MS says Sony has no strategy for on-line

[Coola]

Balmer is a lot smarter than the average joe thinks he is. If anyone knows anything about the history of the guy and how he shaped the future of Microsoft would know that the statements he made weren't out of idiocy but more to put pressure on Sony to say something publically.

Kinda like a reverse psychological tactic "Yea right... I don't believe you have a snickers bar in your pocket." Trying to entice the person into revealing something. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[MrWibble]

Balmer is a lot smarter than the average joe thinks he is. If anyone knows anything about the history of the guy and how he shaped the future of Microsoft would know that the statements he made weren't out of idiocy but more to put pressure on Sony to say something publically.

Kinda like a reverse psychological tactic "Yea right... I don't believe you have a snickers bar in your pocket." Trying to entice the person into revealing something. Nothing more, nothing less.

Wow - the man is cunning like a fox for coming up with such a brilliant strategy as that. Ken can just give up and go home, business genius Ballmer will run circles round him.

Next week: Ballmer says his dad is bigger than Ken's dad, and Ken responds with a rhyme about "sticks and stones"...

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Jesus, you people are talking about these guys like they are your personal heroes or something. Whichever company you "like" more (which is dumb in itself) or which console you think has better technology, cheerleading for the execs of the companies is pathetic.

 

[mckmas8808]

Balmer is a lot smarter than the average joe thinks he is. If anyone knows anything about the history of the guy and how he shaped the future of Microsoft would know that the statements he made weren't out of idiocy but more to put pressure on Sony to say something publically.

Kinda like a reverse psychological tactic "Yea right... I don't believe you have a snickers bar in your pocket." Trying to entice the person into revealing something. Nothing more, nothing less.

Well looks like that has never worked for Ballmer or MS for that matter. Sony is just plain good with keeping secerts. Hell people across the internet are making up stories about the PS3 good and bad due to the lack of infomation.

There's more infomation of Bin Laden now, than there is about the PS3.

 

[patsu]

Balmer is a lot smarter than the average joe thinks he is. If anyone knows anything about the history of the guy and how he shaped the future of Microsoft would know that the statements he made weren't out of idiocy but more to put pressure on Sony to say something publically.

Kinda like a reverse psychological tactic "Yea right... I don't believe you have a snickers bar in your pocket." Trying to entice the person into revealing something. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don't think so Please give Balmer more credit than that.
No doubt he is a brilliant guy. Sony wasn't borned yesterday either. Based on existing sales number alone, Microsoft is in no position to tout Sony or Nintendo. His best option is to focus on XBox360's opportunities and problems, and keep talking about Xbox360 (not the competitors' products)

 

[one]

KK wants to say stupid shit like xb1.5

It seems there's a common misconception among Xbox fans about that expression. The term "Xbox 1.5" was already employed by analysts before Kutaragi quoted it as how journalists evaluated Xbox 360 at E3.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54283-2005May12.html

Microsoft Throws Prime-Time Party for Next Xbox

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 12, 2005; Page E01

...

Instead of radically expanded graphics, expect the next Xbox to let players buy more downloadable content, said P.J. McNealy, an analyst at American Technology Research.

"This is more an Xbox 1.5 than an Xbox 2," he said. "It's like an Xbox with a broadband cash register built in."

http://www.wired.com/news/e3/0,2879,67555,00.html

Move Over Xbox, PS3's Coming Soon
Reuters Reuters null | Also by this reporter
2005-05-18 11:00:00.0

...

"Sony's console looked like a next-generation game machine and in comparison to the graphics of the PS3, Microsoft's looked like Xbox 1.5," said Takashi Oya, analyst at Deutsche Bank.

 

[patsu]

Sure ! I think the situation is different though. Microsoft cannot follow whatever the market leader is doing. It is in a weaker position and needs to put in extra effort to win the race. The XB 1.5 comment did not originate from Sony (They paraphrased it in a speech, I think), but I get what you mean.

MS has XB360 out the door, and it would be in Balmer's interests to sharpen the message for XB360 and XBL especially in the light of not-so-kind PR and poor Japan sales. I feel it's important to articulate and reinforce MS's vision and optimism in response to the interview question: "How will Xbox 360 fare when Sony's PlayStation 3 comes out ?".

His answer amount to "I don't know" at this point because no one knows what Sony is doing. There is zero mention of great XB360 games, no mention of XBL. In fact, The "Sony has no online strategy" part comes in only at the end as an afterthought.

To be fair, he was kinda caught unprepared because the entire interview was about MS products in general. Still... victory favors the prepared mind.

 

[scooby_dooby]

It seems there's a common misconception among Xbox fans about that expression. The term "Xbox 1.5" was already employed by analysts before Kutaragi quoted it as how journalists evaluated Xbox 360 at E3.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54283-2005May12.html


http://www.wired.com/news/e3/0,2879,67555,00.html

It was just an example, they've all made many stupid comment, such as "x360 is actually competing with PS2"! I could probably find half a dozen quotes (from both sides I'm sure) that are just as pathetic.

I think Balmers a douche...so I'm not gonna defend the guy, but you can't act surprised to see the sort of FUD, both sides have been tossing it around for a while now.

 

[one]

It was just an example, they've all made many stupid comment, such as "x360 is actually competing with PS2"!

I think you mention the excerpts of the interview with Kutaragi Gamespot picked up from a PC Watch article, the relevant part from the source article is like this.
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0608/kaigai186.htm

The Difference Between PS3 and XBOX 360 You Can't See From The Specs

Q: There's a clear differece between the messages sent by XBOX 360 and PS3. XBOX 360 has pushed the image that they can provide a game console as a solid platform. PS3 has emphasized the possibility of technologies.

KK: This time, Microsoft clearly profess that they are chasing PlayStation. However, what they are chasing is not PLAYSTATION 3 but PlayStation 2. Because they didn't know PS3 we've been developing. They became like that as they've been looking at PS2. Our goal is different from theirs. However, I think most people can't tell the difference by looking only at the specs. We got mistaken in a similar way in the days of PS1. We'd been evaluated that the both were 3D, along with 3DO. Even though we argued that PS1 calculated 3D properly while 3DO didn't, they said the both were 3D and had CD-ROM, it was terrible like that.

 

[scooby_dooby]

thx for proving my point! what a load of nonsense...

 

[fearsomepirate]

My $.02....

While I had an Xbox, I never went online because

a) I couldn't be bothered to register, send in money, etc.
b) Online gaming raises my blood pressure. I can't stand jumping into a game I've been playing in SP for months and just getting totally pwn3d by someone I can't even see. It's not nearly so bad when it's a buddy on the couch next to you.
c) Online console gaming doesn't appeal to me. Online PC gaming is totally where it's at, because you've got user mods. I actually spend more of my online PC time looking for cool single player maps, though I did used to play TFC a lot and am always up for some Serious Sam co-op.

 

[wco81]

Sony's survey to game editors about online features

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060118-6006.html

If they offer some of these features without subscription, it will be nice.

In particular, keyboard (and mouse) support for game control across all games would be a key differentiation from Xbox. MS has said keyboard only for text input, no game control.

MS also probably won't offer a browser in-game, because that's replicating too many PC functions, which could cannibalize some PC sales. But Sony wouldn't have such concerns.

I know that some people I meet up with by email or AIM to play a game often have to log off to go online, either because they don't have a router or they don't have their computer by their TV. So being able to set up games from within the console would be a boon to some people.

Once again, no subscriptions and they could add whatever they want or not.

Oh and there are more people online with PS2 than Xbox or X360. Who's catching up with whom?

 

[drpepper]

Oh and there are more people online with PS2 than Xbox or X360. Who's catching up with whom?

But that's based on percentages of PS2's massive user base. The user esxperience is what Sony has to catch up to.

 

[wco81]

But that's based on percentages of PS2's massive user base. The user esxperience is what Sony has to catch up to.

The user experience of paying $50 for a buddy list?

 

[expletive]

My $.02....

While I had an Xbox, I never went online because

a) I couldn't be bothered to register, send in money, etc.
b) Online gaming raises my blood pressure. I can't stand jumping into a game I've been playing in SP for months and just getting totally pwn3d by someone I can't even see. It's not nearly so bad when it's a buddy on the couch next to you.
c) Online console gaming doesn't appeal to me. Online PC gaming is totally where it's at, because you've got user mods. I actually spend more of my online PC time looking for cool single player maps, though I did used to play TFC a lot and am always up for some Serious Sam co-op.

Comparing PC online gaming ot console online gaming is kinda like comparing PC SP gaming to console SP gaming, you really cant.

People will own consoles and play games on them. Theres plenty of reasons for that but i think we all agree its a seperate market and will continue to be so for the forseeable future.

That said, just becuase YOU prefer PC gaming over console gaming doesnt really explain why someone will or wont jump online with a console. I dont think the market crosses over that way for most of the console gamers out there, probably a lot of people on this board have ready access ot both but not the general public.

 

[drpepper]

The user experience of paying $50 for a buddy list?

Well, with the 360, it's more than just a buddy list now. Not that I would use that feature anyways, none of my friends go online...

But I do think it's stupid that you have to pay a yearly subscription just to play online. Silver members should be allowed to play online and all the little extras should come at a fee for the extra services.

 

[Platon]

Well, with the 360, it's more than just a buddy list now. Not that I would use that feature anyways, none of my friends go online...

But I do think it's stupid that you have to pay a yearly subscription just to play online. Silver members should be allowed to play online and all the little extras should come at a fee for the extra services.

But that I guess is the difficulty with Live. Since the whole thing is about having uniformity over online games, having one name that identifies you and so on, it is a bit of a challenge to define where the "gamming" stops and were the "goodies" start, just being able to play online with a console could be considered extra...

 

[expletive]

Well, with the 360, it's more than just a buddy list now. Not that I would use that feature anyways, none of my friends go online...

But I do think it's stupid that you have to pay a yearly subscription just to play online. Silver members should be allowed to play online and all the little extras should come at a fee for the extra services.

Once the camera is released, video chat will be included as part of silver as will trailers and game demos. I dont know how the friends stuff works though if you only have silver, i.e. can you see if theyre online and what theyre doing, even if you cant join them.

The video chat stuff could pretty a pretty useful free feature for some people imo.

EDIT: To respond to what Platon is saying, wihtout a universal login that video chat/mesagin stuff becomes much more difficult. I think we'll see single sign-on becoming increasingly more relevant/important as time goes on fo all these online funcitons.

 

[fearsomepirate]

That said, just becuase YOU prefer PC gaming over console gaming doesnt really explain why someone will or wont jump online with a console.

I don't prefer PC gaming. The last time I played a PC game was 3-5 months ago, and the last time I bought a PC game was about 2 or 3 years ago. Someone early asked why people aren't playing consoles online. I gave my reasons. Heck, I don't even remember who it was, but now he knows.

 

[Sis]

Oh and there are more people online with PS2 than Xbox or X360. Who's catching up with whom?

Where do you get this from? The last I heard of any online numbers was a month before Halo 2 came out and Sony trumpeted the fact that Socom online play was greater than all of Xbox Live combined. I haven't heard anything since then.