June 25, 2008, 5:16 AM by ziggy to chairmansteve
Nah, I think you've got it all wrong.

MS wont to turn the console business into something more like the PC business where they have to leave the manufacturing to third parties. Since that's where the costs and liabilities lie what would be the manufacturer's incentive to come on board?

Selling hardware at a profit would one way forward. Alternatively, manufacturers could sell at a loss and MS could subsidise them with software revenue. In a market with already very low margins this is too high risk. Add to this, MS would not be able to drop hardware prices to compete with Sony losing a big competitive advantage over a resurging PS3.

The 3DO and Sega Saturn had multiple SKUs and they were all expensive failures.

I think if MS wanted to go the route of a development consortium they would have done it from the start with the original Xbox. A group would layout the hardware specs and MS would be a small player in a big team. It would have negated all hardware loss liability but a huge chunk of software/service revenue would have gone too making the project unappealing.

Looking at the Xbox and 360 finances I can't see how they'd sell this plan to other hardware manufacturers. The numbers just dont look rosy.

Everything MS do now with the 360 until its dying days will be to cream out as much revenue to recover their losses. If they were doing well, they'd keep milking that cash cow. If they were failing theyd be trying to squeeze out as much revenue as possible. Either way there is no reason to go the third way.

Now if we're talking about Nintendo that's a different story. They're the ones who should be lining up manufacturers to produce DVD and Blu Ray Wii's under licence. They get more units out and they continue to make money on hardware and software.

June 25, 2008, 5:19 AM by Quaid to chairmansteve
Xbox'Eye? Will it be better than the JVC X'Eye?

http://www.oldschoolgamer.ca/syspics/14-131.jpg

June 25, 2008, 5:36 AM by ziggy to Quaid
This is truely awesome, the Hitachi Hi-Saturn Navi - In car system, LCD and GPS and Karaoke!

http://nfggames.com/games/hisaturn/hisatopen.jpg

June 25, 2008, 6:38 AM by chairmansteve to ziggy
I didn't say that MS would "leave the manufacturing to third parties." MS would still make a 1st party version of the box too whether others license the platform or not.

Incentive? Money. They would be selling the hardware at a profit just like any other consumer electronics product. What other incentive could there be?

The original Xbox was sold at a huge loss. Licensing then wouldn't work. The next generation Xbox may be sold at a profit perhaps from day one. Xbox 360 will be sold at a profit eventually if not already. The upcoming version (Q3 2008) with 65nm GPU will cut costs, and the 45nm multi-chip module will cut costs again. 32nm may be in the cards too for 2010 or 2011.

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I can't see

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You have no vision.

June 25, 2008, 7:02 AM by chairmansteve to Quaid
Actually, JVC was on my short list of partner candidates right after LG. I put Toshiba and Samsung at the top, since they appear to have a closer relationship with Microsoft and make their own hard disk drives. Samsung makes its own GDDR3/GDDR5 RAM too.

June 25, 2008, 7:45 AM by nenroth
A new redesigned Xbox360 would be nice :)
But what about the Hard-Drive? It's big and bulky. If we want a smaller console and thiner console, the hard-drive would have to be in another place than in the side.
A slot loading dvd drive a la PS3/Wii is what the xbox360 needs.

As for if it will happen or not. I guess that the HD-DVD failure stopped a lot of things from happening. If it would have worked, I assume that Toshiba would have a nice "Toshiba-Xbox360 HD-DVD drive" edition already out by now. But now, all we could hope for, is a "Sony-Xbox360 Bluray drive" edition or some new faceplates.
There was no Xbox 1 mini either.

June 25, 2008, 8:25 AM by chairmansteve to nenroth
The hard drive? It's not a problem. There are three options.

1. Mini would look like a shorter Xbox 360, and the drive would fit like today.
2. Change the bay location (e.g. maybe behind a cover on the side or bottom).
3. Ditch compatibility with the old hard drives, and release new drives.

Let's not make it too small. 45nm chips need cooling too. If Microsoft wants to keep Xbox 360 around a really long time, a 3.0 design in 2013 can go smaller and drop HDD support.

June 25, 2008, 8:28 AM by Airzonk to chairmansteve
"Get the LG xbox 360! Life's Good!" Nah, just doesn't have a good ring to it, me thinks. Nintendo could always go the same route and thier console is in much higher demand than the 360. The stores still have trouble keeping them in stock. More money would be made if those companies made Wii clones instead. Or, they could make both.

June 25, 2008, 8:39 AM by chairmansteve to Airzonk
Nintendo can increase production capacity if it wants to sell at a faster rate. Why let those other companies make a profit from Wii?

Microsoft has another agenda. MS wants Xbox Live (online platform) on every TV. MS could also use a new brand (i.e. Japanese brand) to help sell in Japan.

Sony wants everyone to buy a Sony Bravia TV and Sony Blu-ray player.

June 25, 2008, 9:03 AM by Airzonk to chairmansteve
The way I was looking at it is that yes, Microsoft wants an xbox under every TV but Nintendo wants a Wii under every TV for thier own reasons. And, Sony for thier own reasons.

Given how well the Wii is selling, Nintendo could charge a licence fee to build a Wii clone and price it accordingly to cost of production so there is financial incentive to build clones. I think Nintendo should be making more Wii consoles since every one sells out. Actually, I don't think they'll keep up with demand the Christmas season based on how much they are producing.

So, for the Wii there is a shortage to fill by the third party companies and Nintendo will still make money off the consoles, Wii shop channel, VC games and it's own software plus other 3rd party software sold.

Microsoft needs to create more demand for thier system for other companies to start making clones. The only plus I see is that the third party companies might be better at marketing the 360 to Eastern coutries than Microsoft has been.

June 25, 2008, 9:13 AM by chairmansteve to Airzonk
Xbox Live is not the same as Xbox. MS would probably prefer to just be on the software side of the platform like in the PC market. Sure, they all have reasons to sell more consoles. But Microsoft's reasons is also the reason why Microsoft is the most likely to seek partnerships. MS has the most incentive to give partners a good deal.

Live has movies, and that fits the market of the consumer electronics companies. MS can provide the partners software to run IPTV, tru2way (next-gen Cable TV), and possibly Blu-ray movies on the Xbox processor. The Zune Marketplace could be brought into Xbox Live too. Third party online delivery platforms like Netflix, Steam, or Gametap on Xbox Live is also possible.

These 3rd party consoles might be sold without a game controller. A standard media remote is enough for movies, TV, music, etc. To play games, use a separately sold Xbox 360 controller.

Nintendo can partner with Mattel and Hasbro. IntelliWiision and ColecoWiision have potential. They could even drop the "sion" to get the full Wii effect.

June 25, 2008, 10:46 AM by Airzonk to chairmansteve
True dat. The 360 is capabible of so much more than the Wii, it offers 3rd party hardware makers more options to tailor it to thier specific market. I just think the face of the console industry is going to change for the whole "big three" if Microsoft pushes it's platform onto other hardware manufactures. Now, it'll be a "Standard" war. A Standard man, a STANDARD like 3DO.

June 25, 2008, 10:55 AM by chairmansteve to Airzonk
I'd like the face of the game industry to be software. Standards could bring that.

The only thing standard about 3DO was $699. There weren't enough Mikes out there willing to pay the price, not even for CD+G.

June 25, 2008, 11:11 AM by Airzonk to chairmansteve
What I worry about is who is going to make the next-gen console. Once Microsoft starts making a next-gen console, the other hardware makers will have to follow along and make it too. That's unless there is software support for both new and old platforms. But, knowing Microsoft's xbox history, once the new platform comes out the old one is dust.

June 25, 2008, 6:50 PM by chairmansteve to Airzonk
Just because N64 and GameCube were thrown to the dogs, it doesn't mean Xbox 360 will have the same fate.

As long as the Xbox 360 is profitable, stores want to sell it, and people want to buy it, then there is no reason to stop production. If Xbox 360 is licensed to third party manufacturers, that's another reason to keep the platform alive. Third parties could sell 360 compatible boxes even if MS stops selling its own version.