Or translated another way
PPPPPPPPPPLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE don't buy a PS3, we need to shift lots more 360's to cover these warranty costs.
Does smack of a bit of nerves on MS's part on this one. I mean Sony were bitten once with the 20gig machine in Japan and the US, I find it unlikely that they would repeat that. I would also think that changing the production lines to run with two very different builds would be less than cost effective.
Given that the E3 announcements by Sony have apparently already seen a jump in sales might have a certain company a bit worried.
Excellent points. The facts just don't add up, especially Vrignaud's claim that Sony would release a PS3 without backward compatibility. As you pointed out, PS3 sales are up, and Sony already found that the 20GB PS3 just didn't sell well.
In addition, Sony is enjoying some good buzz from E3 with several exiting titles on their way so this not only doesn't make much sense, and if anything makes it really look like a desperate attempt on MS part to take attention away from their own woes and possibly encourage those who ay have been planning to get a PS3 to wait for a version that might never show up.
My guess, MS is doing exactly what Scaff has mentioned. They are probably more worried than ever before.
Frankly, I can smell the fear coming off of both MS execs and fanboys alike. It seems '08 is going to be the year where Sony kills MS and drives the 3 billion dollar lossers of the Home Entertainment division of MS out of the market.
$5.9 billion in losses since the original Xbox, and MS Xbox losses are expected to exceed well past $7 billion by the end of the year.
Only Halo 3 can save MS at this point.
Microsoft would need close to 50 first party X360 games as successful as Halo 3 is expected to be in order to come close to breaking even by the end of the year. Considering only one game for the X360, Gears of War, has sold more than 2 million copies, it is very unlikely Microsoft's investment in their Xbox division will ever return enough profit to break even.
Again though, my guess is that '08 will really mess up MS's plans to dominate the console market. GT5, MGS4, and nearly every good game going on the X360 other than Halo will be great games for PS3 (it's hard to deny the fact that most of the games shown as hits for the 360 at E3 were multi-platform games like COD).
Oh, and that's all without mention of the fact that developers such as EA are now begining to focus on development for the PS3 rather than primarily developing for the 360.
Btw, using my logic (which isn't to say it is right)...
I don't see how the MS statement makes sense.
What company would plan their biggest year of releases for the year after they would go under? No company would do that.
Good points as well.
There is a slim (very slim) chance that if they [Microsoft] can't start creating positive revenue growth the investors may call a stop to the gaming stuff. I don't see it happening this generation, but if they don't recoup their losses before the next generation they may have to call a halt to the entire entertainment division. That entire division looks like a case of "we can do that too" and then spending too much money trying to prove it.
I agree, but I seriously do not believe MS would ever call a halt to the entire entertainment division. What I can see happen is that they pull out of hardware development and sales, and focus on their core business, software, which is highy profitable... although it would be very interesting to see MS release games for a Sony console... but stranger things have happened... including the improved relationship between Apple and Microsoft.
Its not the company itself or the executives that MS's gaming division need to worry about, its the shareholders. The profits they make are being reduced by this part of MS and its inability to make money, given enough time and they could deal the final card, and that would almost be regardless of what MS as a company want.
Precisely... and with the recent news of several MS executives dumping huge chunks of their company stock from their own personal portfolios suggests that the writing is on the wall regarding angry shareholders demanding changes.
Sony's 'trump' card in this area is the PS2, it continues to sell, worldwide, at a very healthy rate; and everyone sold makes SCEJ money. Money that can help to subsidise and mitigate losses from the PS3 in its early years and help calm shareholder nerves.
I think the decision to continue to support the PS2 was a very wise one on the part of Sony. While it is likely true they would have had better PS3 sales had they cut support for the PS2, but considering how much they lose on PS3 hardware, and how they didn't have enough software titles to help minimize those losses, they could easily have found themselves in a similar situation that MS is in.
By continuing their support of the PS2 they have been able to enjoy those profits while also ramping up PS3 hardware production and software support.
Heavenly Sword convinces eh?
I liked it myself (thinking of the bigger picture here) - if this is just a demo, a short demo I may add, what would the whole game be like?
Short, yet in terms of disc space already larger than some X360 games, and its just a short demo. This should once and for all end all speculation that quality next-gen HD games are going to need more than 7GB of disc space, and in some cases, have already exceeded twice that much disc space. 👍
at you thinking the 360 is getting Dreamcasted in 2008. You're lying to yourself if you seriously believe that.
