Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox
- Thread starter BRiT
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Johnny Awesome
Veteran
IMO once people see how cool things like avatar scanning, controller swapping, recognition etc... are, then Kinect will be seen as cool again. The $500 price tag will be fine for the first 6 months. They can drop price at E3 2014 if they have to.
french toast
Veteran
Kinect now has a clear advantage over sony now ps eye is not bundled, if the perfomance of games can get with in 15-20% of ps4 people might well swallow that price for the extra media features and advanced camera trickery.
It's more than just DRM it's jumping the gun on getting rid of used games which is more than a DRM thing. Others will disagree but I believe that consumers dodged a bullet there since it's better to woo customers rather than clamp down on them.
Most of the magical kinect and TV ONEss integration stuff will be behind the Gold wall along with Netflix and all those other services so that's kind of annoying but not shocking, I wish there was more push back on that from a consumer standpoint, but we will see when the thing comes out in the fall.
The price, kinect and HDMI passthrough are not issues for me but I don't care about them either. In general I think the XB1 will sell quite well. I think they are a bit late to the game when it comes to the Living Room assault but they spent a lot of money and will be around for a long while. I like to see competition so I don't want ONE company to rule but I hope to see Sony's interest in indie games and gaming in general rewarded as long as they stay hungry.
I personally think the cloud thing is a bit overwrought but it's an absolutely reasonable thing to leverage your existing infrastructure.
I guess this is the place for a post like this, but I just feel like XBO is recovering a lot from it's stumbles, almost like it's the favorite again.
It does have a trio of attractive exclusives, Killer Instinct has been getting a lot of hype. The DRM reverse seems to have had the desired effect of making it a non issue.
Youtube comments still run 99% against Xbox for what that's worth.
To me now if they indeed buff the hardware late as has been heavily rumored, they're gonna be in really good shape.
Not that I agree of course, but I think a case can be made indies, gasp, aren't very relevant (in the console market).
Yep, I said it. I went there.
It does have a trio of attractive exclusives, Killer Instinct has been getting a lot of hype. The DRM reverse seems to have had the desired effect of making it a non issue.
Youtube comments still run 99% against Xbox for what that's worth.
To me now if they indeed buff the hardware late as has been heavily rumored, they're gonna be in really good shape.
Not that I agree of course, but I think a case can be made indies, gasp, aren't very relevant (in the console market).
Yep, I said it. I went there.
They're relevant to me. Even if the Xbox One was on equal footing with the PS4 in every other metric, having dramatically more Indie games to play on PS4 would be a reason to choose the Sony console. As it stands it's just another issue where MS thinks they can waive their dick around and everyone will just get out of the way. Let's not forget that in the heyday of XBLA a lot of 360 owners touted the better line-up of downloadable games as a major victory against PS3. Suddenly that's a non-factor? Yeah, right...
They'll have to change the policy eventually. Their strategy of forcing independents to sign with a publisher or exclusively with them to access their users doesn't work without the 360's advantages in price and time to market to build up a big lead in installed base. Where before skipping the 360 would have been bad business for many small developers, it will be a pretty easy choice to go PS4/Steam on their own terms. When the next Minecraft hits Microsoft won't even have chance to buy exclusivity.
They'll have to change the policy eventually. Their strategy of forcing independents to sign with a publisher or exclusively with them to access their users doesn't work without the 360's advantages in price and time to market to build up a big lead in installed base. Where before skipping the 360 would have been bad business for many small developers, it will be a pretty easy choice to go PS4/Steam on their own terms. When the next Minecraft hits Microsoft won't even have chance to buy exclusivity.
The xbox 360 is what made indies on consoles popular. I don't think MS is going to abandon indies.
Of course I also don't want thousands of little indies trying to self publish garbage because we end up with another android play store on our hands. There needs to be a happy medium
Of course I also don't want thousands of little indies trying to self publish garbage because we end up with another android play store on our hands. There needs to be a happy medium
Well imo you buy a console for Assassins Creed and COD, not indies.
There's a place for them and MS will figure it out. It's overblown imo.
I look at Minecraft, this "MS hates indies" talking point is pretty old, but what has it hurt? One of the biggest titles on Xbox right now was an indie...
Consoles are a curated market. Indies belong on Android and PC first imo.
I'm sure there's things they can and will handle better regarding "indies".
You will never convince me anybody is buying a PS4 for OctoDad. You just wont. Very very few indie titles appeal to me, they're one step ahead of F2P, microtransaction, and Facebook games in my book. I want triple A (or at least, XBLA quality).
There's a place for them and MS will figure it out. It's overblown imo.
I look at Minecraft, this "MS hates indies" talking point is pretty old, but what has it hurt? One of the biggest titles on Xbox right now was an indie...
Consoles are a curated market. Indies belong on Android and PC first imo.
I'm sure there's things they can and will handle better regarding "indies".
You will never convince me anybody is buying a PS4 for OctoDad. You just wont. Very very few indie titles appeal to me, they're one step ahead of F2P, microtransaction, and Facebook games in my book. I want triple A (or at least, XBLA quality).
They could keep a separate self published majority crap side and help promote any quality that rises to the top of said crap side. Like with indie games on 360, but also self publishing to please those who want easier access, and to mollify console warriors.
I understand they were/are combining Indie and XBLA.. When I play indie games on 360, I know they won't be up to XBLA standard so I cut them some slack. Bunching everything together doesn't seem like a bright idea, unless they were planning to be more selective?
I understand they were/are combining Indie and XBLA.. When I play indie games on 360, I know they won't be up to XBLA standard so I cut them some slack. Bunching everything together doesn't seem like a bright idea, unless they were planning to be more selective?
Michellstar
Regular
It should've been PGR.
It wouldn't have sold any better, but it's tradition.
Amen to that
apparently they are working on Horizon 2 instead
Well MS doesn't need an infusion of new games and ideas per se they are looking to make major content deals to make that Living Room assault profitable. Big publishers, big telecoms, big studios. They aren't in it to make and/or sell games they are in it to get the MS network into the living rooms of (mostly) America.
Sony has more of a need for games and new types of games. It's not because Sony is "awesome" but because they need it more than MS. It's just about how these companies can maneuver and what courses they are on.
MS has leverage and looking to use it and it's money to make big deal, Sony has to shuffle things up a bit because what they did before didn't work.
Well Sony is going to be selective about things, as will MS, but it's just that right now when it comes to new ideas for games Sony has more to work with. MS just wants to own the next big budget COD-like franchise ( well everyone wants to own such a thing of course ) and they make a bunch of deals with the big players that can afford such things even at the expense of losing ground in other types of games.
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Don't worry MS thinks the way you do
I'm not saying that they would say never to more indie stuff but that will never be all that interesting to them. They just want a piece of whatever content is crossing over their network and charge you a monthly fee for the privilege, they want those deals that Apple can get and they wanna get some big deals before Apple enters the fray.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
I agree that MS is definitely on the rebound and they have a far better launch line up than Sony, with Forza 5, Kinect Sports Rivals, Killer Instinct, Ryse, and Dead Rising 3.
Well I think the games that hit big are important (geo wars, fez, mine craft) but the challenge MS sees is really procurement. MS doesn't want a free for all because then you end up with something like the android market vs the iOS app store, i think MS clear wants the App store (which implies quality). The cost of that is an approval process that includes real humans, which is not cheap so where is the happy medium?
deathindustrial
Regular
Don't indies still need to purchase a dev kit to get into the console game business? If so, that's a significant filter right there . . .
I am extremely surprised that MS isn't courting indies, not so much because they need them for the Xbone but because they need them for their tablets and phones.
I am extremely surprised that MS isn't courting indies, not so much because they need them for the Xbone but because they need them for their tablets and phones.
I will write off this post as sarcasm.
MS has stated that they will outline their indie plan in the next few weeks. If you simply want to believe in Sonys plan that's fine. There's no need to assert anything about the MS when you don't have any information.
They are. They will.
You needed a 360 with a hard disk for XNA.
