I think they did that to start the next gen games with no competetion of any other platform and take the lead for its 1st year but now its goin not very well with ms and sony on the way to take the lead of the next gen consoles (Wii can competes with ps2)

Microsoft should not have rushed the 360. If they didn't do that, it would have been more reliable.

They shouldn't have been rushing to come in first place.

They should have been more concerned with delivering a product that works.

Its the Xbox 360 in second place with the far more total sales millions ahead of the PS3 and its the Xbox 360 with better graphics and better games oh and all the RPG's.

The 360 can't handle a co-launch with the big dogs. Always give the b!tch a head start.

on the price point. Xbox 360 launch prices were: $400 premium/$300 core. I would agree that if Microsoft had known about Sony's delay to Nov 2006 they would have launched at a later date with an internal HD-DVD drive.

plain and simple Market Share
what upsets me is the arrogance of MS releasing a product with known faults...
and before anyone says they didnt know about their faulty product, which they did, it would make MS look worse saying they didnt do enough homework to even know their was a problem(s)
in the end MS paid 1 billion and got market share they wanted and were successful at doing so

With their E3 Announcement and Videos, and keeping the actual release date a secret for so long was definitely a big accomplishment. PS3 wasn't even finalized until Summer 2008, so you can tell how pissed Microsoft was.

If Xbox 360 had launched with an internal hard drive as standard, as well as an internal HD-DVD drive as standard, Blu-ray would have lost and PS3 would probably be on the rocks right now.

And behold,yet another 360 bashathon article.

Fact is,the 360 is still beating the POS3 in sales,
not to mention the onslaught it's delivering in software sales LOL!!!
Don't that just BURN you little Sony butt licking fanatics up?

I sure hope it does.

So they (MS)used something called strategy,to get ahead in the game.

Yeah they did it taking a risk.(rrod)
You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

Well my launch works great,and I'll never own the retarded PS3,
who needs Blu ray and delayed games.
BRING ON THE 720 MS WOOT WOOT!

in additio nthos the points made above they neglected certain key parts of development like stress testing
most devices are run as long and as hard as they can be until the blow

microsoft knew there system was flawed and neglected to mention it
90 days was the original warenty they knew systems would fail but they didnt think they would go before this time

after so many they extended it to a year then 3 for rrod

if they had released at the same time withinternal hddvd and hard drive

the format war would still be going on
if they had released ahead of time with a hddvd ms would have won format and likly console war

greed got the better of them

because it was more innovative than the competitors, since the rest had only older hardware lol

have been sooooo in love with the 360 this time around, they feel MS got a raw deal when Sony muscled Mvidia into stopping production of the xbox1 gpu.

and here comes the GOOD PART

like all you xbutts like to say, THAT BUSINESS.

payback is a 300lb black b1tch in heat with herpes aint it?

huummm should i get my 8 year old kid a HD gaming system for $200 new xbox.....or a new ps3 for $400 .....general market will go with the xbox...boosting sales....

But that doesn't matter to the 360 MS haters in here.
CIAO.

Pretty interesting article. I do agree that Microsoft was more than likely profiting from Xbox 360 sales at launch and always have been.

And I didn't realize Microsoft had loss so much money on the Original Xbox... last gen. I really didn't keep up any info or gaming news at all when it came to the Xbox and really didn't know much about it.

Microsoft being forced to come out with their next console so fast obviously caused them to make scarifices when it came to the Quality control. And personally I don't think that Microsoft would have even had the guts to put built in HD-DVD in the Xbox 360 at launch because they didn't want to take any major risks on the 360 because the Original Xbox wasn't that successful in comparison to the PS2 and they didn't want the Xbox 360 to have the same fate as the Original Xbox, and therefore Microsoft "played it safe" and just stuck with DVD because they knew they could profit from each console sold if the 360 had just standard DVD drives.

In some ways I think that the Xbox 360 is a console that's stuck between a 6th genration console and a 7th gen. console and the main reason why I think so is because it doesn't have a High Definition drive built into the system. Even though the 360 is capable of producing very nice graphics even without the High Def drive built in, the Xbox 360 would have been able to fulfill a much longer lifecycle if it had built in HD-DVD and developers wouldn't be facing so many disc space issues with the 360.

as soon as 360 price drops happen they will be on top, especially with this holiday season.....humm lets assume i am a normal parent that knows nothing of gaming, should i get my kid a 200 system or a 400....what do you think is going to happen....360 has a bigger game library just by looking at a game store or walmart compared to the ps3. i still know nothing of gaming. i have no clue of the RROD issue all i know that it is cheaper and more games are on it. therefore i would buy my kid a 360....DUH...360 is not going to disappear. this season the 360 WILL sell like hot cakes....ooo and wtf would a seven year old kid need a blu-ray player lol

The only reason wy they are willing to spend the money on the xb360 is simply because they know and propably will make a lot of money on the long run.
Who wouldn't want a large part of a market which isn't influenced by the tendencies of the market.

Microsoft rushed the 360 to try to get ahead of Sony/Nintendo and make it harder for the PS3/Wii to succeed on it's first year of release.
Problem is Microsoft didn't plan for the long run like Sony did w/ the PS3 and that's what's killing them right now or slowly as the years go by.
The only reason more people had the 360 was because it was first if Sony's PS3 were out first people would only be talking about Sony and not Microsoft and vise versa.
There's more to a console then just features it's also the games.
Obviously the PS3 is built for the long term and the technology to go even beyond w/ this new console.
Sony is proving that they are here to stay and after seeing these new exclusives games being announced by Sony, devs, or the media is making people change their minds about the PS3.
The fact PS3 has amazing games, innovative features, and that it's a blu-ray player are making people see that it's a full package.
I have nothing against Microsoft but the fact that all those Xbox games are coming to the PC or are already on the PC are making people just get a PC and not an Xbox.
People will eventually get tired of the 360 very soon and that's the moment where Sony is gonna takeover and gain some valuable market this gen.

MS didn't have too. MS built a very loyal fanbase with the xbox. In terms of market penetration i do considered the xbox as a success. Heck they even managed to beat Nintendo in their first go but there was no way they could have beaten Sony last gen.

The xbox console was a great console. The only problem it had it didn't had the variety of games which the x360 sort have right now but not quite. If MS continued to innovate with the x360 and bring out a more reliable and future proof console plus the current games collection. The xbox brand would have been in a much better position now and for next gen.

This is ultimately the problem with MS strategy. They focus too much on competition instead of following their own path to which they know will lead them to success like Sony does. From the outset of this gen console war MS strategy is to 1up Sony but the problem is....Sony has moved on to better things. This ultimately leaves MS one step behind Sony and they will always be if they continue on their current path. For example FF,DMC,GTA were on the PS long ago but only now xbox has them. In the mean time. Sony has bought more dev studios and funding more 1st and 2nd party exclusives than they did in previous gen while MS has lost 2nd parties and Bungie as 1st party. Worst still. MS has rest on it laurels with online gaming which was a very big advantage for them while Sony is making huge inroads and innovation into online gaming.

People are not stupid, well the majority anyways. People are not blind to value and long term prospects.

What the heck does leaving a console on for a week have to do with just plain publicly and press proven bad hardware failures throughout the existence of a console?

The fact is that IT COULD happen to you and has been, is worse than the virtually unheard of failures of the PS3 and Wii this gen and the consoles even in the past.

The truth; I had DoA Xtreme 2 for 360 once. Why once?
I'll tell you why, I didn't know that unlike the PS2 you couldn't turn the console the other way whilst playing a game as the CD drive scratches the disk because of the badly designed DVD drive, other consoles that can be stored both ways didn't have this problem.

The disk drive is FAR too noisy, the 360 alone without a game in is fine, put a disk in and you are deafened by the fan.

As I said before, if MS were serious to back the HD-DVD they would of used that as the consoles chosen game data storage to take advantage of the extra space and avoid piracy for a good few years.

I still don't agree for paying for online either, because I bought that online part of the game on the disc too and not just permission to play the single player, as I used to with PC games which offered EXACTLY the same features but for free for years before MS created XBL which I didn't even agree with on XBOX (1) and the 360 is supposed to bring the whole world to interact together.

I'm not saying "Buhhh, the PS3 roxxors";
What I'm saying is that someone obviously was rushed or on a tight budget to design and create such a console with such hardware contained inside that can't cope properly running at the same time; causing these large reported failures.

If these problems happened with a normal DVD player in the market you would call it 'cheap and shoddily made' and complain to costumer services and just avoid it.

The only reason people didn't then, is that THERE WAS NOTHING ELSE CURRENTLY AT THE TIME and yes, it WAS easier to program for, but you could say the same for the PS2 and the PS3, programming for new platforms is hard if not already based on an already existing software architecture; being Direct X.

Launch head to head with HD-DVD, and they would loose straight away. HD-DVD might have lasted longer though.

Launch a year earlier without HD-DVD, then HD-DVD is pretty much screwed. Then they would have the long term storage issues.

Balance of the two choices, I would say they made the best choice under the circumstances. They got a year lead... but they really should have done better with the quality of the hardware. There is realy no excuse for the DVD eating and scratching drives that they put in the XB360. And the RRoD problem, with a little bit of cost could have been prevented. Their biggest mistake was not the timing or include / exclude of HD-DVD. Rather the skimping where they should have done that Sony did - put real quality components in. Now - even if they reach the same reliability as the PS3 - the XB360 will always be remembered for high tech done cheaply and the crap that followed.

YEa, I think what really upsets me is, they knew, the engineers knew they rushed the desighn to fast and still, it was launched, that in itself is a reason for me not to chose them.

I could care less if they released last. They have the games I like so that's why I brought 1 =]

Edit: A disagree? Ok..they dont have the games *I* (as in me, my own personal taste not you) like lol

Rushed or not MS were right to get the console out as quickly as they did.
It meant they were unchallenged when it came to gaining market share and it was through doing this that they have many games and franchises which might not have come their way otherwise.

Sony's track record meant it was not a good idea to come to market at the same time. You only have to look at last year, when the 360 had arguably the best ever line up of blockbuster titles, but was still outsold in Europe.
It needed the head start, and it was a very wise move which has ensured the console is a success.

I don't see any evidence to suggest that the hardware reliability issues are anything to do with the release date. All evidence points to some poor cost cutting measures, poor design ethos and bad manufacturing management. All these issues would likely have been a factor a year later too.
The only thing that was potentially an issue was the use of a DVD drive instead of a larger capacity format. Though this ultimately limits the machine at the end of its cycle, it gave it a positive cost benefit at the beginning of the cycle and its clear that many of the decisions were made with short term gain in mind.

By releasing early MS ensured the 360 was a success, and though I ultimately believe they will be third place this gen, they have done a LOT better than they would have if they had launched later.

i dont theink the engineers wanted it released in its current state
no sensible technician would rush out faulty product given a chance i feel there budget was cut and there deadline pulled forward

i bet there as unhappy as the consumers

SDF in 360 news as usual. Talk about being fking insecure cuz they bought a 600$ blowdryinggrillstationdoorstop per. If they had any good games they would be busy playing and not trolling 360 news on n4g 18 hours each day. Jeez i play BF:BC on my 360 4-5 hours each day almost from the day it was launched. I have no fear of my 360 burning down the house, exploding, shaving my head, destroying my HDTV, RRODing etc Since i've been using it regularly from the time it came back from MS.

The Ja$$es of SDF (juuken and her sad lovers) are waiting for home, KZ2, LBP, since 2 years. I guess cobwebs hv grown in her nether region by now.

GO shave the forrest below or do something useful for once in your lame life. 360 owners are happy with their cheaper, last gen dvdrom console which is beating the $hit out of ur BDplayer.

EDIT: At ps3 fandroids below:

Fortunately we 360 owners dont have to defend for anything the only 2 gripes (RROD and LIVE fee) are already acknowledged by us and now only Live issue is remaining. We are not blind not to see the issues with 360 unlike you Sony worshippers. I bet if they come out with PS4 with no games for another 2 years you'd rush out and buy it like its some gift from above. We have been playing HD games for last 2 3/4 years when all u guys were doing was jurkkening (pun intended) off on the bananna controller picture while dreaming of 4D games

Excuses, excuses. Come on for pete's sake the 360 has been out for over 2 years almost and people are still writing pointless articles that are either trying to justify some reason for M$ doing what they did. Who cares.

Just there for the hits. No thanks.

They used to make discussions fun but lately the defences from Xbox360 loyalists have just been so lame it's sickening.

The Xbox360 was rushed because Microsoft looked at the PS2 and thought that the reason they lost to the PS2 witht the Xbox was because the PS2 was out first. However i think it's starting to become clear that 1st doesn't assure a win in the end.

Come on MS is just trying to keep brand loyalty !!!

Come on they got stomped by Apple Ipods,By Sony Playstations,By Linux?OSXs,they make crap hardware and software! but try to build upon it and make it better but always wind up short...
Microsoft is a brand for idiots who like big trucks and muscle cars but can afford to pay 5 dollars a gallon for gas..3 words!!! Dee Dee Dee

*oh well the only thing great is their Word processor software and their Compression technology!!!audio and video

There are not enough features out the box. Once people learn the have to buy battery packs for all wireless controllers, wifi adapters maybe new microsoft only hardrives they'll learn all the hidden costs associated with the system. Lets not forget LIVE aswell. OH Boy!

How many of you Sony leg humpers are actually the same fvckin Sonytard
with several accounts.
I would wager my PC on it.
Maybe I should do this and bubble myself up like the rest of you Playstation nimrods.
Wait,I have a life.
Forget it.

And as far as this thread goes,I'm glad MS launched early.
Why?,it sure fvcked Sony up,
and that's what's important.
Fvck Sony,

tom

They did a lot of damage to the potential of all games this generation by launching their console first. They knew of course they can not go head to head with sony at the same time so they launched first. In doing so they left out hd dvd which could of made games so much better. If they used a built in hd dvd drive they could of used dual layer hd dvds which could hold about 30gigs. All multiplatform games would of been entirely diffrent because they would of held more information such as animation and better textures. Also games like grand theft auto 4 would of probably been bigger and better looking.

They also didn't spend money on putting a good processor like the cell so most games do not have next generation animation. They did however make sure they put a good gpu in so that games can look next generation. In the end there well thought out plans did give them success but failure at the same time. For an example the ps3 has been outselling 360 finally for the whole year and will continue to gain even more momentum. Microsoft has spent billions in making exclusive deals with so many companies to have an advantage in software. They also spent money on the red ring of death repairs as well.

Even though sony was losing money in the beginning with ps3 and losing a lot of titles they are still gaining momentum. Why because people can finally see the qaulity of sonys machine. They see they have a blue ray player and huge complete true next gen games. For an example metal gear solid 4 uses the systems potential in disk space and graphics hardware earing itself a 10. People now know what quality is coming next there will just be huge titles with really nice animation. Look at motorstorm pacific rift and infamous and killzone 2 they are absolutely amazing.

the inevitable is coming.360 will be 3rd by next year. They never had a chance since the sony brand is too powerful,only nintendo has. 1 year headstart and s3 cost more and ti still will outsell it.

Because im getting it especially for GeoW2

Why do they persist to rely solely on this subject? I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the world has moved on. There are great games on 360. And contrary to the poor image of the 360 that PS3 owners have so maliciously painted, 360 has continuously led the pack.

RROD...I think the Sony camp has played that tune all too often. If isn't RROD, it's the DVD9. If it isn't that, it's claiming that their console is superior. If it isn't that, it's FF13's exclusiveness on PS3.

Wait...

I have owned an Xbox 360 since 05-06. That's quite a while to go without having fallen victim to something that Sony fans have deemed to be "the only sure thing about 360". So, if I haven't gotten it (and I live in the high desert) then when is it coming?

I'm not saying that I ignore those who DO have this problem. I'm saying that PS3 owners/MS haters are just blue-screening the illusion that there are more complaints than in truth. The simple fact that they come HERE to our side of the forums and proceed to put sh*t in our faces proves that there is no truth in their words. Only hate and prejudice.

U-Turn said it best: "Alright farmer john...let's see if you got any thug in you. Do it...end it now!"

I think the 3rd Xbox will be unbelievable. The lessons they have learned from 1st and 2nd gen really are lessons which have made the gaming division grow.

I mean F@#k every time i read a xbox article there's a sony fanboy that posted a comment. THIS also goes to xbox fanboys F@#k leave the hardware sales and game sales to the companies that run them. DAMN. This is the true all they care about is making money at a profit and sucking you in to buy more of there stuff Sony,MS, Nintendo all do this.

I think its time you MS lovers woke up.Why are you all so brainwashed on the 360.MS has shown no respect to their customers or they would have had the RROD problem fixed, or at least reduced the number dramatically, before they launched.They make cheap quality consoles and people believe their gold or something.The number of malfunctions between the PS3 and the 360 are not even comparable.Sony makes a quality product and Microsoft doesn't.Instead of trying to unsuccessfully bash the PS3 maybe you should turn your anger where it belongs.Back at Microsoft.Also, Microsoft has even admitted that the RROD problem is not isolated to one particular area.It could be any of about a thousand things.(i'm exaggerating with that number of course but you get the point)As relating specifically to the article, MS didn't add a hd-dvd player and such so they could undercut Sony without giving the customers anything without charging maximum amount of money.You may have noticed with the 360 nothing is free unlike Sony with the PS3.

because Halobox failed.

ps3 is pwning 360 NOW, not 2 years ago. We r getting the last laugh and 360ers r not.

Look I'm not saying 360 sucks but its not next gen and will not last long. Ps3 is winning and thats all there is to it.

Ps: how do you get avatars on this I dont usually do forums but the 360 fans r just so crazy that I had to join.

ecuse me but what are u talking about?what last laugh? are u some faking retard? i mean seriously , the war isnt over and even after Gay-station 4 comes out its still not gona be over i bet it.. u know something , they should rename the site.. www.newsforgaystation.com would be much better..

muff said

360 just wanted to get a head start, nothing more. and they did, cant take that away from them. sony is closing the gap but they wouldnt be closing any gap if they hadnt come out first. good job microsoft, but again...sony is closing the gap!

Would at least keep them in the running longer than if they launched side by side with the PS3. If they launched a year later, they might have gotten the hardware right but would not have lived up to the same hype the PS3 had and would have been in the shadow of the PS3 for months to come. Their head start is falling away in the numbers each month but it was worth the effort for the lack of competition from the other two console makers. With out the head start, they would be in a distant last place right now so you can see how well their strategy worked.

"In mid 2005 NVIDIA, the developer of the Xbox’s GPU ended production. Without a GPU Microsoft was unable to manufacture Xbox’s to sell so they had to go on what stock was already available in stores before the Xbox 360 launched. Microsoft was really forced to launch the Xbox 360 in 2005 because by Christmas time the stock of Original Xbox’s would have been depleted."

Ridiculous, like MS couldn't extend the contract. MS axed Xbox simple as that.

"Price point? Many think the price point would increase above $500, but would it really? If Microsoft was indeed making a profit on the Xbox 360 at launch how much would they lose by keeping the launch price at $500 with a HD DVD drive and/or Xbox chipset’s."

Again ridiculous, everybody knows they were selling it at a loss.

might i suggest that this entire issue be taken to the forums for civilized disscusion as both 360 and ps3 sides have valid merits to discuss

after all isnt that what n4g gamerzone is about sensible non biased discussion

.anyhow my comment.

I fully agree that microsofts 3rd console be it x3 or 720 or whatever will be techinaclly outstanding the 360s core design is no slouch
3 cores running 2 threads at 3.2.... ill take that anyday..

I belive however that ms will try to force 2 issues once which they have done so far is the 'perks' system see atatched video for a graphic and funny representation (content related to ms pricing policy by analogy)
by which i mean paying for every little attachment

the other issue I feel they will try to force is a shift to digital downloads
i feel that they will use blueray discs/high sensity media cards ssm to start but 1st party will release on dlc only.

this could be whats needed to fully moive into a medialess environment or it could prove a disaster.

1. they're not making any first party game(well you could say alan wake, or that halo boardgame but those are not going to save 12 moth of gaming).
2. the Ps3 is starting to show wats capable of.
Third PSN is caching way to fast the xbox live and outperform it in online.
4. they are charging for live while PSN is free.
5. the games on multiplat cant stay on pair forever cos the gap between machines is way to much.

Every condition is filled for M$ to start thinking about the next console or Sony is going to eat their share.
But the main problem for them at this point is:
who is going to buy a xbox 720 when a RROD could appear becouse of rushed product manufacture, im pretty sure that "here" you ppl are going to check N4G or every forum (even if you say otherwise) before buying the 720 manly cos anyone would be scared of RROD 720

up

down

Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 first, because they we're scared.

SCARED OF SONY AND THE PS3! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA BOTS ARE PATHETIC!