(Business Perspective) Does MS really need Xbox Hardware?

[Hiku]

Azzanation said:

javi741 said:

Saying competition never helped us in the video game industry is wild. Many consoles became far cheaper solely to get ahead of the curb in sales against their competitors, there are so many examples I could list. N64 was originally supposed to launch at 250$ but lowered the price to 200$ to keep up with the PS1 & Saturn in sales and price. Throughout the 6th generation literally the day after Sony announced price cuts on the PS2, Microsoft & Nintendo would price cut their systems to keep up. Sony also clearly wouldn't have priced the PS3 at 600$ if the 6th gen competition was closer, but they priced it that high because they thought they were so dominant that consumers would buy their consoles no matter what after dominating the 6th gen, the reason the PS4 was as affordable and developer friendly as it was was to make a better system that would make sure Xbox wouldn't take away their sales again.

Competition just overall gives us more options too, if the competition wasn't so stiff in the 6th generation Nintendo likely would've never gone the innovative direction with their consoles, consoles that have proven to be more appealing than standard Nintendo consoles as proven by the sales numbers of the DS,Wii,3DS, and Switch. We now benefit as a consumer having another option like the Switch to get a hybrid experience different from PS & Xbox.

Competiton also encourages companies to release the best games to sell the most hardware.

You are clouded by the notion of Competition is better. There is always a catch when companies play around with pricing. Companies find other ways to make you pay them back for their discounted prices. Nothing is for free. They literally all locked up Multiplayer behind a paywall, that was Competition that did that, not a monopoly. 

Competition does not equal better games, and to debunk your points on pricing, look at the industry today. We have price increases across the board, in a industry with Competition. Companies will price hike regardless. Because they know when one does it, they all follow to push the agenda

The industry is better when we move away from exclusive boxes and focus on open platforms. Exactly how PCs and the mobile marker work.

We have literally seen more bad things happen when it comes to competition than we have seen with gains.

It looks to me like you are conflating 'competition is good' = 'nothing bad can happen during competition'.

Would Sony and Nintendo have thought of locking multiplayer behind a paywall if Microsoft hadn't come up with the idea first?
Maybe. Maybe not. But if Xbox had monopoly of the industry, we wouldn't even have had 1-2 generations of free online play at all.
And no games would be playable offline without a DRM check. We would be forced to use the Kinect. Etc.

The price of games went up as a result of the cost of developing games skyrocketing.

Last edited by Hiku - on 05 February 2024