The 360 Head Start

[dschumm]

There were 3 sacrifices to be made in exchange for the headstart. Price, Game Selection, and RROD.

1. Price- Lauching at a price point higher than any sucessful console ever was very risky. But the advanced parts warrented that and the very long wait for the price drop. The discount core sku was also able to mask the true cost of owning a 360.

2. Game Selection- Weak launch and year 1 titles plauge all systems but I find it hard for anyone to boast what was going on with the 360 until Gears. But they were able to put out Gears and ride it into a wonderful game selection for 2007.

3. RROD- The stench of unreliability threatened to derail the 360's chances. Stepped up warranty practice and new hardware appear to have eased the public outcry.

So it seems they made it but it was quite a gamble. Fortunately for them the PS3 was priced so high the 360 could be called a bargain. And thankfully they pushed enough units to make the 360 the base for cross-platform development. This has hid and superiority the PS3 harware may have. But the most crucial thing for them was the RROD maelstrom did not hit before Gears of War. Had that happened I don't think Halo 3 could have saved them.

But all those sacrifces have paid off. The price is very competitve with best in class software and a fairly bright future. The only question now is how to shake the "Hardcore only need apply" image that they tried so hard to achieve.

And yes I expect we will see the next XBox leading the Next-Generation of consoles. BUt maybe with a little more stress testing.