Xbox 360 Owns Nearly Half of Console Market

[Lunar Templar]

nope!!

PS2 here :3

couldn't give me a 360.
well you could, but I'd pawn it and get something better, like a Snickers bar

 

[Terminate421]

2. Loss of the Xbox360 will have traumatic results to the market. And before you say "Oh you could just switch to PC games or PS3 games". Fuck that. The Xbox is a great system that allows many media functions for a small fee. Which I am happy to pay.

None of that matters. This is a patent lawsuit in the courts, not a bill in front of Congress. The Xbox's success just means Microsoft owes more damages for the infringement.

I don't think we'll see the Xbox banned for any significant length of time, but only because that costs Microsoft more money than the lawsuit is worth. They'll negotiate a settlement at that point, some sort of patent cross-licensing deal along with a sum of money paid to Motorola/Google.

OT: That claim is ridiculous. If you own a current gen console, and particularly if you own only one, you probably have a Wii.

I figured that on my own. The counter post to me saying "sweet, its doing well, I just hope it isn't banned" was me getting peeved.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I find this statement ...

' With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment '

... to be very alarming.
Am I wrong in seeing what little PC development we have die as developers will just let PC gamers play Xbox versions on the PC ? Rather than develop / port a specific PC verion ( port ) ?

Think about it ... if the Win8 takes off, and reaches the majority of PC gaming rigs why bother going to all the extra hassle when those guys can play the Xbox version.
MS wins, as all the games will be Xbox games, and not divided between Xbox on a console and Xbox on a PC sales... as well as nab that corner of the market for Xbox.
Publishers win , PC turns into a console , no more complicated multi hardware configuration nightmare of a platform that just refuses to die to cater to.

The only question remains though is what happens when the new Xbox (720?) comes out.

Meh , whatever its not like anything can be done about it in this gaming era.

That's a bit implausible. Microsoft doesn't control the PC industry, only the windows OS.

Even if Windows 8 supports xbox games, the hardware mess that is the desktop PC is going to remain. The only thing microsoft can do about that is some kind of weird emulation-like thing that makes it look like all gaming PC's have identical specs, when in fact they don't.

Of course, to pull off that little stunt would mean that the minimum system requirements for running Xbox games on a PC would have to exceed the specs for an actual xbox, and that the presence of even more powerful hardware than the minimum required to run an Xbox game reliably on PC will simply be hidden from the games.

Seems a bit improbable.

 

[Epona]

Wow!

1) The Escapist should have caught the bad numbers. Everyone else did!

2) Do people really believe to ban or not to ban is based on popularity?

 

[ASnogarD]

I find this statement ...

' With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment '

... to be very alarming.
Am I wrong in seeing what little PC development we have die as developers will just let PC gamers play Xbox versions on the PC ? Rather than develop / port a specific PC verion ( port ) ?

Think about it ... if the Win8 takes off, and reaches the majority of PC gaming rigs why bother going to all the extra hassle when those guys can play the Xbox version.
MS wins, as all the games will be Xbox games, and not divided between Xbox on a console and Xbox on a PC sales... as well as nab that corner of the market for Xbox.
Publishers win , PC turns into a console , no more complicated multi hardware configuration nightmare of a platform that just refuses to die to cater to.

The only question remains though is what happens when the new Xbox (720?) comes out.

Meh , whatever its not like anything can be done about it in this gaming era.

That's a bit implausible. Microsoft doesn't control the PC industry, only the windows OS.

Even if Windows 8 supports xbox games, the hardware mess that is the desktop PC is going to remain. The only thing microsoft can do about that is some kind of weird emulation-like thing that makes it look like all gaming PC's have identical specs, when in fact they don't.

Of course, to pull off that little stunt would mean that the minimum system requirements for running Xbox games on a PC would have to exceed the specs for an actual xbox, and that the presence of even more powerful hardware than the minimum required to run an Xbox game reliably on PC will simply be hidden from the games.

Seems a bit improbable.

Usually a emulated system is done by studying the chipsets used and experimenting with the code, as the owner of the console MS can make a emulator much easier and more efficient than is typical... and being that the 360 is mostly based on Dx9 technology and on older hardware than typical gaming rigs that would be able to support Win8 ... its feasable in that regards.
The only question is really what happens when the next xbox comes out.

MS doesnt need to own the PC to control it, if it makes it easy to play 360 games on a PC then publishers will simply not need to support the PC as a seperate platform and as it means savings and less hassle the publishers will jump at the chance.
Its not totally so out there that its on par with Martian invasions and such... its just a question on how the market will take it, and will PC development still be normal by indies / PC centric devs... if not how will THEY react, mass switch to Linux ?

I admit it is a looooongshot, but it isnt that difficult to imagine.

 

[gigastar]

1. Despite this thread being about the Xbox...don't post it if you don't have it, let alone like it or want it. Thats like me going to a Burger king and shouting "Everyone go to the Chick-fil-a across the street!"

Basically what this M$ rep has said is "Buy more Xbox's, everybody has one!", which is obviously not true. Im merely stating that, though not in a direct fashion.

2. Loss of the Xbox360 will have traumatic results to the market. And before you say "Oh you could just switch to PC games or PS3 games". Fuck that. The Xbox is a great system that allows many media functions for a small fee. Which I am happy to pay.

The only traumatic impact on the market would be on Microsoft's bank accounts and specialist stores, the former which i know sees enough money through each year to fund countries, the latter of which is on hard times anyway. And when people do switch to PC or PS3 the shortfalls left by a hypothetical dissapearance of the Xbox will be filled out for retailers from increased PS3 and PC sales, and Steam will see ever more users.

And the peripheral services that the 360 enjoys are either also available on PS3, only cheaper as you dont have to pay for XBL, or not available because M$ probably nailed the providers with an exclusivity contract. As is the case that plauges most inde games where Microsoft is involved.

Also i dont remember remarking on wanting to see the Xbox brand die in a fire, though dont get me wrong i would like to see it happen, but im not sure why you would bring up a counter argument without the presence of the argument its meant to counter.

3. Hardware malfunctions? Thats practically gone now. Lets ignore the fact that they've addressed the issue as best as any company could have handled it for the past 5 years.

In all seriousness, they should not have existed to begin with. I dont know about you, but if a system i intended to take to market sporadically melted, carved up discs and would inevitably be broken by firmware updates i wouldnt let it out in that state, not send it out anyway to beat my biggest compeitior who did take the time to make sure thier systems worked as inteded.

 

[Terminate421]

1. Despite this thread being about the Xbox...don't post it if you don't have it, let alone like it or want it. Thats like me going to a Burger king and shouting "Everyone go to the Chick-fil-a across the street!"

Basically what this M$ rep has said is "Buy more Xbox's, everybody has one!", which is obviously not true. Im merely stating that, though not in a direct fashion.

2. Loss of the Xbox360 will have traumatic results to the market. And before you say "Oh you could just switch to PC games or PS3 games". Fuck that. The Xbox is a great system that allows many media functions for a small fee. Which I am happy to pay.

The only traumatic impact on the market would be on Microsoft's bank accounts and specialist stores, the former which i know sees enough money through each year to fund countries, the latter of which is on hard times anyway. And when people do switch to PC or PS3 the shortfalls left by a hypothetical dissapearance of the Xbox will be filled out for retailers from increased PS3 and PC sales, and Steam will see ever more users.

And the peripheral services that the 360 enjoys are either also available on PS3, only cheaper as you dont have to pay for XBL, or not available because M$ probably nailed the providers with an exclusivity contract. As is the case that plauges most inde games where Microsoft is involved.

Also i dont remember remarking on wanting to see the Xbox brand die in a fire, though dont get me wrong i would like to see it happen, but im not sure why you would bring up a counter argument without the presence of the argument its meant to counter.

3. Hardware malfunctions? Thats practically gone now. Lets ignore the fact that they've addressed the issue as best as any company could have handled it for the past 5 years.

In all seriousness, they should not have existed to begin with. I dont know about you, but if a system i intended to take to market sporadically melted, carved up discs and would inevitably be broken by firmware updates i wouldnt let it out in that state, not send it out anyway to beat my biggest compeitior who did take the time to make sure thier systems worked as inteded.

Okay, I can't take you seriously anymore. Anyone who uses M$ is fucking insane.

or retailers from increased PS3 and PC sales, and Steam will see ever more users.

Yeah, that only proves my damned point on this. In all seriousness, you've come down as an Microsoft hater with a passion for other things. There is no point to your posts, I saw those rather pointless and childish insults and just gave up on you.

Don't like Microsoft? Fine. Don't take it up with me.

Also, as for damages to the industry, go out onto the street and ask a complete stranger if they know that they can play Unreal Tournament on PC. There is a 90% chance that they won't have a fucking clue what you are talking about. This is where the Xbox is needed, it along with the Wii and PS3 have created a balance of consoles that each have different alternatives to what your scenario encompasses. Simplicity itself. So by removing it, you don't have increased sales in other areas, you just put a big hole in the industry and killed thousands of jobs.

Next time before you justify your reasons, think about the other things besides some big company gets hit. Microsoft isn't some machine thats out to kill the industry or even feed of humans. Its a mass of people getting their jobs done to the best of their ability, in this case HUMANS.

I'm not even going to read your next post now, congratulations.

 

[Warforger]

Most of those sales come from people who had to replace their Xboxs after the RROD

I have had mine for years, don't plan to replace it until the next-generation consoles come out.

Well there's that and the fact that most multiplatform games tend to sell the most on Xbox so if there aren't more Xbox's there's certainly more Xbox people buying games than other consoles.

 

[gigastar]

1. Despite this thread being about the Xbox...don't post it if you don't have it, let alone like it or want it. Thats like me going to a Burger king and shouting "Everyone go to the Chick-fil-a across the street!"

Basically what this M$ rep has said is "Buy more Xbox's, everybody has one!", which is obviously not true. Im merely stating that, though not in a direct fashion.

2. Loss of the Xbox360 will have traumatic results to the market. And before you say "Oh you could just switch to PC games or PS3 games". Fuck that. The Xbox is a great system that allows many media functions for a small fee. Which I am happy to pay.

The only traumatic impact on the market would be on Microsoft's bank accounts and specialist stores, the former which i know sees enough money through each year to fund countries, the latter of which is on hard times anyway. And when people do switch to PC or PS3 the shortfalls left by a hypothetical dissapearance of the Xbox will be filled out for retailers from increased PS3 and PC sales, and Steam will see ever more users.

And the peripheral services that the 360 enjoys are either also available on PS3, only cheaper as you dont have to pay for XBL, or not available because M$ probably nailed the providers with an exclusivity contract. As is the case that plauges most inde games where Microsoft is involved.

Also i dont remember remarking on wanting to see the Xbox brand die in a fire, though dont get me wrong i would like to see it happen, but im not sure why you would bring up a counter argument without the presence of the argument its meant to counter.

3. Hardware malfunctions? Thats practically gone now. Lets ignore the fact that they've addressed the issue as best as any company could have handled it for the past 5 years.

In all seriousness, they should not have existed to begin with. I dont know about you, but if a system i intended to take to market sporadically melted, carved up discs and would inevitably be broken by firmware updates i wouldnt let it out in that state, not send it out anyway to beat my biggest compeitior who did take the time to make sure thier systems worked as inteded.

Okay, I can't take you seriously anymore. Anyone who uses M$ is fucking insane.

or retailers from increased PS3 and PC sales, and Steam will see ever more users.

Yeah, that only proves my damned point on this. In all seriousness, you've come down as an Microsoft hater with a passion for other things. There is no point to your posts, I saw those rather pointless and childish insults and just gave up on you.

Don't like Microsoft? Fine. Don't take it up with me.

Also, as for damages to the industry, go out onto the street and ask a complete stranger if they know that they can play Unreal Tournament on PC. There is a 90% chance that they won't have a fucking clue what you are talking about. This is where the Xbox is needed, it along with the Wii and PS3 have created a balance of consoles that each have different alternatives to what your scenario encompasses. Simplicity itself. So by removing it, you don't have increased sales in other areas, you just put a big hole in the industry and killed thousands of jobs.

Next time before you justify your reasons, think about the other things besides some big company gets hit. Microsoft isn't some machine thats out to kill the industry or even feed of humans. Its a mass of people getting their jobs done to the best of their ability, in this case HUMANS.

So you call me insane for using shorthand typing, disregard half my points and fail to properly address the remaining ones and take my caustic sense of humor as childish insults. You obviously need things spooled out clearly.

Firstly my hatred is not directed at Microsoft, its at the Xbox 360 due to the immense issues i had with it before putting it out of its misery and buying a PS3. And for Games for Windows Live, which is the gaming world equivalent of the G-Wiz in the world of cars. Namely, a shitty repugnant excuse of a service/car that has only token reasons for existing and people still think its good to use, though for differing reasons.

Secondly if you were to go to 'a complete stranger' and ask them about Unreal Tournament, chances are they wouldnt know what you was talking about anyway because such a person might not even be a gamer. Never mind that UT is and always has been a realtively niche PC multiplayer shooter, where the 360 multiplayer shooters have always been Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty The Latest One), not the shooter that was released on 360 nearly a year after its PC counterpart and over 6 months after its PS3 counterpart.

Third, you took it up with me that i didnt like Microsoft first, as my post was the first quoted.

And since you brought up the hypothetical balance of the console gaming market, it was balanced before the Xbox made its debut. The only reasons the original Xbox even managed to succeed in the shadow of the almighty PS2 was because it was the first console to introduce multiplayer to the home console market, and Halo: CE was just that good. All the existance of the 360 has really proven is that todays people will rage for half a decade on internet forums about which console is better. Just as yesterdays people still rage today over whether ITS or Unix was the better operating systems.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Thanks to Kinect? HA!

I know the 360 is doing well here in America but what about Europe and Japan?

I can tell you with absolute certainty they've sold at least 10 in Europe.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I find this statement ...

' With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment '

... to be very alarming.
Am I wrong in seeing what little PC development we have die as developers will just let PC gamers play Xbox versions on the PC ? Rather than develop / port a specific PC verion ( port ) ?

Think about it ... if the Win8 takes off, and reaches the majority of PC gaming rigs why bother going to all the extra hassle when those guys can play the Xbox version.
MS wins, as all the games will be Xbox games, and not divided between Xbox on a console and Xbox on a PC sales... as well as nab that corner of the market for Xbox.
Publishers win , PC turns into a console , no more complicated multi hardware configuration nightmare of a platform that just refuses to die to cater to.

The only question remains though is what happens when the new Xbox (720?) comes out.

Meh , whatever its not like anything can be done about it in this gaming era.

That's a bit implausible. Microsoft doesn't control the PC industry, only the windows OS.

Even if Windows 8 supports xbox games, the hardware mess that is the desktop PC is going to remain. The only thing microsoft can do about that is some kind of weird emulation-like thing that makes it look like all gaming PC's have identical specs, when in fact they don't.

Of course, to pull off that little stunt would mean that the minimum system requirements for running Xbox games on a PC would have to exceed the specs for an actual xbox, and that the presence of even more powerful hardware than the minimum required to run an Xbox game reliably on PC will simply be hidden from the games.

Seems a bit improbable.

Usually a emulated system is done by studying the chipsets used and experimenting with the code, as the owner of the console MS can make a emulator much easier and more efficient than is typical... and being that the 360 is mostly based on Dx9 technology and on older hardware than typical gaming rigs that would be able to support Win8 ... its feasable in that regards.
The only question is really what happens when the next xbox comes out.

MS doesnt need to own the PC to control it, if it makes it easy to play 360 games on a PC then publishers will simply not need to support the PC as a seperate platform and as it means savings and less hassle the publishers will jump at the chance.
Its not totally so out there that its on par with Martian invasions and such... its just a question on how the market will take it, and will PC development still be normal by indies / PC centric devs... if not how will THEY react, mass switch to Linux ?

I admit it is a looooongshot, but it isnt that difficult to imagine.

Even if you designed the system yourself, emulation isn't trivial. We know nintendo does it routinely, because that's what the virtual console amounts to.
But that doesn't mean it represents trivial hardware requirements, no matter how much you know about the system you're emulating.

The graphics hardware on an xbox is close enough to PC architecture that that's probably not a big hurdle, but emulating a triple-core CPU with a completely different instruction set than PC isn't an easy task.

What I meant by controlling the PC market though, is that they don't control what hardware anyone has. So whatever systems are implemented to get xbox games to run on PC would still create a lot of messy hardware compatibility and performance issues, and probably while giving the end-user much less control over what to do about it.
(Xbox games don't have the kind of graphics detail adjustments PC's allow.)

I guess it might make devs lives easier in some ways, but basically it would do so by pushing all of the complexity into the api, so it becomes microsoft's problem instead of the developer's.

And as you said, this would have implications for what happens with the next xbox. - altough in that case I suppose it seems much more likely that the new xbox will be more like the first-gen one. (In other words, basically a small-form-factor PC, rather than a more exotic design like the 360).

That'd just mean that 'xbox' is simply one more variant among all the other possible variations of gaming PC.

An amusing thought in some ways, really... XD

Not that I really feel the need to complain about it in the end. There's a few Xbox games I wouldn't mind playing, but I could never be bothered buying one.
If they run on my gaming PC... Well, that's that solved. XD

 

[Evil Smurf]

I have a wii

 

[VoidWanderer]

They won't ban Xbox from the US at this point, considering how popular it is.

You are talking about a country where a man can shoot his neighbour's dog with a pellet gun, get bitten by said dog, sue the owner of the dog and win.

Where a woman who gets her arm broken when a child runs into her and she falls down, by the way, it was HER kid!

Where verbal insults are now counted as a type of terrorism?

A country whose legal system would get Adolf HItler of War Crimes, and you think that XBox won't get banned?

The ONLY reason it might not is the money it brings in...

Good luck with that.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Somewhere, someone believes these numbers...

 

[Sovereignty]

Am I the only PC gamer who came to this article just to giggle at all the rampant fanboi-ism?

Seriously though it's just funny. Both systems are old now, have hit their ceilings potential wise, and are merely coasting along by being one notch above, "Casual gaming".

If your platform needs defending, it's not that great to begin with.

 

[Krion_Vark]

I think the WiiU is a doomed machine, but not for the reason you're thinking. As it's designed right now, it's on par with the 360 and PS3. Microsoft plans on releasing their next console in 3 years. If the WiiU doesn't pick up as a super machine(which I don't really see it doing) right out of the gate, then I don't think it's going to catch up at all. Sony needs to stop jerking around their customers. While the PS3 isn't a bad console, it too long to get over the fact that the major selling feature was Blu-Ray.

I really don't think we need a new console that does above and beyond for graphics. Yeah it would be cool but the graphics we have now are fine. I don't want something that is 500-600 dollars at retail. The games that are in house made for the Wii still look great even if it isn't up to par with the other consoles.

I do agree with Jim on his latest episode having something look realistic doesn't mean it looks good.
I want developers to make games that take advantage of the systems to their fullest and having frag fests look as realistic as possible I don't think do that.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I find this statement ...

' With Xbox on Windows 8 devices, we rapidly accelerate the reach of Xbox entertainment '

... to be very alarming.
Am I wrong in seeing what little PC development we have die as developers will just let PC gamers play Xbox versions on the PC ? Rather than develop / port a specific PC verion ( port ) ?

Think about it ... if the Win8 takes off, and reaches the majority of PC gaming rigs why bother going to all the extra hassle when those guys can play the Xbox version.
MS wins, as all the games will be Xbox games, and not divided between Xbox on a console and Xbox on a PC sales... as well as nab that corner of the market for Xbox.
Publishers win , PC turns into a console , no more complicated multi hardware configuration nightmare of a platform that just refuses to die to cater to.

The only question remains though is what happens when the new Xbox (720?) comes out.

Meh , whatever its not like anything can be done about it in this gaming era.

That's assuming anyone will get Windows 8. EVERYONE I talk to says it's going to be worse than Vista in terms of take up. The University I work at least tested Vista before choosing to stay with XP, they're are not even going to bother with Windows 8.

 

[Hateren47]

Windows 8 won't play Xbox 360 games. Come on guys... First, Most computers wouldn't be able to emulate an Xbox 360. And second, most PC gamers wouldn't want to play (more expensive) Xbox games with inferior graphics any way.

"Xbox on Windows 8" (or any version of windows) is just the new name for "Games for Windows Live [http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/PC/Games]".

 

[HellenicWarrior]

I find this difficult to believe, and who woulda thought, the numbers don't add up

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

3. Hardware malfunctions? Thats practically gone now. Lets ignore the fact that they've addressed the issue as best as any company could have handled it for the past 5 years.

Sorry; this made me laugh since it obviously never occurred to you that they should never have had such an obvious failure in the hardware in the first place. They took 5 years to fix something that should never been a problem.

I do agree with you about one thing though, the Xbox being removed from one of its largest markets would cause a lot of issues economically, particularly in terms of job loss.

Am I the only PC gamer who came to this article just to giggle at all the rampant fanboi-ism?

Seriously though it's just funny. Both systems are old now, have hit their ceilings potential wise, and are merely coasting along by being one notch above, "Casual gaming".

If your platform needs defending, it's not that great to begin with.

Nope, I came here for that reason as well, console wars are so amusing.

The hardware is out-dated to the point where I can actually see the difference between a PS3/Xbox and a PC, same monitor, same cords; PS3 and Xbox look like crap next to my PC.