What if Microsoft had done it?

[mrstickball]

Johnny, I'm afraid your speaking out of your butt.

johnlucas said:

Though Sony has been utterly boneheaded in their decisions and direction the past few years, I personally feel Microsoft is the worst thing to happen to the videogame industry.

•Microsoft wants to shorten game generations to 4 years instead of the usual 5+. Expect them to make the new XBox and have it on the market in 2009 should they decide to continue in this business.

Since when is Microsoft planning this? They've stated many, many times that they are going for a 6-7 year generation, like the PS2 - they've planned the next one in 2011-2012. The Wii has far more going against it being a 4yr system than the X360.

•After the original XBox which was more stable they somehow surpassed the shoddy craftsmanship record of the PS2 with the XBox 360. That is unexcusable to have that many systems break down that often. Simply unexcusable.

Thats why they've undertaken adding so much within the past ~6mo to fix it all.

•They insist on raising the pricing bar of game consoles. $300 (US) should be absolute CAP for a game console and really most don't even dig anything past $200 unless it's really worth it. Extra bad considering we're paying more money for shoddier merchandise.

Blame Sega for this in 1996. And if $200 was the best, Why doesn't Nintendo sell at that?

•Talk of microtransactions and in-game advertisement coming into the game thanks to them. That will kill this industry if it ever took root. People use pop-up blockers to AVOID ads on the internet and pay for HBO to escape commercials along with buying DVRs. Who wants ads in their videogame? And who wants to parcel out extras in the game with payment plans? That should be unlocked, not bought.

Or like the intenet, we get lots of FREE games with the ads, and such. It's a blessing and a curse. What if you could download extra characters for Super Smash Brothers?

•They're part of the reason game development costs keep rising which would one day be the achilles' heel of the business once 'costs in' keep growing in ratio from 'buys out'. More money pumped in for the same or lesser returns. Crash-worthy.

Atleast they're working with other companies like Epic to make middleware more prominent in the industry to cope with costs. That and the add-on content can equal the playingfield.

•Though they've refined network play and made it mainstream for consoles, they don't do much innovating in hardware or software. Nothing really comes from Microsoft itself but rather its bought and paid for 2nd parties some of which get incorporated as 1st when fully owned. Keeping the medium fresh is all important in the gaming industry. Sega, Nintendo, & SNK represented hardware makers who were also their own software makers. The REAL game companies. That's almost a lost element in gaming nowadays save for one who shall remain Nameless.

Hard Drives? The whole online avatar tags (gamertags) that have seemingly gone to Wii (Miis) and PS3 (home)? Age of Empires isn;t innovative? Nintendo bought the rights for the Wiimote, btw, they didn't make the technology themselves.

•All companies are in this for the money like any business but it seems that's ALL MS is interested in for the gaming business (maybe that's why green is the XBox's color). I don't think they respect the craft or the soul of this business. This is just another bauble in their corporate chest of jewels and their attitude towards this industry reflects this. All they're REALLY here for is for upending Sony from the home media convergence plan and something tells me as soon as they stop Sony their digs in the gaming business will release. Why else would someone lose billions and continue forward? This is just adding onto their monopoly and keeping them from being stagnant (the operating system empire won't last forever).

And making gamers happy along the way. I guess thats why gamers have logged 1 billion+ hours on Halo 2. Do you think, even if 50 million people bought Super Mario Galaxy, that they'd equal the playingtime of Halo 3? Every company is here to upend someone else, and take over the market. Nintendo is trying to converge just like MS and Sony are - look at their online channels.

 

As much as you dislike Microsoft: let me ask you. Would you prefer the gaming industry to have JUST 2 companies, in Sony and Nintendo? I sure don't.