Microsoft Responds To PS3 Announcement
- Thread starter Ben-Nice
- Start date
LOL. They were well put and diplomatic answers, however I don't think they honest at all - they might be from that perspective, but overall I suspect they will be devising certain things.Kanyamagufa said:
Kim is saying what Sony would say if the positions were reversed (more or less). Of course, both companies are highly reactionary but take pains to appear otherwise.
Ballmer speaks about it also
Ballmer: Xbox will capitalize on PS3 delay
Microsoft CEO says Playstation 3's November launch gives Xbox a shot to be the top gaming console.
By Telis Demos, FORTUNE reporter
March 17, 2006: 12:18 PM EST
NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - After Sony announced on Tuesday that the Playstation 3 won't launch until November, the Xbox 360 is in a better position to become the top gaming console, says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
"In every other generation, the first guy to 10 million consoles was the number one seller in the generation," Ballmer told FORTUNE in an interview on Thursday afternoon. "Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million? Yeah, of course we did."
Ballmer: "Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million [consoles]? Yeah, of course we did."
But Microsoft (Research) will not formally revise its projected market share for the Xbox 360, and it will not speed up production to capitalize on Sony's delay, because it's already producing the Xbox as fast as possible. "We've been saying 'make them faster' before yesterday," says Ballmer.
When the Xbox 360 launched last holiday season, Microsoft had its own missteps. Shortages led to sales of only 600,000 systems from the debut on November 22 through December 31, far fewer than Microsoft and market analysts expected.
There is still a production bottleneck because of problems with a component vendor, whom Ballmer declined to name, but he expects Microsoft to sell 5 million systems by June. "We're sort-of on track," he says, "though it would've been nice at Christmas to have one for everyone who wanted one."
Previous generations of the Playstation outsold the Xbox by a wide margin. Worldwide in 2005, Sony sold 101 million Playstation 2 units, while Microsoft sold 24 million Xboxes and Nintendo sold 21 million Gamecubes, according to UBS. Even during the 2005 holidays, after Xbox 360 had debuted, Playstation 2 sold 1.4 million units in December, according to The NPD Group, which tracks sales of video games and game platforms.
Microsoft plans "major pushes" of the Xbox 360 in France, Italy, Spain and Japan -- markets where the first generation Xbox didn't perform as well as Microsoft hoped.
"I am palpably optimistic," Ballmer says. "I think we are absolutely in the game for the market position it would be nice to have."
Ballmer dismissed Sony's (Research) expectation that Playstation's Blu-Ray DVD player will give it an advantage over the Xbox, which will soon offer an HD-DVD peripheral. "Sony's going to try and define that as a fundamental battleground, but I don't think it is a fundamental battleground," he says. "I don't care whether it's Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, there's not going to be a lot of content in either format this year."
For now, Ballmer says, the timing advantage is all that matters. "It's not going to be that way forever," he says, "but we're clearly in the phase where it's about how fast we can make them."
Ballmer: Xbox will capitalize on PS3 delay
Microsoft CEO says Playstation 3's November launch gives Xbox a shot to be the top gaming console.
By Telis Demos, FORTUNE reporter
March 17, 2006: 12:18 PM EST
NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - After Sony announced on Tuesday that the Playstation 3 won't launch until November, the Xbox 360 is in a better position to become the top gaming console, says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
"In every other generation, the first guy to 10 million consoles was the number one seller in the generation," Ballmer told FORTUNE in an interview on Thursday afternoon. "Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million? Yeah, of course we did."
Ballmer: "Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million [consoles]? Yeah, of course we did."
But Microsoft (Research) will not formally revise its projected market share for the Xbox 360, and it will not speed up production to capitalize on Sony's delay, because it's already producing the Xbox as fast as possible. "We've been saying 'make them faster' before yesterday," says Ballmer.
When the Xbox 360 launched last holiday season, Microsoft had its own missteps. Shortages led to sales of only 600,000 systems from the debut on November 22 through December 31, far fewer than Microsoft and market analysts expected.
There is still a production bottleneck because of problems with a component vendor, whom Ballmer declined to name, but he expects Microsoft to sell 5 million systems by June. "We're sort-of on track," he says, "though it would've been nice at Christmas to have one for everyone who wanted one."
Previous generations of the Playstation outsold the Xbox by a wide margin. Worldwide in 2005, Sony sold 101 million Playstation 2 units, while Microsoft sold 24 million Xboxes and Nintendo sold 21 million Gamecubes, according to UBS. Even during the 2005 holidays, after Xbox 360 had debuted, Playstation 2 sold 1.4 million units in December, according to The NPD Group, which tracks sales of video games and game platforms.
Microsoft plans "major pushes" of the Xbox 360 in France, Italy, Spain and Japan -- markets where the first generation Xbox didn't perform as well as Microsoft hoped.
"I am palpably optimistic," Ballmer says. "I think we are absolutely in the game for the market position it would be nice to have."
Ballmer dismissed Sony's (Research) expectation that Playstation's Blu-Ray DVD player will give it an advantage over the Xbox, which will soon offer an HD-DVD peripheral. "Sony's going to try and define that as a fundamental battleground, but I don't think it is a fundamental battleground," he says. "I don't care whether it's Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, there's not going to be a lot of content in either format this year."
For now, Ballmer says, the timing advantage is all that matters. "It's not going to be that way forever," he says, "but we're clearly in the phase where it's about how fast we can make them."
scooby_dooby
Legend
"sort-of on track"? "palpably optimistic"? lol, that doesn't sound to strong.
MS sounds scared honestly. I get that from these two quotes:
I dont think that the 10 mil console rule will pertain to this race. 5 million by June is not a lot relatively speaking when you will have PS3 breathing down your neck in 3 months. I would actually expect their sales rate to slow after E3 if anything...
shane kim said:
ballmer said:
I dont think that the 10 mil console rule will pertain to this race. 5 million by June is not a lot relatively speaking when you will have PS3 breathing down your neck in 3 months. I would actually expect their sales rate to slow after E3 if anything...
blakjedi said:
Sounds more like they are being honest. There is no guarantee that they'll win even if they get to 10 million first and they know it. I think the xbox360 won't slow down, in fact even with the PS3 launch it won't. Not everybody who wants a PS3 will get one this christmas but the xbox will be on the shelf good to go with plenty of availability.
thatdude90210
Regular
Wonder where the Dreamcast would be right now, if Sega had MS's money to stay in the fight... probably a decent chunk of that PS2 marketshare.Fox5 said:
randycat99
Veteran
thatdude90210 said:
It would be precisely the same as it is today. All the money in the world is not going to counter the effect of game software getting cracked (for unlimited duplication and piracy) and pretty much cutting software revenue short at the knees. Once boundary is crossed, there is little incentive for game publishers to continue releasing new games, as well (if it is already a given that they will be freely pirated). So that's a double wallop into EOL.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
Irrelevant. Sega =! MS
Fox5 said:
The Saturn was never well on its way towards 10 million. It got battered by the Playstation in the west and rolled in huge losses for Sega. Its early Japanese lead disappeared when Sony's stronger support delivered killer apps for the Japanese market.