The
new millennium arrives, and Sony introduces itself with the PlayStation
2. Nintendo's old punching bag, SEGA, arrived before the new millennium
(9/9/99 to be exact,) and suffered the consequences. SEGA had been hurt
after putting up a fight for most of the last millennium with Nintendo.
When it came to fighting Sony, Sega could barely take a swing. Meanwhile Sony was still partying like rock stars as if nothing had changed. The
party must have been seriously interrupted on the day Microsoft
announced they were entering war for the voice of a generation.
Microsoft's
entrance in the war for the crown is a sign of the future of gaming.
Who better to convince the mainstream about games than a company that
dominates it? Think of it this way. Whatever gaming console sells the
most units is the Microsoft of its generation. (Shout out to Apple)
Back
to the new millennium. A year after the PlayStation 2 exploded on the
scene, Nintendo releases the GameCube and Microsoft releases the Xbox.
They couldn't even come close as they both lost by about oh 100 million
units or so. The PlayStation 2 could thanks its head start, and it's
collection of games for that. I think Nintendo felt that the company
that enters the war on Sega's behalf wouldn't stand a chance. That
turned out to be wrong as the Gamecube placed last for the generation.
Nintendo had lost the fight against Sony again.
With
the agony of defeat fresh on their minds, Nintendo locked themselves in
the lab (witherroljames.blogspot.com) They probably asked themselves
what made the PlayStation 2 so popular? One could say it was the appeal
that Sony had to the mainstream. Sony knew that they would have to
appeal more to the mainstream if they were going to beat Microsoft.
What better way to appeal to the mainstream then have the largest
collection of video games? The collection was so large and diverse,
that casual gamers had a better chance of finding a game that appealed
to them. Either that or parents had a better chance of finding the
right game for their children.
They
next question probably was something like "why did gamers overlook the
Gamecube?" One could say that it was the audience they tried to appeal
to. The Gamecube exposed Nintendo's soul. Even though they were in
last place, they were still releasing fun games. It felt as though
it was just about the art and nothing else.
Did the hardcore gamers turn their back on Nintendo? I doubt it.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Wait, how is this even related to the next gen of consoles? This is looking back and comparing the old consoles.