Xbox 360 team at work on portable - Takahashi

[Black Dragon37]

Author Dean Takahashi has claimed in his new book, The Xbox 360 Uncloaked, that half of Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware team has moved onto a portable hardware project - designed to compete with Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP - since the launch of the next gen machine.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Don't get the logic behind that.

MS is only in the console sector at all because they want to ultimately be the single multi-media device that is in every home.

What benefit is it to MS to start losing money to compete in the handheld arena?

It's a completely different market. And who are they going to compete with? The PSP or the DS? Because one is a portable video game player, the other is a portable movie player.

Even if they see the PSP's "success" despite Sony's numerous mistakes and decide that they can make their own, learning from Sony's mistakes and then project to certainly have more success than the PSP.... So what? Unless they actually think they can be profitable.

Which is ridiculous. You make software, MS. Not hardware. You're losing your ass on the Xbox in order to buy marketshare, mindset, and the future.. I get that. The handheld market?

Don't get it at all.

 

[Rolf N]

Don't get the logic behind that.

MS is only in the console sector at all because they want to ultimately be the single multi-media device that is in every home.

What benefit is it to MS to start losing money to compete in the handheld arena?

It's a completely different market. And who are they going to compete with? The PSP or the DS? Because one is a portable video game player, the other is a portable movie player.

Even if they see the PSP's "success" despite Sony's numerous mistakes and decide that they can make their own, learning from Sony's mistakes and then project to certainly have more success than the PSP.... So what? Unless they actually think they can be profitable.

Which is ridiculous. You make software, MS. Not hardware. You're losing your ass on the Xbox in order to buy marketshare, mindset, and the future.. I get that. The handheld market?

Don't get it at all.

MS sees a market, and wants share, not necessarily money. Share is enough to please stock-holders, and money quite frankly isn't an issue for MS anyway.

To be polite, I have doubts that MS has an idea how to make a good handheld.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

But MS doesn't do that.

MS only gets involved in markets if they have a reason to do so, which is almsot always to protect their OS and Office Suite product lines.

MS is only in the console space because they want to own the underlying OS that is being used to connect the refrigerator to the tv to the computer to the air conditioning.

MS is only competing with Google because they are afraid that Google will ultimately remove the need for Windows or Word.

I don't see how the PSP or the DS threaten MS in any way.

 

[darkblu]

MS sees a market, and wants share, not necessarily money. Share is enough to please stock-holders, and money quite frankly isn't an issue for MS anyway.

yep, they have totally different issues, mainly technological (until they acquire the right experts).

To be polite, I have doubts that MS has an idea how to make a good handheld.

since when is that a stopping factor for them?

 

[AW0L]

i personally dont think they will get into the handheld market. what i do see is the division moving to support Win portable OS systems that are in palm, phones and mini pc's.

why get a psp or ds when you can get a handheld PC that has games, powerpoint, excel, email, chat, file sharing/storage/transporting , camera, video camera, and a phone all in one, oh yea more games a micro/mini pc that does what a normal pc does. and have it wide spread as ipod,. this will kill both the DS and PSP indirectly.

doing such a move will draw the palm people/ gamers/pc heads/ and the rich buisness types together for a very wide market and being MS having a almost monopoly in this field fom the get go will entrench them in this catagory semi permentaly. Moving there game division early on into this field is probably used to diversify the total market.

and all this is within resonable price range, specially if you see how much the tech has comedown in price.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I can understand the move from the perspective of 'hell, everyone else is, why aren't we?!' I think they like the Sony dream of console combning with portable for media use. If the content delivery platform (PS online) serves both platforms directly, it adds value to both lines. If MS provide content to XB over Live!, they don't serve the handheld market directly so users will need a separate platform for that. I guess they see the convergence market is maybe happening more in the handheld space than the living room, and that's as much an area needing lock-down to MS software as any other.

 

[Acert93]

PDA sales are stalling. Having used a PDA for years I can vouch that gaming and media (like MP3s) have always been pretty nice features on a mobile device and pretty popular. The idea MS would want to further invest in mobile devices, specializing on gaming, is not a surprise. They already have a large games division, OS, and partners, why not? Been pretty profitable for Nintendo.

I hope they go with their strengths and offer a lot of PDA functionality + gaming.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Well, on the hardware side we've previously already heard they have some Transmeta input for something and I don't think I'm going out on a limb suggesting that ATI could be involved on the graphics and general media side, and they have some reasonably good knowledge about this type of application. Personally, I do see this happening, but I'm wondering what they will target towards more: iPod video / portable media, PSP / portale gaming or both. If its both it will be interesting to see how they compromise (I'm not convinced of PSP's use as a media device myself).

 

[Guden Oden]

MS sees a market, and wants share, not necessarily money. Share is enough to please stock-holders

That's not true at all. Many holders aren't at all pleased MS swilled away 4+ billion $ last gen on a games console failure.

and money quite frankly isn't an issue for MS anyway.

It is if you're only spending it, not making.

 

[Lazy8s]

While Sony and Microsoft have been climbing over one another for control of the living room, trying to secure the spot as host to the mass of consumers looking for the best access point to personal computing and multimedia, that access point has gone from the PC, skipped right over the living room, and headed straight to the cellphone. If Microsoft wants in on the future computing market that's many times bigger than all of the other markets combined, they're going to have to deal with companies like Nokia more than any game company.

 

[assen]

There has been a recurring theme of "Xbox performance in a handheld in several years' time" in various Microsoft-related presentations (GDC, Meltdown etc.) so I'll go out on a limb and predict they are targeting Xbox1 compatibility.

 

[DudeMiester]

That's not true at all. Many holders aren't at all pleased MS swilled away 4+ billion $ last gen on a games console failure.

It is if you're only spending it, not making.

Well if you've got more cash then Exxon, you got to do something with it!

 

[pc999]

Opera on DS may be a good reason for MS?

 

[Qroach]

That's not true at all. Many holders aren't at all pleased MS swilled away 4+ billion $ last gen on a games console failure.

I don't recall seeing any reports of unhappy MS share holders duirng this time. Infact they got a dividend, didn't they? not sure where you get your information.

 

[Lazy8s]

Video games are outlined to investors as one of Microsoft's select market pillars of business to which they will support with the full resources of the company.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Microsoft exec dismisses Xbox handheld rumours
Neil Thompson, head of Xbox for Northern and Eastern Europe
...
'We're not even thinking about that,' says Thompson
...
But speaking to gadget website T3, Thompson said: "We’re not even thinking about that at the moment. Handhelds, in the way you would think about a handheld like a PSP? No."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=16990
Sounds like handheld device if anything, but not a PSP type device.

 

[Xmas]

Maybe they are planning an Origami UMPC suitable for gaming.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Well, Gates has made many statements over the past years about the emphasis he wants to put on cellphones, PDAs and the like. The small, mobile electronics industry is where he sees the next growth area and he wants all those devices to run on Windows.

That I understand. But a handheld Xbox in the manner of the DS or PSP? I'd actually say there's more concern over where that market is actually going (to exist or not) than concern over trying to grab a piece of the market.

And I think the PSP is prime example of that. Is it a game player? Is it a video player? Does it succeed at either, or does it fail at both?

You start adding in phone, pda, ipod, video, etc.. into a movie/game player and you end up with a huge ugly device that nobody wants.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And I think the PSP is prime example of that. Is it a game player? Is it a video player? Does it succeed at either, or does it fail at both?

It certainly succeeds at both. How much portable video watching is has yet to be seen, but I think PSP does what it does fairly well, and it's certainly doing what it does well enough to attract millions of customers. Personally I feel for portable gaming you don't want any smaller. There's no need to make it large to accomodate extra functionality as you suggest. A PSP type device, that size, with touch screen for PDA and extra functionality would probably be the ideal device for larger functions. For smaller functions, MP3 playback, mobile phone, you'd be better of with as small as possible.

There's also the idea of small devices like mobile phones having projector tech for incorporating large screens. Maybe in the future you're 1080p TV will fit in your pocket with movies streamed over the mobile network and projected onto a wall?