EA's in-house studios were acquired through mergers and buyouts, though, so I don't really count them. I can't actually think of any that weren't brought in from outside or assembled from bits and pieces of dissolved studios. It's like a pimp that also rents out his wife. Doesn't really change anything.

 

If you look at it from Microsoft's point of view - they have already lost.

Nintendo has one of the highest profit : employee ratios in the world. They have so much money in the bank right now they could hemorrage money for years and still be fine. Nintendo is going nowhere, they are the undisputed, entrenched winner. If Microsoft so much as does anything right this gen, Nintendo will just spend some of its bank and sweep the market again. Nintendo's products are household names and are known by kids more well than disney cartoons at this point.

Sony has been losing billions consistently ever since the PS3 lost. Eight years, is it now? They're downsizing. They might not even be able to launch the PS4 - I don't know. Who knows how they will restructure in the coming months.

Microsoft, despite selling over 60 million 360s (something like 80 mil I think? or was it 70), came in third this gen. The PS3 sold more copies. The Wii did too. And despite the number of consoles sold, despite the number of people paying monthly for Xbox-live P2P multiplayer, and despite the huge fees for putting your game on the XBLA/certifying your game for the console; despite all that, Microsoft has yet to make any profit on the 360. The Xbox and the Xbox 360 both failed to turn a profit for Microsoft. The Xbox is the only hardware product (besides the Zune I think?) that Microsoft actually produces, and I think there's a reason why they stayed out of the hardware business for as long as they did. They entered it because Bill Gates understands the power of video games (unlike Apple).

Nintendo has already won because it has all the iconic franchises. And despite the few series that are more or less rehashes (I'm looking at you, Mario Kart), Nintendo actually doesn't produce that much "re-hashing". Don't believe me? Tell me what number installment of Call of Duty we're on again (in the last two years). Or better yet... read this: http://www.computerandvideogames.co...ree-assassins-creed-games-confirms-guillemot/

Nintendo is sitting on so many lucrative IPs it doesn't matter at all what happens this gen. Microsoft is STILL looking for IPs other than Halo to call its own. Everyone who watched E3 slowly began to react in a lukewarm manner to Ryse, and the other titled that were unveiled. The games we see on the 360 aren't enduring franchises that move units. The 3DS's sales spiked recently, with the launch of the new Animal Crossing game, and will do so again when SSB:3DS is out. The 3DS is already on its way to becoming one of the most widespread handhold devices out there (despite every analyst on earth claiming the 3ds would lose to smart phones just a year ago).

Nintendo has the magic that Microsoft has finally realized it will never have. So, they're going after another market. That's my take. The 360 is going to be for casual "gaming enthusists", who have a huge empty room they can dedicate to their Illurioom-Xbox-One surround-sound entertainment set-up. They're going to sit down, watch a dvd, then, they're going to switch to their Xbox and watch Ryse play itself while drinking expensive diet water. Or something like that, I'm not quite sure what this demographic drinks (as I'm not sure it really exists [yet]).

The strategy, in its element, is pretty solid though. Microsoft isn't going to win in a head-to-head console war with Nintendo, they need to shift tactics and go after a different market. It's not going to be long before Assassin's Creed has been exhausted and Call of Duty has lost its luster. Eventually, everyone will be sick of the way FPSes are conducted.

 

What the guy before me said.

I pretty much believe Microsoft is going after a gaming market that is parallel to what Apple's market was in mp3 players (previous Gen) and smart phones. And Mac. Can't forget the mac.

 

Trying to claim that Sony will not be able to launch the PS4 is the single FUCKING stupidest thing I've seen someone say in the last week.


And I've been watching Microsoft's interviews.

 

http://ycharts.com/companies/SNE/net_income

The only reason their net income is positive for 2013 is because of the massive slashing going on. Slashing that could kill the PS4. Most creditors have rated Sony close to junk-tier. Sony posted record losses in 2011 and 2012. If you're going to say my claim is without merit, it might be a good idea to use some fact to back it up.

It's not a question of the PS4 being profitable or not, it's about whether Sony can stay solvent enough to purchase all the hardware, ship it everywhere, and show they're still solvent after that. Have either of you forgotten about the Vita? I wouldn't be surprised, considering how hard it has bombed. If the PS4 goes the way of the Vita, even if the PS4 is technically a device which makes profit on every unit sold, it could spell the end to Sony's game division. Furthermore, it's not cheap to launch a console, what if the people behind Sony decide to slash the game division prematurely? They certainly could, in the coming months - they're prioritizing staying afloat over anything else, at this point.

"Record pre-orders" is that phrase I don't trust. Once I see concrete numbers, cool, but plenty of video games have "shattered pre-order records" only to bomb in the market regardless. It's not like there's a huge precedent for pre-ordering consoles; the current generation has lasted seven or eight years now. Even if 100k PS4s were pre-ordered already, that wouldn't be even 1/50th the number the PS4 needs to sell to probably keep Sony's game division afloat.

I don't know if it's going to happen, but I think it's within the realm of possibility. Other analysts have suggested that Sony would crumble from this, so I'm not a lone in this line of thought, don't make it seem like I'm mad. Sony is in worse shape than Microsoft - Sony's television and phone product lines are dead in the water, Microsoft still has its software and operating system to fall back on, so it's secure for many years to come.

 

Two things: Sony is a massive conglomerate, they sell basically everything. From what I've heard, the fact that they're actually still alive as a company is in part because of the console division (the other part being their film division.)

Second: You don't seem to understand just how hard the WiiU is tanking, so let me put it in perspective. The Vita is selling better than it.

FEdit: Nintendo is fine, but the WiiU is a catastrophe. Sony's in trouble and will remain so, but it won't be because of their console division. Microsoft is fucking up, but they're fine too because it doesn't matter how well their console division does.

 

Given that the PS4 is now a dead cert money maker, if Sony did end up in liquidity problems with paying for the up front costs of delivering the console (basically the costs of manufacturing and shipping it, plus marketing, now all the development is done), they could easily find credit.

 

Sony isn't going anywhere. 2013 will be a booming profit year for them thanks to the console market. If anything, Sony would slash and cut down their company to focus more on helping their console market before bailing out on the one product guaranteed to make them money this year.

Back on point, anyone have any fun predictions on the number of things Microsoft changes thanks to E3?

"What, Sony is going to share games? I'm sorry guys, we are too!"

At this point I think that scenario is highly likely, along with a change in pricing, basically removing the kinect necessity and offering another package in line with Sony's pricing without the kinect.

 

Read somewhere today if you get banned from Xbox live or whatever they will call it they can remove games from your account.

 

The damage could be done already, plus Microsoft will more than likely be cocky enough to keep the online requirement for any future packages for the Xbone.

 

I don't think they will change anything. They believe that this is the best business model that will give them the biggest profit. The only thing that can change this mindset is a total sales failure. The big question is if it will happen or not. If there is a good number of people that will boy Xbone and have no problem with their reselling games policy, chances are that Sony will adapt this model as well in the not so far future.

In other words - don't let any of your friends buy Xbone. The future of gaming depends on it.

 

MS is now claiming that that was a mistake - they were referring to the 360. Not sure if that's true or not, but that's what they've said.

 

Honestly? It's probably too late to change it. The consoles are getting released in November, and this is a major part of the updated Live.

 

Major Nelson said in a interview that being banned means that you lose access to multiplayer only. Your single player games are fine.

Source.

 

Yes.

http://sketchfab.com/show/b7LzIm8JrnPw4GBDOMBNGYc39qM Here's the PS4 and its controller.
[imgur]I0qTfMw[/imgur]

Here's the XBone Controller.

[imgur]Zx2KyYj[/imgur]

 

The xbox one? Not so much.
The Playstation one is losing the start and select buttons and replacing them with "options" and "share." The dedicated share button is for screenshots, streaming and other social network stuff.
They're also adding a touch screen in the middle that is similar to the one on the back of the vita.
The Playstation controler will also have basic Move functionality. Otherwise buttons, d-pad and joystick layout is the same.

EDIT: Nevermind, ninja-ed.

 

Aside from the obvious change in the D-Pad, the XBOX controller's changes are a lot more subtle than the DS4's. They fixed the bumpers and added extra rumble around the triggers, for example. You wouldn't know about either of these without actually trying them or being told about them.