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

[Paco]

That's Ken Kutaragi isn't it?

Yes.

Sure, those things are all true, but they're still going to lose money on each system sold. Maybe not as much as they lose on X-Box, but a good amount. And almost certainly more than Nintendo will (might?) be losing on Revolutions.

Also, MS isn't losing money just because of hardware costs... it's also because of marketing -- MS has spent massive amounts marketing the X-Box, much more than Nintendo, but without Sony's marketshare to help make up for it... that's been a big drain. They're hoping for more marketshare this time of course with the early launch and stuff, and we'll see...

There's also the fact that like Sony they don't have nearly the first-party-titles focus Nintendo has (that brings in so much by so much focus on the titles that make them the most money), of course.

Of course they will lose money on every system sold, just like every other console that has ever come to existence, but this time Microsoft has a strategy to reduce the cost, break even, and then profit from their hardware in the shortest time possible (annual cost reduction). That is why they've gone to such lengths as to take control over all the technology in the Xbox 360 (no royalties due), create a larger profile of first-party games (cause software is where the money is made), and getting ALL games Xbox Live aware to make more of an incentive to get people on the service.

True, but most people make games for their own market... figuring out what some other market wants isn't easy. Of course, you don't always know what your market wants, but you know better than what some other market wants... anyway, they don't totally ignore the Western market -- did you notice how Iwata said (in an interview I posted at TC a few days ago) that Western developers (and FPSes) were a big reason behind the 'nunchuck' controller, and that Western developers started liking the Revolution a lot more after they saw the nunchuck and not just the freestyle ('remote') part of the controller? -- but they definitely focus far, far more on the Japanese market than the American. Like Nintendo says it wants to win, and in the US as well as Japan, but they've always put more effort into winning in Japan, and more importantly their methods of trying to win are tailored for that market and not ours...

As for MS, they of course are doing the reverse... it should have more success than the Xbox in the short term in Japan if just because it's the first and this holiday season it's the best console on the market, but long term? We will see.

(as for ignoring the userbase, look at third-party games... there are a lot of (Japanese-developed) games that are PS2-only that, I bet if they had come from American developers, might have ended up 'PS2 and Xbox'.)

I don't agree. Japanese-made games sell alot in places other than Japan. Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, et al have proven that Japanese developers can do well in the states. Why wouldn't they try to tap into that market?

The gap between MS and Sony as for who has the most third party exclusives is closing.

Why are we bringing up Nintendo? They are in third place, and from the looks of it they'll stay there. All analyst have Nintendo pegged as losing more market share this next go-round, Microsoft gaining ground, and Sony eventually taking first place.

We'll see.