Peter Moore on a worldwide launch

[Shifty Geezer]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12214

Microsoft vice president Peter Moore has conceded that organising a global launch for the Xbox 360 is proving to be a huge challenge, admitting: "If we knew what we were getting into, we might not have done it."
...
Speaking to the BBC, Moore said: "There's a reason no one has done this before and we are figuring that out."
"We're going to ship all around the world; how we're going to do that, I don't know. We're going to rent every 747 we can find," he added.

Perhaps this'll be the one and only worldwide launch? Is there any reason this is harder than the usual supplying the world after launch other than the volumes required?

 

[London Geezer]

I've read somewhere that MS intend to make 150.000 X360 each month for the first year. Not a lot but it's to be expected.
Not sure how many they have made already, i suppose they will have about a million ready at launch (figure pulled out from my very nice ass).

I can only imagine how slow PS3 production is going to be...

 

[Gholbine]

Wouldn't Sony have more production capacity than Microsoft?

And wouldn't they have already made millions of Cells so they can focus on RSX 100% for a while?

 

[London Geezer]

Wouldn't Sony have more production capacity than Microsoft?

And wouldn't they have already made millions of Cells so they can focus on RSX 100% for a while?

Well not many people on here will be able to answer those questions!

I think Cell and RSX are the least of Sony's problem. It's that Bluray drive that i expect will make things a lot more complicated than we thought. If they need to keep price down and still have a working drive, that will take some real skill. And time.

 

[Gholbine]

Yeah, I sort of forgot about Blu-Ray

Interesting to see how Sony handles that, although I think it's fairly safe to say that Blu-Ray production techniques/costs is very high on Sony's list. At the top of the list, probably.

 

[Harry Ola]

I did wonder if some of this was aimed at Sony. Perhaps Peter Moore is trying to disuade Sony from trying a similar world wide launch, and hence extend the time advantage of launching first in some territories.

Or it could be a case of getting the bad news in early, so that when it turns out OK, everyone thinks well done MS.

Or it could be they are making a pigs ear of launching this console and this is just one part of it. Yeah, it'll be this one.

 

[two]

DC Again? heheheh

 

[London Geezer]

DC Again? heheheh

Please stop trolling these boards. You made the exact same comment on this thread last month http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=571744#post571744 and got it locked by Sonic.

Thanks.




(BTW Am i the all-seeing-all-knowing or what...!)

 

[Powderkeg]

Wouldn't Sony have more production capacity than Microsoft?

And wouldn't they have already made millions of Cells so they can focus on RSX 100% for a while?

Sony had massive supply problems with the PS2, despite it being a staggered launch. The PS3 has even more unproven tech in it, so I would be very surprised if they could avoid having supply problems as well.

And, I think both companies will "suffer" from a higher than expected demand.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's a difference between the expected supply problems of a staggered launch and a worldwide launch I'd guess, seeing as MS are talking about it proving very difficult and suggesting if they had known beforehand what it would take (bad research there!) they probably would have stuck with the tried staggered approach.

Still, going through that difficult worldwide launch process might be very beneficial, as it could set XB360 up in some territories many months before the rivals appear.

 

[London Geezer]

Sony had massive supply problems with the PS2, despite it being a staggered launch. The PS3 has even more unproven tech in it, so I would be very surprised if they could avoid having supply problems as well.

And, I think both companies will "suffer" from a higher than expected demand.

I still expect Sony to be in more trouble though. Not only demand will be higher, but that Bluray drive gives me the creeps. I can't imagine the amounts of faulty early units.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a comment on Sony's manufacturing abilities or Quality Control, just saying that a new low-cost Bluray drive WILL be troubly. Even a "simple" DVD drive on PS2 was troubly.

 

[EndR]

I've read somewhere that MS intend to make 150.000 X360 each month for the first year. Not a lot but it's to be expected.
Not sure how many they have made already, i suppose they will have about a million ready at launch (figure pulled out from my very nice ass).

I can only imagine how slow PS3 production is going to be...

Not quite..
It was more aprox 100 000 a week til launch and after launch (or close to launch) it would have been up:ed to 150 000 a week.

150 000 a month is like.."A worldwide-release.. forgeraborit"

 

[London Geezer]

Not quite..
It was more aprox 100 000 a week til launch and after launch (or close to launch) it would have been up:ed to 150 000 a week.

150 000 a month is like.."A worldwide-release.. forgeraborit"

Oh yeah then maybe it was "a week"...

Well 150k units a week is quite a lot, everything considered....

 

[mckmas8808]

Really interesting comment. I can't wait to see how it plays out.

 

[Powderkeg]

There's a difference between the expected supply problems of a staggered launch and a worldwide launch I'd guess, seeing as MS are talking about it proving very difficult and suggesting if they had known beforehand what it would take (bad research there!) they probably would have stuck with the tried staggered approach.

Still, going through that difficult worldwide launch process might be very beneficial, as it could set XB360 up in some territories many months before the rivals appear.

Based on Peter Moore's comments, I would think the problems are logistical, rather than a shortage of supplies.

"We're going to ship all around the world; how we're going to do that, I don't know. We're going to rent every 747 we can find,"

 

[Carl B]

Sony had massive supply problems with the PS2, despite it being a staggered launch. The PS3 has even more unproven tech in it, so I would be very surprised if they could avoid having supply problems as well.

And, I think both companies will "suffer" from a higher than expected demand.

Well, among other things Sony was having very real problems getting GS's fabbed; hopefully they will avoid that issue with Cell and RSX this go around. They seem to have 90nm down pat right now, and I think it was the supply issue Kutaragi was alluding to when he indicated Sony would not try and push the 65nm node until after launch.

The blu-ray player, I agree that's going to be a possible supply bottleneck. They may be sourcing some externally from their partners for a while to begin with - something that might drive up prices for them, but we'll just have to see how it plays out.

 

[pipo]

Oh yeah then maybe it was "a week"...

Well 150k units a week is quite a lot, everything considered....

Yup. It was a week.

One of those reports estimated 2 - 2,5 M units this year. FWIW.

 

[Mefisutoferesu]

Why does everyone fear blu-ray production? As far as I can tell the drive is no different than a DVD, the only real changes are the hueristics and the laser, or so I think, and as far as I'm aware the laser spec has been down pat for quite some time, which means Sony's fabs can and may be cranking them out as we speak. GPU wise Sony should be OK, if TSMC can produce good yeilds with Xenos, RSX should fair rather well with Sony's new advanced fabs. CELL should hold up too. Sony's already produced them for dev kits, so we know the tech isn't screwy in production, so that a dodged bullet. Yeah, the size, but Sony seems to have calculated that with the 8th SPE, so I imagine there aren't any surprises and they have yeilds at an acceptable level.

 

[Carl B]

My 'fear' on the PS3 blu-ray drives stems primarily from the size and complexity of the read heads themselves, rather than any questions on the specs/standards. The only ones I've seen are huge compared to the more mature DVD heads. Now - I did also see recently that Panasonic has a blu-ray notebook drive coming out early 2006, so maybe the read head for blu-ray has already been significantly micronized. Everythign else aside though, just on a volume basis it would mean that someone has devoted significant production capacity soley to blu-ray head production for purposes of outfitting the PS3, since I am not sure what volume manufacturers on the whole will be producing at so early into blu-ray's life. Maybe the CE arm of Sony is already gearing up to help the SCE division out on this though.

 

[London Geezer]

Why does everyone fear blu-ray production? As far as I can tell the drive is no different than a DVD, the only real changes are the hueristics and the laser, or so I think, and as far as I'm aware the laser spec has been down pat for quite some time, which means Sony's fabs can and may be cranking them out as we speak. GPU wise Sony should be OK, if TSMC can produce good yeilds with Xenos, RSX should fair rather well with Sony's new advanced fabs. CELL should hold up too. Sony's already produced them for dev kits, so we know the tech isn't screwy in production, so that a dodged bullet. Yeah, the size, but Sony seems to have calculated that with the 8th SPE, so I imagine there aren't any surprises and they have yeilds at an acceptable level.

Well it's hardly "no different from DVD". Just the precision is MUCH higher, for obvious reasons. That's what creates problems. Then the laser, and making parts that are cheap but will work.

It's a matter of cost and manufacturability ratio. You can get drives now no problem, but at what price?

It's not a "just like a DVD drive". If it were, we would have had Bluray and HDDVD drives for a long time already.