Microsoft: Xbox 360 Is The Console of The Long Future

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Microsoft: Xbox 360 Is The Console of The Long Future

"The Xbox 360 was designed for a long life..."



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Did he have a straight face when he said this? The Xbox with the longest life I had was just short of 2 years, but it had to be repaired in those 2 years anyways, so it doesnt count. The PS3 was designed for a long life using at-the-time newer technologies than the xbox, like blu tooth and blu-ray, and built in wireless. Natal is a gimmick, like the wii, as Yahtzee put it because there is no physical feedback to the player.

 

[theApoc]

What do you think? Is Microsoft betting too much on Natal to keep its console fresh? Is all of this a big lie and they're actually going to be rolling out the Xbox 666 in 2011?

I think Microsoft has sunk so much money into the 360 they can't afford to do anything but keep running with it.

Even if they get it into profit it will be years before it's life represents even an acceptable level of loss, nevermind a net gain for Microsoft. For Xbox division the next five years is all about damage limitation, no-one above them is going to sign off costs to develop an all new console when the current one is such a financial disaster area, they would have stuck with the five year cycle if they could afford it, there's money to be made selling dev kits and periphals all over again.

I think you are confusing Microsoft with Sony. Blu-Ray is a gimmick that came far to late to actually be relevant and the reason Microsoft has no reason to build a new console has very little to do with the XBOX360, and everything to do with XBOX Live.

Natal very well may be gimmicky when it comes to games, but its interactive nature when it comes to home entertainment in general is going to be a VERY big deal for Microsoft. The PS3 and the 360 are not just gaming systems, they are entertainment centers, and while having a Blu-Ray player might have sold a few more systems, in the long run, full HD streaming makes the "winner" of the format war a moot point.

 

[Hazy]

I think as long as it has online capabilities, then it'll last. I for one still enjoy my 360 and will continue to enjoy it until the next big thing comes out.

I do not, however, care for Natal.

Damn, ninja'd.

I agree though, the online is easily the strongest component of the 360.
[sub]And this is coming from somebody who loves PSN like I love bacon.[/sub]

Natal, however? I'm still a bit iffy on it. I've yet to see anything that really shows how well it works, aside from those tech demos featuring Milo.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Not to start anything but If your 360 has been bought in the last few years and it dies, it's probably you. I've had mine going on four years, I play everyday at least a little, and not one issue. Not only that but I still play my original XBOX which is running fine and still has choice games to play for the collector, much better than the dredge being pushed on that dead horse PS2.

Natal will make a splash buit won't generate waves. Fact is this generation is essentially Wii vs. XBOX 360. Sony is very much a non-factor due to their hardware clusterf*@# of a console and lack of very good exclusive games. Basically you have Xbox ports and God of War and LBP neither of which I and many Xbox owners like. A console generation should last a long as good stuff is coming out. Nintendo will be first with a new console and then Sony not far behind. But there is a very likely chance that Xbox 360 will bleed well into the next generation (whenever that may be) until someone actually poses competition. Blu-Ray may appeal to a bunch of people, but it's coming out late in this digital age and media is preparing to move away from discs due to their fragility and the ease and access with which new modes of data and memory transferral exist. Just look at CDs. They're almost obsolete due to MP3s. I knew people who still bought tapes after 2001 so while they might still sell, their age is over.

Keep that in mind while debating technology's future.

Bullshit. What you meant to say is : "My head is too far up Microsoft's ass that I wont even have a look at the PS3 exclusives. So I'll just say there's none because there wasn't in 2006."

Since when did the 360 have a huge amount of exclusives? Because all I see are games on PC that get called "exclusive" and some overmarketed space marine games made for ADD kids.

Hardware Clusterfuck? Have you seen what's been made when devs can actually be bothered learning the PS3? And you cant call the PS3 hardware a clusterfuck when the 360 dies if you play it too much or after a year.

ok since Soap took the PS3 side, ill take the Xbox side: I ran my original xbox to the ground before i got my FIRST 360. it could barley load a game without whining for 5 minutes, but i loved it just the same. How is a 360 failing my fault? Its luck. One of my friends had a launch console til it died in the fall. I had an E74 in the middle of CoD4. Did i make the chip fry? NO!

Have you done any research on data storage recently? Or in the past 10 years or so? 120mm discs arent going anywhere, the capacity and method for using them is changing. Blu-ray is the only way for people with an HDTV to watch HD movies at home. Why wouldnt you want that? Who wants to watch an SD-DVD in 2 or 3 years when they can watch it in HD Blu-Ray?

I guess i didnt get that memo on CDs being obsolete. Oh, and discs are known for being RUGGED compared to tapes, records, etc.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I think you are confusing Microsoft with Sony. Blu-Ray is a gimmick that came far to late to actually be relevant and the reason Microsoft has no reason to build a new console has very little to do with the XBOX360, and everything to do with XBOX Live.

Natal very well may be gimmicky when it comes to games, but its interactive nature when it comes to home entertainment in general is going to be a VERY big deal for Microsoft. The PS3 and the 360 are not just gaming systems, they are entertainment centers, and while having a Blu-Ray player might have sold a few more systems, in the long run, full HD streaming makes the "winner" of the format war a moot point.

No, I'm not, this has nothing to do with Sony, at all, why did you even think to mention them?

Sony's debt crisis is a separate one. The costs of RROD, HDDVD, E74 and Exclusive DLC buy outs are all Microsoft's problems and if they add up to less than $10billion in the red I'd be very surprised, nevermind initial development costs.

 

[The_Shinigamer]

Not to start anything but If your 360 has been bought in the last few years and it dies, it's probably you. I've had mine going on four years, I play everyday at least a little, and not one issue. Not only that but I still play my original XBOX which is running fine and still has choice games to play for the collector, much better than the dredge being pushed on that dead horse PS2.

Natal will make a splash buit won't generate waves. Fact is this generation is essentially Wii vs. XBOX 360. Sony is very much a non-factor due to their hardware clusterf*@# of a console and lack of very good exclusive games. Basically you have Xbox ports and God of War and LBP neither of which I and many Xbox owners like. A console generation should last a long as good stuff is coming out. Nintendo will be first with a new console and then Sony not far behind. But there is a very likely chance that Xbox 360 will bleed well into the next generation (whenever that may be) until someone actually poses competition. Blu-Ray may appeal to a bunch of people, but it's coming out late in this digital age and media is preparing to move away from discs due to their fragility and the ease and access with which new modes of data and memory transferral exist. Just look at CDs. They're almost obsolete due to MP3s. I knew people who still bought tapes after 2001 so while they might still sell, their age is over.

Keep that in mind while debating technology's future.

Bullshit. What you meant to say is : "My head is too far up Microsoft's ass that I wont even have a look at the PS3 exclusives. So I'll just say there's none because there wasn't in 2006."

Since when did the 360 have a huge amount of exclusives? Because all I see are games on PC that get called "exclusive" and some overmarketed space marine games made for ADD kids.

Hardware Clusterfuck? Have you seen what's been made when devs can actually be bothered learning the PS3? And you cant call the PS3 hardware a clusterfuck when the 360 dies if you play it too much or after a year.

By PS3 exclusives do you mean the LBP borefest or God of War This is indestiguishable as 1,2,or 3, or Buzz: Look Peripherals? These games aren't fun, I've played them all except GoW3 and I don't plan to. Face it, ports of Ninja Gaiden and games that are available on everything else (and purchased for everything else) are all PS3's got. Start a poll and see, most people who have PS3 and 360, when buying a title for both platforms, goes for 360 version. So quit crying about how much money you poured into that doorstop.

Buy the way, if you play a console for over a year and it breaks, 90% of the time it's YOU!!!!

The reason PS3 doesn't get broken by it's users is they hardly use it!

 

[Hazy]

Sony is very much a non-factor due to their hardware clusterf*@# of a console and lack of very good exclusive games.

This part confuses me.

Killzone 2 [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/killzone2?q=killzone 2]. Metacritic score of 91.
Metal Gear Solid 4 [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/metalgearsolid4gunsofthepatriots?q=metal%20gear%20solid%204]. Metacritic score of 94.
Demon's Souls [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/demonssouls?q=demon's souls] Metacritic score of 89.
Uncharted 2: Among thieves [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/uncharted2amongthieves?q=uncharted 2]. Metacritic score of 96.
Little Big Planet [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/littlebigplanet?q=littlebigplanet]. Metacritic score of 95.

All of which are at a 90 - high 90 rating (Save for Demon's Souls, at an 89, which I will gladly debate is a bit too low. I've read some of the poorer reviews, and they amount to the same thing: "This game is hard," which, if you're an idiot, is probably true) and all of which are quite worth the money, if I do say so myself.

Say what you want about the PS3, but you cannot say, with a straight face, that they do not have good, or atleast, quality, exclusive titles.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Uhg....yo Xbox fanboys there has a been a slight movement to the PS3 over the 360 from game devs, the number of exclusives remains mostly constant with the PS3 getting a mix of more features in their ports or a crap porting job altogether.

PS3fan boys despite MS not making much on the 360 at this point and time they are making a profit on it 20-40$ a unit can't say that about the PS3 and looking at how poorly sony treated the fanbase with the PS3 launch and such..... really guys get over yourself.....



THe WII is the king in trems of profits neither can come close to the profit nin has generated but the down side is its a frakk'in toy without precision it will always be a toy IMO.


Both sony and MS mirror each other in the things they do and screw up frankly the only thing that separates them IMO is not the games its that live costs money to play with friends(MS really needs to fix that but they have yet weaned from proprietary hardware unlike sony which is surprising all things considered).

The reason I say when you boil it down MS and sony are the same both are steeped in antiseptic and bland modern design themes and elements, graphics is everything physics is next trendy predictable story/character elements is next gameplay and mechanics is with polish near the end of the to do list.... oh and yes the WII is just as bad with this...only it has more wank ware........

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

Not to start anything but If your 360 has been bought in the last few years and it dies, it's probably you. I've had mine going on four years, I play everyday at least a little, and not one issue. Not only that but I still play my original XBOX which is running fine and still has choice games to play for the collector, much better than the dredge being pushed on that dead horse PS2.

Natal will make a splash buit won't generate waves. Fact is this generation is essentially Wii vs. XBOX 360. Sony is very much a non-factor due to their hardware clusterf*@# of a console and lack of very good exclusive games. Basically you have Xbox ports and God of War and LBP neither of which I and many Xbox owners like. A console generation should last a long as good stuff is coming out. Nintendo will be first with a new console and then Sony not far behind. But there is a very likely chance that Xbox 360 will bleed well into the next generation (whenever that may be) until someone actually poses competition. Blu-Ray may appeal to a bunch of people, but it's coming out late in this digital age and media is preparing to move away from discs due to their fragility and the ease and access with which new modes of data and memory transferral exist. Just look at CDs. They're almost obsolete due to MP3s. I knew people who still bought tapes after 2001 so while they might still sell, their age is over.

Keep that in mind while debating technology's future.

Bullshit. What you meant to say is : "My head is too far up Microsoft's ass that I wont even have a look at the PS3 exclusives. So I'll just say there's none because there wasn't in 2006."

Since when did the 360 have a huge amount of exclusives? Because all I see are games on PC that get called "exclusive" and some overmarketed space marine games made for ADD kids.

Hardware Clusterfuck? Have you seen what's been made when devs can actually be bothered learning the PS3? And you cant call the PS3 hardware a clusterfuck when the 360 dies if you play it too much or after a year.

By PS3 exclusives do you mean the LBP borefest or God of War This is indestiguishable as 1,2,or 3, or Buzz: Look Peripherals? These games aren't fun, I've played them all except GoW3 and I don't plan to. Face it, ports of Ninja Gaiden and games that are available on everything else (and purchased for everything else) are all PS3's got. Start a poll and see, most people who have PS3 and 360, when buying a title for both platforms, goes for 360 version. So quit crying about how much money you poured into that doorstop.

Buy the way, if you play a console for over a year and it breaks, 90% of the time it's YOU!!!!

The reason PS3 doesn't get broken by it's users is they hardly use it!

So the 1/3 of Xbox owners who have had a broken Xbox is because it was there fault? Not the serious hardware and overheating defaults in the console? You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.

By PS3 exclusives I mean:
Killzone 2
Uncharted 1
Uncharted 2
inFAMOUS
Katarami Forever
Resistance 2
MGS4
Demon's Souls
Disgaea 3
Socom Confrontation
Warhawk
Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift
Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
Valkyria Chronicles
MLB 09: The Show

Which ones of those are 360 ports? And what's the 360 list again:

Halo 3
Gears of War 2
Forza 3
PGR4
Ummmm Kameo
Crackdown
Saints Row
Viva Pinata?

I even had to resort to games rated lower than 70 on metacritic and games in a series that has new and better multiplat games like Saints Row. What does that say?

So you wanna see this years line up?

White Knight Chronicles
Heavy Rain
GT5
MAG
Modnation Racers
Twisted Metal
Rockstar's Agent
Quantom Theory
The Last Guardian
Final Fantasy Versus 13
God of War 3

And they're not all shooty shooty die die fests made for ADD kids.

The 360 list is:
Crackdown 2
Halo Reach (OMFG Halo! PS3 now haz no games lololololololololololol)

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

snip

Not going to happen (IMO) because Microsoft are already technically in the lead (compared to PS3) with their current nickel and diming policies:

-Why have BWC when you can just re-sell the games via XBLA as Xbox Classics = make money?

Funny thing they can make more moeny by doing both the lil push in card that has a number on it that has to be ok'd by live at 100 a pop for full BWC out of the box and you want added features you buy the DLC, its win win but forsight they no haz it.

-Why allow third party Hard drives when they are makign so much money sellign proprietary ones?

Sony has learned this lesson through trial and error(through all their proprietary hardware shcemes of the past,MD,UDM,ect,ect) it just costs more to upkeep a extra hardware line its cheaper and more profitable to open up the hardware so you take less of a hit on each unit sold.

They could also make a elite unit have it use use any storage device(sata/usb) only it costs twice as much as the normal unit. there are many thigns they can do to make it better and still make a profit.

-Why even allow an easy back up facility when the lack of it forces the user to pay for repairs?

Because it would save them money on the repair end to just sale a new unit, the price for repair should be around 200ish$ what they are chargeign now they are kinda losing money on the long run. Also the HDD comes off the unit so meh

-Why fix the reliability issue when there is so much moeny to be made from out of warranty repairs and selling refurbished consoles? Plus a low reliability damages the pre-owned market pushing more to buy new consoles than old ones.

Depends on the losses and from what I have seen they are taking losses more than making money, if anything they are juggling money around with the appearance of making it.
Monopolies tend to use as much funds trying to "protect" everything under its umbrella than what would be made begin less monopolistic. Basically whats spent on protecting everything is lost profit and this is something corporate just can not compute.

-Why get rid of the annual online fee when so many people are paying it and actively defend it in online debates even?

Competition pretty much forces them to change but who says they can't make up the difference in having a gold membership that's 10 a month.

-Why allow any third party peripherals (PS3 can take any PC gamepad) when you can lock out everything else and force everyone to buy Microsoft branded products?

They do allow Keybaords and mice but its game specific, I am not saying they should open it up to anything tho that would be nice they could do a line of PC/360 peripherals keybaords,mice control pads license it out so third party makers can easily take the standardized designs and make improvements by adding more options and features. Currently the licensing system for peripherals for the 360 is messy and overly complicated

Microsoft have a foothold and they are NOT going to budge. They may add more but if anything the price of admission will go up.

This is the trend but between the economic collapse the trend the Wii has set and the trend Sony has showen to make the PS3 more profitable I think something has to give, tho I wounld not be surprised if the next box is 600$

But ya I will agree with that they wont change much they don't have to....they don't need money that badly.... consuemr trends tend to pay for themselfs till interest is lost....
===========
On a side note I think Blu ray is plausible for movies only on a elite version sicne BR players are 20-50$ to make I think they could do it and not lose money by not changing the price.

 

[Jabbawocky]

Until the economy picks up there is too much of a risk in release a new console. As in no one would buy it because there is nothing to spend with!

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I think Microsoft has sunk so much money into the 360 they can't afford to do anything but keep running with it.

Even if they get it into profit it will be years before it's life represents even an acceptable level of loss, nevermind a net gain for Microsoft. For Xbox division the next five years is all about damage limitation, no-one above them is going to sign off costs to develop an all new console when the current one is such a financial disaster area, they would have stuck with the five year cycle if they could afford it, there's money to be made selling dev kits and periphals all over again.

you are correct sir, they did sink a lot of money into it considering they sold it at a loss for a while and then because of the RROD issue they have. they are still losing money on the console.

I think you are confusing Microsoft with Sony. Blu-Ray is a gimmick that came far to late to actually be relevant and the reason Microsoft has no reason to build a new console has very little to do with the XBOX360, and everything to do with XBOX Live.

Blu-ray is a gimmick? really a high def disc that has way more storage than a standard dvd isn't a gimmick, it's better and evolved technology. the dvd is well over 10 years old, which had replaced the cd

as for gimmicks, that is natal plain and simple

I think Microsoft is doing a great job. The one thing they should think about though is making XBOX Live free like the PS3. PSN is free and because of that, I think that that is the only significant advantage the the PS3 has over the 360...but again, that's just.

Spoiler

trying to avoid a flame war

you're forgetting the blu-ray disc, FF 13 is on one PS3 disc compared to several discs for the 360 version

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

I hope they don't make the same mistake Sega did. Add ons = failure.

If they do, I'd like everyone to know that I fucking called it!

 

[Hashbrick]

If Microsoft is relying on the Natal to give the 360 a new spin, they have just gave up the console war. It's Sony's time to shine once again with the PS4. Updated cell and graphic processing will take the cake, now that the motion control fade is slowly drifting away. The wii is losing audience because it takes so much effort to play the damn thing. And I'll be damned if Sony won't take that chance. In fact if they just forgot about the "gem" or w/e the hell is going to call their motion control bullshit they would be sitting in a better spot.

We play games to play games and relax, not to do the workload to play games.

 

[WestMountain]

This is gonna halt next-gen graphics and physics a bit.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I think Microsoft has sunk so much money into the 360 they can't afford to do anything but keep running with it.

Even if they get it into profit it will be years before it's life represents even an acceptable level of loss, nevermind a net gain for Microsoft. For Xbox division the next five years is all about damage limitation, no-one above them is going to sign off costs to develop an all new console when the current one is such a financial disaster area, they would have stuck with the five year cycle if they could afford it, there's money to be made selling dev kits and periphals all over again.

you are correct sir, they did sink a lot of money into it considering they sold it at a loss for a while and then because of the RROD issue they have. they are still losing money on the console.

I think you are confusing Microsoft with Sony. Blu-Ray is a gimmick that came far to late to actually be relevant and the reason Microsoft has no reason to build a new console has very little to do with the XBOX360, and everything to do with XBOX Live.

Blu-ray is a gimmick? really a high def disc that has way more storage than a standard dvd isn't a gimmick, it's better and evolved technology. the dvd is well over 10 years old, which had replaced the cd

as for gimmicks, that is natal plain and simple

I think Microsoft is doing a great job. The one thing they should think about though is making XBOX Live free like the PS3. PSN is free and because of that, I think that that is the only significant advantage the the PS3 has over the 360...but again, that's just.

Spoiler

trying to avoid a flame war

you're forgetting the blu-ray disc, FF 13 is on one PS3 disc compared to several discs for the 360 version

The 360 is now making 30ish profit per unit and thats with all the fail and Xbox costs on it, Live has helped in that (5$ X millions X once a month) but still they could have done alot better.....


Blu ray is the enxt step in disc's its slowly and steadily replacing DVD, tho I am not a HD fend the space of the BR dsics alone is worth while.


Multi discs are not that much of an issue to me but for MP based games MS has said no so between limited HDDs and such MS will have trouble in this area as time goes on....


The PS3 has 3 things going for it one is blu ray it means you can do more with a game, the dev kits they put out and optimizations they have been working on has made it easier and easier to code for the PS3 and lastly PSN is free to play with friends on. If MS open up live that would give them a year or 2 of support. I think the 360 has alot of room to expand were it wont piss of fans or devs alike.


PS:I forogt if the natal is built around precision incited of gimmickry like the WII it would really add 2-3 years to it.....but only if....

I hope they don't make the same mistake Sega did. Add ons = failure.

If they do, I'd like everyone to know that I fucking called it!

I loved my sega CD 0-o *cling luv* And shadow squadern was cool on the 32 X what really hurt them was the saturn.....

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

The natal could help if it works as well as the ad video shows us.

Any way the 360 needs more
I could see it happening with a model 2, a complete redesign of the guts for better power consumption and heat dispensation, add in wifi and let users use USB storage and any HDD they want, get rid of the prioritized memory garbage. Double the ram to help newer games run in "mode 2" add a blu ray player that devs can support by making special edition(mode 2 games) for if they want to.

With these things the 360 would do well for another 5-8 years, I just hope the next box has all this and more...like more control options, more storage options and for Christ sake proper BWC.... even paying 100$ for a add on that has to be ok'd by live in order to unlock full BWC is a better ieda than nothign at all or half assness that is the 360s BWC......

Not going to happen (IMO) because Microsoft are already technically in the lead (compared to PS3) with their current nickel and diming policies:

-Why have BWC when you can just re-sell the games via XBLA as Xbox Classics = make money?

Um...you do realize that all the games being sold on Xbox Classics are already BC, right?

 

[jamesworkshop]

If Microsoft is relying on the Natal to give the 360 a new spin, they have just gave up the console war. It's Sony's time to shine once again with the PS4. Updated cell and graphic processing will take the cake, now that the motion control fade is slowly drifting away. The wii is losing audience because it takes so much effort to play the damn thing. And I'll be damned if Sony won't take that chance. In fact if they just forgot about the "gem" or w/e the hell is going to call their motion control bullshit they would be sitting in a better spot.

We play games to play games and relax, not to do the workload to play games.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the PS4 I doubt you will see that till 2013 if that

 

[Zippy1313]

I just wish that they would stop making them with such cheap parts that they tear up all the damned time. I am on my fifth and I also work at a game store that takes in defective ones on a daily basis. Microsoft needs to redesign the thing so that it would stop being a POS.