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Squilliam on 15 March 2011
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Rainbird said:
Squilliam said:

In this generation we've seen:

  • 4 different HDD sizes.
  • A completely revamped OS with an entirely new look and feel.
  • Major new Live features.
  • A completely new exterior to the console.
  • A completely new way to play games was launched for the console.

How much of the Xbox 360 as it is today completely alien to the box which was launched 5 years ago? It's arguably the most changed console in the current console generation. Now how much of what has happened to the Xbox 360 in the long run negatively effected the Xbox 360 as a game console? If you can agree that the current state of Xbox 360 evolution was positive then you can also agree that console evolution during a hardware generation is a good thing. Now every action they've taken has been weighted with supporting evidence and followed up afterwards, so if they do or have already decided to follow even more rapid console evolution it will be because they believe it will make them more profitable which is in the end satisfying their target audience.

This is a different argument then what you present in the OP though, to me at least. The 360 has evolved, but not in a way where your launch unit isn't on par with anything new. It's more noisy, and if you have an old unit without storage you may not have room for the OS updates, but on the whole, there's nothing your old 360 can't do that your new 360 can. There's no game that can take advantage of any new features that makes a game unplayable on a launch unit compared to an S unit.

And that's the difference with game consoles and Apple's strategy. When people buy a game console, they expect it to recieve continued support and a bunch of games they can play in the long run. Smartphones don't have as long a lifespan as game consoles, and if Microsoft did yearly hardware revisions that would alienate old users, they would lose more customers than they would gain.

Comparing iOS to games consoles is very much a comparison of apples and oranges.

It's a supplement argument!


Compare a launch console with 20GB and the old operation system to the same price in hardware from today. You've got 20GB vs 250GB of space, vastly more reliable console, new operating system, Kinect etc. Just because it performs similar functions and plays most of the same games doesn't mean it hasn't evolved.

What basis do you have for people to actually become alienated in a real sense as opposed to loud mouth internet whiners just making a bunch of noise? Noone is forced to buy a new revision of an Apple device for instance so why would people feel compelled to buy a new revision of a console unless it actually offered them something they wanted which the current console they had didn't? I didn't even say that they would offer yearly revisions, just that they could offer them as frequently as that. Most likely every two years or every three years would be the right frequency.



Tease.