Microsoft's Xbox division, profitable, Sony's PS3 not

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2007-10-26 04:34pm

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14921/The ... rofitable/

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14922/Son ... leeds-Red/

Forgive me, I don't know how to dress links, otherwise I'd insert them into some witty sentence. With Mass Effect coming out in a few weeks, I think Microsof is going to have a profitable holiday season. What's Sony have coming out? Anything decent? I'll wait at least another year to get a PS3 (assuming they have a slew of good games, I mean, this year Microsoft did).

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-10-26 04:53pm

X360: Been out for a couple years now, entering it's prime. Combined with their virtual refusal to release content through XBL for free... (Not to mention XBL's monthly fee...) And it'd be a small wonder if they weren't turning a profit off the consol.

PS3: In it's infancy, probably too advanced for it's own good... A couple of good titles on the horizon, but not too much in the realm of "Play it now!" (I think the new Ratchet & Clank is hitting soon... And Insomniac seems to want to stay on sony's boat...)

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2007-10-26 05:02pm

Andrew_Fireborn
The 360 only has a year head start on the PS3. 2 years vs. 1 at this point, if you want to consider it being roughly the same time as both systems launched.

It also helps to look at where the 360 was a year ago, and what it's game library looked like. This time last year had some very good games out for the 360. This year, the PS3 has...well...pretty much jack shit aside from cross-platform titles.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-26 05:06pm

What's the skinny on the PS3 holiday period? Next month (probably earlier for you AMERICANS) 360 gets a fair pile of top titles and I'd expect it to do great holiday sales.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-10-26 05:22pm

The PS3 is actually entering it's best period yet for software titles, with both Naughty Dog and Insomniac delivering shiny new things for it. (Ratchet & Clank Future is the highest rated exclusive title so far according to Metacritic) and MGS4 around the corner.

Unfortunately, Bioshock and Halo 3 just happened, and Mass Effect and Mario Galaxy are going down soon, so that's kind of taken the bang out of Sony's party.

Edit: Also, the 360 and Wii are clearly into christmas ramp up, the Wii just had it's best month of US sales ever, and the 360 sold even more. The PS3 sold dismally. It really needs something special. It doesn't just need Uncharted to be "Slightly better than Tomb Raider" it needs it to be "The New Tomb Raider". That's all it's gonna get till MGS4, and MGS hasn't been a sales phenomenon since the first one.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2007-10-26 05:31pm

Microsoft's XBox division having a profitable quarter would be unheard of

Too bad Halo's launch isn't sustainable though.

We'll see how Sony does next year. They've actually got a pretty good shot.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2007-10-26 05:36pm

Stark
Best as I can figure, jack shit exclusives for the PS3 except for Haze, which may well be an awesome game, but not what the PS3 needs. Here's Gamespy's release date list.

Oh yeah, and Drake's Fortune.

I honestly don't see the PS3 raking in cash from the games this year. Blu-Ray discs, maybe, since some good movies are coming out on Blu-Ray this season, but games? Hah.

Ratchet and Clank, okay, I guess it's a good game, but again, it's not the show-stopper Sony needs right now. It needs Final Fantasy 13: Androgynous Men and Hyperexaggerated Women in Weird Fucking Costumes: Ultimate Edition, or Metal Gear Solid 4: What the Fuck is Kojima Smoking Now?, or at least Silent Hill 5, you know?

Yeah, I know, cheap shots, but still, the PS3 has zero show-stoppers. They've had a grand total of, what, six exclusive titles lined up for the holiday season? Of that, Heavenly Sword was short and overly simplistic, Panzer Dragoon Oral, I mean Lair just plain sucked (but hey, it might get better, rite?), Ratchet and Clank is probably good, but didn't have a lot of hype, Haze is almost certainly overhyped, chances are Drake's Fortune is as well, but then it seems like EVERY PS3 exclusive has been massively overhyped because ZOMG IT IS A PS3 GAME!

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-10-26 05:55pm

Hotfoot wrote:Haze is almost certainly overhyped

Haze isn't really "overhyped". The only people heralding it as the second coming with free blowjobs are the hardcore Sony fans who are desperate for a "Halo killer". It's going to get buried, unless they delay it to the point that everyone's forgotten Call of Duty 4.

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2007-10-26 07:51pm

Vendetta wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:Haze is almost certainly overhyped
Haze isn't really "overhyped". The only people heralding it as the second coming with free blowjobs are the hardcore Sony fans who are desperate for a "Halo killer". It's going to get buried, unless they delay it to the point that everyone's forgotten Call of Duty 4.

Geez, I totally forgot about CoD4. Now that should be an awesome game!

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-10-26 08:08pm

Hotfoot wrote:Andrew_Fireborn
The 360 only has a year head start on the PS3. 2 years vs. 1 at this point, if you want to consider it being roughly the same time as both systems launched.

It also helps to look at where the 360 was a year ago, and what it's game library looked like. This time last year had some very good games out for the 360. This year, the PS3 has...well...pretty much jack shit aside from cross-platform titles.

It's enough of a lead that they took good advantage of it, with strong software and a comfortable enough price.

If I were to continue my analogy, I'd have to retort that that just means that the X360's walking strongly into puberty, while the PS3's getting held back in Kindergarden.

As usual, there's really very little for the new Sony platform on the block. Minor backwards compatability, and maybe still being the cheapest player of a moderately unnessecary format upgrade, are still the prime factors aside from the future promise.

Sony's just continuing to show that they don't know how to launch a console, and really just lucked out with the original PSX because of Nintendo's bullheadedness. (They're still being rather stupid with the whole "smaller than normal" disk size on the GCN & Wii... You'd think it enough that they spin backwards...)

But, seeing as the only "Next Gen" I have access to is my friend's 360... I've little to say beyond my own opinions.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-10-26 08:14pm

Andrew_Fireborn wrote:If I were to continue my analogy, I'd have to retort that that just means that the X360's walking strongly into puberty, while the PS3's getting held back in Kindergarden.

If Sony don't shape up they will see real pain when the 360's successor comes out (in 3 or 4 years). Microsoft have already started the design process, and it's likely to have a 2 to 3 year lead on the PS4 replacement.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2007-10-26 08:17pm

God. Sony's gaming division report is BRUTAL. Even if you assume that PS2 and PSP are collectively breaking even (which seems extraordinarily conservative), Sony has lost $600/PS3 sold. Needless to say, that is a horrific write-off, especially given that they have few prospects of turning their console around. If their price cuts don't get it done (and it doesn't look like they will), then this generation will have been a total disaster for them, particularly since even Blu-Ray isn't selling especially well with consumers.

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2007-10-26 11:13pm

Master of Ossus wrote:God. Sony's gaming division report is BRUTAL. Even if you assume that PS2 and PSP are collectively breaking even (which seems extraordinarily conservative), Sony has lost $600/PS3 sold. Needless to say, that is a horrific write-off, especially given that they have few prospects of turning their console around. If their price cuts don't get it done (and it doesn't look like they will), then this generation will have been a total disaster for them, particularly since even Blu-Ray isn't selling especially well with consumers.

What scares me more than anything else is the generation after the current one. I don't like thinking that Microsoft could have a real shot at having no competition in the console market.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-10-27 12:04am

Count Dooku wrote:What scares me more than anything else is the generation after the current one. I don't like thinking that Microsoft could have a real shot at having no competition in the console market.

I think you mean 'the high-performance / adult gaming segment of the console market'. The Wii is doing very well thank you. Plus, the successor to the Wii will likely have PS3 grade graphics - and frankly, for a lot of consumers and types of game that's already more than adequate.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2007-10-27 01:16am

Count Dooku wrote:What scares me more than anything else is the generation after the current one. I don't like thinking that Microsoft could have a real shot at having no competition in the console market.

Okay, there's no way that Sony's leaving the market altogether. Also, the Wii Too (or whatever stupid monicker the next one has) will likely have dramatically better graphics than the current one, and will enjoy a much wider variety of games from the get-go.

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-10-27 01:31am

Vendetta wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:Haze is almost certainly overhyped
Haze isn't really "overhyped". The only people heralding it as the second coming with free blowjobs are the hardcore Sony fans who are desperate for a "Halo killer".

No, no over-hypign here.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-27 01:36am

Starglider wrote:I think you mean 'the high-performance / adult gaming segment of the console market'. The Wii is doing very well thank you. Plus, the successor to the Wii will likely have PS3 grade graphics - and frankly, for a lot of consumers and types of game that's already more than adequate.

This can't be stressed enough, I think. I consider the Wii underpowered even for it's low-end position (frame rate problems, 96MB of memory, etc) but it's totally fine for most people. When 'low end' is 360/PS3-level, noone is going to be disappointed, and the resources will be better in real terms so you won't get Wii-style problems due to the laughably poor resources on the machine.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-10-27 01:37am

Master of Ossus wrote:
Count Dooku wrote:What scares me more than anything else is the generation after the current one. I don't like thinking that Microsoft could have a real shot at having no competition in the console market.
Okay, there's no way that Sony's leaving the market altogether. Also, the Wii Too (or whatever stupid monicker the next one has) will likely have dramatically better graphics than the current one, and will enjoy a much wider variety of games from the get-go.

Yet still be behind the next generation of Sony and MS concoles where hardware is concerned.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-10-27 01:47am

Flagg wrote:Yet still be behind the next generation of Sony and MS concoles where hardware is concerned.

Well of course but as I just pointed out that gets less and less relevant with each passing generation - particularly given that an insignificant fraction of the population will be shifting to super-HD-4096p (or whatever) in the timeframe of the next console generation (and even if they did, it would not be terribly relevant). The only thing that could change this would be some radical advance in gaming that suddenly needed an order of magnitude more processing power - and nothing short of Matrix style total immersion VR looks likely to do that.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2007-10-27 01:51pm

Flagg wrote:Yet still be behind the next generation of Sony and MS concoles where hardware is concerned.

True, but I don't think that GPU's will matter next generation even as much as they matter today. All of the consoles will be able to handle 1080 graphics. Also, the Wii is about a half-generation behind the 360 and PS3 (it's much more powerful than the original XBox, Gamecube, and PS2), so if the WiiToo is a half-generation behind the PS4 and 720, who will care?

Also, I'm rather unconvinced that the benefits of competition in the console market are of benefit for consumers. Which consumers benefit from having to decide whether they want to play Mass Effect or MGS4 (or shell out hundreds of dollars for the second title and the second consoles)? Exclusives in general are clearly harmful for consumers. Even porting games from 360 to PS3 (or vice-versa) eats up developer and programmer time, and reduces their ability to make new games, reducing the number and quality of games on the market. This is particularly true when the game CONTENT has to be limited as a result of the decision to use both 360 and PS3 consoles. Also, it's not like any of the third-party developers would leave the market if not for other consoles; they would all just be making games for that console. Therefore, in terms of software selection and availability, multiple consoles competing for the graphics crown is highly detrimental to consumers and arguably reduces quality in the games that do exist (it also helps insulate developers from competition).

Balancing this, we have a slight price-drop on the 360... over a year into its cycle. The PS3 price has been dropped several times, but since the 360 is still less expensive that's not really relevant when asking the question of what competition has done for us on the hardware side. Competition (arguably) kept the price down on the 360 in the first place since Microsoft had to build its lead, but really what price would they have placed it at if not for Sony's eventual entry? Competition, finally, can protect developers from abusive hardware giants, but I would argue that sufficient competition for this is generated by the Wii and the PC, and also the hardware giants haven't exactly played nicey-nice with developers this generation, anyway. Therefore, it seems strange to me to be terrified of a marketplace that lacks hardware competition, especially since in the next generation developers will doubtless consider the Wii's successor as a serious competitor for their development time, since it will likely continue to sell in huge droves and will therefore be able to push their software through numbers if not through "hardcore" attach rates.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-10-27 05:29pm

weemadando wrote:
Vendetta wrote:
Hotfoot wrote:Haze is almost certainly overhyped
Haze isn't really "overhyped". The only people heralding it as the second coming with free blowjobs are the hardcore Sony fans who are desperate for a "Halo killer".
No, no over-hypign here.

Ubisoft are the publisher, they're expected to produce moneyhats to try and sell the game.

The only people who actually seem to be anticipating buying the game to play though are the rabid Sony fans, and the response outside of that demographic has largely been "Huh?"