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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Why I 'hate' Xbox 360

Dogs Rule on 23 February 2008

I highly respect Bill Gates the philantropist. His gift to humanity will help many people for many many years.

The Free software movement, which GNU/Linux is only a part of, is also a gift to humanity with many thousand contributors. I honestly believe that the future will be dominated by free software, especially with the ease of use of certain Linux Distrobutions. Given Linux's current gaming options, I've chosen to go the route of using a Linux or FreeBSD computer with a console for gaming for the past 6 years. I'm very satisfied.

Everyone who doesn't specifically need to run proprietary software for work or school should consider at least trying a Linux Live CD.

EDIT: @Jessman: The PS3 is not a disaster!



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kn on 23 February 2008
Game_boy said:

I "hate" Xbox 360 because it represents Microsoft's anticompetitive plan to dominate consumer electronics. I don't hate plastic, metal and silicon, but the fact Microsoft wasted billions of dollars like no other company could is unfair because the money they used was due to the "Windows Tax" on all PCs you can buy (for example, Dell sells Linux PCs at higher prices than Windows ones even though Linux is free).

This is because Microsoft charges large computer manufacturers for every computer they sell regardless of whether it has Windows on it. All companies are subject to these monopolising deals and if a PC supplier pulled out they couldn't compete on price with other ones.

The result is that Microsoft gets guaranteed revenue from a product few would freely choose if software and hardware was compatible with all OSs and these OSs were choices given to the market. Microsoft also uses effectively government bribes in developing countries to get their software installe, and then when development reaches a certain level they cahrge full price and do anticompetitive deals with local PC suppliers. A good example of this is action is Microsoft paying countries (with e-mail evidence to prove it) to join the ISO standards board to vote "Yes" on their stupidly implemented, redundant and patent-infringing OOXML format. These countries have since disappeared from future votes, proving the sole reason they joined was because Microsoft said so.

The Xbox 360 represents the end result of this: you can dominate a market with cash alone. The Xbox 360's hardware is poorly made (hardware failures are common) and the software which started the Xbox brand's popularity was made by buying up studios with insane cash offers. The studios, by the way, were bought with the aim of damaging competitors: Halo was a Mac exclusive that if a cult had arisen for it on the Mac like it had on the Xbox, Mac gaming would have been common; Rare was the only thing saving Nintendo in the N64 days and it was stolen from them when Microsoft made an insane offer to the 51% shareholder of it and Nintendo were forced to sell their 49% stake

Uh, Just a little newsflash for you: It is every company's goal to completely dominate the industry that it is operating in. Toyota wants it. Sony wants it. Microsoft wants it. Even Quaker oats would like to be the worldwide supplier of instant grits. Why do you hate Microsoft so much for it? No-one screams about Paypal or Ebay and they are both pretty much monopolies in their respective industries. People are jumping for joy that Blu-Ray won but that is yet another example of one company (or group) wanting a complete monopoly.

Sometimes I wonder if people think.

 



I hate trolls.

Systems I currently own:  360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong.  Yes, Pong.

Moongoddess256 on 23 February 2008

Didn't you see the "get the fudge out" topic?

I also dislike Microsoft as a company but I go where the games are.



[2:08:58 am] Moongoddess256: being asian makes you naturally good at ddr
[2:09:22 am] gnizmo: its a weird genetic thing
[2:09:30 am] gnizmo: goes back to hunting giant crabs in feudal Japan

Game_boy on 23 February 2008
Katilian said:
 

... 

"Mac gaming would have been common"

Halo was to be a simultaneous release on both Mac and Windows. No other dual releases have dramatically changed the Mac gaming landscape, so why would Halo? Even assuming Halo was to be Mac only, look back to Marthon. It was groundbreaking on Mac yet gamers didn't jump over in droves, why would another Bungie game have done this?

...

OK, I was wrong: Halo was not a Mac exclusive. I think it would have changed Mac gaming more without Microsoft's intervention however.

Your other complaints are valid, but the fact remains I don't like Microsoft for the stated reasons. You are free to disagree with this. I think a lot of Microsoft's actions were illegal in the EU and US and ought to be prosecuted, as other companies also should for their actions.



Ubuntu. Linux for human beings.

If you are interested in trying Ubuntu or Linux in general, PM me and I will answer your questions and help you install it if you wish.

Garcian Smith on 23 February 2008

I absolutely love your use of bold words. If only other posters would be that creative.

Personally, I don't care about the politics behind my 360. All I know is I'm getting a ton of playtime out of it, and that's all I care about. You can rage against the machine all you want, but MS hardly has a monopoly in the games market, so what's the big deal? If you don't like the 360, don't buy it.



"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."

 -Sean Malstrom

 

 

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Game_boy on 23 February 2008
Garcian Smith said:

Personally, I don't care about the politics behind my 360. All I know is I'm getting a ton of playtime out of it, and that's all I care about. You can rage against the machine all you want, but MS hardly has a monopoly in the games market, so what's the big deal? If you don't like the 360, don't buy it.


OK. That's fine. 



Ubuntu. Linux for human beings.

If you are interested in trying Ubuntu or Linux in general, PM me and I will answer your questions and help you install it if you wish.

Corfius on 23 February 2008

I don't hate their console. I hate the company though and I can't believe how anyone can think they have a "good" image. They basically destroyed innovation on the PC market. It doesn't mean you can't enjoy your Xbox (by all mean enjoy it) but try to be a bit more knowledgable of their business practices and maybe you'll at least understand from where poster like Game_boy comes from.

Anyway here is my rant about why I hate Microsoft (mostly related to the PC market so there's no X360 bashing!):

1- Copyright violations
2- Government anti-trust suits (included a 1 billion deal with the USA, a €497 million fine with the European Commission and a 32M$ fine in South Korea. All related to abuse of dominant position and/or various legal infractions)
3- My favorite of all: cooperated with the Chinese government in implementing a system of Internet censorship. Ironic that a company whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor.

Of course about 100 companies have filed patent abuse and predatory practice suits against Microsoft. Most of them ended up with Microsoft giving them money to avoid going to court.

Oh I almost forgot. In May 2004 a class-action lawsuit in California was settled for $1.1 billion. Microsoft's answer: "Somebody ends up paying for this. These large fee awards get passed on to consumers." Must be nice to run a monopoly eh ? You can shit on your customers but it doesn't matter since they can't look elsewhere.

 



montrealsoon on 23 February 2008
jlauro said:
Just because Microsoft hasn't cracked the console market yet is no reason to give them an inch so they can take a mile. To put it simply, I do not trust Microsoft.

If the 360 was from any other American company, I would probably have a 360 instead of a wii...


Hmmm, you think you would have bought a Wii for the games, not some corporate slant!

{smiley}

 

reminder: none of these companies are about you, don't get too wrapped up in them



NeoRatt on 23 February 2008

I'm fine with Microsoft. Every company is entitled to make a profit on a successful product.

If you don't like them, use Linux or whatever. Nobody is forcing you to use Microsoft products. You can learn to build your own computer and go to the local custom computer store and build your own computer if don't like funding Microsoft.

As for Rare... The owners of Rare decided to sell to Microsoft, they did not have to sell off... So they are just as guilty as Microsoft.

As for Microsoft's intentions, they are trying to win, companies win by doing a variety of things. Welcome to the real world of business. You don't have to like it, but that's the way it works. And if you think other companies are innocent and righteous you are completely uninformed.



coolestguyever on 23 February 2008

wow you hate Microsoft because they made smart business decisions like purchasing rare? thats sad. They have many many billions of dollars and they used some of the money to buy companies support to make games for their new console. Do you think anybody would have a 360 if they didn't have the games created by said companies bought by M$?

You have the right to hate M$, but they are smart business people. the only stupid decision they made is making their console a piece of crap. PS3 and Wii are well built.