Why does MS hate attaching "Computer" tag with XBox?

[Deepak]

I didn't follow PS1 gen, but since Sony launched PS2, they didn't shy away from PS2 being perceived as a computer, it has KB+M support etc. PS3 seems to be heading same direction.

But IIRC about XB launch, MS made every effort to refute claims that XB was a PC disguised as a console. They were almost paranoid about it. Every interview begin with question if XB was a PC in disguise. XB doesn't have KB+M support till this day (am I right?). 360 is following the same path, no KB+M support for games (FPS atleast).

Why were (and still are) they so defensive about it?

 

[FireGoblin]

Because Microsoft has HUGELY profitable relationships with PC manufacturers.

If they advertised XBox 360 as a PC that is half the price of a Dell with double the performance (sic) you would soon find Dell selling frontline PC's with Linux preinstalled, and OpenOffice as the default productivity software package.

Micorosft's entire business model would come crashing down if they tried to call a bespoke hardware unit a PC!

 

[Andy]

I believe if what you are saying is correct, it would be due to the xbox having off the shelf or parts very closely resembling a PCs, x86 hardware, similar yet customised GPU etc. Now depending on who MS were marketting the xbox to, would many (ignorant) PC gamers want to buy a console if they knew that it was very similar to their own system except with less ram etc and the majority of the games released on xbox also got released on PC?

I used to play the Xbox a lot more before I upgraded the PC, now the xbox mainly gets used as a DVD player in my brother's room. I am hoping X360 will show a lot more diversity this time round, but I fear it may have a similar fate to its predecessor, and share the majority of its games with PC, but at least more Japanese developers are getting on board this time with titles such as Resident Evil 5, and a couple of Japanese RPGs. I guess time will tell though.

 

[Oboro Shogun]

I don't know if I agree with the Xbox sharing many of it's better titles with PC.. Games like Ninja Gaiden, the Otogi series, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jade Empire, Forza and PGR, Halo 2, Dead Or Alive....where nowhere but on Xbox.

It's funny cause it seems like PC gamers and console gamers can't find a decent variety in each others libraries haha. When I look at my PC library I've got pretty much just fps games, cause that's all I can find other than Sim, RTS and the occasional decent 3rd person action. When I look at consoles I see so many original titles on all 3. I just find it funny.

...Oh yeah and Shenmue 2!!

 

[_xxx_]

That's just because XBox 1 was indeed just a PC in disguise and they want to get rid of that image, nothing more than that.

 

[Mendel]

Well, I have a standard keyboard and mouse for my xbox and I use them with the gentoox linux. Too bad the version I use doesn't support HD, but its ok for basic websurfing and irc.

 

[Deepak]

I just love the way Sony wants to stick computer tag to their PS2 (and PS3) and want people to see them as Computer Entertainment System and not just game console, whereas MS does exactly opposite. Different goals I guess.

 

[Shark Sandwich]

When Xbox was first announced, I remember everybody criticized it because it was "just a closed-system PC with off the shelf parts!" I think this is a pretty unattractive prospect for most gamers. PC gamers want a system they are free to build, upgrade, and modify, and typical console gamers generally weren't interested in PC-style games.

Also, MS went to great lengths to ensure game developers that the Xbox would never be marketed as anything other than a gaming console. They wanted to show the world that they were serious about competing with Nintendo and Sony, and weren't just making an all-in-one closed-box computer that also plays games.

 

[Mendel]

Even NES was a FAMIly COMputer in japan

 

[London Geezer]

Anything that computes numbers, bits and bytes and licks and flops is a computer for god's sake...

 

[aranfell]

Lower tariffs (at one time)

Sony would have paid lower import tariffs if they could have convinced the European Union that the PS2 was a computer, not a game console. Here's a sample link:

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-1-2003-46045.asp

This link says that the tariffs were going to be eliminated for both computers and game consoles in 2004, so MS would have no such reason to argue that Xbox360 is a computer. Aside from vendor relationships, I imagine (with no data) that they'd like to avoid the "PC" tag because of the (quite accurate!) perception that PCs are confusing and hard for non-experts to use.

Aranfell

PS: Fifty years ago, a "computer" was a person whose job was to add and multiply numbers. Hence the early term "electronic computer" to distinguish the machines from the people. Then there were "automatically programmable computers" to distinguish the new ones from the kind with plugboards, then eventually "personal computers" to distiguish the kind one person could affford and (maybe) operate from the kind that filled rooms. But are "game consoles" just another kind of computer? They contain computers, yes, but they are turnkey systems. So to me, they aren't general purpose computers. But it's a fuzzy distinction and. I expect the distinctions to get even fuzzier with time.