Microsoft is just relying on third party games next year..I only see one big exclisve game coming and thats only NG2. I don't really care about GTA exclusive content because it does not make any difference and almost no one knows about it.. Microsoft is going to be over pricing it. I doubt that third party games want to make exclusive games since making it on both the ps3 and xbox360 saves a lot of money since devlopemnt is so hight.

Microsoft is leaving the console market and salvaging what they can of the six year long Xbox fiasco by migrating it to Vista exclusive gaming.

* So far Microsoft has blown some 7 billion dollars on their ineptitude in the console maket
* After six years they have made zero progress from last gen - completely dead in Japan, floundering in Europe, the same 10-15 million Halo fanboys buying the 360 in the US
* They have let go their only significant first party studio, Bungie to do multiplatform games
* They let Microsoft and Activision buy Bioware and Bizarre right out from under them taking two of Microsoft's major exclusive developers away
* Microsoft now pretty much just has Rare as the only first party developer for the 360 - LOL!
* Microsoft has been focusing more and more on trying to move the Xbox online system over to Vista and start getting pc gamers to pay the same stupid yearly fees that some two to three million 360 owners are currently dumb enough to

Microsoft is going to do one of three things:

1) Dump the entire Xbox fiasco and just move on - HD-DVD is dead, the 360 serves no purpose anymore trying to stop the BluRay juggernaut. Brand new 360s continue to fail two years into the consoles life. Just throw in the tile. Humiliating yes

2) Migrate as much of the Xbox stuff over to Vista and try to milk pc owners out of years subscription fees. No more billions in losses on the crappy Xbox/360 hardware

3) Give up on gaming and migrate the 360 to a media targeted machine that supports only Windows and Microsoft codecs.

* Nintendo has a large array of first party exclusives for their consoles.

* Sony has a staggering large first party developer lineup that they have grown to an enormous size over the life of the PS2

* Microsoft just threw in the towel on first party development.

The console market is won and lost on two things:

1) First party/exclusive titles

2) Hardware manufacturing competency and skill

Microsoft has obviously been a complete failure with 2) and they have now almost entirely given up on 1)

LOL! At the fanboys trying to spin the Xbox fiasco as "all part of the Microsoft Big Plan"

* When the Xbox was about to be released Microsoft and its fans were talking about it destroying Sony - after its Microsoft and they 'always get what they want'

* After a year or two of getting their asses kicked by Sony, the Microsoft and Xbot 'party line' became "Microsoft never intended to win, they were just getting a foothold in the market"

* As the billions in losses continued to mount the second Xbot damage control meme started to be used for damage control with "Microsoft never intended to make money with the Xbox" BS

No matter how much worse the whole Xbox mess continues to get the Xbots keep desperately trying to convince the game world it is all part of some brilliant BIG PLAN that Microsoft is masterly unfolding and only they are able to grasp.

LOL. Nope, just a bunch of idiots wasting billions on their incompetence.

You guys must be insiders for counting out MS, saying they're dead and all, I like my PS3 and all but will never count out a company because I want to see it....you guys should read the article before you comment though, everyone said MS is in the better position despite losing bungie,

MS will do anything to win, antitrust does not apply in the console world ....

Allawakker are you an insider?

Agreed and not only what is stated there but also... Bungie still has strong lines with MS. They can still make Halo 4 for MS, MS owns Halo, so no worries about that.

Part of the deal is even offering MS first chance to pick up their games exclusive. It will only stimulate creativity to have more freedom.

And they're right on the part of the story line.

What means Gears of War 3 on the PS3 maybe, when Gears 1 and 2 story has been played on the 360? Gears fans already will have bought the 360 by then.

What means Mass Effect 2 or 3 on the PS3, when the start of the story in Mass Effect 1 is exclusive on the 360 and fans already stepped in.

On the other hand, I think when Mass Effect is important enough for MS, they'll pay to keep it completely bounded to the 360. Either way, 360 is pretty much having the best line up around for a Christmas present this year and will shift a sh!tload of consoles

I didn't knew MS only had publishing rights on Gears of War I thought they owned the IP since that was the response people were given when GS made the aprils fool joke about Gears going to the PS3 and being published by someone else

...odd

talking about Gears...EPIC...make the second one LONGER >.<

First party in the end IS very very important. It gives you some kind of guarantee that you will have 100% exclusive titles, big titles developed from ground up for your system. With 3rd part exclusives you never know. Like someone of those guys said, GTA was exclusive to PS2, now on ps3 it isnt anymore, that is 3rd party. We see same thing with Gears Of War 3 probably going to PS3, IP that Microsoft promoted and made into what is, could actually and will probably end up on PS3 in its future, that is 3rd party.
So it proves that 1st party is crucial for long term success, Sony is best example of that. They have been building their first party for 10 years and they are still buying studios(recently two studios Evolution Motorstorm makers and one other smaller, dont remember the name) even if they are having hard time in last year. So Sony knows how it is important to have strong first party. Microsoft obviously doesn't.

WoW I would be more concerned about what was said about the PS3 if I were a Sony fanboy.

#6 you're crazzy...

has no worries. With the install base comes the games. Currently the Xbox 360 install base is over 2 times the amount of the PS3. This is what will give Microsoft bargaining power for 3rd party exclusives. This was the primary reason that the PS2 had so many exclusives last generation. It wasn't bc 3rd party publishers "preferred" to develop for Sony's platform.

A lot of extremists don't seem to realize that there is no "brand loyalty" for third party publishers. They go where the money is. Good examples of this are.

Ace Combat Series--now on 360
Devil May Cry Series--now on 360
Resident Evil Series--now on 360
Grand Theft Auto Series--now on 360
Monster Hunter Series--Now on Wii
Okami--now on Wii
Last Remnant-coming to 360
Dragon Quest Series--Now on DS

There are more examples I am sure, but that really isn't the point. The point is that the PS3 costs more to produce games on. IE...more expensive Dev kits, and also increased development time bc of difficulties with the cell processor.

Sure, games producers want to make "great games", but they also want to make "money". Without money companies go out of business.

Producers always make games on PC first, then put them on their respective dev kits. Since 360 architecture is very similar to PC they can make 360 games easily. This will decrease dev costs and increase profits. 360 has the highest games attach rate and also the largest install base= minimum amount of time to "maximize profit." Basicly they can churn out a PC version of the game "and" a 360 version with minimal difficulty. And they will both run great.

Nintendo Wii costs significantly less to develop for than "both" 360 and PS3. This is the console that companies are most likely seeing a huge return on. With dev costs equalling to that of a Gamecube Game. I'm not saying Wii games aren't good, just that dev costs are "comparable" to last-gen games.

Now comes PS3. Games have to be coded from the ground up to run efficiently on the Cell procesor. Which is very different than PC architecture. Wait a minute?? Why would game companies want to dedicate a whole separate team to develop for the ground up for the PS3 when the PS3 version of the game is where they will potentially see "the least return" bc of the low install base of the PS3??

What's happening is that most of the time they aren't dedicating that extra time to the PS3 version. In a recent article Valve just claimed that Orange Box uses none of the PS3's SPUS. And I would be willing to bet that almost "all" of 3rd party PS3 games don't. This trend will most likely continue. And it is the reason why a high percentage of PS3 games suffer from framerate issues. Because essentially what developers are using the PS3 as is a single core IBM Power PC with a 256 meg video card.

Overall Microsoft is in a much better position than Sony. Better development tools that are easy to use. Larger install base, highest games attach rate.

These are the reasons why developers are shifting their focus away from PS3 and towards the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

You Ps3 fans keep talking about Microsoft loosing money on the 360, SONY is loosing more money on the PS3 than Microsoft is on the 360. SONY is a failing company they Laid off Employees World Wide, closed Shops world wide and now they are selling the GPU and the CPU CHIPS for the PS3, you tell me who is Hurting for Money.

"We also believe Sony's lower software ATTACH RATE versus the Xbox 360 is a detriment to the potential market opportunity of a game offering. We expect a growing percentage of PS3 purchases will come from NON-GAMER types who are looking for a reasonably priced Blu-ray player versus a game console and are therefore less likely to purchase as many video $60 video games."

"Considering the dramatic domestic separation in installed base size between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, we anticipate MSFT will have ample opportunity to sign exclusive agreements with independent developers who are not necessarily willing to devote significant resources to the development of PS3 games, which have a MUCH SMALLER domestic market opportunity and has PROVEN exceedingly DIFFICULT to develop for."

"With the significant installed base lead over the PS3, Microsoft no longer needs 1st party studios to be assured of premium content. The 360 installed base is TOO BIG for publishers to ignore now."

"I think the better question is – WHY isn't Sony doing more to acquire 1st party studios, or at least secure more 3rd party exclusives? They're the ones who need to be doing this, not Microsoft."

EXACTLY. Excellent points I have been aware of & stated for months, & the gap between PS3 & 360 continues to widen this Fall. Good article, & a great read.

Allan Waker is totally right and th exbots flaming him are the same ppl who make the ps3 page the most popular by trying to put a negative spin on everything ps3 related.

I also agree that N$g really needs to clean up the site and deliver news not opinions and other bullcrap. I swear so much of the stuff that get approved are just fanboys just trying to prove their console is better than the others its ridikulous.

I was just wondering if when they figure the install base or how many of a particular machine have been sold, do they count a warranty replacement as another unit out the door? If thats the case that would mean that microsoft has significantly less "working" units out than the figures show...

this isn't meant to be negative, just something i was thinking about...

MS Gaming Studios still has Bungie in everything but name and they pretty much have Team Ninja all to themselves.

LOL

but the XBox hardware foundation is most def on quicksand. RROD + Horrid Customer Support = no love for XBox 720.

They betta bust out a 3 year warranty for the 720 or else it's lights out for the XBox world PS3 style.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau