Microsoft fires the first shot in the "NEXT" generation.... - Page 109

Totally normal practice for major releases during console transitions. Like I said above, the transition form Xbox to 360 is the only console transition I can think of where those weren't common (and that was because MS decided to strong-arm consumers and publishers into the transition to 360). PS3 and PS2 had a ton early in the PS3's life.

You're right that it's a bit less typical for major first-party releases, but there is even precedent for that: most recently, there was a dual release of Twilight Princess on Wii and GC. And it's possible that it's for the same reason. The game may have been originally planned for release on the older platform, but higher-ups decided mid-production to delay it a bit and also release it for the new console.

You are right on the money about 38 Studio's shabby treatment of its employees. I live in Stow Massachusetts. And have kept up with the 38 Studio project. A good friend of mine left that company in 2011 because of major issues around that. She was the Chief Marketing Officer of the company at the time after leaving Nintendo marketing to join them. She lamented to me how "unfocused" and "all over the place" Curt Shilling was. She said..."He is trying to juggle way too many balls". I, of course took that to mean "Project balls". She was extremely disappointed how the company was viral with "vulture" politics between managers and developers. No one seemed to know what their roles were. She remains very high on Shilling the person. But it looks like he was not cut out to be CEO of a creative, Greenfield type startup company. I was gonna get that game. But I will stay away now because of lack of future support or sequels. I don't want to repeat my Advent Rising experience. Remember that one? Tons of promise and expectations at the end of the XBox 1 lifecycle.

BTW Confidenceman...even though it seems like we are getting a flood of rumors, disclosures and activities around NexBox. I don't think anything has changed one twit on MS' developmental timeline...since 2006. I think everyone is getting antsy because we are probably 12 months away from a major announcement about NexBox. That is unless the economy craters again...a distinct possibility.

Everything seems to be pointing to a late 2013 launch. We saw what happened this gen when MS felt pressured to launch the 360 ahead of the competition. It cost them billions in RROD service. So I doubt they'll push the launch forward.

I'm also not saying that BC won't happen--though it if it does, it will be severely limited. I just wouldn't read too much into that Bungie document. All it really tells us is that a new title is on the way and that MS is hoping to have a new console out late next year. Neither of which is surprising IMO.

From what I understand,Motorola violated the Frand agreement by charging MS too much for a video codex, they used it anyway and refused to pay the unusually high amount (54 million vs 4 billion rough estimate) this is the basis of the lawsuit. MS is at fault for not paying (hence the ban on sales) but Moto is equally at fault for price gouging. (it is also part of a merrygoround of lawsuits between the two, like the one that got the Moto Droids banned)

gamesindustry has a good article on what happened. nothing will come from it...

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/23/xb...-by-itc-judge/

Both the 4GB and 250GB Xbox 360 S models were recommended for a trade ban in the US this week by International Trade Commission judge David Shaw. Said recommendation came several weeks after Shaw ruled in favor of Motorola in a case alleging Microsoft violated several patents held by the mobile phone manufacturer, ranging from Wi-Fi technology to video patents.

The recommendation alone doesn't ban the import of the two console models - a panel of six judges on the ITC board will review Shaw's recommendation and decide whether it should be made into law. Florian Mueller of patent site Foss Patents told GamesIndustry International that it's unlikely Shaw's recommendation will make it past its current point. "Unlike judges at courts, ITC judges don't make the decisions: they merely recommend them. Their recommendations are very frequently not adopted by the Commission, the six-member decision-making body at the top of the ITC," he said.

Moreover, Mueller pointed out that he's "never seen an ITC judge make any other recommendation than an exclusion order [the import ban in question] if his initial determination is that there is a violation." And given Shaw's initial determination earlier this year that Microsoft was in violation of Motorola's patents, today's news is actually "normal course of business," said Mueller.

Not entirely true. Costs of this will be passed on to consumers, and it just increases the hazards of the BS patent and copywrite system that has been totally corrupted by corporate interests.

If this sort of BS was around in the 80's, we probably wouldn't have a AVS to converse on, let alone a laptop.

MS already charges as much as they think they can to maximize profits. Additional costs do not often impact that equation. The only way the costs will be passed on to consumers is if market conditions allow them to do that. Stockholders are the ones that will be hit. Plus the scapegoats at MS.

Ha!

That's funny!

Markets haven't worked that way in a good long time.

A few Memorial Day NexGen Brain Farts outside of the realm of Tech & Spec which we all like to talk about...

After watching my grandkids duke it out on Wii over the Holiday weekend, I was left with a few nagging questions about this entire question re: this thread. If NexGen XBox actually launched in 2012 or 2013...would it really be a Dude or Dud? Would it be heralded as the "Next Coming"...or Ho Hummm DOA? I confess right up front...I don't have a clue what the answers are. But my Grandkids sure seem too. When I asked them if they were looking forward to a new kind of XBox...it was met with what's wrong with the one we have? In their world Nintendo reigns! They knew all about WiiU. And wanted it sight unseen to play the next versions of Zelda, Mario, Kid Icarus et al in HD. Their ages ranged from 8-16. They also had a barely used XBox 360, I gave them years ago (My daughter & Son-in Law prefer their children play Nintendo games with the exception of the 16 yr old grandson. And even he prefers to play single player, or with his sisters on Wii.

Here is the thing nagging at my craw. Over the past 10-20 years we have witnessed a mini Baby Boomlet in the US, almost the size of the post WW2 one. Add in immigration (legal & otherwise) and the demographics clearly favor Nintendo in NexGen IMO. And for the same reasons it won in this Gen. Parents seem more comfortable with Nintendo for their children. Parents are very familiar with the content and many loathe the hard core "wild frontier", uncontrollable aspects of on-line gaming for their kids.

My fearless prediction on WiiU is thus...Major out of the ballpark home run in 2012-2014! Kids will demand it! Parents will want it for them. End of story. And that brings me to XBox Nexus.

Kids won't demand it. Parents won't touch it itinitially at $400-$600. And the XBox 360 with Kinect is already out there for them in HD...with a ton of games...Multi-media apps...On-Line access...and better affordability options as each day goes by. PS3 is not a looming threat to MS. PS4 is only a lukewarm ear ache for them right now. The vast majority of their core XBox user base is happy as clams with the XBox 360-S with Kinect. They will logically migrate to X-Nexus when their economics favor it...their curiosity about a new game gets the best of them...or MS abruptly pulls the plug on all things XBox 360. But in reality the 80%ers just want better & cheaper XBox 360 games. The hard core base (or us 1%ers in their mix) want radical change right now. We're ready to move on anywhere MS takes us...except backwards. MS is making money hand over fist on the XBox 360, Halo et al right now. And is likely to continue...based on demographics and economics in 2013. Especially if it flashes a few "Beaver Shots" of X-Nexus in 2013. What a dilemma for MS!

Do they Proact?...React?...Hold serve and read the markets?...abandon parts of the game, while boosting others? I know many on this thread want X-Nexus in 2012-2013. But seriously...is that even realistic, considering what kind of company MS is? The state of the economy? And the fact that they can continue to cannibalize or slightly blunt Nintendo even with a WiiU launch for 2 years with a profitable XBox 360 strategy.

It will be interesting to watch them move with X-Nexus in 2013. Only one thing is certain to me on that one. They won't beat Nintendo for Nintendo's audience. Their best outcome is to share the market with Nintendo as its audience ages. Feign Attack of the PC market to fake us out. And that should dictate their mass market launch strategy on Nexus IMO.

Out of juice on this one...over and out. Let the bombs fly.

So how is pricing set?

man, it just hit me how close E3 is. I'm getting excited! let's see what happens.

and since we're at a penultimate moment, it's pretty cool to see how history has shaken itself out...



it's just amazing to see the stratosphere that the Wii reached that even the PS2 never matched.

Seems to me that going by that chart, slow and steady wins the race.

if we're only going by the chart, neither the 360 nor the PS3 will catch the Wii over time because by the time the next gen arrives, sales of the 360/PS3 will tail off before having a chance to catch Wii.

now the big advantages that Microsoft and Sony had this gen was money off DLC and other sources. Nintendo really messed up on the online front this gen, but most Wii people have their Wii connected to a TV via composite so it was never a major demographic that would've used online anyway.

but I do see both Sony and Microsoft supporting their ecosystems with both current and next-gen. too much money being made to dump the 360.

and I think the big thing happening (at least on the Microsoft side) is crossplatform play. they already have a solid network infrastructure for chat/multimedia and both consoles will be self-sustaining. have the 360 for the low-end and the budget-conscious and the next-gen for the high-end, high profit margins. this totally eliminates the need for backward compatibility.

I just wonder what that chart would have looked like if not for wii sports and wii fit.

Wow! If that graph is anywhere near correct, MS would be complete fools to discontinue sales and support for the 360 anytime soon. I think folks in these types of forums tend to forget that the majority of the population isn't all that interested in spending another $600 on a new console just yet (regardless of what it might offer) particularly when they're just starting to get into their current gen.

Ive never heard anyone here say they think the 360 is going away anytime soon.

Be careful, the real power behind the PS2 was international sales, especially when it became dirt cheap to produce and able to be a household product for many nations with less disposable income. US sales are a good barometer of the US market and trends, but world wide sales paint different pictures as a whole.

What this does show is that MS dominated the next gen US market and Nintendo found a way to differentiate itself successfully from the traditional console race.

According to Wikipedia and Joystick PS3 has 63 million, 360 67 mil and Wii 95 mil units sold worldwide. Given that the PS3 and Xbox both cost almost twice what the Wii does I'd say each platform generated about the same $ amount in hardware. The PS3 & Xbox generating a bit more since their motion controls were a separate cost.

What would be interesting is a breakdown of actual unique owners. I'm on my second PS3 and third Xbox one being used when I got it. RROD and YLOD caused a lot of repeats. Seems like everyone I know bought at least two of each console. Wiis tend to collect dust after a short time so probably not many repeats there.

let's be real. US sales make up the bulk of world sales. this applies across any gaming platform. we are a consumer nation and we consume and buy more of everything.

Japan is a tiny buying country. It's the third largest economy in the world but its sales are tiny compared to the US. same for any other country.

It was the US that made all of these companies what they are. not international sales. go through any set of numbers and if you take away the US numbers, sales would be paltry.

take a movie like Men in Black 3. China is now the largest overseas consumer of box office movies, having just surpassed Japan. and yet it drew $19 million which is a drop in the bucket in the US. MiB3 drew $55 million in the US.

you can apply this across nearly any market. whether it's cars. video games. movies. electronics. It's the US that consumes the vast bulk of sales.

Nonsense.

Even with the 360 skewing the Japanese and NA numbers, only 25% of NA console sales (this gen) are in NA (not just the US), so apparently 75% of sales is paltry? Japan is a close third by country next to the UK.

Nintendo Wii sold like gangbusters in Japan. total sales in Japan: 12 million. US sales: 45 million.

Sony Playstation 2. Japan total sales: 21 million. US sales: 50 million.

No matter how you break it down. Sales in Japan are far smaller. unfortunately, when you get to these stratospheric numbers, you tend to oversimplify. You can say that the US is twice as much but that downplays how big these numbers really are. To shift 29 MILLION more units in the US is significantly larger than 2X would indicate. That's a significant number of additional households.

Calculate those figures again. But this time do it for portables.

iPhone 2011 US sales: ~40 million
3DS 2011 US sales: 5 million
3DS 2011 Japan sales: 4.6 million

no clue about Android phones...



Americans do portable gaming on phones... heck, let's add all the regions for the 3DS and compare with just the US region in iPhone. still no contest...

Looks pretty close to me--especially considering the difference in population.

PSP numbers are also similar (15mil for Japan, 17mil for US).

DS shows a pretty big divergence, though (35mil vs 50mil).

Funny you mention that.

I'm at least $1000 in on consoles this gen after multiple failures. Next Gen I'll be waiting, and once I do buy I'll be purchasing a comprehensive 3rd party extension plan.

If that were true, Sony would have been absolutely decimated this gen. Instead they clawed back to only a few million units behind MS when you factor in world wide sales.

It's not true. Worldwide sales have always been important to Sony and Nintendo, and as said it's what drove the insane sales numbers of the PS2 once the tech was cheap enough to be widely adoptable in other countries.

It's probably MS's next focus now that they have the US market locked up. There's tons of room for them to grow overseas.


Since when does Japan = Worldwide sales?



Japan is a major player, but we're talking about Europe, Asia, South America, ect. There's no argument the US and Japan tend to be the largest markets. Just that with prices on technology coming down and increases in wealth of other nations, they're no longer the sole markets for video games. Hell, even this gen it's not unomomon to find Russians or Brazilians online on next gen consoles.

You're including markets that are tiny. Look at South American sales. Look at Asia sales. Tiny. The only country of significance among those is Japan.

Yes, Europe as a whole is a huge market. But it's the US, Europe, and a far distant 3rd Japan. and then the microscopic percentages are the rest of the world.

See above. I have no idea where you're getting this from. This only makes sense if you're talking about the 360. Otherwise, Japan is a significant portion of the global market. Considering that Japan has half the population of the US and nearly equal total sales of PSP and 3DS, that's a pretty big deal. And, yes, console sales are down significantly in Japan, but even there they're now "only" on par with every other region for their population size.

Not just that, but the stronger yen versus Western currencies mean that sales within Japan actually count more than sales outside of Japan. It's not a simple one-to-one comparison. In other words, every sale of a Japanese game or console to someone in Japan is worth more than an equivalent sale outside of Japan.

Also, why does this matter? Japan is a major game market. No two ways about it. Also, knowing how poorly the Japanese think of American tech products (and that's putting it lightly), it's significant that the iPhone is now the top-selling smartphone in Japan. The first language Siri spoke other than English? Japanese. Clearly, Japan is a major gaming market.