Anyone believe or hope Microsoft will leave the videogame business?

[xman]

LordMatrix said:

Lord N said:

First of all, the 360 hasn't done anywhere near as well this generation as is being suggested in this thread.

The 360 is in a distant, unprofitable second place with an insignificant lead over the 3rd place console. Oh yeah, that's exactly where it was last generation. It sells moderately well in North America, okay in Europe, and basically nothing in Japan. The only system that it's managed to outsell all generation is the PS3, which makes the 360 the second-worst selling system of the generation, a distant fourth behind the PSP. To be honest, the only reason it even has a lead over the PS3 is because it had a year headstart and because Sony fucked up so badly, and if the PS3 has poor sales, then it's really not a good idea to use it as a standard to measure the success of another system, including the 360. Hell, there were about 5.3 million 360's sold when the PS3 launched, so from that standpoint, the 360 has only sold about 200 000 more systems in the same time period.

If you want to examine this further, look at software. The best-selling games of the generation are on the DS and the Wii. If you make a list starting with the best-selling game, 360 titles don't start to appear until about 17th or 18th on the list. For all of the 3rd party games that have been sold on the 360, it's still more profitable for devs to support the DS and the Wii.

Simply put, the 360 appeals only to core and hardcore gamers. It simply doesn't have mass appeal. You can argue for Xbox Live all you want, but most gamers out there don't really care that much about online play. Only 50% of Xbox 360 owners even have a gold account.

In regards to the topic, MS will release another system, but they'll probably be done after that. The only reason Microsoft even ventured into the market with the Xbox is because they saw the PlayStation as a threat to their OS monopoly. Now that that threat is over, the market has rejected Sony's(and Microsoft's) convergence plans, and given the fact that MS still hasn't even achieved mass appeal or consistent profitability(even when aided by Sony's colossal mistakes), there really wouldn't be much more reason for them to keep making systems.

U sir are an idiot plain and simple.

I second that.  How can you say MS is doing bad when its beating the PS3 and about profitability the PS3 is taking  a bath they are STILL losing money on each system sold.  MS has been making money on the xbox 360 for almost two years .  YOu are correct it does not sell well in japan but luckily the japenese market is no where as imortant as America and Europe.  Also the japense historicaly dont buy non japense systems.  I welcome the next xbox (minus RROD). Even though sony is taking a beating on profit I welcome the PS4 (minus hte $600.00 price tag).