Topic: 1 Million People Are Using Xbox Live

[Ages]

Quote
Originally posted by: MaleficentOgre
I think sony's big problem next generationis their new emphasis on technology, and being the sole owner of their technology.  The PSP won't be so great for third parties after sony's come develop money stops flowing.  The fact that they're making developers send their stuff to them in order to make disc for PSP is going to hurt, and I have a feeling that it might happen again with PS3's technology.

I agree wholeheartedly.  Does this seem familar to anyone?  Back in the day when Nintendo was king, how they'd have sole control over carts and cart production.  I know they enforced quality control, and constricted developer creativity to an extent.  But it looks like Sony's taking the path well travelled with this one.  Will the outcome be the same?  Only time will tell.

[joeamis]

XB2 isn't supposed to lose money the way XB did, they can't afford that again.  As for Sony being the sole owner of technology, I don't think it will hurt them much.  And since there are so many companies involved with Blue Ray and already Blue Ray products available from a dozen companies I doubt there will be a similar situation for PS3 as their is for PSP.

I'm doubtful right now about the launches for the PS3 and the Revolution.  I don't see how the Revolution is going to be released within months of XB2.  Since development kits are not out yet (may have to do with it being so revolutionary and not wanting competitors to "steal" their ideas).  As for the PS3 I think it will be released mid 2006 at the earliest, and for game development they may be okay if they get development kits out soon.  The XB2 is supposedly gonna hit Xmas 2005, and they've had development kits out for awhile so they should have a good launch and continuous releases months after.  

So if Xbox 2 launches Xmas 2005, I'd expect Revolution by March at the latest (if they stay by their word that they will release within months of the competition).  And I tend to think Nintendo means that for the earliest of the competitors to launch since they've seen now that launching a year later of 1 system has hurt them badly.  Xbox 2 has nothing to worry about launching early as far as hardware performance, it will equal or surpass PS3 if PS3 launches almost a year later.  Sony doesn't have to worry about third party support because developers develop games for launch and a year within launch for the company that was most successful last generation.  And their hardware sounds like it's going to be as good as XB2.  What I'm wondering about is how good the Revolution hardware will be, if it will have online support at launch, and what it's revolutionary feature is.  If it's hardware isn't atleast as good as one of the competitors it will have a tough time stealing market share, if it doesn't have online support at launch it will lose 3rd party support, and if the revolutionary feature isn't that revolutionary it will lose consumer respect.

[KDR_11k]

Microsoft stated "We're thinking long-term" when asked about the profitability of the Xenon (any Teladi would tell you that Xenon aren't profitable at all...).

How do you know Rev dev kits aren't out yet? Nintendo didn't announce the availability of DS dev kits until much later, either. Devs cannot tell you about that, they're under NDA.

The Xenon will have to worry about the PS3, Sony are the masters of hype and managed to hurt the Dreamcast badly with their PS2 hype.

[joeamis]

It's already been said that XB2 will not be like XB in terms of profitability.  And it's been said it will not include a hard drive among other things only because they don't want to lose tons of money on the console.  Saying they're thinking about the long term for profitability, is the same as what the other companies will tell you.  Sony and Nintendo don't make profit on their consoles, only in the long term they do, when they've produced so many of them, and it's been a few years since the consoles debuted.  

I've read from different videogame journalist sources that Revolution Kits are not out yet.  But even if developers aren't directly saying, "we don't have R. dev. kits", they can talk about the games they're working on for next generation.  And developers have, but theres a trend that either they're making the game for XB2 or PS3.  And theres no mention of Revolution.  The only companies I've heard that already have games in substantial development for Revolution are Nintendo, a few 2nd parties, and Electronic Arts (who will just be porting the versions they're making for the other consoles they already have dev kits for).