Xbox One: The Last Microsoft Console?

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I may not be an expert on the subject but I think you'd have to be whacked out of your melon to think Microsoft will give up on taking over your living room.

If it ultimately turns out that Microsoft chooses the former of those options, it could very well mean abandoning the Xbox business by selling or spinning it off. Yes, there is a scenario in which the upcoming Xbox One console could be Microsoft's last hurrah in the video game hardware sector.
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Yes of course Xbox will be discontinued!

Will have to upgrade to the Microsoft Xhouse
 
MS has proved with the ONE that they want a single device that has more then one intention.
 
Trimlock said:
MS has proved with the ONE that they want a single device that has more then one intention.
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Well, then the ultimate realization of that would be a desktop PC. Still the ultimate multifunction device.

Would be interesting to see Microsoft simply extend the Windows Logo Certification Program to simply include a minimum spec to be "xbox certified." Basically, any PC with that sticker would come preloaded with the xbox virtual machine (same sort of scheme the Xbox One uses, with Hyper-V) and can run "xbox" branded games with a guaranteed level of quality.
 
IF i was MS the next system after this would be little more then an HTPC with every thing one one board
and game that would run on it or PC using digital download only for both
 
Elios said:
whats funny is this round of consoles is closer to the PC then ever be for
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Just means that when they finally allow PC's to run Xbox One games, they'll need nothing more than a virtual machine (since there's no actual emulation required) :D
 
Unknown-One said:
Just means that when they finally allow PC's to run Xbox One games, they'll need nothing more than a virtual machine (since there's no actual emulation required) :D
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would be all over that
i think MS should port there exclusives to PC
id pay good money for Forza on PC
 
I suppose it's possible that consoles and television sets will unify. There's a lot of computer functionality built into TV sets already, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to add the gaming parts.
 
I think consoles as a whole will be dying off.

Although we are almost there, future generations of such will be super-tainment devices doing everything well. (Games, TV, Movies, Internet, Phone, etc.). Hopefully, these devices will use a open source Linux variant.
 
Is this talking about that one company that is buying stock to gain a seat on the board so they can make decisions? I didnt read the article.... but if its that, it really is possible that this could happen, if they push for it, and it is accepted, when they get on the board. I read that one of the other things they want to force is the resignation of Steve Ballmer.
 
The article is prolly another attempt at humor by some analyst, the last one was funny because MS was selling Xbox to Sony, that is always good to hear!!!

Now because Ballmer been fired suddenly the analyst has some form of brain activity (drug induced or not) about MS being the best software company and ditch hardware even the Xbox1 (atleast he didn't say they should sell it to Sony , there is hope for this young man after all ;) ).

Elios:
http://www.slashgear.com/xbox-one-windows-8-app-compatibility-hinted-by-microsoft-01288600/
 
http://thediplomat.com/tech-biz/2013/06/03/will-wii-u-be-nintendos-last-console/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-21539_...-ps4-may-be-the-final-generation-of-consoles/

lol best way to drive ad revenue say something outlandish. The fact is that if any console maker really quits it will only seal the deal for the other ones and inspire a new player to emerge. There will always, always be a market for making an a closed high profit platform. But that market will naturally suck more, the more competitors jump in.
 
Also if you look at other markets, lets say like the car industry the opposite is more likely to happen rather more and more people will jump into the appliance like computer market, IE consoles. And eventually everything will be just custom hardware that only updates every so often and there is now universal standard like ATX.
 
Pieter3dnow said:
The article is prolly another attempt at humor by some analyst, the last one was funny because MS was selling Xbox to Sony, that is always good to hear!!!

Now because Ballmer been fired suddenly the analyst has some form of brain activity (drug induced or not) about MS being the best software company and ditch hardware even the Xbox1 (atleast he didn't say they should sell it to Sony , there is hope for this young man after all ;) ).

Elios:
http://www.slashgear.com/xbox-one-windows-8-app-compatibility-hinted-by-microsoft-01288600/
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i could see them opening it up to the 8 ap store like the Surface RT
but youll be limited to only what in the ap store
its a good plan
 
Pieter3dnow said:
The article is prolly another attempt at humor by some analyst, the last one was funny because MS was selling Xbox to Sony, that is always good to hear!!!

Now because Ballmer been fired suddenly the analyst has some form of brain activity (drug induced or not) about MS being the best software company and ditch hardware even the Xbox1 (atleast he didn't say they should sell it to Sony , there is hope for this young man after all ;) ).
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You do understand that financially speaking Xbox has run up a huge multi-billion dollar tab since the first one back in 2000, from an ROI perspective its still operating at a huge loss and has not made the money back. I doubt that's very "funny" to shareholders.
 
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DPI said:
You do understand that financially speaking Xbox has run up a huge multi-billion dollar tab since the first one back in 2000, from an ROI perspective its still operating at a huge loss and has not made the money back. I doubt that's very "funny" to shareholders.
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um doesnt work like that you cant just add up years like that
 
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MS (and Sony) are just re-inventing the wheel and making it square.
The next step for them should be a dedicated gaming OS for PC, even better if it can run in a VM or as a shell replacement.
 
Scythe said:
I think consoles as a whole will be dying off.

Although we are almost there, future generations of such will be super-tainment devices doing everything well. (Games, TV, Movies, Internet, Phone, etc.). Hopefully, these devices will use a open source Linux variant.
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and they will call these consoles, which is what they already are lol.
 
DPI said:
You do understand that financially speaking Xbox has run up a huge multi-billion dollar tab since the first one back in 2000, from an ROI perspective its still operating at a huge loss and has not made the money back. I doubt that's very "funny" to shareholders.
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The money they lose on the hardware the make back a hundred times over on software. I thought everybody knew that.
 
Xbox 360 and red rings did a major amount of damage to MS.
They were in such a hurry to beat Sony to market they put out millions of faulty consoles that came around and bit them in the ass.
THAT'S why MS is going with hardware they know that works this time around, less failures.
 
This must be the same guy that also says computers are a thing of the past and keyboards and mice are no longer needed.
 
Also PC gaming is dead , tablet's will rule the world and George Walker Bush is going take on hunting for a third term...


Brought to you by , fucking total bullshit AKA crap editorials on the net.
 
MS has been trying to control the living room since they bought Web TV in 1997. After 16 years of failure, would it really be a surprise if the next CEO abandoned the concept, and stuck with what's actually made MS money?
 
Steve said:
I may not be an expert on the subject but I think you'd have to be whacked out of your melon to think Microsoft will give up on taking over your living room.
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Actually Steve the smart money has been on a sale of the Xbox Franchise. It's already known that Samsung tendered at least one offer earlier this year for the franchise, and reportedly tendered another one shortly after E3. And if you didn't know that... seriously? Really? Just where have you been?

Like it or not, the Xbox Franchise has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for Microsoft since it's inception. To put this in perspective Microsoft wrote off $26 million in the first year alone, money it was never going to make off; a figure that grew to countless billions after the Red Ring of Death disaster. To date the Xbox Franchise has yet to turn a profit; period, don't link me to the statements from Microsoft saying they did, I'll point you to the restatements when trade agencies were unable to reconcile Microsoft's published figures. As is, a $3 billion dollar debt is already outstanding on the current Xbox One with AMD alone... and the console hasn't even shipped.

Now, looking outside of the Xbox Past, there are larger issues at hand. For starters, the best analysis available on the Xbox One console pegs pre-orders somewhere south of 300,000 units. The lack of pre-orders are largely credited for the exclusive Titanfall accidentally being shown running on a PS4 dev kit with a Dual Shock controller. Accidental my rear end.

Then there is the overall health of Microsoft as a company. The difference between Revenues and Expenses has been cratering for the past several years. Part of this is due to the saturation of the desktop market with good enough devices. In a more recent period the gap has been closing due to the availability of mobile devices that offer good enough computing power for an average consumer; aka iOS and Android. Microsoft's attempt to break into this market failed, to the tune of a $900 Million Dollar non-recoverable, never going to get that money back, write-off.

Another part has been the rejection of Windows 8 as an Operating System outside of the Surface Debacle. Nearly ever single PC vendor laid their income woes directly on Microsoft's show stopping train-wreck. Only Lenovo managed to squeeze out a product; and well, let's just say that's likely due to labor issues that make Foxconn look like a choir of angels.

It's easy to start a list of marketplace factors detailing where Microsoft has failed to compete; or even failed to attempt to compete. It's also easy to point at the massive amount of working capitol Microsoft has tied up in acquisitions that have resulted in zero profit. Remind me again just how much money Microsoft spent on Skype? It's no industry secret, as of now, that Steve Ballmer isn't so much as retiring, but being frog marched out of the company.

Now, what steps will an incoming CEO take? A smart one will be selling off Xbox, likely to Samsung, just to clear the billions of dollars of debts. Does that mean sacrificing the short term path into the living room?

Not at all. Microsoft still offers embedded devices and would likely keep Kinect on license. It would not be surprising to see Microsoft licensing Kinect, and the Kinect experience, to set-top and television vendors. Microsoft could still achieve their goal of being ubiquitous in the living room.

Now, will Microsoft actually survive long enough to carry such a plan out? Well... if Steve Ballmer isn't replaced soon... that answer could be a resounding No.
 
The thing is MS loses money on lots of business ventures, they really do not need to make money, the whole point is it feed back into the ecosystem which sells their bread and butter, windows + office. Lets ask this question, how much money does MS make off of internet explorer? How about visual studio? How can one quantify the advantage MS holds by having major dev houses writing for xbox which easily translates to windows?

Like it or not XBOX is a huge brand in the USA at least for MS and in the all important younger crowd where you need to set the seeds to get people used to your products.

In fact I would argue that very few consoles really are about profit, they are about controlling market influence. SONY didn't win the format war because BR was better, they won it because they owned half the movie studios AND sold it in PS3 at huge losses.

MS sees how important that is, to have a place to influence developers etc... As ironic as it is XBOX brought Kinect like technology to the masses, and it may be the very product that helps get development for metro / RT rolling. Then there is the whole learning issue. MS has lost money and been in a tight spot on in many product segments, but over time they learn and push and make it in. For MS to give up XBOX now as they have finally solidified it as a major brand would be a huge waste of an investment, unless Samsung was willing to drop like 20B on it.

MS might not survive with XBOX but they also might not survive if they lose it.

Also the mention of Kinect is kinda out there, isn't Kinect the whole reason for the failures of xbox one? I see the potential but really if people made a huge deal out of it and its costing them sales and money why would anyone else want it?
 
I don't see MS abandoning the consumer segment (which dumping the XBox would be part of an overall strategy in that direction) ... at most I could see the new CEO restructuring again to have more of a line between their Enterprise activities and Consumer activities ... many of MS problems have originated from schizophrenic business strategies and an extended economic downturn that has hurt the growth of their Enterprise business ...

but even with the shift to tablets, PCs still sell hundreds of millions of units per year (primarily to Enterprise) and there remain billions of PCs in circulation and use (in both in Enterprise and Consumer) ... although armchair CEOs (analysts) might find abandoning some of that business attractive, I don't think the new MS CEO will be that delusional ;) ... if MS wants to continue to grow (which seems what this power struggle is all about) then they will need both hardware AND software moving forward :cool:
 
If that was the case. sales would be far lower. There is a reason why emulators like Dolphin are popular, with a wii controller you can play wii games without buying the console. I also sold my 360 because I can play most of the games I want on my PC connected to my TV. Microsoft didn't pay so much for exclusives so that they can all be ported to the PC.
 
The above was in reply to Elios, my edit button disappeared again.

Elios said:
IF i was MS the next system after this would be little more then an HTPC with every thing one one board
and game that would run on it or PC using digital download only for both
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I could see it, if it doesn't sell well enough they'll give up. Same for Sony, Nintendo doesn't know when to quit so it doesn't apply to them.
 
they've screwed the xbobx one up so bad in judt about every way even its name I wouldn't be surprised if it failed and they pull out.
 
The xbob is judt a bit less of a scwer up than yuor podt.
 
Cube said:
they've screwed the xbobx one up so bad in judt about every way even its name I wouldn't be surprised if it failed and they pull out.
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So I suppose Sony should have just pulled out when their u-turn on policies on the PS3 caused such an outrage that it was actually suggested that the CEO should commit seppuku? :rolleyes:
 
GaryJohnson said:
The money they lose on the hardware the make back a hundred times over on software. I thought everybody knew that.
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No offense but sounds like you don't understand or just choose to ignore the financials. "Make it back 100 times over on the software" isn't evident in the books, which including software and licensing profits. Take a look for yourself OE stay willfully ignorant.
 
rudy said:
The thing is MS loses money on lots of business ventures, they really do not need to make money, the whole point is it feed back into the ecosystem which sells their bread and butter, windows + office. Lets ask this question, how much money does MS make off of internet explorer? How about visual studio? How can one quantify the advantage MS holds by having major dev houses writing for xbox which easily translates to windows?

Like it or not XBOX is a huge brand in the USA at least for MS and in the all important younger crowd where you need to set the seeds to get people used to your products.
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Your first point is why they are better off getting rid of the Xbox. The Xbox doesn't benefit one of their big money makers, Windows. Actually they've constantly screwed over their Windows gamers to prop up the Xbox. Their Xbox exclusives come at the expense of Windows games. Clearly their Windows division would be better of without Xbox.

If they hadn't been pushing gaming on Xbox, they could have answered the Apple adds that made Windows look boring with Windows gaming. So promoting the Xbox crippled one of the big advantages that Windows had over Apple.

Microsoft doesn't even put their name on the front on the Xbox package.

MS might not survive with XBOX but they also might not survive if they lose it.
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It's been a money loser, and an embarrassment (RRoD). It's embarrassed them again with the whole DRM fiasco, and pre-sale results look like they are going to get clobbered by Sony. They would be better off without it.
 
When XBOX started MS was actually doing good things. For the first time ever windows users had real built in default support for controllers. The problem was later around windows 7 they started to drop support and ignore gaming to try and push XBOX. That was the mistake you are talking about and I agree was a bad one.

But it still doesn't change the fact that XBOX put windows front and center in millions of US and world wide households. So far windows itself has hardly helped MS do anything in the mobile market. XBOX has a chance if played right. The point you seem to be ignoring is how is windows going to get MS into mobile? MS cannot survive unless they take a huge down size which shareholders will never allow in the desktop only market. Even if they tried likely Google would beat them there by using mobile to push back.

Also you keep crying about RROD but it really hasn't been that bad, if RROD was so bad why is MS still able to outsell the PS3 in the US market? Apparently people didn't really care about it that much, probably because MS extended their warranties.
 
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