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Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox
- Thread starter BRiT
- Start date
Meh Micro$haft is a bit too much but if MS is completely paranoid one way or the other about the brand maybe they don't want the headache ? The Xbox is a good brand at this point so it doesn't seem all that reasonable that they would sell it right now or in the near future. I do believe there are talks going on if only because of the board members who want to spin off the product line want to feel like they are being heard ;-)
At first I was thinking licensing anything would dilute the brand but if the deal did involve MS services getting a huge bump in an area in the wheelhouse of the new CEO ... maybe. Still I don't know what kind of reliance Amazon would want to have on another party's network infrastructure with such a big project.
Bah! Netflix to buy the Xbox brand and turn it into a big remote control for streaming films and games. The end.
Maybe that's what Amazon was thinking too? They are trying to compete with Netflix with their own original programming. Maybe they're hoping for a preemptive strike?
Tommy McClain
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It all depends on what happens in the future. If XB is strong now but going to go down the pan (I do not believe this!), MS would be better selling now at a high price when the buyer is getting the existing brand and goodwill rather than when the brand has died and everyone moved to another brand. Selling on the downturn is a defensive move to cut losses, and not an aggressive one to grow the business (if the money from an XB sell could be spent on a more lucrative market, it'd be a good move).
Well MS seems to be very sensitive to buzz, either positive or negative, so they may go all in with the Titanfall On... I mean Xbox One Titanfall bundle. 449 this early could be a slap in the face to those who already purchased the console even with a free copy of TF and maybe another free game. 499 TF bundle will of course be the mix.
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Comcast is pretty much US only, Amazon is strong worldwide but not as strong as Microsoft is. I can't buy MP3 files from Amazon.co.uk in Denmark. How they would handle license deals with Movies etc scares me.
If someone buys the XBOX brand/things i can not see them hitting the ground running, it will be like dumping ayers rock and trying to get that momentum going again.
Software development, Azure, Skype, Live <-> skydrive etc etc.. SOOOO many things to sort out, it will take years to do a smooth transition, and cost so many dollars and during that time the XB1 still has to fight but with divorced parents as guidance.
Microsoft hooking Nintendo would be crazy but that would certainly turn that rock into a giant smooth ball of awesomeness.
My money is still on Microsoft sitting this one out, tending to their wounds and getting ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, maybe they just will do it with throwing money at customers so be it. But the fight isn't over.
Ohh and reading Titan stories i don't think it will be the Halo to save the XB1, it will be a piece of the puzzle but imho it simply isn't that big a deal it's made up to be.
OT/sorry i missed it
If someone buys the XBOX brand/things i can not see them hitting the ground running, it will be like dumping ayers rock and trying to get that momentum going again.
Software development, Azure, Skype, Live <-> skydrive etc etc.. SOOOO many things to sort out, it will take years to do a smooth transition, and cost so many dollars and during that time the XB1 still has to fight but with divorced parents as guidance.
Microsoft hooking Nintendo would be crazy but that would certainly turn that rock into a giant smooth ball of awesomeness.
My money is still on Microsoft sitting this one out, tending to their wounds and getting ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, maybe they just will do it with throwing money at customers so be it. But the fight isn't over.
Ohh and reading Titan stories i don't think it will be the Halo to save the XB1, it will be a piece of the puzzle but imho it simply isn't that big a deal it's made up to be.
Hehe, there is plenty to pick from and i personally consider Zune a great product, it never came to my country but a friend of mine it full on Microsoft fanboy, and he bought it, and when i played around with it i was convinced of how great a product it was.Zune? What was it, Kin? Do I get a prize?
OT/sorry i missed it
deathindustrial
Regular
Amazon only really cares about the US (and possibly the UK). If they were to buy XBox it would likely become a US only brand / service much like Amazon Prime.
That's what the One seems to be at the moment anyway. Most of the cool TV features are very much US centered .
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
There's a bunch of nervous nellies on these forums. MS had one bad NPD in 8 years, in January no less, and everyone is losing their minds.
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Latest rumour is that MS are in talks with Amazon about selling the Xbox business. Makes sense as Amazon seem to be itching to get in the front room and the S3 far outclasses Azure.
I wouldn't say that about s3 versus azure.
Wouldn't seem like you would get much from purchasing the Xbox brand. The most valuable part of the Xbox business is probably the gaming console based patents. There is no telling if they are even willing to part with those patents. Their mobile patents generate a lot of licensing fees off Android based phones. Furthermore, they don't own the hardware. And in terms of software, its not like MS is going to sell you anything windows related including the OS and APIs. You can probably grab the game IPs, the brand and trademarks.
Xbox would be the last console brand, I would try to buy, if I wanted something more than just sticking an existing brand on a new console.
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Seems like that has changed. The annual State of Cloud Storage report released today says that Azure has overtaken S3 as the top performer.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Which game/tech patents do you think are particularly valuable. Nothing springs to mind for me and I've not read anything to suggest Xbox patent licensing is a lucrative income for Microsoft - unlike the chunk of change they make from Android device makers.
Its not any one in particular, its the size and breadth of their portfolio. MS makes a habit of patenting just about anything they think they can.
No one thought anything about MS's mobile patents until they started using them to demand licensing fees from Android manufacturers. Patents can be used defensively or offensively. And in the console market, all the major players are using them as a deterrent against each other.
Its all just a matter of throwing them against the wall and sees what sticks. A strategy MS would probably readily deploy if it left the console gaming business. I'm am sure patent trolls would be among the first groups vying for that particular piece of the business if MS showed any public indication it was looking to sell. If MS sold that part of the business, Sony, Nintendo, Apple, Google and Samsung would all end up making trips to east Texas.
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That's interesting. I wonder what's changed? After the last major Azure crash, all to do with very poor partitioning choices by MS, they must have made some very fundamental changes to the underlying architecture. Especially to overtake the S3 like that. Maybe Azure is finally becoming a practical solution just need to keep an eye on its stability now.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Having a lot of patents, and Microsoft do, doesn't make them valuable unless they are for a key technology or method that others can not work around. The only significant patent in gaming that I can recall was Nintendo's infamous d-pad patent which has since expired.
I don't see any evidence of this? Again I can only cite the Nintendo patent that Sony licensed and Microsoft did not - hence the much-maligned d-pad on the original Xbox and 360.
Unlike the mobile space the console space looks a lot more harmonious patent-wise and that's probably because there are three platform holders and those platforms are based on a limited pool of CPU and GPU technologies that belong to others, not the platform holders themselves. But again, if a patent can't be exerted over another party it's value is questionable - as Google found with they Motorola patent chest. Having 3,000 patents nobody needs makes them worth $0.
There is also a big difference between owning the IP (as I believe Microsoft do for the Xbox One APU) and owning the underlying patents which I'm sure AMD do, because far too much of the tech is shared with Sony's PS4 APU and AMD's line of APUs.
Microsoft haven't shown an inclination to just throw patents at the wall (the courts) to see what sticks. Maybe that will change with the new management but I would be surprised.
