Nextbox rumors..

Scratched wrote:

To be fair they say "like Sony or B&N", but yes, who's going to buy such a big thing like an Xbox division?

If this were to happen (which it's not), I wouldn't put it past EA or Activision to try to buy it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Odd, the link to Forbes is a dead link right now.

At least it wasn't a Pachter article.

This guy's actually worse than Pachter. Here's a gem about him from Ed Bott's Twitter: "I thought the author of that insanely bad Forbes piece sounded familiar. He wrote in 2011 that Microsoft introduced Zune before iPod. Moron." "Zune 2006. iPod 2001. I sent author a note pointing out error. He acknowledged receipt, but never bothered to correct."

EDIT: From what I'm reading, Forbes has now yanked the piece. When even Forbes won't stand by your writing, you know it's truly awful.

firesloth wrote:

I often think that we don't pay enough attention to the positive dividends that the Xbox provides MS beyond the direct monetary value of that division. When MS first launched the Xbox, they were the big, oppressive monopoly of a company. Many people here abbreviated Microsoft as M$ with regularity.

Now they've made something that people actually *like*, something that is a source of entertainment and broad usefulness (i.e., for streaming and such). Sure, their overall declining marketshare in the PC world has helped them seem a bit less intimidating, as well, but I think the Xbox brand has gone a long way toward getting many to think of MS in a more positive light while simultaneously infiltrating our living rooms.

For MS that's totally worth any slight distraction the E&D division might be in their other efforts. (And, in fact, it would seem they could learn something from the folks that made the Xbox successful.)

That's actually an excellent point. Not sure if I ever typed "M$" or not, but I certainly didn't love Microsoft nor their products. I was 100% Linux / open source back in the day. The XBox and then the 360 absolutely changed how I viewed the company. I still think they make clumsy, cynical decisions (buying Banjo Kazooie to try and purchase an entry into Nintendo's market). But overall they've done a lot of things to push the industry forward.

Yeah, they really have come a long way.

When the original Xbox project was announced it was met with almost universal laughter from the (online) gaming community. Clueless, EVIL, arrogant, and more were typical words used to describe M$ and the OG Xbox.

Now I think most people would be considerably upset if they dropped out of the console business.

I know I would.

Microsoft's normal approach seems to be to jump in with both feet expecting to lose money in order to learn, and then make money. Sometimes, it doesn't work (the Zune), but, with the 360, Microsoft did really well. I find it hard to believe they'd dump their console business, particularly when they've been working to try to turn the 360 into a home media center as well as a gaming console. I can't imagine they're going anywhere.

Several factors drag down E&D at MS...Xbox isn't really chief amongst them..if anything it's driving some profit growth. The challenges are not unique to MS but rather the entire "traditional console" business in the face of $.99 mobile gaming and indie gaming. Ironically as much noise as the analysts make about tablets surpassing consoles in power..the tablet is in its current form awful for gaming... Too big Doron the spot mobile style gaming...and to unwieldy for long gaming sessions.

True story. Back in 2002, I hated Microsoft and loved Sony. Now it's the opposite.

And I'll admit to writing "M$" on GWJ a time or two.

And getting called out by Certis.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

True story. Back in 2002, I hated Microsoft and loved Sony. Now it's the opposite.

And I'll admit to writing "M$" on GWJ a time or two.

And getting called out by Certis. :oops:

Big linux guy who bashed on MS for years, now I like them more than most tech companies...

I was on the Microsoft hate train for years, mostly because of their arrogant, lacking approach to security back around 2000 and because of Windows Vista (I worked at Geek Squad during its launch and it was some of the worst months of my career.) That said, I think Windows 7 is great and Windows 8 would have to do a lot worse than it does before I'd ever consider switching to a Mac. They still do a lot of things poorly sometimes but I still find it amazing that the company has its hands in a million different pots and manages to make a lot of things come out of those that are pretty good. Apple rode a fashion trend and their stock is now showing that and while Microsoft didn't jump to $650 in a couple of years, they've had consistent, steady, strong profits for many years, something most other tech companies can't claim.

I do think Windows 8 and its success (or lack thereof potentially) is going to signal a shift in that company the likes of which have never been seen before and I think if Windows 8 tanks, Ballmer will finally be shown the door by their board (a long time coming and well deserved if you ask me.) The "traditional" games business is definitely in a tough spot right now but if anyone's forced out of it, I think it will definitely be Sony first. A lot of people even now still like to rag on Microsoft because they're seen as the anti-Apple and Apple can do no wrong in many people's eyes but Microsoft isn't stupid and has a lot of very smart people on their payroll.

MS just renamed nearly all of it's entertainment brands "Xbox": music, video, games on PC, phone games, etc. They're not selling.

MannishBoy wrote:

MS just renamed nearly all of it's entertainment brands "Xbox": music, video, games on PC, phone games, etc. They're not selling.

Exactly.

Farscry wrote:
Scratched wrote:

To be fair they say "like Sony or B&N", but yes, who's going to buy such a big thing like an Xbox division?

If this were to happen (which it's not), I wouldn't put it past EA or Activision to try to buy it. ;)

Damn it, don't tell me something that'll give me nightmares right before bed.

parallaxview wrote:

Big linux guy who bashed on MS for years, now I like them more than most tech companies...

Replace BSD with linux and I feel mostly the same (GPL is a virus). The Windows Store has rather turned me against MS though; I have found there are loopholes for what I was afraid of, but still, if there's a single store for all your sh*t, well, forget about MS, what if the government decides something shouldn't be in the Windows Store?

They've also got some great stuff in the research department, but they never seem to use it (obviously I have a limited view of MS's activities re: how they use their research).

Aaron D. wrote:
CheezePavilion wrote:

They should sell the Xbox division off to Burger King.

IMAGE(http://obsoletegamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Sneak-King-Gameplay-Screenshot-2.jpg)

Big Bumpin' Hockey is still one of my favorite party games to date! I still don't know why someone hasn't copied it and made a stand alone XBLA title.

It is too bad they probably won't allow you to run windows apps on the nextbox. Statistically, the nextbox would be a nice computer upgrade for me and might move me to media center computing.

This doesn't sound good.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-...

"Microsoft’s next console will require an Internet connection in order to function, ruling out a second-hand game market for the platform. A new iteration of Xbox Live will be an integral part of Microsoft’s next console, while improved Kinect hardware will also ship alongside the unit."

There's nothing in that article that actually proves no second hand market. There's the sentence "ruling out..." which doesn't actually rule out anything (always online and second hand are not mutually exclusive), and another one that says "It's believed..."

Solid journalism.

Require a connection to function? I'll believe that when I see it.

If it's true then MS can blow me. PS4 sold.

I can't imagine that MS would cut out a fairly large portion of its potential market like that.

IUMogg wrote:

This doesn't sound good.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-...

"Microsoft’s next console will require an Internet connection in order to function, ruling out a second-hand game market for the platform. A new iteration of Xbox Live will be an integral part of Microsoft’s next console, while improved Kinect hardware will also ship alongside the unit."

ITS ON THE INTERNET!! IT MUST BE TRUE!

Chaz wrote:

I can't imagine that MS would cut out a fairly large portion of its potential market like that.

As much as I don't like the idea, I'm sure MS has usage stats to back up what they're doing. Another factor would be that they know a new console will be adopted by different audiences over it's lifespan, so perhaps initially affluent people for whom a reliable internet connection is not a problem, but down the road 'the poors' will also get one. There's movements in countries around the world that believe an internet connection should be a right.

Quality and speed of connection is another matter.

Ahh yes, stories full of rumours from completely unsubstantiated sources. Love it! There's no way the always-on rumour is true. For years, less than 50% of all 360s were online. I'm sure that's higher now but there's still no way it's enough to justify forcing people onto it, even in the era when most houses have wi-fi. If they actually are dumb enough to do that and also use it to cut off used games, all Sony has to do is not require both of those things (or even one of them) and they've already won next-gen. If this story is to be believed, the PS4 is also potentially more powerful as well by nature of how it will let developers access the hardware. I wonder if there will be a paradigm shift back to Sony next time around.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

If it's true then MS can blow me. PS4 sold.

I have to imagine that M$ does focus testing. M$ would have heard this right away and trust that they want to avoid alienating a large portion of their market.

Yeah, I'm not buying it.

Heck, I have an upgraded "fast internet" package at my place and the damn thing knocks offline at least a few times a week, necessitating a modem/router reboot (several service calls later didn't fix the problem).

So if a console bounces me out of a game to the home screen even with an internet connection, that is a base problem big enough to kill any DRM motivations.

I mean, I guess it could happen in a world where MS is "Teh Eval, Greedy M$", I just don't think they're that dumb. To cut off your nose to spite your face and lose half you're audience from a practical point (those who simply not connected to high speed) and then however many on top of that who have fast internet but turn away on principle. That just sounds crazy from a business perspective.

I think the 360 has sold roughly 70 million units and last number Microsoft tossed out for live users (gold and silver) was around 40 million. Allowing for a wide margin of error, that's a lot of non-internet users there.

S0LIDARITY wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

If it's true then MS can blow me. PS4 sold.

I have to imagine that M$ does focus testing. M$ would have heard this right away and trust that they want to avoid alienating a large portion of their market.

Ah, conversations always improve when people start using dollar signs in "Microsoft".

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Ahh yes, stories full of rumours from completely unsubstantiated sources. Love it! There's no way the always-on rumour is true. For years, less than 50% of all 360s were online. I'm sure that's higher now but there's still no way it's enough to justify forcing people onto it, even in the era when most houses have wi-fi. If they actually are dumb enough to do that and also use it to cut off used games, all Sony has to do is not require both of those things (or even one of them) and they've already won next-gen.

You willing to make a bet that they wouldn't make the XBox always online? Because I'd take that bet in a heartbeat.

Tkyl wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Ahh yes, stories full of rumours from completely unsubstantiated sources. Love it! There's no way the always-on rumour is true. For years, less than 50% of all 360s were online. I'm sure that's higher now but there's still no way it's enough to justify forcing people onto it, even in the era when most houses have wi-fi. If they actually are dumb enough to do that and also use it to cut off used games, all Sony has to do is not require both of those things (or even one of them) and they've already won next-gen.

You willing to make a bet that they wouldn't make the XBox always online? Because I'd take that bet in a heartbeat.

I bet you a $5 steam game that the Nextbox won't require an internet connection just to function.

Tkyl wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Ahh yes, stories full of rumours from completely unsubstantiated sources. Love it! There's no way the always-on rumour is true. For years, less than 50% of all 360s were online. I'm sure that's higher now but there's still no way it's enough to justify forcing people onto it, even in the era when most houses have wi-fi. If they actually are dumb enough to do that and also use it to cut off used games, all Sony has to do is not require both of those things (or even one of them) and they've already won next-gen.

You willing to make a bet that they wouldn't make the XBox always online? Because I'd take that bet in a heartbeat.

Define always online. Since in essence my Xbox 360 is right now "always online" but has zero issues powering up and allowing me to play games when say my FIOS is out.

If you mean that the System will not powerup at all unless you have an active Internet connection then I will take that bet in a heartbeat.