Xbox 360 costs MS 315million this quarter. 360 sales slow to 1/3 of last year's

Not really that surprising. I mean, there are really only three relatively good games for the 360: GOW, Dead Rising, and Lost Planet. Honestly, what else is there?

 

It can't be dropped. The hardware is too expensive to drop it anytime soon.

 

That might not be true, an independent analysis of the components in the 360 reckoned that Microsoft were making a small profit per unit. As manufacturing costs inevitably drops further (this was 4 months or so ago now) a price cut is obvious, if only to put the hurt on Sony even more.

Having played a fair bit of 360 now, I'd say it's a solid machine with games that don't interest me. GoW is... nice looking? Plays pretty good. Lost interest pretty quick though. Same with Vegas. Before the end of the Lost Planet demo I was tired of it. Live Arcade is decent, but hardly system-selling. The one game on 360 I've spent more than an hour or so on is Symphony of the Night - which I "completed" (got to around 90% iirc), despite the terrible d-pad and upscaled graphical bullshit, which goes to show what an ace game it really is. Saying that we probably spent a few hours passing the pad on Saint's Row, which does a reasonable impression of GTA if that's your thing, although at some stage it fucked up and lost almost all the work we'd done.

 

Suddenly a 180$ Hard Drive makes sense! :lol:

 

Hardware-wise, things could be better. But the healthy attach rate of software sales + Live subscription fees + Marketplace transactions are also helping to pad the coffers in many ways.

 

well traditionally gamers never had to pay such high entry-price for a console (only early adopters). I think based on the PS2 sales, the PS3 and XBOX 360, as well as the Wii sales , we can safely conclude that the HD era was rushed and the consumers weren't ready for it.

Well what do you know, Nintendo was right about HD. Not that the new shaders etc couldnt be put to goot use on their Wii, but anyway, if people don't mind "this-gen" graphics and keep buying PS2s because its cheaper and widely available, who are we to say that the world is wrong?

Besides , let's not forget that nintendo is currently making profit off the wii's price.

So what if the 360 hits 250 dollars? nintendo can easily drop to 200 and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

I remember reading this, it was around christmas time..
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061116-8239.html
Here we are, 2nd half of the article. Before Xmas it'll be $250/£170 (Core, or if they're feeling generous premium, but I think that unlikely).
Alternatively, They'll just drop premium to $299 and be done with that.
EDIT: Better link
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20061120132150.html

 

They should drop the core entirely and sell the premium at 299$ with 20GB drive, and allow developers to use the HD to cache data like they can on PS3. I imagine we will see the price drop this year. I'm sure they could do so if they choose. Sony needs a price cut so much more though. As for the Wii, can't say I care.

 

People are now waiting for the PS3 price drop. That's what happens when you get competition. It's good for all of us, ultimately.

Also the repair bill for the XB360 must be pretty nasty, considering reports around here and every other forum.

 

I seriously wonder just how long MS is going to continue their console business since the start they've lost over 5 billion and really haven't made any money off it . Sooner or later those shareholders are going to say "Screw this, drop it !"

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if this is MS's last kick at the can.

 

If they don't choke Sony out of the market next generation then I reckon that will be their last can kicking exercise

 

MS has more money to burn than Sony. There was a whole article done up about how MS could do to Sony what the US did to the USSR during the Cold War, which was spend them into defeat.

Regardless, even though they've lost 5 billion total on the xbox, it's given them name recognition and power in gaming. That ultimately will lead consumers to spend money on other things.

 

And is now $8.8 trillion in debt. Not a good strategy. I don't think either company can really afford to go at it for much longer. Perhaps a universal format will become a closer reality in 5 years or so.

 

a universal format? Do you mean regarding movies? or games?

 

ms has the biggest money reserves of the 2 but its questionable if the shareholders alow them to be used on the media buiz

 

yep, shareholders aren't happy with the XBOX brand. XBOX is devouring wayy too much padding-money from other areas of Microsoft Corporation.

 

As is Vista. By universal format I mean 3D0/ MSX style. With technology as it is at present and a controlled platform spec it could work. Eventually R&D is not going to be worth the cost. It's probably at that point already.

 

like the Zune isn't? You have to waste money to make money.

Bill Gates and the majority of the sizable MS stockholders probably just made 100 million dollars in the time it took to read this post. MS makes tens of billions in a quarter, the xbox has only cost them a few billion in it's 5 year history.

 

the loss-making period is usually at about 5 yeas, the XBOX is on track now, but if they don't turn a profit by the next generation, you ll see some angry faces

I have no data about the Zune, and I ve never seen one upclose to be honest - maybe they re not popular here in the UK?