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Soundwave on 31 July 2012
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kain_kusanagi said:
Soundwave 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.


Yeah PS3 was $500-$600. And? Without any competetion outside of Nintendo, Microsoft would just price as they please. 

If Sony-MS 'partnered', it wouldn't be almost anything. Lets be realistic. Sony is dirt broke and has three franchises in their entire portfolio that actually sell at a mid-tier rate. 

Microsoft is just becoming profitable in the game sector and they need the game business and control of the living room because of their utter failure at stopping Apple from advancing as the world's most dominant company. So they need the XBox to hang their hat on and show their investors "see, at least we got XBox right!". 

I'm just being realistic. Honestly this rumor is probably about 100% BS anyway, but if this were to realistically happen, MS would take as they please, they wouldn't "share" anything with Sony. Maybe if we're turning the clock back to circa 1999/2000, when Sony actually had something MS didn't, then it would be in MS' interests, but not today. Your idea of Sony buying anything from MS is laughable. 

If there is a joint venture between the two, it won't be Sony making the box, it will be MS. Just like MS making their own tablet now they are realizing they need to have some actual hardware to drive their broader corporate strategy. XBox brand is paramount in that. Sony is the one who would have to bend over, not the other way around. 

Today's so-called "console wars" are laughably tame anyway. Sony/MS have the same games more or less with 2-3 truly notable exclusives either way. I was around during the SNES/Genesis days ... now *that* was an intense console war. Today is nothing. 

Sure it was a war, for the companies. On the playground it wasn't anything at all. We kids would play eachother's consoles and enjoy it all. Today fanboys make the fake console wars into something you'd think actualy effects their lives.

But besides that. I agree this rumor is probably bs. But I like specualting and I think it would be good. I'm tired of having to buy so many machines. I'd love to buy one for Halo and Uncharted and another for Mario and Zelda. If I had my way all three would drop hardware and go to PC so all I'd have to do is build myself one kickass machine and upgrade every 5 years.

I wouldn't mind buying fewer hardware, but the downside to that is that good luck getting anyone to sell such a console at a "reasonable" cost. You'd be paying a lot for it, or (most likely) having to buy into a cell phone like contract, which is what MS likely wants for the game business. 

I'm just being realistic, how I could see it happening is this:

- MS goes to Sony and says "look, forget about the PS4. You're just going to burn through billions of dollars you don't have trying to compete with us. Scrap it, we'll let you support our platform, we'll give you a fat wad of cash upfront since we can see you need the money, and a yearly cut of all licensing fee revenue. You can contine on as a publisher and advisor as long as it's exclusivly for us."

Now Sony may initially balk at that, but then MS could bust out something like saying they're going to buy the Call of Duty franchise as exclusive (as Activision is up for sale). 

I don't doubt Sony can make a nice PS4. What I think is going to happen, and I'll call this right now, is MS can see Sony is hurting for cash right now. They are going to go hard after third parties to make certain IP exclusive, since both XBox 720/PS4 are starting from 0 anyway, a lot of third parties are hurting nowadays too -- I think you'll see MS cut some massive deals. 

That's just my prediction, but I can see it happening. When MS senses a weakness in a competitior like the weak position Sony is in today, they generally exploit it. That's their MO.