Anyone believe or hope Microsoft will leave the videogame business?

[lestatdark]

WilliamWatts said:

lestatdark said:

WilliamWatts said:

What bar are they setting, exactly? The most cost inefficient console to hit the market in recent times? Nintendo sets the bar for cost/performance as seen by the N64 and Gamecube, they set the bar for first party effectiveness and they set the bar for how to make money in the business. They are the most powerful publisher of content in the business bar none. Thats all they need to differentiate their console from others.

I just want to say that you're entirely right about your points about Nintendo, except one.

They also did a huge mistake in the hardware business, the biggest blunder in this industry so far, bigger than the Atari Jaguar. The Virtual Boy. Which also caused the fall of the biggest Portable designer in the history of the market, Gunpei Yokoi. 

Perhaps the single biggest product failure, but not the biggest blunder. Nintendo recovered from that mistake quickly whereas what Krazy Ken did with the PS3 Sony may never recover.

I think that's a bit too harsh to call on Sony, it's true that they have taken a major hit with the PS3 due to their own mistakes, but recent trends have shown that Sony can recover and that the PS3 can be a succesful console.

Even if they couldn't recover from this hit, that would already be showing in their 1st party efforts, just like it happened with Sega during it's swan song days of the Dreamcast, which they totally pulled the plug from, in all aspects of the business itself, something that Sony is doing in complete oposition, strenghtening the brand image and product placement of their games.

Only time will tell if Sony can pull through from this generation, I hope that they do, I don't want to see any company leave the market because that will mean less competition and less need for the companies involved to actually pursue new and more varied content with much more value for the consumer.