VGKing said:
Soundwave said:
VGKing said:
Soundwave said:
Honestly I think in the higher end market, Microsoft is going to drive Sony out in the next 5-6 years by creating a better piece of hardware, which in turn will make them the console of choice for "hardcore" players.
Sony can't afford to price match Microsoft anymore, and Microsoft knows this. A couple of years of losses upfront on the 720 and they can bury Sony for good. We're starting to hear some reports that seem to indicate MS is "going for it" at the urging of some developers (probably Epic and some others). So I could see a situation where the 720 has say 4GB of RAM + a beefier GPU versus a Sony Orbis that has 2GB RAM/weaker GPU.
Nintendo will retain a good portion of the lower end/"normal person" (lol) market, but MS will make inroads here too with Kinect.
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Highly unlikely. Microsoft loves making profit. Want proof? There hasnt' been an Xbox 360 price cut since like 2008.
An Xbox 360 would easily bee sold at $150 with Microsoft still making decent profit. But why isn't it? Because Microsoft loves making profit.
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That's the 360 model -- to not have a ton of price drops but to absorb losses early on. The price remains static as time goes on, but of course the cost of production drops. The 720 could follow the same model ... Sony is the one that can't afford to repeat the PS3 model. Though in hindsight I think if MS knew Sony was going to shock everyone with the $599 thing, they probably would've started XBox 360 at a little bit more expensive of a price and not taken such a big loss upfront.
$299.99/$399.99 for the level of tech the 360 was bringing to the market (bleeding edge) in 2005 was a ridiculous bargain.
Microsoft can lose money on the 720 early on too, it's not a big deal for them, they likely view the 720 as a 7-8 year investment, so they lose money the first 2-3 years, but make it back in the final 5/6. Sony I don't think can afford to do that any more, Nintendo won't go there either. So it's a competetive advantage MS can use if they want to play that card.
As an entire company MS turns a hefty profit every year. Sony is swimming in debt and taking massive losses from every direction, they can't afford to price/feature match Microsoft any more. Sony has billions and billions of dollars in unpaid debt (so much so that their debt was recently downgraded, which is really, really bad).
If I'm Microsoft I'm looking at the game market and saying "why are we splitting half of our market with Sony? Lets take their share" this generation for sure.
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Yes, Microsoft COULD launch a ridiculously over=powered console and price it chepaer than a less-powerful PS4....but they won't.
Microsoft WANTS to make profit. In the first few years they want to take as little a lost as possible.(or even profit from day 1). This is the way companies work. Anyway Sony WILL take a loss on each PS4 for at least hte first year. Their main competitor is the Xbox 720 and they have no intention of playing it safe.
BTW, if Sony were to leave the console business, it would be bad for the entire industry and it would also mean a lot more work for Microsoft.
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I think you're confusing what you want with what Microsoft wants. Microsoft would love to rule the game industry.
It would be a nice feather in their cap especially after getting thumped badly by Apple in the media distribution race/tablet/cell phone market etc.
They can tell their stockholders "OK, ok, Apple, Apple, Apple, Google ... but hey look at what we're doing in the game business, look at Kinect, look at our dominance here ...". It's something they can point to especially if Windows Phone never takes off. It's kinda like when you got a report card with one subject that was a D and another was an A ... well you could always kinda assuage your parents by pointing out you're doing great in this one subject and maybe you'll even come around in that other subject.
If I'm Microsoft I bait Sony into fighting the race like this ... it's a race that favors Microsoft. Sony isn't the same company they used to be 10 years ago, their brand (Playstation and Sony in general) has diminished considerably. This is where smart corporations if they have a killer mentality go for the kill.
If I was working at MS I'd also push to secure exclusivity deals on certain key franchises. If Nintendo can take Monster Hunter away from Sony (and I don't for a second believe Nintendo wasn't involved in that), MS should go at Sony on the console side too.
Microsoft loves to pick fights they know they can win. Right now they're in tough with Apple and Google with the smart phone thing, they probably are too late in coming to the market. But Sony? In the game business? I mean if you're Microsoft you gotta be feeling pretty damn confident about that. Any profit the game division makes for Microsoft is just peanuts compared to their other businesses, always has been, always will be. XBOX as a brand is a vanity project for MS, something to get them into the living room first and foremost.
