| jerseyboy609 said: The Xbox 360 has always had a thing for having the competitive edge over the competition. First, they launched a system a year before the rest of the competition. This gave the system its huge American fanbase (this is why I have a Xbox 360 Second, Microsoft has been letting the competition catch up, but then they blow away others (i.e. XBL and Price Cut). The reason I am saying this, is because we all know that PSN is maturing at a fast pace, and is pretty much on par with XBL. Now, since XBL is having the update, I believe that PSN will not be in the same league as XBL. Sure Home will be great, but once again, Microsoft has beat them to the punch. The new interface IMO is blows the XMB out of the water because your avatar is already present, as opposed to launching it from home. The price cut seems to be working well, if the effects remain consistent. There have been rumors of a $50 price cut of the PS3 in december, but MS already beat them to the punch with the American crowd. With the economy the way it is now over here, $350 as opposed to $199 is expensive these days. Also, the price of XBL has been slashed as well, which makes me consider buying another subscription.
Lastly, they have been buying out a lot of timed exclusivity with a great deal of games. They have RPGs, Rock Band 2 out now, and plenty of other games coming out with timed exclusivity. They understand that many people do not want to wait a full year for the same game, thats a port. Even though some people sont mind waiting for those games, but most dont (like me). Even if Gears of War came on PS3 in 2099, I will have already had my fun on 360. Dont get me wrong, I really like the PS3 because its my system of choice, but they really need to step it up when it comes to competition. I am really loving the lineup that is coming out this fall, because I believe that it is better than 360s', but I think they need to get there $hit together, and start dishing out money to attract more consumers |
). Also, they have soo many more exclusive games that are worth buying now, as opposed to ones that are being mentioned 3 years from now.
The real reason Microsoft is a "great" company as you put it is that they have a monopoly in two areas that give them more or less unlimited resources to push bad products hard enough to prop them up to 2nd/3rd place.
I can't think of many other companies that can afford to push failures for more then half a decade with such vigor. I'll use an example of the Newton from Apple. They had a functioning PDA with touch sensitivity, hand writing recognition, 3rd party software and a ton more in the early 90s, way before palm, blackberry and all the rest. It was a great device in many ways but it was a bit ahead of its time and quite expensive (since the components it used were VERY rare during a time where laptops were the size of small suitcases).
Yes it probably could have floundered a few more years as Apple continued to bleed money (though they lost FAR less then MS has on the Zune and 360) but they cut it off and went to other ideas that could make money (like the Ipod project).
This is also true for Sega, eventually they kept losing money on continuing to play the console game so they stopped that and are now profitable again most quarters just churning out successful million seller games. They finally nipped the console project in the bud becasue they couldn't take billions in losses to let the Sega brand redevelop after the Saturn.
Sony also has had its share of failures that had to be cut, same with Nintendo. Maybe the Virtual Boy could have turned around 5 years later, but it was cut. Microsoft would probably be on the virual boy 5.0 if it had been their products.
So when you say MS can shove billions at failed projects like the Xbox or the Zune to try and bully companies that make better systems that better serve the market (Apple, Nintendo, Sony) its not really a good thing. Microsoft throws its weight around and cuts prices to the bone until noone else can compete, then they raise them without mercy. Yes today they are losing more money to give you a 199 dollar 360 and keeping live down to 50 bucks a year. I will bet you anything though if they every really do succeed at forcing Nintendo and/or Sony out (especially Sony since its competes more directly for the kinds of people who would ever consider buying an Xbox) the price will suddenly jump to 600 dollars for the system and 10 bucks a month or more for online.
If you don't believe me look at the price for a full featured version of Windows Vista, at release it was over 400 dollars retail, that's more then a pretty good build it yourself computer costs! They forced a bunch of competitors out of the Office segment with takeovers and price deals until they consolidated it, how much does a full set of Office cost? 1000+ dollars retail! As a bonus any time they win they try to do whatever they can to prevent choice and nickle and dime you (see xbox live not being free, the wireless adaptor costing 100 dollars and internet radio on the Zune, which is free on the ipod touch/iphone if you download Pandora, AOL Radio and others, costing 15 dollars a month).
Microsoft is a horrible company that will scorch the earth and bleed your video game pocketbook dry if they ever get the chance. They take over industries and ruin them...or does noone remember how IE sucked horridly and was never updated after they won vs netscape? If not for Firefox by this point the internet would just be a series of DOS entry boxes.
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