In a world without xbox

[Tigawoods]

starcraft said:
Anyone that seriously thinks Microsoft entering the console business wasnt good for the quality and quantity of games and the cost of these games that we are playing now is an idiot.

 

 QFT

So here we are with MS. Let's say MS never made the 360 and quit after the first Xbox. Let's take a look at what Ninty and Sony would probably be at. NOTE: This is all speculation.

Ninty: Most likely still owning the console war moreso on price point. Though Ninty could probably increase their price to 300 and they would still sell madly. Also a small chance Ninty would have been willing to go online a bit more since there would be no XBL behemoth so online gaming would be newer and then less competetion. A very very longshot but who knows.

Sony: The biggest changes would be the price point. With only one HD console up for grabs what would stop ppl from buying the original 600$ priced console. No doubt they would still have to drop the price but it would be less of a drop less often. (The Ps3 has only had one drop atm but obviously it was huge. They could prolly drop it increments of 50$ maybe 100 at the max over longer periods) PSN would suck. And believe me I would be disappointed with it. It is ironic that someone actually copied MS. (and yes MS copied its online features from PC) Hell even World of Warcraft will now have Achievements in Wrath of the Lich King.

Consumers: We the consumers would have very little choice in what we have to play (compared to now) and it would most likely be much more expensive to be a gamer. Value simply wouldn't be there. The loss of franchises and a great online service would only short consumers. Thats not to say Gears or others IPs wouldn't be made on other platforms.

All in all having MS in this race has made all 3 companies create even better products and have made this gen a great time to be a gamer. The narrow-mined ppl who wish for MS or other companies to leave the console business need to check their insecurity at the door and realize what business is all about. Competetion creates better products and better value.