SvennoJ said:
kain_kusanagi said:
Soundwave said:
It would be called XBox 8 or whatever Microsoft would want it to be called. Microsoft's invested billions into the XBox brand, they would just take the Playstation name and bury it and consolidate both the XBox and PS3 audience under one brand (their own). They'd just allow Sony to publish God of War/Uncharted/Gran Turismo for them.
The "Playstation" brand would became a legacy brand on XBox Live for downloadable PSOne/PS2 games and that's basically it probably. Maybe MS would let Sony release a higher-end home theatre Sony branded XBox but that's about it.
Say hello to a $599.99 console or $149.99 w/a 4 year subscription too, lol. No competition and all that. Enjoy fellas. |
What was the launch price of the PS3? Oh yeah it was $499.99-$599.99.
I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion, but yours has a lot of animosity in it. You assume MS was buying the PS brand, which isn't what this rumor is about. But let's say that's the case, what it was the other way around? If Sony bought the Xbox brand you could say it would get shoved to the back and Halo, Forza and Fable would be all that's left.
Now, to get back on topic. If Sony and MS partnered it could me almost anything. Wouldn't it be great if Sony built the box and MS developed and maintained the OS and Online infrastructure? Wouldn't it be great to get the best of both on one machine? You could play Halo and Uncharted on the same box. The only thing we would lose would be stupid fanboy hate wars.
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We would lose competition
- Lesser quality games, no need to push the machines as hard to lure costumers.
- Less developer aid, less funding for original games to stand out from the other guy.
- Higher starting price point, less price cuts. Not just because they can but because there is less money to be made, A lot of people buy both consoles with their accesories making more money for MS and Sony combined then if they would bring out 1 console together.
- Sales will drop off sooner, a lot of consoles at the end of the generation are bought by people getting the other console. No more option to buy that other console late in the gen with a huge catalog of great games to play.
- It will throw the door wide open for a new competitor to come in offering a specialiced loss leading games console.
The only good that I can see come from it is shorter console cycles to keep interest and fend of new competitors. But a lot of people would call that a negative as well.
Ms and Sony teaming up their online would be a much better way to keep a firm grip on the market. Cross console online play would be a huge bonus to choose a MS or Sony console over the WiiU or a new competitor. Joining there movie stores can also only be beneficial. But that is unlikely to happen as long as MS is enjoying the huge benefits of gold while Sony insists on keeping online play free.
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There was plenty of heated competition between Sega and Nintendo. There's no reason to assume that wouldn't be the case with Nintendo and MSony.
