Microsoft recently announced their price cuts on the Xbox 360, effective today, but what is motivating them? Microsoft’s not going to make much additional money by passing off the savings to the customer but they will, more than likely, sell a bunch of great new Xbox 360‘s to a new crowd of gamer.
Motivation? Sony.
“I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo,” says Don Mattrick, senior vice-president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. Indeed, Nintendo is likely to run away with the lead in the current generation of console gaming, leaving Microsoft and Sony to battle for second place. (businessweek)
Who would have thought Sony and Microsoft would be battling out this generation for second place while Nintendo breezes through with their Wii console and a handful of games with mediocre game reviews? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question. If you saw this coming and you’re not on the marketing or project planning for one of these console makers you better prep your resume!
The battle isn’t cooling, Microsoft drops their price to compete with their big competitor Sony which also brings it closer to the price tag on the Wii getting two bird with one stone. The reason Wii is winning is clearly due to its broad demographic of grandpa and grandma non-gamers along with hardcore gamers who have to collect all the consoles and younger gamers that want to fit the trend.
Microsoft’s clearly shooting for second place by installing more units into the consumers home as possible. They’ve got a great library of first person shooter titles, a few RPG’s and RTS titles and the typical contraversial titles like GTA and Saints Row with more hot blockbusters (read: Gears of War 2) arriving soon.
I see this as a great opportunity for casual game developers to get into the Xbox Live Arcade market and start making themselves (and Microsoft) some money off the new gamers that will buy their first Xbox 360 for $199 and up. Microsoft’s getting closer to the low-budget gamer crowd with their price cuts so it would be great if they can take advantage of that market with lower cost titles as well.
If you’re a game developer looking for console stick time and you want to grab the attention of a large pool of gamers, the Xbox 360 isn’t a bad start!
While Microsoft isn’t aiming at Nintendo just yet, there is no doubt Nintendo will be in their sights if they can smoke the pants off Sony in the near future (by this holiday).
Microsoft Game Studio’s producer Phil Spencer said:
Blah … I’m biased towards ATI/AMD, so GT, GTX, GTY all the same
@Yoshida admits absence of Vita at E3 was a mistake
Ahem! Ha ha ha ha ha :))
Really?! You have a major event and you don’t make noise around your newest product?! Who’s in charge of the marketing there? Fire the dumb ass who decided that, if you ask me.
Jordan, excellent point regarding the way the subject was shifted from PS Vita games to PS3 games. If you ask me, this was done because Vita doesn’t really have a games library …
@Irrational Games now includes 85+ Metacritic game requirement for employment
Erm, rating is not just about the game, it’s also about the rating agency. If you hire somebody, do that after you administer them some tests that are relevant for you.
Paul, I’m with you on this one, it is crap.
Oh, about good games (not sure how it rates on Metacritic :P), play Ib! (http://vgboy.dabomstew.com/other/ib.htm)
@UbiSoft patches UPlay rootkit issue
Ok, I don’t use it, I don’t care that much. Still, you don’t code a rootkit by mistake …
Paul, I hope there’s nothing too serious. Get well.
@PS Vita
I complain a lot about the 3DS. Thank heavens I don’t have PS Vita. At least Nintendo is trying. I might pick up a PSP at some point. They are cheap as dirt these days.
@Metacritic scores shaping industry
I agree with Herr_Alien and Paul. It’s crap. Metacritic scores are an average. If they want them to be representative of the true quality, the game industry should have reviewing standards and guidelines. Without them, any critic can review however he sees fit. I use Gamespot a lot. Their reviews tend to rate games 2 or 3 points (out of 10) below IGN reviews. As far as I know both are part of Metacritic. There is the problem right there.
@Impire
Played quite a few of those. There is Crystal Chronicles: My life as a Darklord dungeon/tower builder on WiiWare if anyone cares. It has girls that look like 10 wearing S&M outfits with breasts the size of melons (Japan, you so silly). I’ll admit I find most of these games boring. Although I know how addictive they can get. Blasted RollerCoaster Tycoon.
PS: good luck with the operation, Paul. I promise to write you hate mail so make sure to come back and read it.
@QOTW
Have you ever been overly attached to an NPC? A digital someone who would call up feeling of companionship? Someone you would feel bad for loosing?