Look at the difference between Sony's words of war and Nintendo's attitude towards their competitors:
Really, whenever someone else has come into the market, whether it be Sony or Microsoft, it's been really good - because what it's done is focused a lot of attention on the industry, and I think it has always grown it a bit more. If we look at this year, just look at the amount of media attention that's been given to handheld since Sony started looking to get into the market - it's been really positive. We've had huge growth since that's happened.
That's David Yarnton, Nintendo UK boss speaking.
If you've seen the other thread, Sony's boss has been talking trash and saying how Nintendo only appeal to kids that like Pokemon.
I'm just waiting until they all recognise they're operating at a loss / too little profit to stay afloat, and all fold. Then, whoever's left gets to corner the market.
glossy wrote:I'm just waiting until they all recognise they're operating at a loss / too little profit to stay afloat, and all fold. Then, whoever's left gets to corner the market.
All three make a fortune; the only thing they take a loss on is the console itself and that loss is more than made up for with software sales.
glossy wrote:I'm just waiting until they all recognise they're operating at a loss / too little profit to stay afloat, and all fold. Then, whoever's left gets to corner the market.
All three make a fortune; the only thing they take a loss on is the console itself and that loss is more than made up for with software sales.
Yeah, and that's why Sega folded from the hardware biz right?
Most console makers first sell at a loss they make the money back with profit from games released for their console.
Sega folded because of saturn & dreamcast not making enough sales, the also spent a lot of money on ads. It's too bad I loved most of sega's consoles & games.
Sega may still comeback if they can get some really good console hits.
Arguably Sega folded solely on the Saturn. The reason the Dreamcast bombed was because public confidence in Sega was so low they couldn't have pulled it back no matter how good the console was.... and the Dreamcast was fantastic.
"Maybe you have some bird ideas. Maybe that’s the best you can do."
― Terry A. Davis
glossy wrote:I'm just waiting until they all recognise they're operating at a loss / too little profit to stay afloat, and all fold. Then, whoever's left gets to corner the market.
All three make a fortune; the only thing they take a loss on is the console itself and that loss is more than made up for with software sales.
Microsoft's Xbox division made a net loss of a few million (iirc -- i'm at school so can't look up exact figures).
I think eventually, console prices will be forced down due to the compeditive nature of the market, and companies will start making less and less money as things like modchips become more advanced and easier to obtain, promoting piracy (and decreasing sales -- the console maker's biggest source of income for their consoles). Once their profits go down, they won't be able to support new consoles because they simply won't have enough money for the initial stage of selling the hardware at a loss.
As more and more companies fold, one or two will be able to corner the market again, instead of several companies struggling for domination now.
edit: this is all just how i see things progressing. i might be wrong, it's just opinion.
I don't agree with the eventual change for cheaper units and more advanced mod chips glossy. I see the opposite being true if anything.
Modchips are going to become less feasible the more complex consoles become. The more function that moves onto the die itself the less exposed options for the modders.
As for prices, consoles are going upwards in pricing in the next gen since they're being combined with other home entertainment items. Even handheld gaming's price bar has been raised by the PSP.
"Maybe you have some bird ideas. Maybe that’s the best you can do."
― Terry A. Davis
Foo wrote:Arguably Sega folded solely on the Saturn. The reason the Dreamcast bombed was because public confidence in Sega was so low they couldn't have pulled it back no matter how good the console was.... and the Dreamcast was fantastic.
Foo wrote:I don't agree with the eventual change for cheaper units and more advanced mod chips glossy. I see the opposite being true if anything.
Modchips are going to become less feasible the more complex consoles become. The more function that moves onto the die itself the less exposed options for the modders.
As for prices, consoles are going upwards in pricing in the next gen since they're being combined with other home entertainment items. Even handheld gaming's price bar has been raised by the PSP.
maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. new Xbox is expensive, though. Chippers are getting faster and more advanced now, I read (on xbox-scene) that they already have a modchip ready for the xbox360
glossy wrote:
Microsoft's Xbox division made a net loss of a few million (iirc -- i'm at school so can't look up exact figures).
I think eventually, console prices will be forced down due to the compeitive nature of the market, and companies will start making less and less money as things like modchips become more advanced and easier to obtain, promoting piracy (and decreasing sales -- the console maker's biggest source of income for their consoles). Once their profits go down, they won't be able to support new consoles because they simply won't have enough money for the initial stage of selling the hardware at a loss.
As more and more companies fold, one or two will be able to corner the market again, instead of several companies struggling for domination now.
edit: this is all just how i see things progressing. i might be wrong, it's just opinion.
You realize you're talking about Microsoft in your first statement right? As in, the company that has a $32 billion dollar slush fund?! I'm sure they cared about the couple of million lost in order to gain a good and profitable chunk of the console market.
The fact is, most people aren't nerds and don't know or care about modchips or pirating console games. Even if by some miracle the majority of people learned about them most still wouldn't want to spend the time downloading, fucking with, and burning the games.
Besides, the PC gaming market has a lot of companies turning a profit and putting out games even though piracy is rampant. What makes you think that the console market would be different?
Tormentius wrote:
The fact is, most people aren't nerds and don't know or care about modchips or pirating console games. Even if by some miracle the majority of people learned about them most still wouldn't want to spend the time downloading, fucking with, and burning the games.
while that may stand true now for the most part it wont hold up for long. the echo boomers have a much firmer grasp on things like this and are becomming more and more common place amongst people who aren't nerds.
i graduated high school a few years back and even then i'd say about 70% of the school was aware of being able to mod a system and then burn games for it.
glossy wrote:
Microsoft's Xbox division made a net loss of a few million (iirc -- i'm at school so can't look up exact figures).
I think eventually, console prices will be forced down due to the compeitive nature of the market, and companies will start making less and less money as things like modchips become more advanced and easier to obtain, promoting piracy (and decreasing sales -- the console maker's biggest source of income for their consoles). Once their profits go down, they won't be able to support new consoles because they simply won't have enough money for the initial stage of selling the hardware at a loss.
As more and more companies fold, one or two will be able to corner the market again, instead of several companies struggling for domination now.
edit: this is all just how i see things progressing. i might be wrong, it's just opinion.
You realize you're talking about Microsoft in your first statement right? As in, the company that has a $32 billion dollar slush fund?! I'm sure they cared about the couple of million lost in order to gain a good and profitable chunk of the console market.
The fact is, most people aren't nerds and don't know or care about modchips or pirating console games. Even if by some miracle the majority of people learned about them most still wouldn't want to spend the time downloading, fucking with, and burning the games.
Besides, the PC gaming market has a lot of companies turning a profit and putting out games even though piracy is rampant. What makes you think that the console market would be different?
but they're not going to be happy if the Xbox division continues to operate at a multi-million dollar loss -- they're not just gunna throw money into a market and get nothing back. You don't think Bill got rich by writing a bunch of cheques, do you?
The modchip issue has been covered. Even if you're not confident enough to follow the very, very basic instructions in how to install a solder-less chip that are easily found in google, there are plenty of people in most cities willing to do it for you, or you can ship it to them.
I jumped on a train for three stops, handed my xbox in, went out for lunch, it was done by the time i got back. seriously, it was that easy (cheap, too)
XBox was never ment to make a profit in the first place. The XBox was nothing more than MS' first steps into console land. The XBox was nothing more than a benchmark to see how well they would fare in console land.
The XBox, even though MS makes a loss at it, still did fairly well. MS is planning to make a gazillion dollar with XBox 360. Whether they'll succeed remains to be seen.
The thing is that, with the xbox, they never expected to make a profit. It's sole purpose was more or less to make a buy-in into the console market, and to create a brand. The 360 is different, this time they expect to actually turn in a decent profit - you could say that the entire original xbox project may be written off as a marketing expense for the 360.
When it comes to modchips - Microsoft will try to use xbox Live as an anti-mod tool and try to tie in as much functionality as possible into the Live service, making the people who don't use Live lose out on a lot of cool stuff.
Oh and the whole mod chip thing isn't valid. Yes, the XBox and PS2 are moddable, but the GameCube isn't. It is possible to create a very hard to hack system, Nintendo has proved that.
