X-Box: $-1,000,000,000 a year

[Paco]

I have to say, if this happens to MS again, they will not produce another console. I can't see them justifying it. I mean, when you spend more making a system than you get back from sales, selling a LOT just means you lost a lot. The only hope is to make up for it all in game sales. Apparently, MS didn't do that. Sure they are doing pretty well in America, in second place (barely) with Nintendo, but world-wide, not so much, and it hurts them. I mean, what games is MS themselves selling? Halo 2? Anything else? They have Rare, but not enough people seem to care about that. I'm sure the sales of PDZ are going to be stellar, so long as there's some distant link printed on the box between it and Halo and they hype it up as much as they did Halo, but other than that? It's a shame really....

I don't think Nintendo is going to "buy Rare back" or anything, so here's something else. Rare should become independant.

Microsoft is publishing a bunch of titles, off the top of my head:

99 Nights
Gears of War
Every Party
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey
Perfect Dark Zero
Kameo
Amped 3 (I think)
Project Gotham 3
Forza 2

Do you know if Microsoft published Fable or Jade Empire? Both games' sequels are headed to Xbox 360.

Just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are one or two I missed out of the 160 titles already announced for the system. I could find a list later on but I believe they rank pretty high on the publisher list. It's the hardware that's sinking them.

From what I read the Xbox 360 is cheap to make, and they'll be selling it at a very minimal loss. Seeing as how Microsoft has full control over the entire production of the 360 they'll be able to make it cheaper, faster (unlike the raping they got on the Xbox). I think it was said they expect annual cost reductions (don't confuse that with annual price cuts, though that's not out of the question).

Every third party is on in one way or another, plus alot of Japanese developers. They can't ignore the growing userbase for the Xbox in the states, especially since Japan's gaming market seems to be eroding. Seriously, did you expect games like Resident Evil 5, Tenchu, Armored Core 4, Ridge Racer 6, Mobile Suit Gundam, and two RPGs (Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon) from a well known RPG creator, and 5 games from Team Ninja to be announced for the Xbox 360 this early on? Not to meantion the unnamed Namco RPG. It reads like a Playstation lineup, imo.

Really, I don't see them going anywhere but up.