I'm actually quite surprised Microsoft hadn't done this sooner. If Windows 10 fails in the market, Microsoft are in big trouble. I love Windows 10, but it's not being adopted nearly as fast as Microsoft would have wanted.
I realize that this includes only 4 days, but come on. There is usually a huge preorder number for gamers for basically THE game users have been waiting for. It's not like Halo fans bought an Xbox One and wanted to wait and see if the game was good or not. Any strong Halo fan had this game preordered months ago.
This is an acquisition already aiming for the next Xbox that MS will probably release in 3 years or so. The Xbox One will be a testing ground for some of this tech and the cloud, but expect Microsoft to use cloud based services and Azure in a big way in their next platform. They are building the tech for it now already, but it won't be fully realized until their next line of products release.
Console wars point of "Yeah, well I can get it on my PC" = dead point once Microsoft gets this all working together. Especially once Microsoft offers a service where you buy a game in the cloud, and can stream it to any Windows 10 device. I'd be all over that.
Halo 5 will be the biggest game of the year exclusive wise. They will edge out the PS4 in North American sales during the important Christmas months. Beyond that, the next new Gears will be the next Xbox system seller. If Microsoft can't turn it around with those two titles, they will never pass the PS4 in sales each month consistently. Forza despite looking like a gem won't be the game that does it. Tomb Raider won't do it. It's Halo 5 and the next Gears that have the best ch...
Great feature, but not sure it's a game changer either. 360 owners that are tempted with the PS4 will just keep their 360. I guess NPD will show a bump or not.
I think what he said is important. It means they won't try desperate things and still focus on the core gamers. Just make great games and focus on quality and not Kinect like gambles to reach the casual gamer.
Make no mistake though. He thinks it sucks that Sony are getting a greater mindshare in the living room. It means less movies sold, less games, less services, and less of everything.
I think the biggest thing to get from E3 is that Microsoft will not have taken away Sony momentum despite showing some big hitters themselves. Microsoft probably thought they would have had a bigger impact than this with Sony not showing as much. They both did great, but Microsoft would have wanted to be the clear winner with all the cards they played.
*Game may depict women having equal rights* Examples include women voting, women driving a car, or women competing freely in sports.
If you look at is as a gamer, the One has been great. It's only going to get better. Spencer has been great. The One is also selling enough for gamers to get all the games developed for their console. If you think though that being a pretty distant second is good enough for Microsoft, you're wrong. I realize that by last gen standards, the Xbox One is selling at a great pace. But if you think for a second that Microsoft is fine with losing serious market share even on their home turf,...
This IMO is great news for SOE as well as other gamers. Hopefully this will give them the sales they need to more more successful in the future.
Can you imagine what numbers they could have claimed if they were selling it with a price cut? You can see why Sony haven't needed to budge on price though. With a price cut, they could never meet the demand and ship enough to fill the orders.
The best way to get third party support for them at this time is basically make an easy to code platform that is powerful enough to be the lead platform. If they could release a console that was say 20% more powerful than the PS4 but with the same type of development as PS4.
People say Microsoft have deep pockets, but shareholders and board members aren't jumping up and down right now. Microsoft needed to do this, but it has to translate into a really high game/media attachment rate, and sooner than later. It will = more game sales and media consumption, but they will need to hit it out of the park on that front for this to be viewed a great move instead of a band aid. They weren't exactly getting huge margins from the start, and Microsoft aren't know...
Sony have been at $400 the whole time with the PS4.
Microsoft went to $400 (without Kinect as you said), dropped to $350, still didn't sell enough. Had to drop it to $330 and a $50 gift card to finally outsell the PS$ one month. That's ignoring the games. At the very least, you can view it that Microsoft needed a $70 price drop plus a $50 gift card to outsell the PS4 one month.
Sony is playing it like Apple right now. A premium product selling great doesn't need to sell at a loss. They could easily have sold e muven more ch selling at $330 -$50 gift card.
I think we know that Microsoft slashed price and increased value by a fair margin more than the PS4 during this time period. $50 gift card, a load of games, and priced at what? $330? Can they offer this for December and can they even afford to? Did they even make a profit doing this? The PS4 was selling for $399, added a few games, and that was it. Microsoft basically (cash value) was selling their console at $280 and Sony their PS4 at $400.I even wonder despite the difference of NPD if Sony ...
Now THAT is better. Congrats to MS. :)
They want you to just assume news is good news. Things like Spencer taking over, Kinect being dropped, Xbox One sales lagging in the US all make people search for Xbox One as a search term. There have been so way reversals of policies and issues, it's actually surprising it's not #1 on Bing. According to some people, the search term "Bill Cosby" would mean people love him right now. LOL
Love the feel this game is giving.