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.”

[stephmhishot]

"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.

[Megaton]

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.

[shoddy]

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

[PopRocks359]

@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.

[smashcrashbash]

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

[SockeyBoy]

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.

[BigShotSmoov007]

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.

[TBM]

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.

[Trebius51]

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.

[KMCROC54]

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.

[Redgehammer]

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.

[Anon1974]

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!

[miyamoto]

This is my boy drakride66, keeping it REAl!

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

[dcbronco]

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.

[solidworm]

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

[Objective]

MS is winning full stop.

[Kurt Russell]

You're confusing them with Charlie Sheen.

[AtomicGerbil]

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

[floppy]

"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_sequitur]

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_PS4]

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.

[vikingland1]

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

[wenaldy]

It's called well educated person.

[Redgehammer]

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+.

[Hicken]

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...

[Sanquine90]

Ignorant americans;) Europe and Japan say otherwise:D
It is the same with mobile phones;) You pay more overall;) They make more profit.

[TheLyonKing]

I dont get why people think Xbox has better multimedia stuff.

Last I checked ps3 had, blu-ray, music unlimited, netflix, film 4, BBC iplayer, stv player, 4 player, a browser, free psn for more tv and film, photo viewer, life plus they are away to get BBC sport app.

All this before ms and even with all ms stuff ps3 is much more well established.

[cstyle]

"Last I checked ps3 had, blu-ray, music unlimited, netflix, film 4, BBC iplayer, stv player, 4 player, a browser, free psn for more tv and film, photo viewer, life plus they are away to get BBC sport app".

All that but they can't accomplish something as simple as cross game chat. Xbox live is still the better service. yes, you have to pay but I would much rather pay and have it than to be stuck with just PSN. Live is just more unified and just plain better and sony knows this.

[KingOptimusOrigin111]

Are you serious?

$60 a year just for cross game chat and that is it. Yet Sony supplies us with games, services, free online experience, blu ray, and so on but yet your willing to pay $60 just for some cross game chat wow!!!

Another thing, your willing to pay for Live and then pay again for DLC. If you haven't seen buy now that they're stilling money off of you then I don't know when you will.