Topic: The Next Xbox Is Only 20% More Powerful Than Wii U

[BlackNMild2k1]

Out of the $10-$13 Licensing fee that it cost for a Bluray player, Sony probably makes $0.20 - $0.50 per license sold. (We've had this discussion before).

Sony is one of atleast a dozen or two companies on the Bluray Disc Association that all get a piece of the pie and Panasonic (and Toshiba or Sharp or someone) own lots of Bluray patents too, so I'm sure that not wanting to pay Sony for Bluray is far from a deciding factor for not directly putting the format in the Wii U or Xbox720.

[Chozo Ghost]

complete overhaul

Not really. An existing Linux desktop environment such as KDE or GNOME could easily be adapted to it, and probably already has.

Sony probably makes $0.20 - $0.50 per license sold.

While that doesn't seem like a lot, that would still amount to tens of millions of dollars going directly into Sony's coffers.

[TJ Spyke]

complete overhaul

Not really. An existing Linux desktop environment such as KDE or GNOME could easily be adapted to it, and probably already has.

If it has, it's not official and wouldn't be considered Android.

I agree on the second statement you made. Assuming the royalty was only $0.50, that would still mean that Sony would get $10 million from Microsoft if they sold 20 million system. Not to mention how much money Sony would get from every game as well.

[Ymeegod]

Sony's royalties:
Sony Electronics Essential BD Patent Royalties
(as of May 20, 2008)
Products
License Royalties

Blu-ray Disc ROM Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.03 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc R Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.06 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc RE Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.06 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc Player
1.5% of net selling price or $3 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc Recorder
1.5% of net selling price or $3 U.S. (whichever is greater)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
$3 per player and $.06 per disc.  Not much but when you figure there's 300-500 million discs being made (Sony collects regardless of disc selling) that's 18-30 million per year on the software side of things.  Add another 15 million or so on Blu-ray drives and that's not a bad chuck of change that's pretty much annual for the next 5+ years.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[BlackNMild2k1]

And yet it still doesn't cover their losses from the last 5 years, even of they collected that for the next 30 or so years. But that's for a whole different topic.

Point being that Sony's involvement with Bluray is not as significant as we all used to believe back before this generation started. Sony does not own the format nor are they only company to produce or profit from it.

Nintendo has tight friendships with Panasonic & Sharp who are both on the board and likely own key patent in the BRD tech, so if they wanted it, they could make it happen and Sony is not even part of the equation.

[GoldenPhoenix]

And yet it still doesn't cover their losses from the last 5 years, even of they collected that for the next 30 or so years. But that's for a whole different topic.

Point being that Sony's involvement with Bluray is not as significant as we all used to believe back before this generation started. Sony does not own the format nor are they only company to produce or profit from it.

Nintendo has tight friendships with Panasonic & Sharp who are both on the board and likely own key patent in the BRD tech, so if they wanted it, they could make it happen and Sony is not even part of the equation.

Excellent point. Anyway this next generation is not one that power concerns me as much, the current generation of consoles (Well minus Wii) have some pretty amazing visuals though that haven't really hit too many major walls in presentation. Wii U will be more powerful then PS3 and 360 even if it is just "20% more powerful", the fact is that it will be HD and be able to output some great visuals. I do not think developers not run into any Wii esque walls when it comes to porting games, it will be (hopefully) minimal sacrifices like we seen with PS2/Xbox/GC.

But only time will tell, right now so much is rumor and speculation on all the consoles. 

[TJ Spyke]

Blu-ray Disc ROM Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.03 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc R Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.06 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc RE Disc
1.5% of net selling price or $0.06 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc Player
1.5% of net selling price or $3 U.S. (whichever is greater)
 
Blu-ray Disc Recorder
1.5% of net selling price or $3 U.S. (whichever is greater)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
$3 per player and $.06 per disc.  Not much but when you figure there's 300-500 million discs being made (Sony collects regardless of disc selling) that's 18-30 million per year on the software side of things.  Add another 15 million or so on Blu-ray drives and that's not a bad chuck of change that's pretty much annual for the next 5+ years.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe games would be ROM discs, not RE (which are re-writable). Also notice the "whichever is greater part"). 1.5% of a $60 game is $0.89, while a $300 game system with Blu-ray would get them about $4.50, so that does add up to quite a lot. Say the Wii U does as well as Wii did in software and sells over 800 million copies in it's lifetime, that is at LEAST $360 million Sony would make from Wii U games (and that is if every game is only $30) even if you don't factor in hardware patents.

[Chozo Ghost]

So Sony would get $0.89 of every blu-ray game sold on the competition's systems? Since you are looking at hundreds of millions of units of software, that's a lot of money.

I think most likely Microsoft will do similar to what Nintendo is probably doing and not use Blu-ray directly, but instead create their own derivative based on blu-ray which will allow them to circumvent giving all that money to Sony while at the same time being able to have discs with 25/50GB capacity.

[KDR_11k]

That money is a license fee for patents, I don't think it's easy to circumvent.

[Ceric]

...
Blu-ray Disc Player
1.5% of net selling price or $3 U.S. (whichever is greater)
...

...
while a $300 game system with Blu-ray would get them about $4.50,
...

A videogame system probably wouldn't be considered a Blu-Ray Player in this case.  The licensing Fee would probably be accessed on the cost of the drive itself.  Take the case of a computer, buying a Blu-ray drive is a fixed price not 1.5% of the cost of you total rig.  Its just a component not the sole purpose.

Simply put someone else is manufacturing the Blu-Ray Drive and they would incur the licensing fee.  Now if Microsoft made all of the system from scratch then they would incur the licensing fee.

[Fatty The Hutt]

NERDS!!!!
 
 

[KDR_11k]

If your job isn't nerdy then it can likely be done better by a machine or an assembly line worker in China.

[Ceric]

Not to mention that Android has a lot of problems with licensing.

[Fatty The Hutt]

If your job isn't nerdy then it can likely be done better by a machine or an assembly line worker in China.

My job is certainly specialized. It can not be done by a machine or assembly line worker in any country.
I suppose its nerdy in its own way.
(also, my post was a joke...you missed that I guess)