If Microsoft was to walk away from consoles tomorrow?

[Abooie]

Are MS doing anything to acquire developers?
Sony seem to be increase the amount of studios they have but MS seem to be getting rid, like freeing bungie and canning ensemble. Have they got new studios? I thought it was sus that they are letting them go.

I don't think MS will leave though.

MS have set up several new 1st party studios using many of the guys from Ensemble and FASA. They also just brought in Ryan Payton (from Kojima) who obviously sees enough of a future to pledge his skills.
Turn 10 has apparetly been expanded to several studios so they can work on more than one game at a time and after looking at how much Rare cost MS vs how much GoW cost from Epic they obviously think that the future lies in publishing third party exclusives.

I really do think there's more chance we'll not see a new console from Sony than not seeing one MS. MS are making money, have lowered prices whilst Sony are using every single profitiable part of the business just to keep the PS brand in business. They had to sell the Cell business to Toshiba and also sell off their insurance business this last year just stay in the game.

Honestly, MS have so much ready cash they need to spend they've just embarked on the biggest share buy back in history ($40b).

If someone has said to MS 'do you want a large piece of the home entertainment hub market pie', the most popular video on demand service, a 20m+ install base and be in a position to make profit whilst being ahead of the current market leader Sony who will be hemorrhaging money; and this will cost you $6b over 5 years they'd have jumped at it.

 

[FrankJH]

I guess Sony could take less risks and manufacture a more reliable but cheaper not so cutting edge console each time and nintendo I have no clue what they will try next.

Sony already do manufacture a reliable console (compared to the millions sold)

but yes the gamers would lose out, games wouldnt advance at the rate they do now (if at all) any new developements like Cell and BR just wouldnt happen unless A N Other company came into the console market (although I cant think who)

Sony are in the same position financeally with there game department.
I am sure that i have read on the internet that all there profits from the ps2 have been used up with the ps3 development etc.
I would think MS are in a better position now than Sony are.
I have also read that Ms make a small profit from the 360 now.
Also they must be making a fair bit of money from the games as the 360 has the biggest attach rate of all the consoles.
Then dont forget xbox live they must be raking in money from that as well.

I think you missed out the huge hole in your own post

Sony used the PROFITS of the PS2 (which are still rolling in significantly) to design and get the PS3 out there.
While MS sold a huge amount of XBox's they where still left in debt (in regards to the gaming division) and this was magnitutes larger by the time the X360 was released

While MS are now making profit on each unit sold now, dont forget the huge underwriting fo the warrenty /RROD situation whixch incured a gigantic loss also.

While MS is a gigantic company - isnt the gaming division completely seperate and still heavily in debt (although getting a little back from each unit sold)

 

[Burningmace]

I think the problem with the 360 was that Microsoft backed HD-DVD so feverishly. Once the format was generally dropped in favour of Blu-Ray, they lost a massive amount of future revenue in terms of high definition movie releases. Sony now have the whole Blu-Ray movie market boosting their sales and profit and Microsoft are left with only the games market. Once PS3s drop in price to £250, they will be a serious competition to other Blu-Ray players on the market in terms of a media solution as the PS3 offers a decent size hard drive for local storage and the whole streaming content thing - not to mention games. You also have to remember that Sony's primary profit makers are AV hardware (TV/Hi-Fi), computers (Vaio laptops) and electronic components. Microsoft's profits depend on software sales - Windows and Office are their two serious moneymakers. Their foot in the hardware market is minimal by comparison to Sony.
However, they do have the whole "WE ARE MICROSOFT" thing behind them - whilst their gaming sector is in debt, the rest of the company is in massive profit.

Anyway, to answer the question - Sony would never bring out a PS4, Nintendo would carry on as usual and progression in general would slow down as there would be no incentive for two of the world's biggest home entertainment giants to further development.

 

[Joebob]

If it did happen then maybe less threads would get trashed with fanboy arguments

Personally I think if MS left then someone else would step in. There have already been rumours (although not very strong ones) of Apple and EA coming into the console market.

I think the problem with the 360 was that Microsoft backed HD-DVD so feverishly. Once the format was generally dropped in favour of Blu-Ray,

I thought the general consensus was that MS backed HDDVD to purposely stall the winner of the next HD disc media, therefore gaining more ground with their downloadable HD movie content in the US?

 

[JoeBoi]

Personally I think if MS left then someone else would step in. There have already been rumours (although not very strong ones) of Apple and EA coming into the console market.

I hope neither of these companies make a games console