Will Microsoft survive to make another console?

[LightningBanks]

Microsoft makes stuff other than consoles, you know.

I hear they make a thing called a OS that most people are using to access to website..strange

 

[Giantpanda602]

So after all the Microsoft hate after E3, the general dwindling of 360 exclusives, the rising popularity of the PS3/PSP/Vita, and the 3DS/Wii/Wii U games, do you think Microsoft will be able to make a new console or will they die before then? How would their next console do? When do you think it would be released?

I just want to mention that it seems like Microsoft is doing the best right now out of the three titanic console developers. Sony is dealing with this huge hacker scandal indicating both that the fan base is becoming disenfranchised and that they aren't willing to protect either their employees or their users. Wii just announced a stupidly named console that looks like the gaming equivalent of the iPad. Furthermore, many of the people I know (including myself) admit to owning a Wii and having not touched it in years. In light of all this, I personally predict that Xbox is going to really take the lead soon.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Spoiler: This is long. Unspoiler it at your own peril.

OK, look. The thing is, Microsoft hasn't actually made any money yet from Xbox so far.

And, you know what's really funny?

According to some rumours, they may not even care.

Why? Because the Xbox isn't about the Xbox.

It's about protecting Microsoft from attacks that could undermine and erode it's core assets. Which is, windows PC's, and their sales to business.

The worst thing for microsoft is losing business sales because people start to see viable alternatives to windows PC's.

That means protecting Windows by any means nessesary.

Notice the Xbox & Xbox 360 both use the same dev tools as windows games do?

Building an Xbox game is at a basic level almost as easy as changing the compiler settings.
It's more complicated in practice, but mostly because of optimization issues.


Anyway, Somehow I'm not sure Xbox even matters to Microsoft one way or the other.
Of course they want it to make money, but if there's one thing that Microsoft has that few others do, it's deep pockets.

This isn't just because they're a big company, but because they literally are totally paranoid about money.

A lot of businesses barely have any cash reserves, and their only easy cash may be entirely from loans.

Microsoft was so concerned about it's survival that a long time ago they instituted a policy where they needed to have enough cash reserves to survive an entire year without having to shut down anything, or fire anyone.

And not just an entire year making a loss. No.

They decided they needed to be able to survive an entire year without making any income.

That means, Microsoft, as a general business strategy, has enough cash lying about to pay ALL their bills for an ENTIRE YEAR, even if NOBODY buys anything at all from them the whole time.

Anyway, what that means, is that amongst other things, for them to shut down Xbox division it would have to be costing them so much money that it's disrupting every other part of their business very badly, and doesn't show any signs of accomplishing anything useful in the future.

That seems... Unlikely.

Remember, Both Microsoft and Sony do other things besides gaming. The success or failure of their respective consoles isn't going to kill them unless they do something colossally stupid.

I don't think you

need

that many paragraphs.

Not every sentence is earthshaking.

Why,


Thanks


for that





Brilliant


piece

of editorial insight. ;p

(Honestly, the escapist has more grammar & spelling nazis than any other place on the internet I've ever come across. >_<)

 

[CrystalShadow]

As long as they have people prepared to swear loyalty to the Xbox and only the Xbox, it seems like it would be a good idea to keep producing them. Anyway, Sony is in a worse position right now with the PSN issues. I don't know what they're going to do to get some of that money back and I would say it's more likely that they'll die. Not that either of them will though. They have so much to cut back before they go bankrupt.

-Microsoft business strategy snip-

That's interesting. Do you have a source I could look at? Wikipedia has nothing and I have no idea where else I could look...

Well, it's rather speculative stuff. Thing is, if Microsoft is doing this, they're not that likely to admit it. And I got hold of this idea more or less as an off-hand remark, and based on some historical (and well-discussed) things about microsoft's main source of income being it's licensing of OS & Office applications to businesses. (Which, unfortunately I'm having trouble tracking down sources for - Not a good thing considering what I'm claiming. XD)

Though... About cash reserves; this doesn't quite say what I was trying to substantiate, but it's quite humorous regardless. (http://www.d-silence.com/feature.php?id=253) - (essentially, Micrsoft has - or had - too much cash)

Still, there's anecdotal evidence to do with this possible Xbox strategy.
Such as this: http://www.baekdal.com/media/microsoft-forget-windows-and-the-defensive-business-strategy


It's a pity I don't keep better track of useful sources. It's disappointing not being able to easily cite corroborating evidence when someone asks.

 

[Fusioncode9]

You honestly think a company as huge as Microsoft is going to die. They're still making profits on the Xbox 360 so I don't see what could happen to them. Just because their exclusives are dwindling doesn't mean one of the largest companies in the world will die out.