@Dread : At that time 360 still had AAA exclusives. It has none now.

Every AAA exclusive is on PS3, and former 360 exclusives come to PS3 (Tales, Ninja Gaiden 2, Bioshock series). It used to be the exact opposite. See the trend ?

Too_Hyped

But you also have to understand that the only reason WHY NG2 is seeing the light of day on the PS3 is cause the Itagaki-san is no longer with TN. Now as for 360 exclusives id rather wait to see over at E3 what it has in store rather than just assuming that the system doesnt have any. And you know what they say about assumptions.....just in case you dont know, ITS THE MOTHER OF ALL **** ups.

It's only April bro, I'd calm down if I were you. E3 2009 hasn't happened yet so I'd hold on to myself if I were you and not get carried away.

"MS silence is strange, looks like they either intend to give up or to announce a new console... "

Announce a new console? No dice. Xbox 360 isn't Xbox 1. They're going to give life to the 360 longer then Xbox 1. To give up? lol. Dude if they were to give up making a console don't you think they would of stopped at Xbox 1 where they lost 4 billion? Come on man think before you speak. Now that the Xbox 360 has sold past 24 million which is what Xbox 1 sold, they already have new Xbox users, why stop now? Wouldn't make any sense.

As a company Microsoft isn't close to where they want to be. Vista was a financial debacle and they are feeling the heat out of all corners, everyone from Linux to Apple. 80% of Microsoft is tied up in their OS and Office division. That is the company's meat and potatoes. If Windows 7 fails to make the impact Microsoft needs and other companies continue to make headway, Microsoft will be forced to trim it's non-core endeavors in order to protect it's main division.

If gaming were such an important part of the Microsoft plan and they were indeed doing so very well you would not have seen them slash their gaming division to a mere 3 first party studios.

As much as some may want to point at the 360 and MS game business and claim they are making money hand over fist that simply isn't true. Why? Because there is truth in action and the very actions instituted by Microsoft say otherwise. Their own measures bespeak of a company that is bleeding money like a stuck pig. All of the boisterous fan claims cannot negate the simple hard fact of Redwood's own moves. Actions that are reminiscent of Mortimer Duke, "Sell! Sell! Sell!"

Will the 360 collapse? Not this year but neither will it be a force with which to be reckoned as in the past. There is an age old expression, "Hell out of the gate but not much for the long run" That indeed is the issue we are witnessing here.

The 360 will continue to sell but with much decreased fervor. Their NXE attempts to lure Nintendo fans have failed miserably. Sales were not driven by attraction to NXE but by a cheap price. Microsoft opted for market share while Sony has chosen profit.

Everyone that knew what they were looking at with the MS shift could see Microsoft running from Sony. It was cleverly camouflaged because most people assumed they were merely attempting to grab a piece of the lucrative Wii market. While that is true their actions were also born of the realization the PS3 was beginning to find it's legs and gather strength. The massive Sony first part investments and evolving PS3 technology were something the 360 division knew they could not combat.

I stated last December that the Holiday sales and first few months of 2009 would be the last hurrah for the 360 and that is indeed the case.

Microsoft can no longer stay in the cage with a Sony and their 20 first party studios. An extended knife fight with the PS3 right now, armed with Bluray and superior graphics capability would spell a quick trip to the morgue for Bill's legacy.

The 360 will try to rely on a low price point, past titles, and 3rd party support. The problem is that economical recovery, increasingly dated technology, the tendency of the public to desire the latest thing, Sony's own growing performance with multiplatform, and the innovations of the PS3 universe make such a plan mere assurance that the 360 will wind up as an also ran. A Sony price cut will spell serious trouble for Microsoft and anyone wishing to believe otherwise is simply increasing altitude before they are forced to bail out.

"I stated last December that the Holiday sales and first few months of 2009 would be the last hurrah for the 360 and that is indeed the case."

-ha ha The only problem with your latest "360 is doomed" prediction is that its been made all too many times before by ONLY sony loyalists, they were wrong then, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you'll be just the latest hater making just another insignificant and very stupid prediction, hell I bet many of those past "360 is doomed" predictions included a few from your *other account. aahh but then again why would I even bother taking a guy seriously when he speaks as if his tongue has a sony tattoo on it. You're the same guy who believes ps3 has superior graphics over PC, http://www.n4g.com/NewsPend... lmfao, talk about delusion and brand loyalty clouding your judgement, I don't know if I should laugh or just feel bad that you're so brainwashed by the sony hype, either way its clear you need nasim type help.

JOY

I think alot of people are expecting for the same thing that happened to the dreamcast to occur again, but what they fail to realize is the dreamcast was ran poorly!

Sega only allowed the games they wanted. Not having madded really dealt a blow to the console. Not to mention alot of other well known games. Sony Nintendo and MS came with well known games and totally new ones, which cut off the Dreamcast life support.

That won't happen in this gen. Alot of gamers are mad and say that MS are buying games. It may be true, but the main point is, they are killing the Ps3's ability to dominate the industry.

Regardless of what you think of them, MS has brought a balance to the industry. And that means that all 3 companies will have to stay on their toes.

It is hardly a balance when unlike last generation, this time MS provided faulty hardware, a more closed development environment that actually limits gamer freedom and developer opportunity, and a hardware that retards the experience due to last generation choices made in features and capability.

Split sales does not equal balance nor is it necessarily the best thing for the gamer.

About your statement of the NXE is not entirely true. It was not made to attract just Wii players, if you werent aware most of the Xbox user base wanted a new look, and they gave them that as well as your statement of trying to lure new players which is understandable. Either way it wasnt really a fail many enjoy like myself.

waiting to see the day. The day when the world recognized that the PlayStation® family of consoles would win yet *another console war. Not only did they win the console war, but slayed their opponents in the format arena as well. I knew it would end this way. Mission Accomplished.

Bravo Kutaragi-san

When you said "Redwood", did you mean Redmond?

The 360 finished strong last year but managed almost zero growth in their core market as we see from the NPD numbers when all the dust settled. 4.6 million consoles moved in 2007, 4.7 moved in 2008, but what cost did Microsoft pay for dragging the 360 out of the doltrums with the price cut? Now it's hard to compare 2007 and 2008 revenue for MS games as the 2007 numbers are skewed by the hit they took due to the warranty but when we look at the holiday quarter of 2008 vs 2007, something is striking. MS games division brought in more money during the holiday 2008 season, increased sales and revenue but made 60% less profit than the holiday season of 2007. So, what changed? Only the price cut as far as I can tell.

Now, we know from the main company that is currently making the 360 (there were 3. The biggest quit last year due to Microsoft squeezing their margins) that the new Valhalla motherboards are due to ship this summer - was the price cut just to blow out old stock prior to the a new SKU or is Microsoft just banking that, by eliminating their profits on the 360 hardware they can move more units and make it up with software sales? A dubious strategy when you see companies like EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Take Two, etc all reporting that revenue for 2008 was almost identical between the PS3 and 360 despite the 360 having almost 40% more consoles on the market than the PS3.

I'm not saying Sony is any better at the moment when it comes to their current financial shape, but when XBL subscriptions are the only thing that's keeping MS games out of the red you know it isn't all smiles and sunshine in the Microsoft boardrooms.

You mention that Microsoft has to cut out everything but their core of OS and software. But what is Sony's financial situation. Sony's music and movie division gets hit harder by piracy than MS and they have to keep bloated movie studio's, publishing companies and overpaid artists on their roles. Don't forget that Sony owns a few TV networks as well but VOD and the web is killing the networks revenue from adverts. Sony's only profitable area is games and that is thanks to PS2. That is why they placed Blu-ray into the PS3 to try and salvage their movie division, just like the UMD for the PSP. Sony is a corporation and at the end of the day they have to pay their bills. Sony is bleeding money just as bad as MS if nbot worst because they have allot of holdings. And don't forget every Vaio that they say, (like the one I am currently using) comes with a MS OS on it. Microsoft doesn't pay royalties to Sony for their product, not so much with Sony. Hell Sony started adding digital copies to their blu-ray sales just because they know they can't stop the pirates.

So to take your logic, if MS cuts off gaming to save their OS division, then Sony cuts off movies, music, TV to save electronics and gaming.

MS has the money to keep going, and if you guys knew anything is that MS killed the XBOX because it was the most exploited system in the history of gaming. What the modder scene did to that system made it foolish to keep it going. I heard of people with 750GB hard drives in their XBOX, that has over 200 XBOX games on it, plus hundreds of movies, tv shows, 1000's of songs, hell and it is a web browser with USB keyboard support and streaming video from the web with web radio access and home networking ability to stream even more stuff to your system. Pls don't use XBox 1 as any indicator of what microsoft will do with the 360.

If that was the case, then Sony do to pass history will come out with a system that doesn't allow a hard drive at all thus alienating yet another publisher's game (FFXI remember) just to push a new hardware format down their customers throats and inflate their sales numbers. Also when their is a problem, it will take a class action lawsuit against them to fix it. And Sony has already shown their lack of support because on my Sony Vaio with Blu-ray drive I couldn't play a blu-ray movie becuase my AACS had expired. Only for me to go to the website and hear that my drive wasn't supported. So you know what I donwloaded the pirated copy and watched it. Sony is putting all of their eggs in one basket and you guys are painting those eggs like the bunnys you are.

Sony has their own issues unique to their situation which is putting pressure on the company, but that really doesn't change what's currently happening with Microsoft. In a recent strategy update, Microsoft's CFO, Mr. Liddell reiterated MS's plan to cut 2009 expenses by $1.5 billion and reduce capital expenditures by $700 million from their plan laid out in July of last year.

JP Morgan's take on how the Xbox related to these plans were "While Xbox has been a bright spot, expectations are for the division to experience pressure. The company’s Xbox business continues to show solid unit volume, attach rate, and revenue growth performance, though
the financial impact to MSFT remains inconsequential. Microsoft is focused on penetrating televisions in various ways (i.e. via Xbox, Xbox Live, Media Room, etc.)"

Notice how nowhere in there did they mention what Sony was doing? It's because it doesn't matter when it comes down to Microsoft policy. If MS execs are sitting down at a table discussing their strategy and one says "Yeah, but Sony's not in great shape either," they're rightly going to look at him like he's a nutter.

Certainly doesn't sound like a rosie outlook for gamers.

Hopefully they are too busy working on another console.

I should add you to my friends list because you have some sense in you. I may have been wrong to bring up Sony but I was only reply to Morgan's statement that MS is running away from them and that Blu-ray is a emerging success for Sony, yeah just like UMD....

Xbox is makeing money, just not what investors and speculators want, and in America and the world, speculators and even CEO's are losing allot of clout when they don't paint an accurate picture.

You bring up 7 more years, I don't know if i will be gaming as hard as I am in 7 more years, or if physical media will be around in 7 more years. Who knows, the next system may not even have a disk-drive with the way hard-drives keep dropping in price and the fact that rebuilding the us cable-fios infrastructure would be something equal to the us highway system in turns of putting americans to work again. That is speculation but if it is true, microsoft has a system that pirates haven't gotten around yet and that is they way they tie DLC to your profile-hardrive-xbox. They are more poised to deliver they next generation of games to gamers when the whole system goes digital. Everyone is testing the waters from tv, movies, music, and phones and everyone is getting on the digital band wagon. pretty soon we will see hi-speed interent jacks in every home just like we see with telephone jacks. If anyone is old enough to remember phones were not common place 25 years ago (I am thirty so I can go back that far) and was expensive as hell to just call down the street. Now that history lesson was to show that as tech changes and stuff gets cheaper or subsidized, more people get to use it. Digital download is the future, and that leaves MS in a very good position.

MS won't abandon their games yet because they haven't given their all to the 360 yet. Hell we have AT&T and Applesuing skpye because people are putting it on their Iphones and using them to call overseas instead of paying the high as int'l rates. Tech changes and even new stuff gets old.

There is a tech race going and the race is about getting content to the consumers. One side is using a old, archaic model that people want to physically own their items (Blu-ray, DVD) and the other side is saying lets stream, download-pipe it to the consumers and they can store it any way they want. The winner has not been made yet but with netflix raising the subscription price for Blu-ray rentals, the lines are being drawn in the sand.

We as gamers are also in this battle. MS is losing games to pirates via the web, every new games is on some scene or torrent even before it reaches the stores, but hell that has been happening to movies and music already right. The new wolverine movie hit the waves already. And if you believe Fox News and the BBC, pirating is here to stay, but with MS xbox 360 model they can control the content with XBL and even PSN for sony. Those networks are the only true DRM control areas, and they play games. Where does that leave blu-ray which has been cracked already. Once the world gets on broad-band and I can get a 2 TB hard-drive for $150.00, why would I buy a movie again?

ok so from your statement your pretty much saying that bluray is a failure like UMD? if you think that something is wrong with you, not the UMD part because yes its true UMD is stupid. and your saying the only thing keeping Sony alive is the PS2! LMAO come on man...

so much pointless speculation. I haven't noticed any changes. People seem to be buying and enjoying all 3 systems.

and i really wish ppl would stop saying ps3 has a "10 year cycle." they never meant that they wouldn't release another system in that time. they just meant they would support it somewhat after a new console releases. just like with ps2. when ppl say sony plans to release a new system in 10 years, it ruins their credibility. if you can't figure out at this point that a new console launches every 5-6 years, there's no hope for you.

Next console cycle will be all profit for Sony, as they have brought down the cost of the Cell, Bluray and XDR ram and these will all be viable tech for the next gen(improved Cell, four layer disk). So my question is, how is MS gonna keep their console cost low if they are using other companies proprietary tech(Given that MS is not a hardware company)?

It's the best when the PS3 cult plays the faulty hardware/RROD card. They say it with such snide derision. What none of them realize is that they should be on their knees kissing the feet of the RROD. Because if it weren't for that massive clusterf#ck, the PS3 would have been dead in the water before it even set sail.

I am really baffled by why someone would think having all of those first party studios open and paying all those expenses is a good idea in this economic crisis. Are you kidding me? Who has more to lose?

A. MS who owns several IP's and have certain companies make the game where they shoulder the financial burden and still pay HUGE royalties to MS or . . .

B. Where sony owns a bunch of first party studios where sony has to shoulder the financial burdens? OK so it won't appear on another console, (excluding PC where MS gets royalties on Direct X and Windows), and they don't sell as much as they planned?

Take killzone 2 for example. I am sure that game cost over 75 million dollars to make. That doesn't include the packaging or shipping. You don't make that much money (profit) and you still have to pay all the bills for that studio, such as rent, electricity, employee wages, etc.

I know everyone wants to defend their company/console of choice but in the realms of business, MS is better. A lot more investment firms and better people in charge at running the WHOLE business better. MS has way less overhead and expenses than sony and make SOOOOOOOO much more money.

Like I've said before, just because you have a million ps3's doesn't mean that it is worth 399,000,000 dollars. I am sure there are a million HD-DVD players sitting around but does that mean that it is worth 199,000,000 bucks? I think not.

Bottom line is that having all of those first party studios does definitely have it's drawbacks.

MGO : lol you're right. Actually I should have added 'and was never alive to begin with'. Fixed.

"SALES!!! FVCK YEAH SALES!!!!"

haha

barely outselling a console with a $200/£170 lower price tag and twice the advertising is not something to brag about

the moment Sony cuts the price, the PS3 will sh!t all over the 360... and then what are you going to say? no games, no sales argument... maybe you'll just resort to bragging about a paid-for online service that's getting less and less superior by the month

and if Sony don't cut the price? who gives a sh!t... the PS3 will always have a better line-up of games and other content

heyheyhey, you really need to go out doors sometime.

Really.

I can't for the life of me figure out what makes people think that the console with the higher install base, that more profitable to sell is going anywhere, especially by the end of the year.

Even when Sony lowers the PS3 price, the 360 will be ok. As we've seen in the past, what will happen is the PS3 sales will heavily spike (and during this time period fanboys will cry doom for the 360) and then they'll level out. Then eventually MS will respond by lowering the 360 price. Then 360 sales will once again spike (and during this time fanboys will cry doom for the PS3) and then they'll level out. This will repeat into the next gen, and eventually they'll both be fazed out, and when that finally happens, fanboys will claim it's because they couldn't survive and that they were giant flops. Because for some reason, people like the word "flop". It's amazing how pathetic some video game fans are.

You need to follow your own advice.