Microsoft's true goal

[acaeus]

A tiny sliver of game development has anything to do with DirectX; in our company of about 50 people there are 3 or 4 that work direcly with DirectX *ever*, and not on a daily basis. You are taking the "DirectX vs. OpenGL Wars" of 10 years ago a little too seriously

Darn I'm getting old! Though I was referring to microsoft tech, as in one day all games running on MS OS (consoles and PCs).

NRP, that is indeed the current situation, at least to my knowledge. however, all these predictions (including my own) are about the future. I can certainly see the Wii getting some good 3rd party games in the near future. But others (in the business) may confirm it (or not).

 

[fearsomepirate]

Is any developer/publisher (other than Nintendo) making money off of the Wii?

Ubisoft, Capcom, THQ, Activision, EA, 2K games, and the hated Data Design Interactive have all made money off Wii games. Wii games don't need to sell as many units to be profitable, and more 3rd party Wii games have done decently well [i.e. made money] than you think.

 

[betan]

Ubisoft, Capcom, THQ, Activision, EA, 2K games, and the hated Data Design Interactive have all made money off Wii games.

Sega made a lot of money.

 

[Teasy]

I'm not jumping into this debate. I just want to point out that you're probably not grandma... though I don't know for sure.

I'm not no, my point was Wii's success goes way past non gamers, way way past gramda's..

 

[Teasy]

Is this really true though? Is any developer/publisher (other than Nintendo) making money off of the Wii?

Activision, Sega, Take 2, LucasArts, UbiSoft, Capcom, THQ, EA, just off the top of my head.. Guitar Hero III for example has sold nearly 2 million copies on Wii in the US alone, Olympic Games sold 1.4 million..

 

[Asher]

Are they also perfectly fine with the fact that I've bought 3 games for my Wii in the last week while I haven't so much as turned my 360 on in 2008?

I'm sure they are, because the software sales would indicate there are more people like me (20 Xbox 360 games, 2 Wii games) than people like you.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I think that for Microsoft the most important thing is to be The Platform for living rooms. The platform doesn't have to be Xbox but it could be something as simple as Microsoft's own video format which is played with PS3 or something else. I think that if Microsoft could get their OS and video format into a future PlayStation, they would let go of Xbox.

Providing platforms has always been Microsoft's main thing. They offer Windows, over which billions of 3rd party software have been built. Nowadays Office is turning into a software platform too. I'm thinking that in the future, Xbox is going to be a software platform rather than a hardware platform.

I agree. This is what I was getting at. MS is a platform company. Not a game or hardware company. The Xbox is merely a platform delivery mechanism. Bill Gates is kicking himself for not anticipating the Internet and is personally determined not to let the same thing happen with digital entertainment delivery.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I think the Xbox 360 had a rather singular goal: Beat the Playstation 3. Be the Playstation 2 of the next generation. Get out first, get out swinging, and be everything the PS3 could hope to be, capturing that massive software library that the OXbox largely only got hand-me-downs from. Have an online infrastructure that beats the living pants off anything Sony could hope to come up with. I don't think there's a grand, 20-year vision behind Xbox 360 motivating everything, some vision that some day, our children will be buying Xboxes instead of DVD players or home PCs. I think they were just going for the lion's share of that multi-billion dollar video game pie.

Actually all this stuff is well documented in Dean Takahashi's books about the Xbox project development. There really IS a 20-year plan for digital content delivery.

 

[Afrikan]

Bernie Stolar, a former Sony executive, remembers Kutaragi asking him as early as 1994 where he thought the nascent PlayStation console’s main competition would come from. Nintendo, Stolar guessed. Maybe Intel. Kutaragi looked him squarely in the eyes. “No, Bernie, you are wrong,” he said. “It is Microsoft. And I will kill them.”

I'm too lazy, but I would love for someone else to create a Documentary about this whole "controlling the living room" saga....... I would love to see it....

 

[psorcerer]

that multi-billion dollar video game pie

Wait, wait, is there such a pie?
Does anybody know how much money MSFT gets from Client(Windows) and Business(Office) divisions?
I'll tell you: 10 times more than it can ever get from videogame industry if Sony and Nintendo both committed suicide.
So, what was that rumbling about their "goal"?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Wait, wait, is there such a pie?
Does anybody know how much money MSFT gets from Client(Windows) and Business(Office) divisions?
I'll tell you: 10 times more than it can ever get from videogame industry if Sony and Nintendo both committed suicide.
So, what was that rumbling about their "goal"?

So your theory is because they make more money from windows they would never pursue other revenue sources?

 

[sevanig]

So your theory is because they make more money from windows they would never pursue other revenue sources?

If they keep failing at them and loose money, the shareholders wont like it, but if there really is a 20yr plan to loose a crap load of money to try and gain leadership of the living room, it may be worth it...

 

[Zassk]

If they keep failing at them and loose money, the shareholders wont like it, but if there really is a 20yr plan to loose a crap load of money to try and gain leadership of the living room, it may be worth it...

It's not failing if that money has diminished their competitor's market share, which it apparently has. Then it is an investment, not a loss.

 

[psorcerer]

So your theory is because they make more money from windows they would never pursue other revenue sources?

Revenue? Who needs revenue? Where's the profit?
Until today the whole console "business" is nothing but lost money for MSFT. So the question is, if it's not a business, what is it?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Revenue? Who needs revenue? Where's the profit?
Until today the whole console "business" is nothing but lost money for MSFT. So the question is, if it's not a business, what is it?

You must have missed their last 2 quarterly reports where the entertainment division reported profits.

 

[psorcerer]

You must have missed their last 2 quarterly reports where the entertainment division reported profits.

Maybe they also need to release daily reports to make you stronger believer?
I'm talking about the whole console business, which is at lost right now and it needs at least couple of years to make for the losses.
And even then it will be much less money there than in any other MSFT business initiative.

 

[StefanS]

Mod:
Folks there's a certain level of politeness we expected of our posters even during heated discussions. So stay civil and make sure nothing gets out of hands... Just a friendly heads-up

 

[Nesh]

I'm too lazy, but I would love for someone else to create a Documentary about this whole "controlling the living room" saga....... I would love to see it....

Did he really say that? If he did he sure has huge perspicacity!!

 

[AlphaWolf]

Maybe they also need to release daily reports to make you stronger believer?
I'm talking about the whole console business, which is at lost right now and it needs at least couple of years to make for the losses.
And even then it will be much less money there than in any other MSFT business initiative.

The entertainment division of MS includes their entire console business.

The money they've already lost is gone. They can't go back in time, and even if they could I doubt they would nix the idea of investing in consoles, they would just make some different decisions on where to spend. Are you suggesting that now that they are finally putting money in the black, they should quit?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Maybe they also need to release daily reports to make you stronger believer?
I'm talking about the whole console business, which is at lost right now and it needs at least couple of years to make for the losses.
And even then it will be much less money there than in any other MSFT business initiative.

I dunno. Nintendo should be making truckloads of money. Sony should be making good money off the PS2 and PSP, no? Microsoft is turning a profit now. Doesn't seem too doom and gloom.