The age of the Unholy Alliance is upon us

[Great Rumbler]

From Reuters:

Microsoft sides with Nintendo in fight vs Sony
Thu May 11, 2006 2:25 PM BST



By Daisuke Wakabayashi

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> sided with rival Nintendo Co. Ltd. <7974.OS> on Wednesday in the fight to unseat video game leader Sony Corp.<6758.T>, saying many consumers will choose to buy both of their machines for the price of one PlayStation 3.

The bad blood between Sony and Microsoft in the fight for dominance in the nearly $30 billion video game industry has escalated over the last few days, with both sides trading barbs at the E3 Expo, the video game industry's annual trade show.

Microsoft entered the next-generation game console market first with its Xbox 360 last November.

Sony aims to extend its market leadership with its upcoming PS3, while Nintendo plans to offer a new game machine called Wii in the fourth quarter.

"Tell me why you would buy a $600 PS3?" Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president, said in an interview. "People are going to buy two (machines.) They're going to buy an Xbox and they're going to buy a Wii ... for the price of one PS3."

Microsoft predicted on Tuesday it will have 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the market before Sony launches the PS3. The high-end Xbox 360 sells for $399, but it does not include a built-in high-definition DVD video player that comes with Sony's PS3.

Sony plans to sell a premium PS3 model for $599 when it debuts in North America on November 17, and Nintendo has not yet disclosed pricing for Wii.

Wii comes equipped with motion sensitive controllers to allow users to mimic the motion of wielding a sword or swinging a tennis racket.

Moore then turned pitchman for Nintendo's Wii, the latest offering from the Japanese company that once dominated the video game industry.

"People will always gravitate toward a competitively priced product -- like what I believe Wii will be -- with innovative new designs and great intellectual property like Mario, Zelda and Metroid," Moore told Reuters.

Sony currently dominates the worldwide video game market with a 66 percent share, while Microsoft and Nintendo each hold 17 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

"We have 100 percent market share of the next-generation, and their job is to take that from us," said Moore.

"When I think on everything that we've got going right now that is real versus what Sony promises to do six, seven months from now, obviously we feel very good about where we stand."

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Despite Microsoft's head start with the Xbox 360, the software giant still faces an uphill climb in Sony and Nintendo's home turf.

Microsoft received a tepid response to its Xbox 360 debut in Japan and demand fell short of expectations during last year's holiday season when it sold about 100,000 machines.

The company introduced a competitively priced console in Japan, but some of its game titles did not appeal to Japanese gamers. Moore expects upcoming role-playing games like "Lost Odyssey" and "Blue Dragon" from the creator of the popular "Final Fantasy" series to do well in Japan.

"Quite frankly," said Moore, "if we're sitting here a year from now and things continue to fall flat, then we might say 'we don't know what to do anymore."'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...00612.html

[lazyfatbum]

what

[Weltall]

I smell desperation near Seattle, Washington.

[Dark Jaguar]

And yet they really respect Nintendo. The XBox group at MS really isn't this evil figurehead. They love what they do.

[A Black Falcon]

Desperation? Not even close... more like they smell blood. :)

... wishful thinking (that Sony's in trouble)? Maybe, but it's sure a popular line of thought right now... who knows, Sony may well win. But this price is a major hurdle... PS3 or X360+Wii for the same price? Ah... :D

[lazyfatbum]

there's definitely desperation for the company to attract japanese business, in their minds they've tried everything, now the biggest push is going to be getting as much japanese support on the system as they can. i have a feeling that next year he's going to hear that quote from himself come up many, many, many times.

if MS can get Japanese interested in the system, i'll make love to ABF.

[N_A]

MS is an evil figurehead. What they're doing right now is pushing developers to n00bify good PC franchises for the Xbox. Just as Sony n00bified console gaming, MS is n00bifying PC gaming to push for their console hegemony.

[A Black Falcon]

You just keep thinking that, but it's just not true... MS may be evil in a monopolistic way that any company in their position would be (such as Nintendo in the NES days for consoles), but they aren't truly evil like Sony is... there's no comparison.

It is true that often when PC games are translated to consoles they are simplified, since console games are generally simpler than PC ones, but MS has not given up on PC exclusive games, and nor has the rest of the industry. The PC gaming market may not be in the greatest shape (outside of the profits from WoW...), but it's far from dead, and MS isn't trying to kill it off. If anything, they're strengthening it -- look at things like how Shadowrun is on both PC and X360 and is intercompatible in online play... or Live Anywhere. That's not giving up on PC gaming... and as for simplification, they still have PC exclusives like Flight Simulator or Rise of Nations 2 for the ones that are truly meant for PC.

... I could go on (particularly by bringing up other PC developers -- it is definitely true that there are fewer PC games now than six or seven years ago and those games are in fewer genres. However, I could say that it's likely hit a low point and can't get much worse, and that Vista if it works could help improve that... and then even in genres where things have gotten worse, like PC (single player) RPGs, there are signs of hope -- Neverwinter Nights 2, Dragon Age, perhaps Fallout 3...

So no, MS isn't evil. And if PC gaming is not in as good shape as it was in six years ago, Microsoft is not responsible for that. That started before the Xbox came out and they only followed the trend, not made it; Knights of the Old Republic isn't a console-focused game because MS made the Xbox, it's console-focused because Bioware realized that console games sell better than PC one and they watned in on that money, even if it meant that they had to make a simplified title in comparison to their past games... and it worked for them. I wasn't fully satifisfied with the results, but it worked.

I'd love for MS do well in Japan and overthrow Sony, it would mean nothing but good for the industry... (Nintendo might be a more likely one there, but they're not really trying to win the console wars, they're trying to be different and attract a somewhat different market...)

[Dark Jaguar]

In reading various blogs about MS, it is very clear that while the marketting department may not want to admit it, MS is basically currently divided into "Old MS" and "New MS". Old is the one responsible for a lot of very bad decisions. For example, the weird integration of IE into Windows a long time ago (which didn't provide much of a bonus at all, IE could easily have been as standalone as notepad and Windows didn't get any benefits from it).

It seems the last vestiges of "old MS" are still working in the OS department, and apparently Bill Gates himself is part of that old system by their review. As a result, they are trying to fix the blunders they made in the past, and in a few departments they have a fresh start. Everything I've seen so far says the people working with the 360 aren't evil automatons but people who actually like games.

[A Black Falcon]

(which didn't provide much of a bonus at all, IE could easily have been as standalone as notepad and Windows didn't get any benefits from it).

Not true, Windows Explorer loads a whole lot faster than Internet Explorer does, and all you do is click in the location bar and type in a website and you're there long before you would be if you'd launched IE... :)

Anyway, yeah, I read that article, and it's certainly possible, but MS's OSes do end up mostly good...

[Dark Jaguar]

What are you talking about? IE opens instantly, unless you happen to have any start page other than about:blank (which I use in EVERY browser) or have a bajillion plugins you DON'T NEED set up to load every time you open it (I doubt the latter is your issue simply because you don't use IE).

Seriously, change it to a blank page and try opening it again. It's frickin' instant! *click click click* There, 3 browser windows, one after the other, in less than a second.

[A Black Falcon]

I have netscape.com as me IE homepage, mostly as a bit of irony, and that loads slow... :) But I never use IE of course so it doesn't matter. Mozilla does load a bit slow, but since it's tabbed, once you open the window you just can leave it open, so there's no problem... I probably have Mozilla running most of the time my computer is on, with several tabs open in it. :)