Anyone know of any place in the greater houston area that actually has an xbox in stock right now? Looking for one right now and can't seem to find one anywhere.
I hadn't heard of that yet, but apparently that rumor has been going around; I just never noticed it. Nevertheless, it sounds like just a rumor. http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=psx2&message.id=1201776 There's a little FAQ about the PStwo that addresses the recall/overheating issues, stating that overheating should not occur with proper airflow and that Sony is not recalling anything. I read about some people who got one and they stated that it may get a little hot but nothing serious. BTW, that FAQ also has more info it seems, so if you don't know much about what the PStwo brings to the table, you can read it. Basically, it is a smaller PS2 with a built-in network adapter, IIRC, but it will probably not be able to have a hard drive. I wonder if Microsoft would have kept it going even without the Halo franchise. They've already lost tons of money on the Xbox, which would normally mean failure for any other company, so losing even more wouldn't probably matter to them. I know some say that the Xbox has been a success since it is supposedly very hard to get into the market, but I have a hard time seeing how losing billions of dollars and still remaining 60 million units away from 1st place can be a success.
If you like shooters and to play online, then you would be a candidate for an XBox, XBox Live, and Halo 2. In fact, I don't think I've ever had as much fun as playing Halo 2 on XBox Live for any internet game. The clan and friends list functionality is awesome. The varied matchmaking game and custom game options are impressive. The matchmaking attempts to match you with people with your stats level and connection speed to help minimize lag. The stats ranking/levels is great to gauge your own proficiency and how you compare to others. Via the bungie.net site, you can track and see every game and every detail in each game that you have played or others have played. I just cannot say enough good things about Halo 2 online. It has to be the best console experience I've ever encountered to date.
I'd say doubtful... but who knows... there was a time when I never thought I'd see the day where a Squaresoft game was played on anything other than a Nintendo system... One can only imagine where Nintendo would be today had FFVII graced their console rather than the PSX...
I dont think you understand Microsoft, if they want something out on the market they will pump endless money into it even if if doesnt sell... (I.E. webTV) Bottom line it will only be time b4 microsoft owns a larger stake in the video game mrk than Sony... Microsofts own projections were that X-box wasnt going make them money untill this year They were almost at a net loss for every x-box that they sold and hoped to have the games keep them afloat... Like I said before Microsoft will never let something die that they like, they have too large a stake to pull out any time soon...
As mentioned, most likely not. As it is, Square-Enix is making a good living by keeping their games on a Sony console. Dragon Quest 8 sold in kind of similar numbers as Halo 2 in a day or 2 in Japan, and I think surpassed the $$$ record, but only because it was selling at $80-$90 each. And that wasn't even a Final Fantasy game (although it is seen ti be on the same level in Japan). Despite that, I did read that Mist Walker, a company that is led by Hironobu Sakaguchi (FF mastermind), was considering offers from both Microsoft and Nintendo. So it may be possible to get something like a Final Fantasy on either of those systems. That is one thing that gets me a little angry. Any other company wouldn't have made it a month using this same plan, or some would have even done better but wouldn't have made it. Yet, Microsoft is happy to be where they are. Stupid cash reserves! While I do think they can put a lot of money behind the Xbox, I wonder if they still feel that way. As you said, the Xbox should start making money this year...so, why are they bringing out Xbox2 this year? I would have tried to ride out Halo 2, KOTOR 2, GTA:SA later on, and other of their games out a little more, along with Xbox Live subscriptions (of course, like being an armchair coach, being armchair CEO probably isn't such a great thing). From what I've heard, they don't want to keep losing money and may even keep costs pretty low on the Xbox2 (maybe no hard drive or backwards compatibility for example). They've also sold off some of their game studios. These may be signs that they are growing tired of just losing money. Or maybe not. Either way, I wonder if this plan will work out, especially if Sony can keep doing what they've been doing. Even though Microsoft may not have a limit to how much money they can spend, Sony isn't exactly a small company either and they can keep going a while as well, especially if they are actually making money on their consoles.
It was my understanding that the entire video game industry was built on this premise. The units themselves are a net loser, or at best a zero sum, and the bulk of the profits are from game sales. Just one of the industry quirks. Like how movie theaters make nothing from showing movies and survive on the sale of popcorn and sodas.
Sony I think began to push the kind of numbers where that loss was no longer a problem. Nintendo has never operated at a loss. Microsoft loses money on each console, from what I understand, but were more concerned about building a userbase and brand name with the XBOX.
That is how it normally works when a console is brand new, but it usually doesn't last too long, at least not AFAIK. I think the Gamecube actually sold either at a profit or evenly when it launched and probably reduced costs since then. The PS2, from what I've read, which may or may not be true, may have cost Sony like $400-450 to make, but now they're making a profit selling the PStwo at $150. The Xbox itself is just losing too much money, in comparison to the other two consoles anyways. The hard drive and the deal they made with Nvidia is really screwing them over. That said, you are definitly right about the game sales, and in Microsoft's case, online subscriptions. That is one plus for Microsoft. Halo, KOTOR, Fable, and others have made them lots of money that may soften the blow they take on each Xbox. That's the way I've understood it too, more or less. The bad thing for Microsoft is that they shouldn't really try to copy Sony's plan by trying to lose money on consoles. Sony can afford to do it since they're a hardware company and can drastically reduce costs or use the hardware in other devices to help minimize initial losses. Microsoft can't really do that.
Found this article circa 2001 where Microsoft predicted that it would lost $2B and wouldn't turn a profit until 2005 on the X-Box. It also stated that video game consoles are almost always sold at a loss, estimating $150 lost per unit on both the X-Box and PS2. I'm surprised to hear that Sony's turned that profit model around. It's my understanding that Nintendo, Sega, Atari, all lost money on their original systems but made it back and then some on the games.
I'm sure Microsoft can afford to lose a few billion dollars here and there I think Microsofts Home Entertainment division (which includes Xbox) loses about 300 million every quarter but their OS and Office groups make about 4-6 billion each quarter. Microsoft is a strong company and commited to making the xbox a success and can continue to pump millions and millions into it until it does become a success so I don't see them running dry anytime soon. I don't think Microsoft expected to take a majority of the pie from Sony on their first run, infact I don't know how much of the industry they actually control today but they have gotten a solid fan base for the next run.
