Mr Puggsly said:
EricHiggin said:
Just assume what very well might have occurred if MS never entered the console space, or if they did and only ever managed OG XB level sales each gen.
PS3 sales would have very likely landed beyond 100 mil even with all it's problems. SNY had plans way back then of an all encompassing ecosystem like Apple, Samsung, etc, have now, where Cell was in all SNY products.
In this case, you can bet MS saw this coming long ago, before even PS2, and at the very least, wanted 'their slice' of this with Windows, which was never going to happen with SNY then. Just look at PS3 already touching on Linux.
If you're MS, do you really want to potentially allow SNY to grow enough in the tech space and either use a competitors/non Windows OS/software, or perhaps even let SNY make their own for their all encompassing ecosystem?
How long before PS4 or PS5 was basically an affordable media PC with a non Windows full OS? 200 mil sales? 500 mil sales? 1 bil sales?
It would be way way smarter to start a console brand and toss a few billion at it every year to simply keep SNY in check. If you could eventually grow it and make seriously good use of it for MS overall then sure, get more serious about it, but if not, it would serve it's purpose regardless.
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I believe its certainly possible MS saw Sony as a threat if they could grow unchecked. But I also think its an industry MS wanted its foot in. It wasn't entirely new ground for MS given Windows was a popular gaming platform and they produced content. Yet it was still a different market than MS was in.
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MS did approach SNY and Nin to partner with an offer of Windows and Online before OG XB did they not? I believe the plan was to let SNY or Nin remain taking care of the gaming hardware and software while MS only focused on the user connections and experience. Based on this the number 1 goal for MS was to protect and expand Windows first and foremost.
I agree that since MS almost certainly anticipated a future where SNY/PS expands so greatly that it starts cutting significantly into Windows profits, that they figured if that much growth took place, a Direct X console could potentially be quite profitable eventually. Even if it wasn't, to just break even or lose a few billion every year would be fine, because it would mean nothing to MS overall, while keeping SNY in check, as Windows kept printing more and more money.
This would mean that so far, every XB has been a success as per MS.
