Maxwell M.:
Early this morning, Nintendo announced that it would be dropping the price of the Nintendo Wii in North America from $149 to $129. This is, presumably, to cash in on the bargain hunters during the holiday season and make way for the release of the Wii U on November 18th of this year. This was almost immediately followed by Microsoft's announcement that it would be dropping the price of its Xbox 360 bundles by $50, to $249.
Sony just cannot seem to catch a break. Nintendo has held the total market share in North America for the entire generation, while the 360 has been able to outpace the Playstation 3 console in North America for the last 21 months straight. While the worldwide total puts the 360 and the PS3 neck-and-neck, the PS3 is very far behind in North America. Sony saw an opportunity to release a new, slimmer SKU of the PS3 last month, bundled with the critically acclaimed Uncharted 3 for $269. Armed with a slew of first party exclusives due out this fall, Sony seemed set to take the Wii U head on, priced just under the cheaper of the two Wii U SKU's. But these price drops may prove to be detrimental.
It turns out that many moons ago, Microsoft once had its eye on the Sony published LittleBigPlanet series.
Microsoft in a nutshell. Always tried to poach Sony employees, games, 3rd party games and devices like the depth camera that was turned into Kinect but was running on PS2 before Xbox 360. Wouldn't be surprised they wanted LBP. Just like they worked behind the scenes pushing the MLB to bring Sony's baseball game to Xbox instead of making their own.
https://www.playstationlife...
They didn't spend years trying to develop their own baseball game. They wanted Sony's game.
They're scum.
"However, Healey said Media Molecule wouldn't have felt right doing that, adding it would have been "morally corrupt"."
Major kudos to Media Molecule for being an upright studio with principles.
Great, more stories like this please. Show the last of the zombies holding the line what we've been saying for years: Microsoft is anti competition, anti industry and has no interest in making games at all.
But hey, at least there's an Xbox Games Showcase to look forward to, right?
While on stage with Dina Bass at The Bloomberg Technology Summit the President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, was asked about the Xbox studio closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios
Of course she did. She's part of the problem and will just tow the company line.
Bloomberg’s Dina Bass could barely read her scripted question without looking at her notes, whilst Sarah Bond who WAS expecting the question spoke without saying anything of substance or answering the question in any meaningful way. Clearly she’s had the same expert PR training as Phil, but this avoidance was disrespectful. In time the short-sighted decision to shut down Tango Gameworks will be seen as of the most notorious examples why Phil Spencer messed up his tenure in charge of Xbox. That’s a fully built out talented team that could’ve been put to work on any project.
Additionally, Phil Spencer should not be using Sarah Bond as a patsy for his mistakes- he should be answering that question.
I think you are all really overselling Tangos value. Hi-Fi rush was a lot of fun. Ghostwire was incredibly dull. Evil within 1 and 2 were just okay.
Evil within 2 was incredibly under rated. I thought that game was surprisingly good
Someone else said it best. I don't think it was a Phil decision. It was most likely a Satya decision. I think Microsoft is done giving out free money to Xbox.
people please boycott Activision Bethesda next release and support Hellblade.
these people mus understand that they cannot treat their fans and employees that way.
scumbags.
She's playing her role. There's absolutely nothing any of them can say other than the truth, this is about profit margins and not quality, so they just don't answer anything and wait for gamers to forget.
I think news is coming of more ps5 release but they gotta be careful cause Xbox is still sitting on store shelves. They can't get left holding all that stock
Come next month they'll flash nice looking games in our faces and expecting us to forget.
The only thing that'll be going through my mind at their showcase is how many of those studios will get shut down after release.
I'm not joking around either. MS probably expects every game to be like COD and do COD numbers. What a way to destroy gaming for the entire industry because they're dumb af at being realistic in what success means for each game.
Always feels she was brought in / promoted for this. Happened just before things started to be out in motion.
Phil and co have someone to throw under the bus and share the blame with
I always wondered why xbox had multiple leaders with similar titles like Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, like, how many heads do you actually need?
Seems to me it would be more cost efficient to cut 2 of them instead of all those studios.
Frankly, I suspect she is the most competent of them. I don't mean that I like her more, I mean that she's the best at articulating herself and giving the talking points MS wants to give. The others are starting to sound more like her than her sounding like any of them.
Are any of these people "responsible" for what's happening? No. This reeks of Nadella. But that being said, I don't see any of the Xbox heads stepping down in protest.
"Don't shoot the messenger", sure, but at the same time, the messengers don't seem to take umbrage with the message. Not enough to remove themselves from it, anyway.
I disagree. Nadella is looking for profit as a CEO should in my opinion.
The problem is Dr. Phil & Co. had 10 years to bring Xbox back on track and have been failing woefully.
Phil needs to sell to Nadella that if we are to make a profit, we need to make great games. And to do that we need employees here for the long haul and the freedom to work on creative projects.
But as Phil said himself he doesn’t believe great games sell consoles.
Dude, 100%, forgot Major Nelson and Aaron Greenberg, like what is the point for all these suits? They have more C-level executives than games released in a generation.
This is just so they can all pass along the hot potato one at a time and in between all of them can say a lot without actually saying anything, misinformation at its finest.
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
Might be a great game but it clearly did not make enough money to justify having the team make another game (under the MS umbrella).
It's never been just about whether your game is good or bad. The industry is full of great/underrated games that have a cult following or critical acclaim, but that fail to make great sales. Sad but true. It's a high stakes game, and at the end of the day, companies have to be profitable and make profitable investments. At the very least, there has to be the expectation of a long-term profit even if not profitable today. That goes for anything, no matter if the company is gigantic or a tiny mom-and-pop. We don't have to like it, but our buying habits played a hand in creating this monster.
I will keep harping that the industry has overreached its actual market and that it will implode. That implosion is already starting.
I partially agree with what you're saying in that companies need to sell well to make it in the industry. Something I've said again and again. Sony and Nintendo understand this about gaming by selling the game for as long as you can, then drop it on a service for additional revenue. It's why you won't see Sony and Nintendo expensively developed games on a service day one. It doesn't make business sense to do so.
The thing is about Tango is that they weren't given a chance after the acquisition when their game was shadow dropped on a console where gamers are told to not buy games but to rent them on a service for pennies. That kills day one sales even for small indie like developers who have big budgets for their company size.
Microsoft destroyed them in favor of pushing their services over investing in these developers futures or their games they created.
“…make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down.”
I got chills. It shouldn’t have come to this.
No, a price drop usually comes when a new system is launching. The Wii U caused the price drop of its predecessor. I'm sure there may have been one with the new PS3 model, if there was no Wii. But, it's due to the Wii U. It's only a $20 drop. blah Not that I need another one. But, it's a good system for Christmas gifts. Also, I didn't care for the George Foreman look of the new PS3 model. Good thing I'm set on the PS3s in my house, as well.
Translation: now is a better time than ever to pick up a new console (if you happen to need one).
Sounds like smart business strategy as usual from the likes of Microsoft and Nintendo. Both corporations are known to hold it down during the holiday season. This will be no different as I expect to see maximum sales from both brands when sales data is released.
A price cut for the Nintendo Wii entertainment system will give the platform a proper send off into the sunset for the remainder of the year. Delivering a fine push to the current generation finish line in the wake of release of the Nintendo Wii U entertainment system.
I see the Xbox 360 delivering strong sales as well with their own 50 dollar price cut. Especially combined with the soon to be released industry leading first person shooter exclusive HALO 4. And the highest rated racing simulator Forza makes a comeback as well to compliment the price cut.
Low affordable pricing strategy is key during the holiday season.
Rated E For Everyone
Oh my god 20$-50$ price cuts what shall Sony do!