Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> When Will Microsoft Own Up to the XBox 360 Bomb?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The success (or lack thereof) of Microsoft's Xbox
> | 360 has been a hotly debated topic across both the blogosphere and
> | mainstream media, with an amalgam of sober and utterly confused
> | views depending upon one's vantage point: analyst, investor or
> | gamer.
> |
> | After taking a step back and looking at some objective numbers -
> | those taken from Microsoft's own financial statements and
> | comparative console sales figures extracted from VGChartz.com and
> | Wikipedia.org - I have concluded the following:
> |
> | # Gaming has been a disastrous endeavor for Microsoft, particularly
> | from an investment perspective;
> | # The seeds of this failure are evident from their sales performance
> | in Japan...
> `----
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070418/32642_id.html?.v=1
>
Why was the xbox360 a flop? Can't have been because of the competition
really, because the xbox360 had the field to itself for a while, Wii wasn't
out and PS3 wasn't out.
So why didn't people like it.
Do you remember a long time ago MS did a game where you were in some sort of
space craft, that floated. You could blow things up, fly in space, in the
atmosphere, down tunnels. The craft was sort of indestructable, it would
just bounce off walls and things. I can't even remember if there was a
purpose to the game other than shooting at anything that looked
destructable. It was a good game though because it was one of those you
could sit at gormlessly for hours.
I suppose I have to say flight simmulator was good too. I didn't like it,
you take off from London for Newyork or somewhere, then it seems to run in
real time, takes hours before you even see the Atlantic, you've nipped to
the kitchecn half a dozen times to get yourself a little paper cup of
powdery tasting coffee and a tiny ham roll, just for the authenticity part,
and your still not there. I would make a terrible pilot because when I get
bored I just nose dive into the sea so I can get on with something else.
Apparently that isn't a good trait in a pilot.
They did that thing where kids can make a film with cartoon characters that
was popular for a time.
So MS were capable when it came to game creation.
So why then were the games of the xbox360 just crappily put together
recompilations of old PC games with just slightly different sprites? Why
didn't they put some effort into the games themselves? I gave mine away
because it didn't take long for me to get bored and there was someone who
could make better use of it than I did, though I must say that the xbox360
handset it was extremely usefull as a weight to stop my webcam lead
dropping down in front of my keyboard. I had to invest in a tie wrap.
The graphics I still think are extremely good. When I look at the screens in
Tescos, the xbox360 screen stands out as that extra level above the others.
But then I look at the games on the shelves and the Wii and PS2 have got
close to a full shelf each, the nintendo half a shelf, the xbox360 less
than a quarter now. People don't buy them and I think that the reason they
don't buy them is because they are crap.
It isn't just me saying they crap, Tesco customers thing they crap otherwise
Tescos would give them more shelf space, but also every niece, nephew,
relative etc that turned up for a free meal and drink my beer would have a
go and were never really very impressed in the games, there was never much
available for the very young either. The person I gave it too is easily
pleased, I told him, because he loves it. Though when you turn up out of
the blue he is spending more time chatting up other online players than he
is playing the games. I might as well have just given him a Linux and a
chat room url.
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