o,
because the sales rate is falling

just hope that companies dont start to think first one out the door wins

It did work to some degree. It gave them a headstart for one thing but it also resulted in faulty hardware and multiple iterations as they tried to make up for it. If they did release at the same time as the PS3 and Wii, then it would be third place right now which would have been bad for MS.

All points that need to be addressed.

Issue 1 (the most important):
The Xbox 360 never came standard with a hard-drive.

No hard drive standard.
That is a step backward from the Xbox. No hard drive standard?
You are Microsoft! You were already taking a loss. Whats another $25 per unit sold?
There is no arguing that fact.
Every Xbox had a built in hard drive.
Not every 360 has one.
They are still selling them without it standard.
Try and defend it, you can't.

Issue #2:
Microsoft gave us faulty hardware!

While its never a good thing to rush hardware to market, I could live with this one as most can because of the extended warranty.
You put out bad hardware, well, fix it! They will for 3 years for free. Its why I bought my 360.

Issue #3:
It didn’t come with a built-in HD-DVD player…

I have been a huge supporter of Blu-ray for one reason and one reason only.
Ready for this?
OK, here it is:
I have one because of my PS3.
Why wouldn't I support it?
Its only later on that I realized it would have an impact on games too.
More space means bigger, more detailed games.
Come back here in a year and see if I'm wrong. I wont be.

In closing, yes it worked, for the short term.

like we all dont know this already

It just took a few shoes dropping like bluerays victory to show Sony was spot on with what they offered the consumer with the PS3

Early launch = greater install base = more dev support

Early launch = more dev practice = more dev support

More dev support = more games

more games = more money (and supposedly a happier end consumer)

it was a smart business move simple as that.

We all know that if it dropped the same day as the PS3, the 360 would be well on its way to extinction.

EVEN at the inflated price of the PS3 and the intricate architecture... there was a lack of [good] games on both systems during their first few months. Updates in firmware were necessary for both. They both faced the exact same plagues...it just LOOKS like the PS3 faced them alone because the 360's had been fixed prior to the PS3's.

Most importantly, without that first year head start for the 360, there wouldn't have been the absolute onslaught of horrible PS3 media that ensued before, during, and after its launch.

It would've been an equal playing field and the PS3 wouldn't have started at the disadvantage that it did. And if Sony had advertised the living daylights out of the FREE ONLINE PLAY it features... it would've been game over. The RRoD would have 360's falling off the map and people instantly switching over to PS3. Ports would have been more equal due to equal dev time...

And not to mention the recent blu-ray hi-def victory.

But hey...in the end...it all makes for a better "comeback" right?
We all know how this movie ends, we've seen Sony come through the exact same battle as the victor.

So, in short....to answer the question:

Q: Microsoft's Early Next-Gen Entrance, Did it Work?

A: Short term battle, yes. Long term war, no.

Lol! What a load of Sony fanboy crap! Sure they wish 360 launched later so they'd steal less of Sony's market.

But at the cost of reduced consumer confidence, billions of dollars spent on hardware repairs, and lower hardware specs than their direct rival. They didn't reach much of a lead either. Sony already has 2/3s of Microsoft's installed base, despite not having a worldwide launch and releasing their console an entire year after Microsoft.

Microsoft had a pricing advantage, software advantage, and online advantage. Now all three of those are gone, and unfortunately their sales have begun to stagnate now that Sony and Nintendo have been hitting hard.

It worked, but it had it def. had its downsides. RROD anyone? The only place M$ has ahold of now is North America. Just got to see how long they can hold its position. Of course im excluding the Wii...

I say it's too soon to call. But my prediction would be that it will work to an extent, but not to the extent that Microsoft would like. I think the 360 will do better than the Xbox, but fail to lead this generation in sales. I think we'll have a much better idea in a years time after all of the big three have played their cards, so to speak.

it worked as in they got a year head start in sales..

but the 360 is currently beign outsold by the PS3/Wii....not to mention that there games lineup this year sucks...

now M$ is getting desperate so they're dropping the price of the 360 even though that really wont help sales that much in EU....i bet the Bots are wishing it was 2007 all over again..lol

Yes. Not even worth discussing at this point.

all signs point to Yes.

Only the HD-DVD add-on was I think their only bad judgement.

The rest were very minor problems/occurances.

Most importantly though, the games did deliver and a lot of them were on time and have a high rate of playability, immersion, enjoyment factor.

has been falling year to year for every gaming platform to date MS has brought to market.

The first year xbox sales where more then its 2nd and its 3rd was less then that

The same can be said of the 360 and if this price cut doesnt bring its sales up over there 2nd year numbers they will have failed twice.

im putting this in the open zone because these words will hurt some ppl here.

*Custumer beware was taught to us, atleast me, at a very young age but still ppl will buy into hype.

*MS fed you what you wanted to hear and alot of ppl in NA bought in. We voted in Bush#43 twice so how smart are we really!

i guess we can all see now that 360 sales numbers dont mean jacksh!t anymore. We have re-buys in that total and we also have systems that hold back what is next-gen gaming. we will never know the true number but i guess you can take the sales of 360's b4 HDMI was included then take them off the grand total because they will have been replaced. Its not even 1.3

The 360 is THE most faulty consumer eltronic every sold to the consumer in the last 10 years easy. For those who still think the 360 is the best system on the market you would be wrong and all the proof you will need will come over the next 2 years.

MS desperate attempt at saving there 3rd year sales with the 360 might help them get past what the xbox did but they wont touch Sony when its all said and done. The Xbox720 or whatever it will be called will have a hard time vs the PS3 if it comes out anytime b4 2012.

Sony after one year of BS NA PRESS has shown why they make hardware and why MS is a software company

When both systems hit 300 bucks you will see what system was made to last.

sorry but its not the 360

MS could have sealed the deal had they alleviated some pivotal issues before launch. First is HW issues. If they hadn't pawned off manufacturing and design to the lowest bidder, they'd probably be in a ebtter situation. Even in spite of the early launch, I think it was entirely possible for them to have avoided the HW problems. Really, a company as rich as MS has no business going as cheap as they did.

Second was the standard HDD. I loved this feature on the original XBox(I didn't own one, but always thought it a great idea), and they shot themselves in the foot here. Rag on Sony all you want disc speed, but the standard HDD alleviates that somewhat, no matter how you spin it. If MS had included this as standard, that's one less selling point your hated adversary would have, so I don't wanna hear it.

Next gen media format was another. We all witnessed Blu-Ray, with a late entry no less, systematically pick HD-DVD apart. This victory SOLELY rests on the shoulders of the PS3, and the d*mn thing just now barely hit 10 million units. The 360 sold this many before the PS3 launched...and if it had an HD-DVD drive, Blu-Ray could have possibly been dead RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER. It isn't even necessarily about winning that war, it's about having storage space for devs.

These things wouldn't even have made the PS3 an afterthought. Ever other advantage either console has over one another are superficial. These three things are big ones in the eyes of consumers and industry professionals alike.

Folks, it's not a lack of hard drive. It's the presents of a choice. When I bought my 360, it had a hard drive, you know why? Because I "CHOSE" to get the one that had a hard drive. No one forced those that bought the core to do so. So stop trying to blame MS for that.

If everyone that bought a 360 bought a premium, the the core/arcade would no longer exist today. Yet it's still here, simple because some people chose to get that model. And please, SHUT up about the uninformed customer...blah, blah blah, BS. When you go out to buy an electronic product, do you go and pull the first thing you see off the shelf, or do you look to see what's available first.

None of us know everything about every electronic item and type, that's why we read and do research. How big is the hard drive in the wii? Yeah, that's what I thought.

yea most likely 360 will fail in the end
dont wanna admit it but ms messed up using dvd9 disk
if they was to use hd-dvd disk they woudl have been more succesful
ms didnt need hd dvd to win the format war all they needed it was to have better disk space for more content

Oh Hell No !!!!!

but yearly sales of the 360 is slowing down. Imagine what would've happened if all 3 simultaneously launched. The big two would overshadow the 360.

I knew the x-box fanboys were going to point fingers saying its just more Sony propaganda. You guys need to get a life and face the truth that your precious x-box is a pile, and it ain't just the Sony fans who agree...it's the entire industry

MSFT could not have established the role of the primary focus by devs if it wern't for the earily launch. Sony would have killed them by default regardless of innovation or vision. MSFT's vision has revolutionized gaming and would have not been realized if Sony's brand loyalty and hype destroyed MSFT by default, MSFT knew this and hurt themselfs in ways to realize Bills vision of the future thinking the gain will override the blows they were going to take( its working right now despite the BULLSHIT we read and hear).

All consoles are made in the Xbox image even though Nintendo did a dam fine job of adding their own vision to open up the industry.

Kind of a stupid ass post there was no other way to beat Sony's brand loyality, shaddy tactics and console killing hype and rhetoric(poor DreamCast Sony made retailers put the DC in back lol).

It's Microsoft, they give you incomplete products: Windows, XBOX 360, ZUNE. They aren't a multi-billion dollar company because they give you things that you -should- have, they make you pay for it (Live).

Yes, I think it worked. Microsoft got tons of support and market share from the simple decision to release early. But Sony is obviously going to win again this time. Maybe next gen?

Yeah they prettymuch blew it by releasing broken hardware without main standard features. Plus the game lineup was nothing special until late 2006 (and even then not nearly good enough for a generation shift). 360 probably would've taken off if the Wii hadn't diverted attention but now it's doomed to a distant third with PS3 catching up fast.

Forget product specs for a moment. You can tell the 360 has problems just by its name. "X" is what marketers use when they have no concept of what their product is supposed to be called, it's their goto idea for sounding vaguely cool without actually meaning anything. X-men, Wormhole-X, Samurai X, X-rays... oh wait that's a real one, well you get the idea. "360" is exactly the same as X. As for "Box" well that's just depressingly bad. I can just imagine a team of highly paid Microsoft Marketers sitting around a desk staring at the high-tech console brought up from engineering and going "hmm, it's box shaped..." I bet it was like a real life Dilbert comic strip.

Microsoft didnt ship "early. They annoucned their date, and then shipped when they said they would.

PS3 was *LATE* they pushed back the date multiple times.

Now we're posting stories that are re-inventing history?

God all fcuking mighty, this site needs moderators in such a very bad way.

Well obviously it worked. Every good thing M$ has it owes to the fact they screwed their existing customers and got the drop on everyone else.

They got a year head start. About 8 to 9 million consoles in front. A large library of games, a few of them great. And because of these good things and momentum it was easy for M$ to get the press to go along with them, talking up everything they did while bad mouthing everything Sony did, even before they were out the gate.

So yeah I would say without a doubt it worked. But...

Everyone knows if XB and PS3 launched together XB would have even less chance. Dont believe me? Why did XB sell less with no competition than PS3 did with 2 other consoles and all the bad press. Why did XB's 2nd year sell even less again even with its so called "Perfect Storm". Maybe cos it had competition its 2nd year.

Then theres the fact X360 will go down in history ans the most unreliable game console ever built. Something they will never shake and could even dog M$'s name for generations to come. Even if X720 is 10% broken people will say "Same old M$" they want to make sure they get it right next time. I think we can safely blame that on rushing to market because XB1 was great. Maybe they had better partners then.

So while they are still in decent position and its theres to lose jumping the gun for M$ was both good and bad. I'll say one think, if they release 720 as so as they start losing and abandon their customers like they did last time, I'm done with them. I'll go without Halo4 and a Splinter Cell and the couple of other games I like on XBox that PS3 doesn't have. I'm not going to be a chump again just because I like playing games.

microsoft f#cked themselves and hardcore fans of the system.

releasing early.result-

*rrod screwing the company and gamers.

not having foresight to see that hardware should evolve.result-

*having no hard drive as standard
*having to add 1080p upscaling
*having to add hdmi
*having to add a larger hard drive
*having only dvd as their medium
*having gamers buy expensive peripherals
*and by doing so,gamers now have hd-dvd paperweights for buying addons
*having a poorly made camera that can't even compete with last gen's eyetoy
*having a controller that has a poor d-pad,no rechargeable battery and no next gen additions like motion in the wiimote and sixaxis

should i talk about online?nintendo with no true online,no hd,no add-ons,no big fps games.result-

nintendo outselling microsoft in one year that took microsoft 2 years to do.and sony outselling them in the year of the perfect "10" storm.and microsoft never tells you how those 10 million gamers are connected.is it:

xbox1
silver members
gold members

they spit out numbers.but never say who's paying and who's free.

this is all i'm going to say for closure.......

sony sold 100 million ps1s.
sony sold 120 million ps2s.

sony HAS sold 10 million ps3s in one year.multiply that by their 10 year life cycle.and knowing full well,they will sell more than 10 million for some of those years.............

looks like another 100 million.

CAN MICROSOFT DO THAT?

megaton...................... ..

one word dvd, no hi def drive now only a fool can say its hd ready lol, its with the wi in terms of next gen

A lot of you guys say that your gamers and state that anyone with negative comments towards the ps3 no matter how concurrent and fact based must be fanboys.

The funny thing is that the 360 has been out for 2 and a 1/2 years and in that time has had some excellent games that any gamer would love to play but you instead waited a year to get a ps3 and then waited for some aa games to come out for another year. In this time the PS3 has dropped £150 and you can get a bundle deal from play that includes unchartered and ninja gaiden sigma(two of your top 10 rated games) all for £300.

My point is surely a true gamer would have been enjoying the best games regardless of the console in those two years. The rrod isn't an issue as there is an extended warranty and newer versions have now got smaller chips/heat sinks to combat the problem. Even the price of the console is reasonable but you have decided to wait for unchartered/rac and still wait for mgs/ff/the new promising franchises.

Is that what a gamer does? I understand if money is an issue so you can only get one so decided to wait but really that could be the only reason.

Some of you even put it down to "theres no games that i like available but last time i checked metacritic the 360 had exclusive racers,fighters, rpgs, fps,tps that have scored above 80%. The last time i checked the ps3 had 4 exclusives that have scored above 80% and none that have got above 90%.

me and my work collegues have pretty much every system as we are fanatics and one thing that is constant is that we all play are 360's the most. My point is that any gamer knows that the console to own for the last two years has been the 360. things may change in the coming years but £200-£250 for two years of great gaming plus more to come seems like a pretty easy choice to me.

Ah well i guess some people are just set in the ways and don't like change. I mean the 360 controller is the best controller that i have had for a while and many gaming sites/mags agree. The gc controller being my last great one. But people still say that they prefer the ps3 controller with its lack of rumble,inaccurate analogues and uncomfortable trigger buttons. Does not make sense from a gamers perspective in all honesty.

If any of you guys like FF then i highly recommend Lost odyessy one of the prettiest games of this gen and i feel like this is up there with ff10. Its traditional but brilliant. I hope that some of you get to experience it along with mass effect but i would guess that most on this site won't. Sad but true. Anyways enjoy your PS3 and i will enjoy all that gaming has to offer. I wonder who has the better experience?

jUST AS sONY CALLED MICROSFT OUT AND SAID 4 DAYS AGO. The Xbox 360 is selling almost IDENTICAL to the Xbox 1. He even mentioned how the cheaper it got.... SALES ARE SLOWING HAHAHAHAHAHHA

XFLOP WILL NEVER COMPETE WITH THE PS3 and cant even keep up now!!! PRICE DROP and PS3 is wayyyyy more expensive hahahaha.

Its over bots. Give up. Well you dont have to give up but Sony is gonna pound you hard for the next 8-9 years. Well beyond Microsfts P.O.S.

Sony isn't even trying to be competitive yet hahahahah the PS3 is still 400-500$ you DUMB XBOTS. Wait until the PS3 drops price again.... and then again. Its going to be WAYYYYY bigger than a CRAPbox price drop. We will see. No one wants that P.O.S wanna be Playstation.

NO! ;-D
They got a few Red lights into peoples homes tho!!! ;-D

I think they fu(ked up. I'm a huge Xbroke fan, but i've got to be honest over this. I wish it had the PS3rd's features. Blu-Ray, HDD as standard etc...

Don't get me wrong,its a great console, but the CORE and Premium should have been drastically different. Hers how it should have gone down:

CORE:
1x Wired control pad.
Ethernet port
DVD drive
10GB HDD (As standard)

Price: £250

PREMIUM:
2x Wireless control pad.
Wi-Fi
HD-DVD drive (games on DVD, Moives on HD-DVD)
120GB HDD.

Price: £350

HA HA HA HA!

Those that have stated to me that its because they dont like any of the games on 360 i really have only 2 conclusions to draw from this either you don't like great racing,fps,tps,rpgs,action adventure,sports and rts not to mention the classics on xbox live like sonic/streets of rage or virtual poker,pool,chess,uno etc etc. Or you don't like games that are on a rival system.

I mean the three most commercially successful/highly rated ps3 games are a fps(resistance) a third person shooter/adventure(unchartered) and an action adventure shooter(RAC.) I think you will find a recurring theme Shooting happens to be the main game play mechanic in all of them.

But i guess some "gamers" don't like playing the best games in their genre of 2007 that does make sense i mean what real gamer would want to play bioshock,mario galaxy,metroid prime 3, mass effect,Halo3,vf5 online,Blue dragon, Eternal sonata,ace combat and Command and conquer 3 .Not to mention the problem that was the inferior/heavily delayed multiplatform games or the back catalogue of platinum games that 360 gamers had access to

Cheque please!

Basically with the 360 releasing a bit early, there were some effects. Ex. the RROD and he lagging. They could have better worked on the lagging that people or some have trouble with. They could have took in consideration how bad the original xbox's lagging had and improve, learn from the mistakes. I seen how the PS3 never lags no matter how bad my internet connection is.(My opinion/experineces) The RROD could have been avoided and because of the RROD it still plagues many, many people. Just recently my friend's 360 had the RROD. Now with the RROD out there on the 360, people consider buying a 360 a risk because they know that it may break down on them one day. Basically if they could've waited and went over EVERYTHING before releasing the 360 could, could have out-beat the PS3 and we wouldn't be complaining that about the RROD or lagging. But mostly complaining about the RROD. Also, the 360 could have a better year.

If they launched next to the PS3 - they would have lost outright.
For this gen - it worked - they got the early start and early support and early sales. The strategy is now failing - so they will most probably look at early XB720 release to get a 2 year head start this time around. But I think - for this gen it worked - they got the early lead - but the RRoD is getting them, the disk scratching, the same-as-last-gen-just-more strategy leaves them without staying power.

So in the long term - they could have taken a bit more market share than previous gen. In MS strategy - with near unlimmited money to burn - the strategy worked. For any company - the two XBox fiascos in terms of profitibility would have killed nearly any other copany by now.

I'll be honest considering they were the only HD Game Consoles in town at the time it helped them move major units.
Flaws:
1.) Wasn't properly tested. (ex. RROD-70% Failure rate isn't good for selling quality products.)
2.) HD DVD got some early sales but later fell to better technology.
3.) Only game worth playing in the 360 2005 line up was Gears of War.
MS was so focused on trying to beat Sony and make a quick buck that they released a console way too early and now their screwed.
I think the Xbox 720 will be the same way rush it for the first dollar no planning for the long run lose to both Sony and Nintendo.
The problem is with MS is that their a short term company meaning they'll release a product make a few quick bucks and move on to the next thing.
The Xbox 1 sets the record for the second shortest console life in video game history next to the Sega Dreamcast.
Xbox= 3 years
Dreamcast= 2 years
I doubt the 360 will be around in the next 2 years.
It's not the console it's the companies lifestyle and decision making that effects how their products get sold.

nm