Americas UP, October 1st

[Michael-5]

reviniente said:

Michael-5 said:

No they are greedy. The 360 costs less to produce then the PS3, and offers less (no Blu-Ray). At the very most it should cost on par with PS3, they both had a price cut in 2009, and the cost of production on both consoles has dropped equally. It makes no sense that the 360 cost more then the PS3 ontop of other charges MS gives. MS is greedy, plain and simple.

You'll miss me?

Microsoft is a freakin typical crap US company. Overprice goods, build to the lowest bidder, planed obselence of product. This is why the US Auto industry has died, and this is why almost all technology comes from Japan, Korean or Finland. It's called quality control, and MS plain and simple doesn't have it. If your going to sell a product for $300, make it worth $300, stop trying to rake in cash. This is why MS will never be ontop for gaming platforms.

I also hate XBLG, not because they charge online, but because there is no real alternative to a 1 year plan.

Three things:

1. Two things killed the US Auto Industry: the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the 1973 Oil Crisis. And a failure to adapt, yes. So three, I guess. Microsoft is not that kind of company. Xbox LIVE itself is very innovative. Kinect is great technology; check out Forza 4.

2. Do you think SON¥ cut the PS3 price because of their aversion of money? They cut it to increase sales of said console and curb the effect of a strong yen in order to (wait for it) increase profit. So did Nintendo, with the 3DS. Microsoft will cut price when Microsoft needs to.

3. All the joy of LIVE, 3 months at a time.

1. US Auto industry died because the Japanese auto industry took them over. Since the mid 1980's Japanese companies have been slowly gaining sales, and now Toyota and GM are on even grounds WW. It's because GM planned their cars to concurrently break down after a period of time. Before the Japanese entered the market it was 3 years (or 90k), and GM was able to make nice looking/driving cars. After the Japanese entered it was 10 years (or 250k), and GM cars all still sold for the same price, but were made of crappier plastic materials in order to balance profit.

I know a ridiculous amount about cars. GM and Crysler fell apart because of poor management. Simple as that. Ford survived because they actually make cars that appeal outside of the US (in Europe you might actually find people driving ford Fiestas and Focus's :-O!) and since the Japanese have entered the market, they have done a good amount to improve quality (largly from partly owning Mazda).

What most US corporations do is make crap products, make them in slave labour conditions in China, and sell them way over priced. I mean iPhones have over a 5,000% profit margin in factories with ridiculously high suicide rates. Nike Shoes cost less then 40 cents to make and transport, and just overall US companies make me sick.

I didn't realize this until recently when my iPhone and X-Box broke on me multiple times.

1.5 - Kinect is cool, overpriced IMO, but cool. Forza 4 is awesome, and XBL is great. I'm not disspointed in quality of MS products, just market strategy.

2. Duh, but not everything is about profit. Sony also realized the main complaint with the PS3 is the high price tag and they lowered it to make it more available to customers.

3. 3 Month XBL gold costs 50% as much as 12 months. Why pay double? Where are the 1 month or 1 week cards? or pre-paid online hours? What if I want to get XLBG just to play Gears 3 online for a week? What if I want to play XBLG all year, but I only want to play an hour or two a month? am I forced to pay $5 an hour? So many flaws with XBL pricing, MS basically forces you to subscribe annually.

You know, XLB Silver accounts used to grant you online access to old games, or XBL games which have PC ports? I used to play Lost Planet online with my silver account until the mandetory XBL update of 2009. Why? I mean if XBL for Windows is free, why do they charge console gamers only? Why am I forced to pay to play old games online which used to be free to play online? The game is too pld for patches and service updates, so I am literally paying for nothing.

I fall into this category because I typically want to play XBL for only a couple days a month. So I have to choose to either pay a ridiculous amount to play Halo in April, or limit my online to 3 month bursts from Sept-Dec.

4. So many things I dislike about MS as a company. As a system, I love my 360, as a company I have little respect for MS.