To an extent you are right. Contract/temp staff are often more expensive than permanent, but you have to look at what 'pot' of money contract/external staff come out of.
In business terms you have OpEx and CapEx.
Operating Expenditure is essentially your running costs - so include permanent headcount etc. An unreasonably high OpEx can impact share price, profit and other factors, so is generally minimised.
The other pot is Capital Expenditure whi...
I seem to recall MS doing some very interesting and creative accounting to cover the warranty repair situation - as an ex-finance employee I recall being impressed.
They did not fill in this 'hole' of warranty money they created, just as they have not filled in the 'hole' of 3+billion they have created since the first Xbox went to R&D.
You may want to do some math... You've already mentioned that 30billion Yen = more than 1billion GBP! So perhaps your very...
Agree Darkride66
I had a suspicion the hardware was making a loss. MS was far to quiet about it. A while before the price drop MS had mentioned they were making a small profit, so I couldn't see how after a massive price drop they were still making a profit.
I guess what these figures do point it is that there is a compelling argument for charging for online services!! (I hope Sony don't see this!!)
Earth to planet Foxgod, earth to planet Foxgod!
Are you really trying to spin this news so it doesn't sound so bad for MS?
In the current climate ANYONE losing thier job is a bad thing on a personal level, and on a company level.
I'm quite looking forward to this game. I liked the old 8bit version - it was weird!
I'm not surprised the PS3 was used as the lead development platform... Ghostbusters has strong ties to Sony, the films were distributed by Columbia Tristar, who are... owned by Sony!
SE seem to be plastering the FF name on anything these days.
I kinda liked My Life as a King or whatever it was called on WiiWare; but calling it a Final Fantasy games was kinda stretching a bit.
SE are diluting a great franchise. Only the true FF JRPG's have been consitently high quality - all the spin off stuff is pretty weak. Crisis Core was OK, but not AAA. Revnant Wings was OK, but not AAA.
I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to make mone...
This is what's great about the internet...
So we have one blog posting a rumour that GoW3 is a YEAR away from ALPHA. And yet invites are going out for a sneak peak next month.
I doubt Sony would be showing off the game if it was in such an early state. Even if the game launches in 2010, it would already be in to alpha.
Gotta love the FUD!
On a side note. I recently played through God of War 2 again. That game still looks fantasti...
Are PS firmware updates getting old? Nope, they are getting better!
It's not like they are coming out every week, or take a long time to install. They add new features or improve old ones. How is that ever going to get old?
Almost every time I boot up Steam on my PC I get an update, and they rarely add functionality - are they getting old?
When MS roll out another load of patches to improve the security or plug holes in the OS - is that gettin...
I think it does matter, to a certain degree.
I owned an Xbox and was really disappointed when it was killed so abruptly. But everything Microsoft showed regarding the 360 made me want to buy one - so I stuck with them.
The 360 is the most expensive console I have ever bought (launch day Premium console, WiFi, 2 games and a battery pack/charger); so if Microsoft fail to support the console for a decent amount of time, then I'm done with Xbox.
In '0...
I suspect Google's offering will be more in line with Microsoft's Live Mesh (beta). But as we don't actually know what GDrive will offer I guess it's hard to say it's lacking features or otherwise.
I will be giving Skydrive and Live Mesh a test soon for comparison before Google's product. Apparently MobileMe from Apple is very poor for PC's (no shock there).
The only thing SquareEnix are struggling with is carrying all that Microsoft money to the bank! :)
SE have already stated that they won't start porting FFXIII on to 360 until the PS3 version is finished. So we could (in theory) have had FXIII on PS3 in the West in 09. now it appears that MS money has delayed this.
Although I'm a little surprised Sony haven't been more agressive in trying to keep SE onside I suspect as the sales figures rise then SE will increas...
I'm sure from MS' point of view they are doing amazingly well.
360 sales have eclipsed original Xbox sales, they've wrestled 3rd party exclusives from Sony, they're ahead of Sony in terms of units sold compared to PS3, and they even posted their first profitable quarter a while back.
So although Nintendo and the Playstation Brand may still be ahead of MS - they've made phenomenal in-roads this generation.
The only spanners in the works are the RRoD...
I thought MS had an 800k to 1million unit lead over Sony in Europe? Has this changed or am I mistaken? At work at the moment, so can't go digging for facts. :)
I'm starting to think that the 360 may be running on price cut fumes now. I love my 360, but in '08 I had no reason to fire it up before Fable 2 and since finishing it and Gears 2 I doubt it'll be turned back on anytime soon in '09. I'm really hoping MS announce something more for this year, as it's looking a bit poo...
On a side note - This is different from the GDrive idea, but if anyone is interested in backing up data securely (i.e. no snooping or targetted advertising) I would recommend Mozy Home. www.mozy.com
They offer 2GB for free.
All data is encrypted before transfer.
Data is accessible through a local client or the web interface.
It only uploads the bits of a file that has changed (so once the initial back-up is done, all subsequent backups are ver...
For anyone who works mobile this is great news. Forget a hard drive, just have a small lump of memory to boot the laptop to a state that allows network/WiFi access (lots of laptops already starting to appear with 'Instant On' type features like this).
Then the Google 'OS' kicks in (basically Chrome browser and a Google web page designed to feel like a desktop enviroment).
From there it's simple to access Google Apps and Email etc. Anyone notice that Chrome allow...
"Thanks to all that replied. I just think the score isn't justified just based on the SP alone. "
I absolutely agree. I would go so far as to say that where appropriate multiplayer and singleplayer modes should be reviewed separately and give separate scores.
If you take Gears 2 - the singleplayer mode is all about the story, and should be reviewed as such. The multiplayer is obviously not constrained by this and has a totally different emphasis. How...
The problem is, as the multiplayer aspects of some games become more and more important, those apsects need to be thoroughly reviewed.
As most reviewers receive their copies before retail launch, the number of people opnline is tiny. So reviewing online components is really tough. (And some reviewers only get limited time with the game in a controlled environment - I believe this happened with GTAIV reviews).
I'm not trying to excuse bugs getting through, but it...
While I agree it's a slightly arrogant statement, I was typing out a response to put a bit of context around why Kaz might say that. Y'know, like brand loyalty, recognition, feature set and stuff not directly related to sales.
But so many people on this site are so polarised, closed minded and unwilling to actually discuss things with out reverting to name calling and flaming, there's little point.
So to appease the fanboys please pick the one that applies most to y...
Yeah right, and that's why at least two publishers have come out and said the PS3 is their most profitable platform. A sure sign of that 3rd parties will not support them!!
I don't recall ever reading that Sony have said 3rd parties don't matter.
Perhaps you could provide a link or two to back up your claims, as I'm happy to be proved wrong by facts?
I would hazard a guess at a) profit, and b) a relaunch of the movies and maybe c) a new zany animated series!
They seem to be approaching this game as almost a 3rd installment of the Ghosbusters movies - so I don't think it's too big a surprise that they want to reach a bigger audience (it's not like you see Sony turning Xbox and Wii owners away from it's other movies!!) :). They have lunchboxes and action figures to sell!!!