only777 said:
I'm not having a go at you here, but I think this statament is how Microsoft see it and this is why Microsoft are losing so much at this point. Sony (and increasingly Nintendo these days) are all for building the libary of games for the machine. They seem to be willing to have a game on the system so long as it will at least break even. This way adds niche games to the overal libary, and having lots of these niche games helps to create the image that there are games avaiable for all types of gamers. Having the odd niche game is not good enough, as they are small, their impact is only really felt when they are avaiable in greater numbers. Microsofts approach to sticking to larger, higher profit titles; limits the amount of different games on the machine, and in turn drives customers to rival machines who offer a spectrum of titles from AAA to indie budget games. If one machine offers all the Multiplat AAA games (and a few exclusives) and another offers all the same AAA games plus many smaller word of mouth games; then the choice is a no brainer. |
I think I agree with you here. I bet Microsoft would like to have more games available, but as far as I know, Microsoft has relatively limited game development capability, so they feel like they have to spend that capability carefully. As far as I know, not a lot of Microsoft's success last gen can be attributed to smaller or riskier titles and in fact, trying to break into the Japanese market didn't really turn out too well. On the other hand, partnerships with third parties (especially Activision in regard to Call of Duty) turned out really well. Thus, they're being calculative and making only safer investments. For Microsoft's development capability, that seems like a good bet to me.
