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| Posted By | Discussion Topic: Xbox obsolete already?? | ||||
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| Tubesteak
| posted on 07-14-2002 @ 8:02 PM |    | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Oct. 01  | Ms is trying to create a new game console/tivo for around $500 Check out the article WHAT FREON STANDS FOR is a souped-up successor to the Xbox console — capable of playing games but also offering television capabilities, such as pausing live TV and recording shows onto a computer hard drive, say people familiar with the effort. Though it is unclear whether such a product will ever be built, its core concept appears to have the backing of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who wrote in an internal memorandum in January that he was a “big fan†of a machine that would combine video services with gaming.     (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.) Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) price change 51.86 -1.05 Add this stock to your MSNBC homepageData: CNBC on MSN Money and S&P Comstock 20 min.delay.     Such a device, which could cost around $500, would have another big advantage: It could beat video-game market leader Sony Corp. to the punch.     Microsoft officials are mulling releasing some kind of new game machine sometime next year or in 2004, say people familiar with the matter. That timing could shake up the $20 billion global video-game market, breaking a long-established pattern of developing and releasing new systems in roughly five-year cycles. Sony, the undisputed leader in a three-way race with Microsoft and Nintendo Co., isn’t expected to release its next PlayStation system until 2005.     “The utmost goal is to ship something before Sony,†says a person familiar with Microsoft’s plans. Changing development cycles could be particularly threatening to Sony, which relies more than Microsoft on specialized computer chips that take years to design. “My biggest concern is if Microsoft or Nintendo try to change the rules of the market,†says Shinichi Okamoto, chief technology officer at Sony’s game unit, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “I can imagine several [ways]. The first one is very simple — launching an annual new model: Xbox 2002, Xbox 2003.†    Microsoft officials won’t comment on Freon. But the software titan has been playing catch-up to Sony since it introduced the Xbox last year. Though Microsoft hoped the introduction of a hard disk and other features would inspire developers to write more exciting games than for the PlayStation 2, Sony’s hardware has retained an edge among consumers and programmers. Playing now: • GE profits rise 14 percent • Qwest may restate 2001 results • DOW loses almost 700 points in week    “It’s amazing how far we have come, and yet we still have to get people to see Xbox as even more of a breakthrough than they do today,†wrote Mr. Gates in the internal e-mail sent to top Xbox executives in January.     Officially, Microsoft says the current Xbox has been an early success. The company’s focus right now is on selling more Xbox consoles this coming Christmas season, says John O’Rourke, director of Xbox sales and marketing. At the same time, “we have to be thinking about the future,†Mr. O’Rourke says.     Microsoft officials are also mum about the release date for the Xbox console’s next version, known as “Xbox Next,†expected about 2005 or 2006. Still, the various Xbox projects inside Microsoft — as well as Mr. Gates’s musings in his memo — show Microsoft is serious about overhauling Xbox, if necessary, to strengthen its challenge to Sony.     A key pressure is economics: The Xbox console isn’t profitable for the Redmond, Wash., company and its costs are believed to be higher than Sony’s, partly because of the hard drive and a version of its powerful Windows operating system included with each machine. While “the Xbox is a full-feature BMW, the PS2 is a Toyota,†says Bruno Bonnell, chairman and chief executive of French game maker Infogrames Entertainment SA.     But many gamers prefer the more practical Toyota. Sony has shipped about 32 million PlayStation 2 machines world-wide, while Microsoft was expected to have shipped only 3.5 million to four million Xboxes by Sunday, the end of its fiscal year. Microsoft, which lowered sales expectations earlier this year, insists its more-powerful machine eventually will win over customers. Advertisement     Mr. O’Rourke says the machine’s hard drive helps deliver features like the voice commentary on Microsoft’s “NFL Fever†football game. Microsoft also recently showcased a new Xbox game called “Blinx: The Time Sweeper,†which allows players to record moves they have made in the game and replay them at different speeds in the future.     “That is something you can only do with a hard disk,†Mr. O’Rourke says.     Still, Mr. Gates doesn’t seem convinced. In his memo, sent after one of his periodic “think weeks†away from the office, he mused about whether a hard drive would be necessary for Xbox’s online-gaming service, expected to be launched later this year. “Do we really know that you have to have a disk to do online?†Mr. Gates wrote. “I think it’s probably right, but say Sony tries to do online without it — how bad will it really be?†    Mr. Gates also tossed out a thought he described as “heretical,†wondering whether Microsoft will have to “back down†from its plan to offer online gaming only over high- speed Internet connections. That plan has been criticized because so few U.S. computer users have high-speed connections.     Mr. Gates received a briefing about the Freon product last week, a person familiar with the matter said, and also presided over a pep rally of sorts for a larger Xbox group. When asked about Freon at the meeting, Xbox chief Robbie Bach said there were no definite plans for deployment, this person said.   News from the WSJ Wall Street Journal stories on MSNBC • Click here to bookmark     Mr. Gates has long been fascinated with extending Microsoft’s Windows software into the living room, though Microsoft stumbled with most of its previous TV efforts. And many in the video-game industry wonder if consumers would pay $500 — compared with the $199 Xbox — for a complicated home- entertainment machine.     “I worry about what I call feature creep — layering too many things into a product so the original intent of the product gets lost,†says Schelley Olhava, an analyst with International Data Corp. http://www.msnbc.com/news/ 774751.asp?0dm=C18LT This message was edited by Tubesteak on 7-14-02 @ 8:05 PM | ||||
| SpaceGhost Whiny fucking bitch - just follow the sig guidelines like EVERYONE ELSE. | posted on 07-14-2002 @ 8:25 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: May. 02 | times like this it makes me feel glad i paid 600$ for the xbox, dvd kit, second controller, Halo, NFL 2k2, wreckless, Amped, and NHL2002 and all it does is collect dust. thank you microsoft! | ||||
| jmoore | posted on 07-14-2002 @ 8:27 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: May. 02 | A link to the article probably would have been better. Or at least strip out the carriage returns. It's not surprising that MS is already developing the successor to XBOX. In general this battle b/w MS, Sony, and Nintendo is only going to speed up the release rate of new systems. And then all of the new games that are designed to take advantage of the latest systems won't run on the old consoles. Same old story that's been going on for years in PC games. So, in short, you better be willing to spend some bucks if you always want to play the most cutting edge games.  | ||||
| jmoore | posted on 07-14-2002 @ 8:32 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: May. 02 | quote:Why are you blaming MS because you paid all that money for something you don't use? Does it not work? | ||||
| Velociti G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Philly Bluntside Brigade Formerly diadelsuerte. | posted on 07-14-2002 @ 8:41 PM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Mar. 02 | I just go over my friends house and use their systems... no need to buy :) | ||||
| rageparty 123...Not so bare anymore since I got a number underneath my name again I also have an imaginary girlfriend. | posted on 07-16-2002 @ 6:29 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Aug. 01 | quote: Sweet fuckin' shit! But I'll play it at a friend's house, like Velociti, and then I'll see if it's really worth it. Sweet fuckin' shit though!!!  This message was edited by rageparty on 7-16-02 @ 6:30 PM | ||||
| Lou Weed I was not put on this earth to edumacate this message board. | posted on 07-17-2002 @ 7:57 AM | | |||
| Hanger-On Registered: Jul. 02 | Now that the Xbox has been hacked it should pick up popularity again..it did here.. Anyone looking at going that route stay away from copies made from anything other than a dvd disc.  | ||||
Displaying 1-7 of 7 messages in this thread. |