Squilliam on 15 July 2008
| starcraft said: Yes I think there was a very definite strategy, which you've highlighted very well. Of course their miscalculation was the way the market has changed this generation with regard to the casual fanbase. But as Sony made the same miscalculation, Microsoft's strategy should give them a good chance of being second this generation. I reckon if Rrod hadn't happened, this wouldn't even be a question, second place would have been certain. |
I don't think they've adjusted their plans hugely since the beginning. If you consider that games have a lead time of two to three years we won't see a serious response to the Wii until between the end of this year and the end of next. Everything up until this point has been TO PLAN IMO because you can't change on a dime and start pursuing a new strategy if the old one doesn't work too well. This mainstream push was always slated to happen from this point onwards, The Wii may have given it more emphasis but the idea was there from the beginning and noone can deny that if you consider games like Banjo would have taken years to make. For the Xbox360 vs Sony competition, Sony is sitting a year behind in releases to the Xbox360 so that head-start is really hitting home. We didn't see it so much last year because of the incredible work Microsoft has to do to keep up with the PS3. The question is not why isn't the Xbox360 outselling the PS3 but why hasn't the PS3 left the Xbox360 in the dust? My answer is that Microsofts strategy has really kept them in the race. In the space of one year and two holiday seasons the Xbox360 had 4 90%+ Shooters released exclusively with combined sales of 17 Million. Now the PS3 is releasing 3 big name shooters - Socom, RFOM2, KZ2 and because Microsoft has "been there, pwned that" They can't sell nearly as many systems to the shooter crowd because Microsoft got most of them the first time round and the 2nd time round they will capture many more when you Add gears 2+Left 4 dead to the legacy titles that are available. So whilst Sony seems to be hitting shooters hard, Microsoft is going after the RPG crowd and not even bothering to answer the Sony FPSers specificially. They didn't even mention left 4 dead at E3... LOL they're that worried.
Tease.
