So now that we know 360 is coming third...

[Shpeshal Ed]

What does it do for MS' next console?

Personally, I think MS needs to now concentrate on 2 things. 1) Profit and 2) Customer....relations, if you will.

They're going to have to go the Nintendo route next gen. In other words, keep the existing hardware with a new console design and a new marketing strategy.

Basically they need to take the existing 360 hardware and architecture and simply rebuild it and modify it slightly. For example, instead of 512MB unified, give the developers 1GB. Obviously use a Blu-ray drive also. Now not only do they need to give consumers a minmum 100GB HDD, I believe (now power or mage can confirm whether this is plausible) MS can give developers, 100GB flash mem to use for caching and installs. A hidden 100GB that the user doesn't know about, that allows developers to create true seamless, loadless worlds without texture pop-up. I mean, we have 16GB and 32GB memory cards in 2008, what do you think we'll have in 2012?

Imagine what developers could do on boosted 360 hardware WITH a standard 100GB to cache/install to and WITH the added capacity of Blu-ray?

This would allow MS to make huge profits on the console from day one. Makes the console 100% backwards compatible with existing 360 games, PLUS allows users to keep old accessories. Go the Sony route and keep the 360 controller and cement it's place as the greatest controller ever by changing the d-pad. But still allow users to use their old peripherals.

Again, using the old hardware allows them to make a very small console, and basicaly they can use 45nm from the start allowing for a super cool, quite and much more reliable system from the get go.

THEY COULD then spend more time and money on things like marketing and bc for xbox 1 games. They could spend a LOT of time making sure ALL xbox 1 games are fully bc.

With al the money they'd be making, they could also afford to drop the price on Live subscriptions. Imagine, if they can get 6 or 7 million to pay full price, what could they do if they turned around and said "OK, Live is now only $10US/$30AU per year". You'd still be making money off it, but you'd almost double your gold subscriptions. I'm sure the fence sitters and "bu bu bu bu PSN is fwee" crouwd would jump in in a heartbeat.

Sudden;y they'd be selling more Arcade games, more themes, more gamerpics and the like.

Not to mention, they could introduce a Wiimote rip-off that comes bundled with the console. This gives consumers 2 controllers from the start and allows developers many choices. You could get your lazy devs taking the mini-game route for the Wiimote rip-off and get your more traditional devs continuing on the action train. Some will even combine both.

I can see this track would probably mean they finish third at worst. But if done well, and with a lot of developer support, they could manage second. First would be a stratch depending on what the competition does. BUT I think taking this track would make them a shittonne of cash, and go along way to restoring customer confidence in the Xbox brand, which will bode well for them on their 4th console (which would happen if they took this route).

[vrrroom]

I honestly don't think there will be a next console for MS. I'm not trolling at all; I think MS will focus on making GfW their new gaming brand.

[Shpeshal Ed]

Originally Posted by vrrroom

I honestly don't think there will be a next console for MS. I'm not trolling at all; I think MS will focus on making GfW their new gaming brand.

I thought the same thing until I read somewhere they're already planning the new one.

[PirateThom]

Their problem is that they have appealed to exactly the same demographic as the XBox and almost all of their sales are in America.

They didn't do anything "wrong", but when you consider the most popular games on 360 it's still a shooter console to most. They hype the hell out of games that would sell anyway like Halo, but basically ignore the games that could bring new customers like Lost Odyseey.

[Azt3k]

is this a fact?

[Sheff159]

Originally Posted by PirateThom

Their problem is that they have appealed to exactly the same demographic as the XBox and almost all of their sales are in America.

They didn't do anything "wrong", but when you consider the most popular games on 360 it's still a shooter console to most. They hype the hell out of games that would sell anyway like Halo, but basically ignore the games that could bring new customers like Lost Odyseey.

Are you serious? I see LO commercials all over the place. They are advertising it like crazy. Im sure that they are advertising it even harder in Japan...

[Juno]

I honestly don't see how Microsoft can ever beat Sony. They just don't have Japan or Europe and both places are hard set fans of Sony franchises. I think next generation there will be a Microsoft console but if that comes in third, we won't see another or, radically, they will only release it in certain countries and keep prices down.

Also 2012? That will be 7 years after release. I wouldn't be surprised to see it Christmas of 2010.

[Icemage]

I think it's still too early to count Microsoft out, though I'll agree with the sentiment that, with the way things are going, it will be very difficult for the 360 to do anything but come in last this generation.

In the spirit of the thread intent, though, I'd like to see:

- More memory. 1 GB, at least.

- Bigger disc drive. No, Blu-ray isn't necessary, but in a few years the drive speed will come up, the cost will come down, and there won't be a reason not to use it.

- Better hardware testing. Probably the most important factor of all. Microsoft's PR disaster known as the RRoD has cost them not only $1B+ in repairs, but severely damaged the Xbox brand as a whole.

- Standard large storage of some sort; hard drive, flash memory, doesn't matter. The lack of standard HDD is hurting the Xbox 360 in little ways here and there.

- A better D-pad on whatever controller they decide on. A number of prominent game genres rely on the D-pad, and the 360's lame excuse for a D-Pad is almost as bad as the Wiimote's.

[Juno]

Originally Posted by sheff159

Are you serious? I see LO commercials all over the place. They are advertising it like crazy. Im sure that they are advertising it even harder in Japan...

Well it sold half of what Blue Dragon did despite being a far superior game. They really should just give up on Japan. It's not like it's actually a major market anyway. The market is pretty much split 40:40:20 with Japan being the smaller, if Microsoft could just focus on Europe and NA there is a possible ~70m sales there.

[PirateThom]

Microsoft also need to stop letting their games go to PC.

Why would PC gamers buy a 360 when all its best games are on PC?

Gears of War, BioShock, Mass Effect and the, inevitable, Halo 3.