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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Microsoft is forcing X360 sales!

Christopher_G2 on 15 March 2007

euclid said: The same could be said about Sony.
To some extent, but where Sony really won was being the most developer friendly over the last two gens. Now they've gone from having the systems that's the easiest to make games for two gens in a row, to going to the system that's the hardest to make games for. When it comes to Microsoft the only reason they're even concidered a credible competitor in the gaming business it because they have so much money to shell around, and is willing to lose lots of money on deals that may never pay off (Rare for a half billion, how's that gone Microsoft?). I make no buts that I'm personally not a huge fan of Microsoft consoles, but even it's hardcore fanbase has to contend I'm right. Up to this point they more have become a video game success because of how much they spend, not really because of amazing business decisions.



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Kwaad on 15 March 2007

I'd say their servers... For 2million subscribers... would need a OC-8 line. That would cost them roughly 4,000$/month. However they are probibally backing it off their main backbone, wich is ALOT cheaper for bandwidth, so I'd say their bandwidth is less than 2,000$/month for x-box live. In terms of servers, this is where the big cost comes from. I would say they have about 500,000$ worth of servers they need to invest about 100,000$/yearly. Add in the cost of their developers. I would say they have a team of about 20 people. 20*100,000=2million. I would say x-box live costs microsoft around 2.8million/year. I would go with the conservative number of 2million gold members. (at least) so that gives them a yearly income of well over 80million. I seriously doubt they pay more than 10million/year for everything. it's a cash-cow. Why do you think sony is giving it for free? Because the advertisements will more than pay for everything. Just to let you guys know. You can make a game like WoW on a 50million USD budget. and about 500,000$/month. (including the expansion teams) 3,000,000*12= 36,000,000 / month WoW pays itself off every 2 months. Seriously guys. Bandwidth is next to free. artists/designers. Are next to free when your talking millions of subscribers. I've done alot of research in this. Microsoft is making a killing of their online service. EDIT: I just wanna say a voice server that has 64people online at once, needs roughly 5mbit up. That is the extreme tho. However if you invest in a true optical connection you can get a 100/100 for roughly 500-1000$/month. and if you wanna go crazy, you can get a OC-512 and have something like... 20gbit connection. Wich would cost you around 50,000$/month. (for an example of how much that is, you can download the internet in a matter of days) If I had a 20gbit connection, I could transfer everything off my computer in about 3minutes... if my HDD was fast enough. Bandwidth is NOT that expensive. you could always get a OC-3072, which is 159.25248 Gbps. Hey, it's new!



PSN ID: Kwaad


I fly this flag in victory!

Kwaad on 15 March 2007

Christopher_G2 said: euclid said: The same could be said about Sony. To some extent, but where Sony really won was being the most developer friendly over the last two gens. Now they've gone from having the systems that's the easiest to make games for two gens in a row, to going to the system that's the hardest to make games for. When it comes to Microsoft the only reason they're even concidered a credible competitor in the gaming business it because they have so much money to shell around, and is willing to lose lots of money on deals that may never pay off (Rare for a half billion, how's that gone Microsoft?). I make no buts that I'm personally not a huge fan of Microsoft consoles, but even it's hardcore fanbase has to contend I'm right. Up to this point they more have become a video game success because of how much they spend, not really because of amazing business decisions.
PS2 was the hardest to make games on last gen. FYI



PSN ID: Kwaad


I fly this flag in victory!

albionus on 28 March 2007

Christopher_G2 said: euclid said: The same could be said about Sony. To some extent, but where Sony really won was being the most developer friendly over the last two gens. Now they've gone from having the systems that's the easiest to make games for two gens in a row, to going to the system that's the hardest to make games for. When it comes to Microsoft the only reason they're even concidered a credible competitor in the gaming business it because they have so much money to shell around, and is willing to lose lots of money on deals that may never pay off (Rare for a half billion, how's that gone Microsoft?). I make no buts that I'm personally not a huge fan of Microsoft consoles, but even it's hardcore fanbase has to contend I'm right. Up to this point they more have become a video game success because of how much they spend, not really because of amazing business decisions.
To add to Kwaad's comment, the Gamecube was by every account I read the easiest system to develop for last generation. As I understand it the original Playstation was easier than the Saturn to develop for by far but the N64 was easier so long as the graphics were limited (though still better than the competition) due to its pathetic 4kB texture buffer and you could easily fit the game onto an 8 MB cartidge. As for Microsoft pushing sales even they have a limit. They can't go on losing a billion dollars a year on video games forever. If the Xbox 360 doesn't eventually make a profit shareholders will seriously question allowing the company to continue selling video games. They aren't a charity after all.



shams on 28 March 2007

StarcraftManiac said: I think Microsoft can keep their X360 alive because of their enormous cash amount. They simply buy exclusive games or even buy the whole dev unit... So no mater what happens, Microsoft can keep their console alive! Thoughts and suggestions about this theory...
They sort of tried this with the Xbox1 - and lost heaps of money, tonnes of "dead" projects and more. Even MS isn't rich enough to buy games/teams/exclusivity outright for heaps of projects - there is still pressure on their games division to make a profit.



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