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MrMafoo on 18 January 2008
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madskillz said:
Lord N said:
madskillz said:


MS is a very patient copy. The Xbox was just a trojan horse to get the 360 to the table. If it worked, cool - if not, they were expecting that too.

The big difference between the Xbox and the 360 is - the appeal and its dominance over Sony - for the time being. Sure, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Bioshock are out, but don't for once think MS has used its big guns yet. MS was the one who pushed for a later GTA IV date. Remember?

I am looking at this from a purely business standpoint. MS rarely - RARELY makes mistakes. That's my plan if I was running the MS entertainment division show.

For Sony to win, take the loss and force MS to counter. I would also sign tons of exclusive games to the system and get the games out, not delayed. One delay and our contract is null and void. Time is of the essence. I would rather win and leave on top or a close second than win by default.

 


I'd hardly call a lead that's only because of a headstart any kind of dominance.

MS doesn't make any mistakes?

-RROD, disc scratching, and various other hardware design flaws that were ignored and allowed to fester and worsen until they turned into PR nightmares.

-360 priced at double mass market price point from the beginning.

-Failure to drop the price in a timely and effective manner.

-Failure to make sure that the game library of the 360 was more diverse instead of the majority of its high-profile titles being shooters, racing sims, and sports games.

-


And yet, they are sitting close to 17M consoles sold, and easily overshadowing the progress of the original Xbox.

As far as MS mistakes, let's compare:

MS - RROD, disc scratching (which happens a lot when you turn your Xbox vertical or horizontal while the disc is playing), Windows Vista and ME - though in defense of MS, I never buy an OS until Service Pack 2 hits - and a few gaming misses

Sony's greatest hits - BetaMax, UMDs, Minidisk, ATRAC® music format, exploding laptop batteries, PS2 disk read errors and Super Audio CDs

Funny that you'd mention the 360 pricing ... it still got a ton of sales, even while being supply constrained for several months. There was also no need for MS to do a price cut - they were comfortable with sales for nearly 2 years and making profits, so why cut into those profits with a price cut? Sony did it within 6 months of launch because they were desperate for sales. And the lineup is very diverse - shooters, sports games, RPGs, driving games - even casual games.

Sony has to find a winning formula to make this race put them into the black ... 


 

I think your view of these two companies, as a whole, is a little skewed.

Over the last year, Sony’s stock as grown faster in value then Microsoft’s. Sony has had a rough few years, with things like exploding batteries, the PS3 launch, and the root kit fiasco.

Sony’s problems are behind them now. They have a very strong finical division, the PS3 is looking strong for the future, the OLED technology shows promise, and it looks like Blu-Ray stands to make them a fortune. As a whole, they have a positive looking 5 years ahead of them.

Microsoft on the other hand has a console that will most likely die outside of the US, an operating system that even Bill Gates has publicly criticized, and Apple breathing down their throats with about 10% of the market share in the PC world (and growing). They also all but destroyed MS’s handheld market with the iPhone.

Other then the applications department at MS, everything they do is in jeopardy. I would not look at them right now as some unstoppable force with unlimited resources.

22% of the fortune 500 companies from 5 years ago don’t exist anymore. No company is safe from failure. Not even Microsoft.