. IMHO getting latency under 20ms with some clever algorithms will be nearly seamless for all but the most competitive titles. Those will probably require <15ms minimum.

 

[BigDug13]

modern profiles over H.264 will give you "pristine" 1080p. Apple is already damn near blu-ray for 1080p, and I think they are streaming at like under 10Mbps for itunes content. I don't agree that HD audio is needed.. but even assuming it is, you can likely put gorgeous 1080p video and HQ/HD-ish multichannel audio in a stream for like 20Mbps. The control/processing portions of the stream are likely much less than 1Mbps..

the biggest hurdle will be latency.. IMHO getting latency under 20ms with some clever algorithms will be nearly seamless for all but the most competitive titles. Those will probably require <15ms minimum.

20Mbps? And you would have to maintain that while doing all gaming, so no wife streaming netflix in the bedroom or whatever while you game? And you must not have gamed with any DTS sound this gen, but it most definitely is not something to toss aside as unnecessary. DTS gaming on PS3 sounds awesome and I don't want a downgrade. I just don't see it within 10 years, not at the levels needed worldwide to replace a potential install base of 150 million consoles. Sony would be finished if they gave up creating gaming hardware in 5-8 years. The world will simply not be ready.

 

[Yaponchik]

People seem to forget there are still a TON of countries out there where internet speed doesn't resemble in any way the developed world countries.

 

[DBT85]

People seem to forget there are still a TON of countries out there where internet speed doesn't resemble in any way the developed world countries.

There are still large swathes of developed countries that have shit Internet.

 

[CouldBeWorse]

Ok, nice to know you weren't around for the Genesis/Mega Drive. Sega went from a 4% Merket share in the 8-bit era to a 55% market share in the Genesis era. It dominated in Europe and Brazil, and had a weak presence in Japan.

Less numbers sure. But similarity != everything has to be the same.

I'm 33 and I assure you that I was around. When it's all said and done, the 360 will have sold 3X as much as the Genesis. And Microsoft absolutely dwarfs where Sega was financially at the launch of the Saturn and/or DC.

It's a lazy comparison.

 

[Jomjom]

There are still large swathes of developed countries that have shit Internet.

Large swathes of MS's own home country still have shit internet.

 

[Rogue_Ledr]

Its not just about internet quality. There are plenty of people (like myself) who have really fast internet who don't want what MS is selling.

 

[borghe]

I'm 33 and I assure you that I was around. When it's all said and done, the 360 will have sold 3X as much as the Genesis.

Genesis was roughly 40M. Nowhere near 3x.

Also being you "were around", you then know that video game penetration now is much different than it was during the 16-bit era. It's comparing apples to oranges.

No matter how you try to dance around it, MS is making a lot of the same mistakes that Sega did. Yes they are a much larger company in a great financial situation (though it should be pointed out that in 1995 Sega was in a good financial situation as well... Good enough to start a ~$100M investment in AM2 for Shenmue), but that doesn't mean those many similar mistakes still won't negatively impact their performance or market share.

I mean c'mon.

And you must not have gamed with any DTS sound this gen, but it most definitely is not something to toss aside as unnecessary. DTS gaming on PS3 sounds awesome and I don't want a downgrade.

I game with plenty of digital sound. It's why in my math I accounted for a roughly 7Mbps stream which is considerable overkill btw. DTS (non-HD) is only a 1.5 Mbps stream. They could technically go to Dolby Digital Plus as well which is better than regular DTS and comes in around 640Kbps. Needless to say my 20Mbps number has a ridiculous place in there for audio.

 

[Freshmaker]

Fiber-optic internet is a private-market matter. I live in the Kansas City area and will have Google Fiber in a few months. It will be years before the entire nation is hooked up and the politicians (Local, State, Federal governments) are only involved in so far as they allow Google to use utility easements, which is a municipal issue. I work for a suburb that is currently engaged in talks with Google (who, by the way, believes that they should have the right to do anything they want in our city and is extremely difficult to deal with) and I know first hand this has absolutely nothing to do with politicians. Did politicians have anything to do with DVDs making VHS obsolete?

Google isn't the answer. They're just building up fiber in dense areas. The cable companies etc are required by the government to equally expand services for an entire area.

For whatever reason, Google's exempt from this requirement so they never have to build out to the extent that their competition would have to.

 

[BigDug13]

.


I game with plenty of digital sound. It's why in my math I accounted for a roughly 7Mbps stream which is considerable overkill btw. DTS (non-HD) is only a 1.5 Mbps stream. They could technically go to Dolby Digital Plus as well which is better than regular DTS and comes in around 640Kbps. Needless to say my 20Mbps number has a ridiculous place in there for audio.

Doesn't change the fact that a stable 20mbps low latency connection in a household with other Internet devices running such as PC's, TV's with Netflix streaming, DirecTV on demand which uses the Internet, and overall poor Internet infrastructure throughout even much of the US which is still top dog economically, does not paint the same future that you are stating where Sony leaves the hardware industry in 5-8 years so that we can have Gaikai as our only Sony gaming option. It's simply not going to happen.

 

[ERC198X]

Oh man i reaaaally feel like i'm LTTP on this but:

HOLY COW i can't believe Edge actually did this.
this thread has become a goldmine of saltiness, bitterness, madness, delusion from various posters who are crucifying edge for doing this. It's unbelievably funny.

I honestly just can't believe any publication would dare do this in this day and age

i wonder if anyone from sony has heard about this article. i'd like to hear some reactions from someone like shu or maybe a tweet from fake kaz.

lmao

also on a side note deck out your ps3 with this awesome ps4 dynamic theme: http://www.ps3-themes.com/gaming/ps-4-real.html

 

[Mastperf]

Oh man i reaaaally feel like i'm LTTP on this but:

HOLY COW i can't believe Edge actually did this.
this thread has become a goldmine of saltiness, bitterness, madness, delusion from various posters who are crucifying edge for doing this. It's unbelievably funny.

I honestly just can't believe any publication would dare do this in this day and age

i wonder if anyone from sony has heard about this article. i'd like to hear some reactions from someone like shu or maybe a tweet from fake kaz.

lmao

also on a side note deck out your ps3 with this awesome ps4 dynamic theme: http://www.ps3-themes.com/gaming/ps-4-real.html

I actually prefer the other one on the site. I like that it's simpler but still stylish.
http://www.ps3-themes.com/gaming/ps4-minimalistic.html

 

[ERC198X]

I actually prefer the other one on the site. I like that it's simpler but still stylish.
http://www.ps3-themes.com/gaming/ps4-minimalistic.html

somehow i missed that one, but yeah it looks good as well

 

[freefornow]

comparisons between XBONE and Saturn are so accurate it's scary.

Oh really!

Obviously there are some differences.. third parties, size of respective companies and available cash

Well done!

 

[Game Guru]

modern profiles/matrices over H.264 will give you "pristine" 1080p. Apple is already damn near blu-ray for 1080p, and I think they are streaming at like under 10Mbps for itunes content. I don't agree that HD audio is needed.. but even assuming it is, you can likely put gorgeous 1080p video and HQ/HD-ish multichannel audio in a stream for like 20Mbps. The control/processing portions of the stream are likely much less than 1Mbps..

the biggest hurdle will be latency.. IMHO getting latency under 20ms with some clever algorithms will be nearly seamless for all but the most competitive titles. Those will probably require <15ms minimum.

By the time the PS5 and the next Xbox get released, 4K will likely be all the rage and cheap enough for any consumer to have. Games, at least the ones that we all enjoy, improve with technology as well. Right now, we can't stream 1080p games effectively but by the time we can do that, the games we want to stream will be in 4K.

 

[Parch]

Nintendo and Microsoft survived the domination of the PS2, but Sega didn't. They're not the first to fold either. That's my concern about having one console dominate. If the competition decided to pack it in and stop making a gaming console, then you've got one dominating company that makes all the decisions.

Imagine if Microsoft was the only console maker and forced their policies onto every console gamer? There is no better example why there needs to be competition. Or simply have one company so dominant that the rest were irrelevent. Again, what they decide to do with industry becomes the standard. There needs to be reasonably equal competition to maintain checks and balance.

One company crushing the competition serves no good purpose. There's too much risk, especially in the current market. I think that PC, iOS and tablets offer additional challenge to console makers. It's not an easy road.

If we end up with one console company because they've completely dominated everybody else, I fear for the worst. Competition is good. I want it to stay that way.

 

[CouldBeWorse]

Genesis was roughly 40M. Nowhere near 3x.

The most commonly-cited number I could find was 29 million. Where did you get 40 from?

Also being you "were around", you then know that video game penetration now is much different than it was during the 16-bit era. It's comparing apples to oranges.

No matter how you try to dance around it, MS is making a lot of the same mistakes that Sega did. Yes they are a much larger company in a great financial situation (though it should be pointed out that in 1995 Sega was in a good financial situation as well... Good enough to start a ~$100M investment in AM2 for Shenmue), but that doesn't mean those many similar mistakes still won't negatively impact their performance or market share.

You're using a $100 million investment as proof that Sega was in even remotely as good of a financial position as a company with ~$70 billion in cash?

One bad system performance pretty much sunk Sega as a hardware company. They eventually rolled over and gave up completely because they had no choice.

Microsoft treated their first system as a $4 billion investment to get into the living room. They won't roll over, even if the Xbone is a "failure."

And that doesn't take into account that Microsoft has great third party support, a box that isn't stupid hard to program for, a massive marketing budget, a massive development budget, and a million other things that the Saturn/DC didn't have.

Like I said, lazy. Reasonable people like you are getting swayed into irrationality by your disgust of all things Xbone.

P.S. I was no fan of the Saturn (I picked one up after the discounting began) but I was a massive DC fan who imported the Japanese system and even wrote for a DC fan site. I have nothing but love for the DC.

 

[androvsky]

Fiber-optic internet is a private-market matter. I live in the Kansas City area and will have Google Fiber in a few months. It will be years before the entire nation is hooked up and the politicians (Local, State, Federal governments) are only involved in so far as they allow Google to use utility easements, which is a municipal issue. I work for a suburb that is currently engaged in talks with Google (who, by the way, believes that they should have the right to do anything they want in our city and is extremely difficult to deal with) and I know first hand this has absolutely nothing to do with politicians. Did politicians have anything to do with DVDs making VHS obsolete?

I happen to live in a major suburb of Kansas City that still doesn't have Google Fiber announced, and it's driving me bonkers. How bad are they? Why is it so many other cities are falling over themselves to get Google Fiber installed yet in this one suburb Google's incorrigible?

 

[Parch]

Microsoft treated their first system as a $4 billion investment to get into the living room. They won't roll over, even if the Xbone is a "failure."

And that doesn't take into account that Microsoft has great third party support, a box that isn't stupid hard to program for, a massive marketing budget, a massive development budget, and a million other things that the Saturn/DC didn't have.

There is zero chance the XB1 will get dreamcasted. Zero.
We're talking about Microsoft here. They spent a fortune fixing RROD, and they'll dump money into the XB1 to survive the gen. They will never roll over. Comparisons to Sega are just ridiculous.

 

[bishopcruz]

The most commonly-cited number I could find was 29 million. Where did you get 40 from?

39.7 adding up from several sources here. the 29 million total makes no sense when you consider that the US had at least 20 million alone, thought Nintendo's figures had the Genesis outselling the SNES in the US so it could have been more.

You're using a $100 million investment as proof that Sega was in even remotely as good of a financial position as a company with ~$70 billion in cash?

One bad system performance pretty much sunk Sega as a hardware company. They eventually rolled over and gave up completely because they had no choice.

It was a disastrous system performance, and it was coupled with Sega more or less abandoning it's profitable sectors (Genesis and Game Gear) to chase after it's 32 bit dreams. They also lost their sugar daddy, so that didn't help.

Microsoft treated their first system as a $4 billion investment to get into the living room. They won't roll over, even if the Xbone is a "failure."

And that doesn't take into account that Microsoft has great third party support, a box that isn't stupid hard to program for, a massive marketing budget, a massive development budget, and a million other things that the Saturn/DC didn't have.

Like I said, lazy. Reasonable people like you are getting swayed into irrationality by your disgust of all things Xbone.

P.S. I was no fan of the Saturn (I picked one up after the discounting began) but I was a massive DC fan who imported the Japanese system and even wrote for a DC fan site. I have nothing but love for the DC.

Look, you're missing the forest for the trees, no one who is comparing the X1 to the Saturn is saying that this will kill MS. It won't even if it's the biggest failure since the Zune, which in all likelihood, it won't be. What we are saying is that there are some striking similarities to what happened 18 years ago in how MS has slowly been pissing off parts of its core fanbase, misreading the market, and having a disastrous e3 where they decided that they were ok launching at $100 more expensive.

I've said before, I haven't seen this level of fan dissatisfaction moving from one gen to the next since the Saturn, and there are some interesting comparisons. It's not lazy, it's taking into account what has happened in the past and how it might inform the present. MS's position in the grand scheme of gaming is also similar to what Sega's was just before the Saturn, they had a lead in the UK and the US, if only barely, sunk in Japan, and felt like they were just going to knock it out of the park with their next at bat.

It's not an exact comparison, but there are several interesting similarities. I'm sorry you can't see them.

 

[dano2469]

Wow. That's a cover with a strong statement. Edge are really making their beds with this one.

Well it looks like Edge knew something!


1France
Xbox One : 24.69%
PS4 : 75.31%

Most active cities : Paris, Lyon


2United States
Xbox One : 18.59%
PS4 : 81.41%

Most active cities : New York, Brooklyn


3United Kingdom
Xbox One : 21.14%
PS4 : 78.86%

Most active cities : London, Manchester


4Belgium
Xbox One : 19.68%
PS4 : 80.32%

Most active cities : Brussels, Liège


5Canada
Xbox One : 19.2%
PS4 : 80.8%

Most active cities : Montréal, Toronto


6Germany
Xbox One : 15.43%
PS4 : 84.57%

Most active cities : Berlin, Munich


7Russian Federation
Xbox One : 17.83%
PS4 : 82.17%

Most active cities : Moscow, Saint Petersburg


8Australia
Xbox One : 18.41%
PS4 : 81.59%

Most active cities : Brisbane, Perth

 

[Darklor01]

Well it looks like Edge knew something!


1France
Xbox One : 24.69%
PS4 : 75.31%

Most active cities : Paris, Lyon


2United States
Xbox One : 18.59%
PS4 : 81.41%

Most active cities : New York, Brooklyn


3United Kingdom
Xbox One : 21.14%
PS4 : 78.86%

Most active cities : London, Manchester


4Belgium
Xbox One : 19.68%
PS4 : 80.32%

Most active cities : Brussels, Liège


5Canada
Xbox One : 19.2%
PS4 : 80.8%

Most active cities : Montréal, Toronto


6Germany
Xbox One : 15.43%
PS4 : 84.57%

Most active cities : Berlin, Munich


7Russian Federation
Xbox One : 17.83%
PS4 : 82.17%

Most active cities : Moscow, Saint Petersburg


8Australia
Xbox One : 18.41%
PS4 : 81.59%

Most active cities : Brisbane, Perth

Curious, where are the stats from, what do they represent? Preorders? Interest?

 

[GhaleonEB]

Well it looks like Edge knew something!

What are you quoting?

 

[Canis lupus]

What are you quoting?

http://xboxonevspsfour.com/

 

[BigDug13]

He's quoting results from that PS4vsXBone poll site. But since there's already a thread for that, not sure why he bumped this one to quote that data.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Curious, where are the stats from, what do they represent? Preorders? Interest?

What are you quoting?

the numbers are from this thread.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=615691

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Well, for reference, my local Gamestops *just* cleared out all their PS2 game inventory a couple months ago. Pretty sure they were still stocking systems until recently too.

I'm not sure what you are getting at. The PS2 is coming up to it's 13th year, whilst the PS3 is approaching it's 7th. In other words, there are at least another 5 - 6 years left of running in the PS3.

 

[Darklor01]

He's quoting results from that PS4vsXBone poll site. But since there's already a thread for that, not sure why he bumped this one to quote that data.

I figured, but didnt want to assume. I'm not sure that is a reliable set of stats for its quoted purpose here, but I'll let you guys decide.

 

[iMax]

Thanks EDGE, but I think I'll wait this one out.

 

[Gemüsepizza]

Have you noticed the question mark on the cover with the PS3? And if you expect a repeat of the current generation, then I guess you will be disappointed.

 

[Gestault]

Anyone assuming the Playstation brand, as far as consoles are concerned, is going anywhere is way off-base. Even assuming a (far flung) scenario where the PS4 ends up selling poorly compared to other systems, the brand is still too strong to dismiss. Considering how they got their act together and made the PS3 as appealing as they have, I can't imagine why someone wouldn't want a Sony home-console to be an option on the table down the road.

On topic: articles like this generally exist to give people something to react to, not necessarily to convince someone coming in blind one way or the other. The people reading it in the first place are generally hobbyists. But this spells out the most common reasoning for why the PS4 looks so good from the consumer side coming into this gen. Now, keep in mind how people assumed the PS3 would dominate the current gen and how that played out, but I like Sony's placement. Price, tech and games look good at the moment, and they have the best chance for Japanese game support down the road, which may not be true for Xbox One unless Microsoft makes some deliberate actions to secure it.

 

[iMax]

Have you noticed the question mark on the cover with the PS3?

Have you noticed this?

 

[Darklor01]

Never noticed how much PS3 looked like a coffin with a control panel stuck on its side before.

 

[TheLaughingStock]

Not sure what the situation is like across Europe or the US though.

I don't know about similar studies in EU, but the FCC in the US has noticed tens of millions are not subscribing regardless of access. One of the primary drivers is claimed to be income, but nothing definitive.

 

[Uno Venova]

Have you noticed this?

What did the article in that issue say about tie subject?

 

[iMax]

What did the article in that issue say about tie subject?

Not sure, wasn't a subscriber then. Found an old GAF thread about it the issue, though..

 

[professor_t]

Oh man i reaaaally feel like i'm LTTP on this but:

HOLY COW i can't believe Edge actually did this.
this thread has become a goldmine of saltiness, bitterness, madness, delusion from various posters who are crucifying edge for doing this. It's unbelievably funny.

I honestly just can't believe any publication would dare do this in this day and age

i wonder if anyone from sony has heard about this article. i'd like to hear some reactions from someone like shu or maybe a tweet from fake kaz.

lmao

also on a side note deck out your ps3 with this awesome ps4 dynamic theme: http://www.ps3-themes.com/gaming/ps-4-real.html

I can't believe people think this is a ballsy move. Edge is a gamer's magazine for dedicated gamers (I won't use the term "hardcore"). The vast majority of those dedicated gamers are ecstatic about Sony's approach and frothing at the mouth about Microsoft's blunders.

They're preaching to the choir. How is this a gutsy play on their part? If anything, it seems like they're riding on the coattails of the groundswell of anti-MS/pro-Sony energy.

What's the worst that can happen? They get spurned by Microsoft? What catastrophe would that entail? They have trouble covering the less than 1% of all games that are MS exclusives?

 

[something fishy]

Everyone worth talking to is probably now in party chat, those who are in public chat seem to all be children with Tourette's

A lot of the early games I played on 360 were bought from recommendations from chatting with other players, a few of them are still on my friends list years later. Also you got messages from random players thanking you for a good game. Oh the good old days all those years ago

The success of the box expanded the audience and killed it. If the bone stays niche it might just be a nice place to game actually, like the old xb days.

 

[Steve McQueen]

Just got my copy and read the article. I'm a subscriber for quite some years now but damn...I had to read twice and read out loud for the third time ( English is not my native language ) to convince myself what I was reading. I never, ever remember EDGE to have written such a ballsy statement regarding the future off a gamesconsole. Article is very well written btw. Guess it's far too early to conclude things, but I hope that MS will manage to 'survive' this storm...don't want them to go down the same road as SEGA.

 

[Vestal]

Just got my copy and read the article. I'm a subscriber for quite some years now but damn...I had to read twice and read out loud for the third time ( English is not my native language ) to convince myself what I was reading. I never, ever remember EDGE to have written such a ballsy statement regarding the future off a gamesconsole. Article is very well written btw. Guess it's far too early to conclude things, but I hope that MS will manage to 'survive' this storm...don't want them to go down the same road as SEGA.

they won't go like Sega. Sega didn't have the kind of money ms has.

 

[Darklor01]

Just got my copy and read the article. I'm a subscriber for quite some years now but damn...I had to read twice and read out loud for the third time ( English is not my native language ) to convince myself what I was reading. I never, ever remember EDGE to have written such a ballsy statement regarding the future off a gamesconsole. Article is very well written btw. Guess it's far too early to conclude things, but I hope that MS will manage to 'survive' this storm...don't want them to go down the same road as SEGA.

I don't think you have anything to worry about

 

[Gemüsepizza]

they won't go like Sega. Sega didn't have the kind of money ms has.

That's not how it works. Microsoft is not in this business for charity. They are here to make money. And if they don't make money with a product, they abandon it. The Xbox One clearly shows that Microsoft was looking for a way to increase the reach of the Xbox, to expand the brand beyond games. Now it seems that this strategy failed horribly, because their already established consumer base is fleeing. What does it mean for the future of Xbox, if the X1 will fail? Microsoft made big investments, the APU tech project was at $3 billion according to a linkedin entry, and they invested another few billions. If this doesn't work, they might abandon the Xbox completely.

 

[hardvibes]

Sweet
Win.

 

[iMax]

That's not how it works. Microsoft is not in this business for charity. They are here to make money. And if they don't make money with a product, they abandon it. The Xbox One clearly shows that Microsoft was looking for a way to increase the reach of the Xbox, to expand the brand beyond games. Now it seems that this strategy failed horribly, because their already established consumer base is fleeing. What does it mean for the future of Xbox, if the X1 will fail? Microsoft made big investments, the APU tech project was at $3 billion according to a linkedin entry, and they invested another few billions. If this doesn't work, they might abandon the Xbox completely.

Yeah, this is potentially true. But, I don't think people consider the flip side here, that being, that the Xbox One is hands-down the strongest home entertainment box we've ever seen, in terms of movies, music, and TV. If they lose the gamers, they'll potentially achieve success through this.

 

[Darklor01]

That's not how it works. Microsoft is not in this business for charity. They are here to make money. And if they don't make money with a product, they abandon it. The Xbox One clearly shows that Microsoft was looking for a way to increase the reach of the Xbox, to expand the brand beyond games. Now it seems that this strategy failed horribly, because their already established consumer base is fleeing. What does it mean for the future of Xbox, if the X1 will fail? Microsoft made big investments, the APU tech project was at $3 billion according to a linkedin entry, and they invested another few billions. If this doesn't work, they might abandon the Xbox completely.

I don't think X1 will fail. I think eventually people will own both systems. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Steve McQueen]

That's not how it works. Microsoft is not in this business for charity. They are here to make money. And if they don't make money with a product, they abandon it. The Xbox One clearly shows that Microsoft was looking for a way to increase the reach of the Xbox, to expand the brand beyond games. Now it seems that this strategy failed horribly, because their already established consumer base is fleeing. What does it mean for the future of Xbox, if the X1 will fail? Microsoft made big investments, the APU tech project was at $3 billion according to a linkedin entry, and they invested another few billions. If this doesn't work, they might abandon the Xbox completely.

That's actually what I meant to say. If they won't make money they might abandon the console business.

 

[Amir0x]

That's not how it works. Microsoft is not in this business for charity. They are here to make money. And if they don't make money with a product, they abandon it. The Xbox One clearly shows that Microsoft was looking for a way to increase the reach of the Xbox, to expand the brand beyond games. Now it seems that this strategy failed horribly, because their already established consumer base is fleeing. What does it mean for the future of Xbox, if the X1 will fail? Microsoft made big investments, the APU tech project was at $3 billion according to a linkedin entry, and they invested another few billions. If this doesn't work, they might abandon the Xbox completely.

So, what we know already of their investments

$400million NFL deal
$700 million in data center/cloud support
$1 billion in investments for development of first party/exclusives (this includes paying for timed exclusivity on Titanfall)
$3 billion for the APU Tech project
A marketing campaign "significantly" larger than the one for Kinect, so half a billion+
__________________________________

$5.7 billion+ so far in investments for Xbox One.

That's a colossal sum of money by any measure. And there has been real signs since halfway through the 360 gen that Microsoft wants to shift their strategy to something that results in more reliable profits. They want to find ways to more meaningfully monetize their customers, even up and above what they get from XBL.

So if XBO fails, and the investment is not properly recouped and therefore the profits remain limited or nonexistent, there is no reason to think Microsoft will keep repeating the pattern. They have the MONEY to, but would it make business sense?

 

[killdatninja]

Microsoft thought they could skate by with their precious brand loyalty. Definitely blowing up their faces now.

Yeah, this is potentially true. But, I don't think people consider the flip side here, that being, that the Xbox One is hands-down the strongest home entertainment box we've ever seen, in terms of movies, music, and TV. If they lose the gamers, they'll potentially achieve success through this.

That market is too competitive.. or rather, oversaturated

You have:
Roku
Apple TV
Netgear
WD Live TV
Boxee TV
Google TV
Blu-ray Players
Smart TV's
and a ton of others I'm not aware of..

All a quarter of the price (or less actually) than of the MSRP of the Xbone. If they lose their base audience they have nothing. That's also not counting the PS4 with similar features but weighing in at a cheaper price.

 

[ERC198X]

I can't believe people think this is a ballsy move.

deal with it