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Microsoft's BIG Mistake?

September 05, 2007 in News comments 18

Consoles in this day and age, seem to follow a "Console Cycle"... well atleast Sony did with the Playstation trilogy... The cylce sees the introduction of a new generation machine every 5 to 6 years, however the production life of each machine is around 10 years.

Take for example the (original) Playstation which was released in Dec 1994. This was followed in Mar 2000 by the PS2, however it remained in production till Mar 2006 when Sony finally stopped making the machines. Which meant that after six years, the Playstation 2 was being sold on it's own (not including the PSP). However this didn't last long since Sony released the PS3 in Nov 2006, where the PS2 and PS3 have since been sold together. The Playstation 2, is still doing quite well today even with the newer improved model on sale.

Now let's take Microsoft and it's two consoles - the XBOX and XBOX360 into consideration. Having released in Nov 2001, the XBOX was quick off the mark, however only four years later, it was replaced by the XBOX360 (a deliberate attempt of Microsoft to be the first to get the next-generation Market share). However, it wasn't replaced straight away, it stayed in production for a year extra before it saw the end in Nov 2006 after a ripe old age of just 5.

Now taking a look at the two cases above, if Microsoft had followed Sony's suite and simply made the (original) XBOX cheaper to produce (and thus can be sold at a lower price, for similar profits) then you could be certain that many people would still have bought it if the Playstation and Playstation 2 are anything to go by. If they had kept the XBOX in production for another 4-5 years, they could have managed to gain an even larger Gaming Market Share, as well as make more of a profit.... could this have been a BIG mistake on Microsoft's part?

Krunal via bruceongames.com »
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  • 2
    Existenz Sep 5, 07
    Well yes because people tend to upgrade what they are used to... Say i use a Sony Ericsson phone (which i do by the way) i will look into their new handset first before i shop elsewhere i would prefer to stick where i am familiar with... The same goes for consoles Sony still have the market share since they have 2 consoles out, 3 if you count the PSP, now everyone that still has a PS2 will probably just go with a PS3 because they are acustomed to the Playstation brand, it happened with the PS1 too, now going by that in a few years the PS3 could have a surge of interest pushing it towards the PS2's sales figures of 124 million even though people cast the PS3 as the underdog right now, right now the 360's 12 million units sold are probably just Xbox gamers that had to upgrade because the Xbox and Xbox games were discontinued.
    • 0
      Final Blade Sep 6, 07
      Yeah i agree, I think MS gave up too quickly on there xbox 1. Which is why there not making any money in this gaming business, like Sony is and Nintendo.
  • 0
    Revenger of Wastelan Sep 5, 07
    Its obvious Microsoft arent the best video-game marketers, but they will get to it eventually.
    • 1
      volacide Sep 5, 07
      You mean unlike how Sony got to it right off the bat?
  • 0
    SS4Gogeta Sep 5, 07
    Considering MicroSoft took a large portion of the NextGen pie it looks like a good move. They may have gotten a portion of the Wii's market with a cheaper XBox but by the same token they might have lost 360 market share to their own XBox. Interesting article.
    • 1
      Existenz Sep 5, 07
      Look beyond the present, i mean yes Sony keeping the PS2 is losing the PS3 sales but when all those PS2 owners upgrade the PS3 will boom in sales funnily enough just like the PS2 did when people upgraded from the PS1... Getting rid of your old console early is a good way to get lots of fast sales since your customers have to upgrade but right now Microsoft have only sold a million more than they did at the same point with the Xbox so right now they are not looking to do any better this gen.
    • 1
      volacide Sep 5, 07
      Yeah you're really not looking at the big picture.

      They may have taken a big chunk of the NextGen pie but you're completely disregarding the LastGen pie where profit is still being made by Sony.
  • 1
    FRoGBuster Sep 5, 07
    this is true. I bought the PS3 because I had a PS2 before, and also because I heard that Sony is still supporting the PS2. That gave me reason to have loyalty and trust for Sony over MicroSft.
  • 0
    ConkerASkyJockey Sep 5, 07
    Microsoft had a big advantage over the other consoles in this generation, and they might be running out of fresh new ideas.

    That's there mistake.

    Agreed, Sony support the last generation console even if they are in the next generation.
  • 0
    iLLmatic Sep 5, 07
    We can't seriously be discussing this issue as if its new..
    • 0
      Play ISDF Sep 5, 07
      Seems like it >_>.

      From reading this it just seems like fanboyism everywhere. Especially considering nobody is taking into account the Playstation has been around far longer than the Xbox.
      • 0
        Final Blade Sep 6, 07
        Oh yeah we are taking that into account. But MS shouldn't just throw away there systems after a new one comes in, thats MS biggest mistake that will affect them big time.
      • 0
        Krunal Sep 6, 07
        That has nothing to do with the article though. What the article is saying is that, consoles CAN effectively last 10 years, but Microsoft in an attempt to get a "bigger" piece of the pie that everyone is talking about above, got rid of their XBOX console after just half that time. If they had kept it, once the next gen XBOX would have came out, people that still had an XBOX would have changed to the XBOX360, and once the generation after that came out, they'd have changed to the next gen XBOX360 (in a way staying back a generation). There's a lot of people that do that, and it's actually a great way to make money, because by the time you get to that stage, a lot of people are buying the consoles, and your production costs are quite minimal. Look at the PS2, it's still selling. It's getting even crazier with it's sales if anything.
  • 0
    Seproth Sep 6, 07
    Bah, no one here should care. This affects only people who aren't hardcore gamers, considering everyone here is on a gaming forum. I think most of us have a 360 and are ready to move on. Or if not that a PS3 or Wii.
    • 0
      Krunal Sep 6, 07
      Thats not necessarily true, my cousin who has had the XBOX for a long time, and loved it dearly, has been put off from microsoft's camp simply because he doesn't have money to buy the XBOX360 and with XBOX pretty much dropped, there's no new games for him to buy. When he has enough money, he's more likely to buy a PS3 now than an XBOX360 (Especially since, I very much doubt he'd be allowed to use the pay-only online service of XBOX LIVE - not including silver membership).
  • 0
    Big Willie Sep 6, 07
    I really don't think it's that much to worry about. The PS2 had nearly twice the library of games that the Xbox had, not forgetting that it was also backwards compatible with the PS1. It's a no brainer for Sony to keep pumping out PS2's. It was the greatest selling console of all time.
  • 0
    Capn Droid Sep 9, 07
    All time, I'd be hesitant about saying that. I mean, look at the SNES. But that's off topic.

    Point is, the XBox was brilliant, but Microsoft majorly screwed up by thinking they would replace it completely with XBOX 360.
    • 0
      Big Willie Sep 9, 07
      I wouldn't be hesitant about saying it, because it's a fact that the PS2 is the greatest selling home console.

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