Microsoft NeXtBox - What I would do to make the NeXtBox a success

[Dotdot]

Region Free and Free Online Play.

Only two things MS really need to remedy.

This in spades, get rid of points systems and also improve customer support. I wont go into details but had a dealing once and it was tragic to say the least.

[Mando]

Sony thought this as well with the PlayStation. :-)

Sony got it wrong, Microsoft didnt last time and wont next time ;)

[TruckWEB]

What Marketing Microsoft needs to do? I think everybody knows what XBOX is, they don't need to invest in Marketing more than what they currently do.

The Xbox 720 only needs to be better than the Xbox in term of GPU power (real 1080p rendering or better, who knows 4K!), beef up Kinect 2.0 with better hardware for better motion sensing.

The integration with Windows 8/WP8 will be much greater with the next Xbox 720.

Microsoft should invest more in casual games and/or games like "Little Big Planet".

What else do they need to do?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

What Marketing Microsoft needs to do? I think everybody knows what XBOX is, they don't need to invest in Marketing more than what they currently do.

Wow, glad you are not responsible for product launches!

[TruckWEB]

LOL... They burned millions in Surface, did it sold any better?

Sure, they are going to do a big marketing push to launch the new Xbox, but I don't think they need to educate people about the Xbox, everybody knows what it is.

[Nothing Here]

Geez. So much hostility in this thread. The OP was giving his thoughts and some of you attack. Even as far as to bring God into this post as at least one poster did. That is just wrong. Stay on topic or don't post.

[neufuse Veteran]

first thing... don't call it a neXtbox... Apple might flip :rofl:

[Nothing Here]

first thing... don't call it a neXtbox... Apple might flip :rofl:

Doesn't Apple flip and flop all the time?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Sony thought this as well with the PlayStation. :-)

Seriously, if you want people to take what you post seriously, you might want to not let your bias clearly dominate the thread and try sticking to some facts.

Even with a year head start, total sales (and these are obviously an approximation) are as follows.

XBox 360 is 72.26 million.

The PS3 is 70.31

Again, the XBox 360 was released on Nov 22nd, 2005

PS3 was released on November 11th (in just Japan, the 17th is the US), 2006

So again I have to ask, how do you expect people to take you seriously when you make a claim that Sony has failed this generation when they clearly have not?

For the record, that is a rhetorical question, as I said, you are clearly letting your Bias show for the XBox, and that throws virtually all credibility you had out the window.

[compl3x]

Geez. So much hostility in this thread. The OP was giving his thoughts and some of you attack. Even as far as to bring God into this post as at least one poster did. That is just wrong. Stay on topic or don't post.

I don't see hostility. The OP made some absurd and vague points and people pointed out why he was wrong. I agree god and/or religion have nothing to do with this topic. If you want to argue with the OP about religion/god there is a thread for that.

Back on-topic. The Xbox will sell like hotcakes. MS couldn't **** that up.

[LUTZIFER]

Exactly, people will gobble it up. I could just imagine how many millions of units will be sold in first 24 hours. The XBOX out right now is selling like hotcakes.

[The Evil Overlord]

At the risk of putting a big target on my back, I do wish the major players would offer in some form a way to cross platform play or at least to communicate, as my ps3 resides in my living room, while my son who wanted an xbox, plays similar games to me in his room, probably just wishful thinking on my part...

Though I'm not an xbox gamer, I have no doubt the new one will be a real success, as the demand is clearly going to be there..

[LUTZIFER]

At the risk of putting a big target on my back, I do wish the major players would offer in some form a way to cross platform play or at least to communicate, as my ps3 resides in my living room, while my son who wanted an xbox, plays similar games to me in his room, probably just wishful thinking on my part...

Though I'm not an xbox gamer, I have no doubt the new one will be a real success, as the demand is clearly going to be there..

Yeah that would definitely be awesome.

[Vandalsquad]

Seriously, if you want people to take what you post seriously, you might want to not let your bias clearly dominate the thread and try sticking to some facts.

Even with a year head start, total sales (and these are obviously an approximation) are as follows.

XBox 360 is 72.26 million.

The PS3 is 70.31

Again, the XBox 360 was released on Nov 22nd, 2005

PS3 was released on November 11th (in just Japan, the 17th is the US), 2006

So again I have to ask, how do you expect people to take you seriously when you make a claim that Sony has failed this generation when they clearly have not?

For the record, that is a rhetorical question, as I said, you are clearly letting your Bias show for the XBox, and that throws virtually all credibility you had out the window.

Sony's market brand image and sales of the PS2, the complete control of the market they lost to the uncoolest console of last gen 'the xbox'

If Sony don't get there console out the door next year around the same time as the 360 they will be in some deep ****. Not many people jumped at the 360 at launch waiting out for the PS3 instead, I don't see that being an issue at all this time around.

[The Teej]

A great way of making it a success in my opinion would be to lower the barrier for entry. The best way for doing this would be to release it on a 2 year contract. Subsidise the console, and with a ?9.99 monthly deal with Xbox Live Gold, or ?19.99 and throw in Xbox Live and Skype Phone Calls. This way, you should get more people buying the console - and in turn, more people buying the games, of which Microsoft clearly gets a cut of. I'm not 100% on the financial viability of this (especially considering we have no idea of existing pricing, profit margins, etc), but as others have said, cellphone providers do this a lot of the time with Smartphones and reap great rewards, so in theory Microsoft would at the very least make as much money as they would have selling it all unsubsidised, but with the added benefit of a larger install base in a shorter amount of time.

Secondly, I would definitely highlight Microsoft's strong arsenal of brands and services. Xbox Music/Movies, Skype, Skydrive, Office, etc - brands that are powering the drive of Windows Phone adoption should definitely help Xbox 720 adoption. Yes, I'm fully aware they're being used nowwith the 360, but making it seem like these services are available "out of the box" with the 720 gives a feeling of more bang for your buck with consumers, even though these services are already available on the 360. Being able to grab all of your media entertainment from your couch, and make xbox-to-phone calls to anyone around the world all from your xbox controller and headset (or even better - using your Kinect 2) would definitely go a far way into truly driving adoption.

Thirdly, and perhaps somewhat controversial - two SKUs. Have one be an Xbox set-top box using the Snapdragon S4 as it's base. Release it for significantly cheaper and offer it as a box which allows for apps like Netflix, Skype, etc, to run on it, as well as Windows Phone 8 games (ported to the Xbox STB, of course!). While this isn't entirely Xbox 720 related, it'd definitely go a long way for Microsoft to generate additional revenue for it's multimedia services and perhaps could even help the Games and Entertainment division to be profitable from Day 1 of the next generation. While it should go without saying, having this use the same UI as the Xbox 720 and even leverage Xbox Live subscription services would be incredibly useful too. This being said, I'm not too sure how well having to pay ?5.99 a month extra just to watch Netflix on your Xbox STB would go down with consumers, so perhaps some adjustments to the Xbox Live services in general may need to come into play here. Who knows - just pure speculation right now (after all, the same was said about doing this on the 360, and so far, it's worked a treat).

Lastly - sell an adaptor which basically has an Xbox 360 SoC inside, which allows you to play all of your 360 games on the new console. This works out for quite a few reasons - firstly, this allows for a different architecture to be used on the 720, as it's no longer constrained by it's predecessor's hardware architecture. Secondly, it doesn't have to shove in the 360 SoC into the base cost of the Xbox 720, as it's sold seperately. Thirdly, it doesn't have to consolidate the R&D cost of the developing a software interface of 360 BC into the 720 - it can offload those costs on to the price of a BC adaptor. Lastly, those who want Xbox 360 BC can have it, and those who don't need it, aren't forced to pay extra, so everyone wins.

(Also, I'm hoping someone reverse engineers this so it works on a PC, but that's truly wishful thinking :shifty: )

[Emn1ty]

Seriously, if you want people to take what you post seriously, you might want to not let your bias clearly dominate the thread and try sticking to some facts.

Even with a year head start, total sales (and these are obviously an approximation) are as follows.

XBox 360 is 72.26 million.

The PS3 is 70.31

Again, the XBox 360 was released on Nov 22nd, 2005

PS3 was released on November 11th (in just Japan, the 17th is the US), 2006

So again I have to ask, how do you expect people to take you seriously when you make a claim that Sony has failed this generation when they clearly have not?

For the record, that is a rhetorical question, as I said, you are clearly letting your Bias show for the XBox, and that throws virtually all credibility you had out the window.

To be fair, in terms of being a gaming device I doubt the PS3 will be the first thing on anyone's mind. It will undoubtedly be Wii -> 360 -> PS3. That being said, Sony made leaps and bounds in the last few years but even so I think the only reason they've made up sales is because all the people who owned a 360 eventually bought a PS3. Also a majority of sales go to Sony's initial marketing of the PS3 as a media device. Sales numbers aren't really a great representative of how well a console did in a generation. What matters is its image in the market and from what I can tell Microsoft has made a bigger impression (although that has been dwindling more and more as this generation continues to get stretched to its limit).

I guess the best response to this is "Time heals all wounds". At least in sales numbers.

[LaP]

Here's my personal list :

1. Blu-ray.

2. Silent operation while not gaming so this can realistically be used as media consumption.

3. wifi access out of the box.

4. A merge between windows 8 store and xbox live marketplace so i don't have to buy the same game twice to play it on PC and XBox.

5. First party bluetooth wireless headset (sold separately) and out of the box bluetooth support so the good third party wireless headsets can work without an external transmitter. Could be used for wireless bluetooth keyboard too.

6. Ability to replace the HDD ourselves with a third party SSD or a higher capacity third party HDD.

7. Mkv support.

[ahhell]

How to make it successful:

Buy it.

:rolleyes:

[LaP]

First, what is a NeXtBox?

It's a XBox with the NeXTSTEP OS.

[Emn1ty]

Also, in my personal opinion I think taking games off optical discs would be a step forward. Blu-Ray doesn't need to be on the console considering Netflix/Hulu and the fact Blu-Ray players are really cheap to own now. The next console shouldn't look to replace current media devices but expand on them. Removing the disc drive would also:

1) Slim down the consoles

2) Lessen heat generation

3) Make the console quieter

4) Make games load faster (assuming the media is accessed via some portable storage other than a disc, for example Flash, SDHC, etc).

5) Make games last longer (they don't get scratched).

6) Remove the consistent problem of optical drive issues on every console's release.

7) Make multi-platform publishing even easier.

[MorganX]

As someone stated, I don't think there should be free online multiplayer and that definitely wouldn't happen.

Although I figure we should be able to browse the web and use the apps without XBOX Live Gold, but I really don't care, it's cheap enough.

Sure is gonna suck waiting almost a year for it though, I'm sooo looking forward to getting one.

I agree multiplayer and most of the service should not be free. Helps control, to some degree, the community. However, I also agree that browsing the web and most apps should be free.

Bluetooth would be nice.

[Colin McGregor]

12) Put a Sony label on it :p

Considering xbox has outsold PS3 for almost 24 months in a row putting sony label on it would just kill sales.

[Ambroos]

You guys should know that the Xbox 360 is only bigger than the PS3 in the US. In Europe the Xbox 360 sold far less than the PS3, and in Japan the X360's sales were laughable compared to the PS3. Over here you won't find anyone saying the X360 is better either.

The problem with Microsoft is that they still don't know how to properly launch a service internationally. Most of Microsoft's paid services (games, movies, tv-shows and music) aren't completely (or not at all) available outside the US. With Sony it's a completely different story, most of their services are available all over the world. Also, exclusives. Sony's are just a lot better.

If Sony manages to get the PS3 out first this time around they'll be winning the next generation console war completely.

[Pygmy_Hippo]

• have it run all Win RT apps (would help MS gain traction on ARM devices)
  
• pitch it as all in one entertainment centre that can do serious stuff if you wish - most TV's support high resolutions these days and wireless devices are common, why not run have the option to run office to compose a quick letter or use an app to print out a family picture? If Microsoft wants to dominate the living room it makes sense to cover all their bases.
  
• standard hdd's rather than proprietary cases
  
• support are far wider range of video/audio codecs - if someone has their collection backed up in mkv/FLAC format etc then it should be able to download the codec and just get on with it :)
  

[MorganX]

• support are far wider range of video/audio codecs - if someone has their collection backed up in mkv/FLAC format etc then it should be able to download the codec and just get on with it :)
  

I don't think this will happen. MS wants you to buy your music and movies from the Xbox Marketplace. Supporting these codecs would appear to run counter to that goal.