Microsoft have dropped a huge bomb on developers, posting that they only expect to ship a total of 12 million units by June 2007. The notoriously quiet spring period has meant Microsoft will expect to ship 3 million less consoles than originally expected. Pushing out 10 million consoles before the end of the year to beat their own target has left many stores with large stocks of consoles. Microsoft’s Chris Liddell said "There's a reasonable amount of inventory in the channel."
A loss of $289million for the quarter was also posted, with Microsoft explaining that repair expenses for the 360 and an increase in the console’s warranty ate into any possible profits. The shipment drop ate into game publishers stock, as four of the big publishers shares dropped after the announcement.
Saint's Row publisher THQ was the worst hit, with shares falling four per cent, knocking US $1.25 off each share. Take Two saw shares drop 2.3 per cent, knocking off 40 cents. American Technology Research analyst PJ McNealy highlighted concern over revised results from hardware manufacturers, "Videogame publishers will be under pressure today after Microsoft cut its life-to-date shipment," he said on Friday.
View: Gamesindustry.biz
A loss of $289million for the quarter was also posted, with Microsoft explaining that repair expenses for the 360 and an increase in the console’s warranty ate into any possible profits. The shipment drop ate into game publishers stock, as four of the big publishers shares dropped after the announcement.
Saint's Row publisher THQ was the worst hit, with shares falling four per cent, knocking US $1.25 off each share. Take Two saw shares drop 2.3 per cent, knocking off 40 cents. American Technology Research analyst PJ McNealy highlighted concern over revised results from hardware manufacturers, "Videogame publishers will be under pressure today after Microsoft cut its life-to-date shipment," he said on Friday.
View: Gamesindustry.biz
It probably won't take much for Microsoft to negotiate lower price points on the individual pieces of hardware, and then drop the price. If they dropped it by $100, their core system would cost less then a Wii, and that would really help things I think.
~Weed
yah like MGS, if you think GOW is the only good game on the x360 then you have some reading to do, typically there are only a few games that seperate consoles, IE sony and MS
Sony
MGS
FF
MS
Halo
GOW
Nintendo:
Mario
Zelda
Pokemon
Metroid
Fire Emblem
Wii <Insert title here> series
Brain Age
Big Brain Academy
Nintendogs
Nintendo has a lot of games (from multiple genres, unlike the X360) to differentiate itself from the competition, combined with the new control interface means (like the DS for its first year), Nintendo can virtually carry the console until decent 3rd party games start to be released on the Wii.
BTW my brother has a Wii and this wasnt a Wii bash, merely stating that the Wii's 1st party support while good doesnt necessarily mean in the long run the consoles doing alot better game wise. All the consoles really compete on par in the end.
BTW my brother has a Wii and this wasnt a Wii bash, merely stating that the Wii's 1st party support while good doesnt necessarily mean in the long run the consoles doing alot better game wise. All the consoles really compete on par in the end.
Maybe, but the 1st party offerings of Nintendo are more then enough to carry a system until those 3rd party exclusives start coming in. We have seen it with the DS (it took over a year of the DS outselling the PSP 4 to 1 to finally get 3rd party developers to make exclusives for the system).
While i agree that the wii is running on less advanced hardware then the others, that doesn't mean that exclusives will not come or that they are any less 'killer-app' just because the graphics are not as good. For a great example, the DS is getting Dragon Quest 9 (exclusive) and it is a great exclusive to have, even though the graphics will arguably be less than Dragon Quest 8 on the PS2.
Great games are made by great gameplay, graphics come a distant 2nd.
Gameboys never really needed the assistance but since its always been the dominating force in its field. Its the consoles where Nintendo lost a bit of ground in the past years but I do love to see them springing back.
yah like MGS, if you think GOW is the only good game on the x360 then you have some reading to do, typically there are only a few games that seperate consoles, IE sony and MS
Sony
MGS
FF
MS
Halo
GOW
No diversification will lead to a failure sooner or later. Both AAA games on the Xbox 360 will be shooters. what if I don't like shooters? Microsoft won't get the casual gamer unless they diversify (and no, no one is going to spend $400 on a system just to buy arcade titles).
As for Sony, it's in an even hotter predicament in that it depends 100% on 3rd parties for sales of its consoles. With numerous rumors that MGS might eventually come over to the 360, and the fact that Square-Enix said it won't as heavily support the PS3 as it did the PS2, you can see they are in hot water.
WHA!?!? GoW isnt the only game? their are others!!!!1!!!11 :rofl:
if we are listing games then just look at some of the xbox's lineup for this year!
Crackdown
Army of Two
Halo 3
GTA 4
Devil May Cry
Alan Wake
and im sure their are more that i just cant think of right now! not to mention the ones that are already out! but lets not turn this into a debate on who has the better games :p
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