Are Microsoft working on the Xbox 3 ?
- Thread starter cheets64
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Its still early days for the 360. MS would be nuts to release a next....next-gen console before at least 2010+. I wonder if we'll ever see a slimline 360 though in the next few years?
Probably notJames, you're mistaking costs for losses. Yes there are high start-up costs associated with developing a games console, however these costs are then depreciated over the expected lifetime of the console thus enabling Microsoft or anyone other console manufacturer to make a profit. Suppose the cost of setting up the Xbox 360 was $3bn and they expect it to be produced for 7 years, then the actual cost that appears in the P&L account at year end will be ~$430m. If their 360 sells for $399 in year 1, then if they sell 1.25m of them, then they've made a profit of $70m - despite actually spending $3bn that year.
Obviously thats a very simple example and doesn't include other costs such as raw materials and revenues such as the revenue from selling games, but I hope you get the idea of what a loss actually is and why a company can in fact make a profit by inventing things
Soldato
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As I've mentioned previously I don't see MS pulling out of this one. Its more than just selling loads of games, this is MS' way into the living room, which previously it has struggled to do. They may be making a loss still but the potential profit from having your living room entertainment run through an MS controlled system is probably quite high.
I don't think Sony would pull out in the next gen however. As much as they aren't doing so well I keep comparing this to the good old days of Nintendo vs Sega vs Sony. Sega dropped out simply because the losses they made were extreme. Sony is an enormous company with much more than just the gaming division. It may hit their profits badly, but they will still be around to try again.
I don't think Sony would pull out in the next gen however. As much as they aren't doing so well I keep comparing this to the good old days of Nintendo vs Sega vs Sony. Sega dropped out simply because the losses they made were extreme. Sony is an enormous company with much more than just the gaming division. It may hit their profits badly, but they will still be around to try again.
OMG.. you sir are acting like a prize Donkey..
I think stating the obvious that production costs reduce during the life cycle is bad enough, but the whole "i did an alevel in Business and i remember the teacher syaing that a company will never release a product for less than its worth".. just please for the love of God, stop it..
We are just talking about the 360/PS3 here, not others..
It's a FACT that the 360/PS3 have cost more to produce then they are sold for, only now the 360/PS3 may make a very very small profit.. we don't know the exact amount, but there are very good analysts that know component costs/production costs, and can pretty accuratly 'guess' the unit cost for us, that coupled with the offical statements that they are selling them at a loss..
Just GOOGLE "360 sold at loss" or "PS3 sold at loss"..
The mechanism is called a 'loss leader'.. you want to go and ask your Business Studies teacher about it.. (I also have an A Level in Business Studies, but quite frankly its worth squat)..
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I heard it was more like £300 for the PS3 (loss per unit) but I could be wrong.
Im afraid James you are most definitely wrong. The main units for MS and Sony are sold at significant losses initally with the hope that the games and peripherals wll sell significantly enough to make this loss back.
Yes the wii is different in that it has always been sold per unit at a profit - mainly because the tech inside it isnt as expensive to reproduce as MS's or Sony choice.
Even accounting for manufacturing costs there are also R&D which would still have cost Nintendo a significant sum (and no doubt MS and Sony even more - even though in this part Sony will have had help in R&D from IBM and Toshiba in regards to cell production etc)
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You have the balls to call me clueless then say MS have made billions from consoles.
Show me this evidence of billions or apologise for your comment and state that it is you that is clueless.
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It is something i have been wondering about too with
1. Bungie going independant
2. Bizarre being bought by activision
3. Bioware going to EA.
That is the 3 biggest dev's MS had on their side and they have let that happen? I don't think MS would be letting that happen if there was to be another xbox.
I think they are now just going to use it as a springboard for Game for Windows, Live and even media content distribution to PC's. But i wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't another xbox.
Soldato
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heard of a loss leader? tesco is an example, cutting the costs of products to get you in the store?
that quote makes me embarrased to have that qualification
So er you a Sony fan? Hope not because at this rate and in light of your revelations, Sony will do the same leaving the market devoid of consoles in 3 years time.
You know having a presence in the console market is great brand marketing for them. Kids play on microsoft consoles, they use microsoft computer software and so on. You can't buy a market presence like that...oh wait they have and will continue to do so.
The xbox360 was set up to make inroads into the PS3 and sony's dominance. You could argue it has done that but its still a financial disaster. They had Sony in the palm of their hands with the 360 and they blew it. There are still loads of people who have been put off by the 360's 3RLOD.
I personally would never buy another MS launch console.
Sooner ot later they will look at the figures and say after two consoles they never look like getting back their investment from xbox and 360.
People saying MS has cash to spare, well if you make say 10 billion per year and the gaming division is sucking up 2 billion sooner or later you cut that out.
By now the gaming divison should have been making money, it isn't and it's highly unlikely the 360 will ever turn profitable.
They will make all the right noises as I said about a next console but I doubt it will ever get launched. They can develope one but not releasing it will save them more money than releasing another money pit.
People say they cant imagine a market with an xbox, they said that about Sega. Just how many consoles do MS want to make before they turn that loss into a profit.
Someone said 11 million people have an xbox in their house. How many of those where replacements for dead ones.
It would have worked perfectly if it wasn't made of chocolate. Sadly it is and any gains they made have been eaten up by being crap makers of hardware.
Their long term goal was to break even by around mid 2006....... they are about £2.5b down and still hemorrhaging.
Add to that they their president jumped ship to EA and they have recently let their biggest developers loose into the wild.
Kinda OT but there are also rumblings of Apple entering the market.
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Is there really any reason to speak to someone like that?
Why not.. I think when someone is so factually wrong then uses the "i did an alevel in Business and i remember the teacher syaing that a company will never release a product for less than its worth" that puts them in that category...
Please report me to the mods if you feel I've overstepped the mark, I can be quite abrupt to people if they keep shoving their stupidity in my face.. I get this at my annual review every year.. I try to be nice, but I am quite a poor person in this respect.
LOL!!
So really itll be a new console?
Thats what happens everytime, they always upgrade, hense the term 'New'.
Obviously..
Well, you do know the ps3 has 6 cpus and not just 1 dont you... and not neccessarily, the chip in the ps3 is two 6600's (or 6800's) combined and overclocked with a custom GPU.
By the time they get round to releasing a new one they will be loaded from the previous consoles, be richer anyway due to company expansion and other products they sell although departments get yearly funding etc.. They will be powerful enough to make a brand new console due to the growing popularity in consoles...
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I know.. I know... but then I don't 100% subscribe to the whole PC side of things..Standards of Personal Conduct
Look I know I've been abrupt,
but the PS3 Cell processor has 7 SPE's enabled, with a General Purpose CPU, that's sort of 8 CPU's.. not 6..
The RSX was quoted from an NVidia spokesman as "The GeForce 7800 is almost identical to the RSX, the rsx is only slightly less powerful"
The "two 6800 Ultra's" comment was a throw away comment from a developer AFAIK..
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I seriously doubt MS will pull out of the Games Industry, if there was any sign of that happening they wouldn't even bother trying to break into the PC gaming market by releasing the Xbox Live variation for Vista, which I personally think is a mistake Since PC games have always been free to play online and now they are trying to charge them for the privilage
The console market becomes bigger and better every year and where there is money MS isnt far behind. I see the whole Xbox project as:
-The original Xbox was made to test the waters and do what no other console has done before, create an all-in-one integrated online gaming service. Despite not making a profit on the hardware it was an overall success for what it achieved.
-The 360's attempt was to take away Sony's huge market share from the last generation and in turn increase their own market share, which so far has been a success aswell (even though not entirely by their own doing), its still early to say for sure though. Also I dont think they expected Nintendo to pull off what they have done
I myself for the next Xbox would be happy with:
-More powerful hardware
-More reliable (which will have to be done seeing how much its cost them this gen already
)
-Intergrated HD-DVD/Blu-ray (which ever wins)
-Every console to come with a Harddrive (The core was a big mistake IMO since it divided the 360's userbase)
-Even further improvements to Xbox Live (one of which needs to be Dedicated servers! P2P just doesnt cut it anymore)
Since PC games have always been free to play online and now they are trying to charge them for the privilageThe console market becomes bigger and better every year and where there is money MS isnt far behind. I see the whole Xbox project as:
-The original Xbox was made to test the waters and do what no other console has done before, create an all-in-one integrated online gaming service. Despite not making a profit on the hardware it was an overall success for what it achieved.
-The 360's attempt was to take away Sony's huge market share from the last generation and in turn increase their own market share, which so far has been a success aswell (even though not entirely by their own doing
), its still early to say for sure though. Also I dont think they expected Nintendo to pull off what they have done I myself for the next Xbox would be happy with:
-More powerful hardware
-More reliable (which will have to be done seeing how much its cost them this gen already
)-Intergrated HD-DVD/Blu-ray (which ever wins)
-Every console to come with a Harddrive (The core was a big mistake IMO since it divided the 360's userbase)
-Even further improvements to Xbox Live (one of which needs to be Dedicated servers! P2P just doesnt cut it anymore)
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