170°

Microsoft Xbox Is Winning The Living Room War. Here's Why

Forbes: "Rather than pay $199 just for the unit, users can now get an Xbox for $99—as long as they also take a two-year contract to Xbox Live Gold.

This new low price looks even better when you consider you don’t need to buy a new TV, which is what Samsung and, soon, Apple want you to do. “If you want to start a phenomenon,” says Ballmer, “it doesn’t start with thousand-dollar-plus devices that sell at unreasonably low volume and need major room redesigns.”

stephmhishot4311d ago (Edited 4311d ago )

"This spring, for the first time, subscribers to Xbox’s Live online service in the U.S. spent more time consuming video and music than multiplayer games."

MS: Mission Accomplished

Hey, remember when Sony was criticized for "just using the PS3 as a trojan horse for Blu-Ray" and people liked to say "lol, people don't even play games on PS3, its just a cheap Blu-Ray player for all the people I know haha"? How times change.

Fortunately, things do change quickly as we saw with the original Xbox/PS2 to the 360/PS3. If Sony manages to botch the PS4 launch like they did the PS3 one, and let MS beat them to market by over a year, then they will have deserved their fate. But if both companies release the console within the same time frame, with the same price, and similar specs, it will be very interesting.

Megaton4311d ago

Yeah, used to be Sony getting crapped on for just "playing movies" or trying to be a jack of all trades with entertainment services. Now Microsoft execs are bragging about such former insults.

shoddy4311d ago

For xbox you have to pay for live just to pay for those contents again.

PopRocks3594310d ago

@shoddy

Not to mention Sony had those services before Microsoft ever did. So what's there to gloat about? Hell, even Nintendo's Wii/3DS do Netflix and Hulu for free.

smashcrashbash4309d ago

That is how the people that kiss Microsoft's @$$ talk. They pretend that Microsoft was ahead of everyone else in everything and was never chasing after or was catching up with anyone. Just about every product Microsoft has made was and is is usually overshadowed or surpassed by something else.Even now they are still chasing after the Wii and Nintendo has already has a new console coming out.Microsoft is somehow always the greatest and yet hardly ever dominates in anything

SockeyBoy4311d ago (Edited 4311d ago )

But can't you stream movies, stream music, and download games on both the xbox 360 and the PS3?

Edit: I don't like MS bragging about how Live users spent more time consuming video and music than playing games. Its annoying because we need more games MS, I'm f***ing serious MS, get back in the game.

BigShotSmoov0074311d ago

I doubt they will do that. I think I read somewhere that Jack Tretten said they're never first to come out and they're never the cheapest so obvisiously they are not changing their stragety. They'll wait and see what microsoft does and come out after them again, maybe not a whole year wait but they're not in any rush to come out with the ps4, thats for sure.

TBM4311d ago (Edited 4311d ago )

i traded in my 360 2 weeks ago for lack of use. MS isnt winning my living room with what their doing.

im not paying them to use my own damn internet when im already paying my cable subscriber.

also MS i dont care about USELESS apps that i could use for free everywhere else, i just want a variety of good exclusives in different genres that defines your system. halo, forza, and fable retreading just doesnt do it for me. man i miss the old big brick xbox i got more use out of it than my 360.

just like to also say only my fellow americans would allow themselves to be screwed out of more money for a videogame system then just paying for it outright.
like someone said in another article we are the reason why places like rent a center still exist.

Trebius514311d ago

i guess the "PS3 owners dont play games they play movies" argument is no longer ammo for the die hard 360 owners who live and die for this imaginary console war.

360 has no games right now worth playing unless you really like kinect, they dont care about their gamer crowd, they just want the wii crowd.

Still not sure why 360 owners are so quick to defend M$ and all considering M$ doesnt care about them. You can cry for games all you want, theyll keep shutting down studios and releasing kinect shovelware.

KMCROC544311d ago

I don't need them to care about me, for me to buy their product. i buy their product cause i like what they offer & are reliable + it preference.

Redgehammer4311d ago

So many of you have an "either, or" perspective on the 360' s role in the living room, and it befuddles me. I love that I can game for 14 hours, and then seemlessly transition to a multitude of entertainment choices. The 360 is a very capable game console, and a very capable media hub,; which I see as an awesome combination.

Anon19744310d ago (Edited 4310d ago )

Now that's the Microsoft cheerleading I'm used to from Forbes. I just commented on the other Forbes article, "6 reasons to buy a PS3 over the 360" that that's not the Forbes we're used to. Forbes has done nothing but mislead and bash Sony this entire gen for some reason.

They spent countless articles moaning about "slow" PS3 sales, they bitched about Sony selling the PS3 at a loss, they predicted that the PS3 slim and price cut was "too late" and it wouldn't sell. On and on it went, completely oblivious of little things like facts and sales figures.

Now they're at it again. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the 360, but Forbes clearly has their blinders on in this article, ignoring everything that's going on outside of the US while almost completely dismissing the competition which has handily outsold the 360 ever since the 360 had competition. Not to mention the waning game selection. Also, no mention that all these extra, living room features cost you compared to the competition and the majority of them aren't even available outside of the US. And the 360 clearly comes up short when you start comparing multimedia features. Where's that in your article, Forbes?

"After only a decade, Microsoft, a software company, has built a stronger hardware product than anyone else has in the space."

I almost threw up a little in my mouth. Get a room!

miyamoto4310d ago (Edited 4310d ago )

This is my boy drakride66, keeping it REAl!

Billions of dollars on Media Buy Out can not hide the truth forever.

dcbronco4310d ago (Edited 4310d ago )

But Sony was pushing the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. MS adds the other features as an additional service. It's not their fault people like them so much. But it is to their benefit.

Dark Forbes is a business magazine. All of the "anti-Sony" articles you named are geared toward giving investors knowledge about a potential investment. Slow PS3 and Vita sales hurt dividends. So does selling the console at a loss for so long. MS is making a healthy profit from the 360. That's what investors like to hear. That allows a company to pay large dividends. And that makes them money. So they can buy a new ascot.

@Redgehammer

Apparently the internet knows you better than you know yourself. You should check back tomorrow to see what you're having for lunch.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 4309d ago
solidworm4311d ago

World Wide weekly sales say NO...............

Kurt Russell4311d ago

You're confusing them with Charlie Sheen.

AtomicGerbil4311d ago

I'll hazard a guess that their next announced service will be called Tiger Blood.

floppy4311d ago

"Ballmer is working to persuade the big pay-TV players—Comcast and Verizon are already Xbox partners—to allow their customers the choice of an Xbox over a cable set-top."

LOL, this will never fly unless MS is willing to pay the difference in lost revenue.

Non_sequitur4311d ago

Yeah, that's $10 a month for an HD box and $15 a month for an HD box with dvr that the cable companies will have to be willing to lose.

Rock_On_PS44311d ago

Article is based on American market and Americans usually do not even know there is another way besides the good old US of A.
Europe and Asia and other parts of the world are seen by the average American as a bad evil Communist regime.

vikingland14311d ago (Edited 4311d ago )

I don't , I must be an above average American then.

wenaldy4311d ago

It's called well educated person.

Redgehammer4311d ago

You either know some really stupid Americans, or are you just spewing uninformed propoganda to attempt to validate your point. It is folly to apply a word like "most" when dealing with a population 313 million+.

Hicken4309d ago

They know about us what they see on the news. And they believe it just like they say we believe everything we see on TV.

But WE'RE the ignorant ones...

Show all comments (58)
80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple1019d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref9d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde9d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn9d ago (Edited 9d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander19728d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville8d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff21838d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos8d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 8d ago
isarai9d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref9d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan9d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0078d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander19729d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

9d ago Replies(3)
Einhander19729d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

9d ago
9d ago
Zeref9d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde9d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander19729d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander19729d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier8d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto8d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff21838d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto8d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 8d ago
Hofstaderman9d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts8d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts8d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic8d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

Show all comments (43)
90°

Nintendo's War Against Player-Made Content Will Hurt The Company In The End

Danish from eXputer: "Nintendo has historically gone against player-made content and emulation of its games. This has done much to harm the company's image."

XiNatsuDragnel16d ago

I agree nintendo hire some these folks to help in your games it'll help imo.

banger8815d ago

They need to stop announcing these mods and fan remakes until they're finished. Finish it, upload it, and then if Nintendo dmca's it tough shit. Once it's online, people can share it around, even if the original download gets taken down.

Jingsing15d ago

True, but most modders need constant admiration during the process to motivate them.

PRIMORDUS14d ago

Yup, once it's a torrent nothing can be done Nintendo is helpless at that point. But it would be wise if they just had a site on the dark web, it's also easy to use with Tor and no one will bother you.

mastershredder14d ago

This is all coming from the mouth of short-sighted fandom and grifting madness.
No.... it wont. There is a clear defined reason why they don't. This is nothing new. Make your own shi7 from your own original ideas especially if you are trying to capitalize of it it. Duh.

Yeah, hire people that have zero respect or understanding for an established process. Wow. Yep. Totally makes sense.

shinoff218314d ago

Those guys that made that sonic game got a gig from sega or something along those lines and that game was dope as hell. One of the best sonics as of late.