Next Gen Console Commentary
Posted by
Zonk
on Friday April 20, @05:27PM
from the three-different-flavours dept.
from the three-different-flavours dept.
Today has seen a bit of commentary on each of the three next-gen consoles, all relatively positive. The PlayStation 3 has seen users for the PSN community crack the 1.3 million mark, according to Next Generation. If you enjoy the Wii's Virtual Console feature, Chris Kohler has you set up today with a rundown on every VC title rumored or released to date. Nintendo's consoles are selling pretty well, too. Microsoft has had something of a mixed day. On the one hand gamers can look forward to Beautiful Katamri coming to XBLA in the states. On the other, an investment adviser has called Microsoft's entire gaming business a 'disastrous endeavor'.
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Microsoft Games Losses Down, Still Substantial 85 comments
Even though sales are up on the operating system side of things, Microsoft's games division is still struggling. The Entertainment and Devices division lost $315 million, with sales slipping some 21 percent. That's 22 percent down from last year. The quarter overall saw $929 million, down 21 percent over last year during the same quarter. "Microsoft says the drop in sales came primarily because of decreases in the sale of Xbox 360s. During the quarter, the company shipped a half million consoles, as compared to 1.7 in the third quarter of 2006, that being the first full quarter in which Xbox 360s became available. Sales of Xbox and PC games decreased 44 percent over the company's first three quarters to $393 million, which the company puts hand in hand with the decrease in console sales."
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waiting for Godot
(Score:1)Losing Money != A Bad Thing
(Score:4, Insightful)On the other, an investment adviser has called Microsoft's entire gaming business a 'disastrous endeavor'.
Most investment advisors (the ones with an "o", not the ones with an "e") are mad at Microsoft because they have little to no debt, a ton of cash, and a healthy but not spectacular dividend. Yet they remain a viable company, making money and what-not. It kills me how little room for innovation is allowed in what most financial people use to define a "success." Whether the gaming division has made money to date or not, and I'm no Microsoft fan, you have to admit that branching out into something other than purely software and gaining a market-leading position is a Good Thing in the long-term for the shareholders (like myself).
Re:Losing Money != A Bad Thing
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://www.buckethead.org/)
JON
Beautiful Katamari
(Score:2, Informative)Katamari on XBLA?
(Score:2, Insightful)(http://www.daishar.com/blog)
Where in the article did it say anything about Katamari shipping on XBLA rather than as a retail game? Given the importance of the funky J-pop music to the Katamari titles, it would seem disastrous to me to ship it in a state where it can only be as large as 250MB.
The article did speculate that online multiplayer would be an additional future download, but that doesn't have anything to do with XBLA. The speculation is written in a confusing way as to imply that users would have to pay for that download, but they may have only meant that Xbox 360 users have to pay a monthly fee for a Gold subscription in order to play multiplayer online (and that the additional download would be free). Personally, I don't care either way. What I do care about is that I can get my Katamari fix without having to drop $600 on a PS3.
Still Next Gen?
(Score:1)Re:Still Next Gen?
(Score:4, Informative)Nintendo DS: 485,000
Nintendo Wii: 335,000
Sony PlayStation 2: 295,000
Microsoft Xbox 360: 228,000
Sony PlayStation Portable: 176,000
Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 136,000
Sony PlayStation 3: 127,000
You don't keep up on things very well I take it.
Next generation...?
(Score:3, Funny)(http://strobe.anti.nu/ | Last Journal: Sunday December 08, @08:26PM)
PS3, XB360 and Wii are now current generation consoles, with PS2, XB and GC being last generation.
Re:Next generation...?
(Score:5, Funny)With normal technology, next means next. But in the hype-fueled world of computer games, you are living in tomorrow today!
The PS3 is next generation, the PS2 is the current generation (you can tell by the sales ;)), and the PS4 is the next-next generation.
I've been living in the game industry so long that I eat my lunch at 8am, dinner is at noon, and I have tomorrow's breakfast at 7pm.
1.3m on PSN?
(Score:1)Next Gen? More like Current Gen
(Score:1)(http://www.dailygrrl.com/)
I propose you stop calling them "Next Gen".
Zonk didn't mention Beautiful Katamari on the PS3
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Saturday November 18, @08:24PM)
But forget that; didn't Namco say that We Love Katamari was going to be the last game in the series?
Rob
Option D
(Score:1)