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dunno001 said:
Hmm... nobody asked the question that, in my eyes, bears asking: are we talking successful from a customer POV, or a business POV? I'll try looking at both:
Consumer-
2. Pay only for what you want. The Sony fans insist that you have to buy everything that the PS3 comes with, then try to claim how it's cheaper. But what if I don't want all that crap? I can pick and choose what extras to get with the system. (We here got a Pro for $250, and don't want or need the wireless and BR playback. And at a time when PS3 was $400, that $150 was a lot cheaper. And that doesn't include the $50 giftcard either.)
Whilst this is true, it's also detrimental for the consumer if he/she later decides to add something to his/her console. If I get a wireless router and decide I don't want cables running around my house I'd have to shell out a disproportionate sum for Wi-Fi. Or if I was running out of space on my HDD, a disproportionate amount on on a new HDD in comparison to your average laptop HDD. I think you actually made this point as a plus for business, which it is, but for the consumer, it's not.
What it does come down to, though, is a palatable price for the consumer. In the case of something that's $10/month or $100/year, there's a lot of people who choose the $10/month option. Yes, it costs more, but it's also easier to budget for smaller numbers. Like I said in the business side, acccessory profit is a good thing, and the cost is writable into customability.
3. Willingness to back the system. MS knows they screwed up with the RROD. So they went ahead and extended the warranty on this, so that you could buy a system and not have to worry about it dying in a year with no recourse.
True, but had they not they would have been looking at a number of lawsuits which would have cost them more in the long run in both money and PR. Essentially, and in the long run, bad for business.
Admittingly, yes, it would have been ugly had they not done something. However, I also look at Sony's systems and see issues with them that were just swept under the rug. Disc scratching? Never happened. YLOD? Isolated problems. Having the warranty extended for known widespread issues like RROD and E74 tells me as a consumer that the issue is less likely to just be ignored.
4. XBox Live. Sure, it's got a down in having to pay for it. But if there are people still playing a game, you can find them and play along. Note how many XBox 1 games are still being supported and played. In addition, the price does give us another game (1 vs 100), and more that I'll get to.
Whilst it's a good service, I don't see how paying just to play P2P is in anyway a benefit to the consumer. PC games have had dedicated servers for years now and for free, I think all 360 games should too. Paying to play online (especially P2P) is quite simply a joke. All the extra features do not equal a subscription based service.
Yes, PC has had it for a while, however, it was XBL that really let it take off for consoles. I'm not a big fan of the having to pay concept, but at least, like I said, I also get to play a game with that price. I'm of the mindset that I will either pay to own a game, or to play a game. I will not pay to own AND pay again to play it. (Thus, I don't MMORPG.) So if it were only online playing, I would not see it as a good deal. It's the extras that make it more worthwhile.
As for the dedicated server issue, there will come a time when a game's popularity does not justify keeping up a whole server, and thus, that server will be cut. The advantage of XBL is that since it is P2P base, they can match you up with that old game that a few people still play, and it remains an option. Didn't EA recently announce removing servers for a bunch of their games, some of which are only 1 year old? MS's system makes this a moot point.
5. Online marketplace. There are a TON of games in the marketplace, though you will have to dig to find some of the best ones. And if you're a XBL Gold member, MS is one of 2 companies that seems to have regular sales on something to download. (Steam being the other one.) And there are demos for EVERY game, something that would be nice for both Nintendo and Sony to learn.
PSN does have special offers whenever I look (although I usually don't bother buying them) so you could say that's 3 companies. Plus Steam and PSN do this without having to pay a subscription. I'm not entirely certain but I also think a number of other PC game download services have sepcial offers but I'd need to check this.
Then I will stand corrected on this point, as last I checked, I did not see any sales on PSN on my PSP. Again, it's not something I would pay for by itself, but being able to get discounts on other games if I'm playing those other XBL games is nice.
I'm sure I could come up with more, but I still have more to go on the other side...
Business-
1. The red ink has stopped flowing. Yes, the XBox division is still red. But it's being patched up, and is showing quarterly profit consistantly. With persevereance, the red can be cleared up, and profit can be generated.
Until they've made a return on investment for this gen, I'm not sure this can be counted as success. Maybe a half-success.
Sure, it's not a complete boom yet. However, it is not palatable to the shareholders. Something is finally adding to the bottom line, thus they're not likely to axe support for it as things stand. MS will need to be careful in how they play their cards next gen, as if they go back to hemmoraghing money on the 720, the shareholders may wonder where the profit went, and then it stands a better chance of getting pulled.
Again, I could probably do more, but this post is getting a little long for my tastes. And I'd be willing to bet that most people here are only skimming this post, and not reading it, from how long it is already.
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