That was terrible sales pitch- i3 expo employee? and he fluffed the integrated GPU memory question? Dedicated memory is a important part of running games at larger resolutions - should of been easily been able to say - 256mb- 512 etc.
@Soothsayer42 @TheZeroPercent No He means your saying your not going to use Microsoft products but just admitted your going to buy ANOTHER MICROSOFT PRODUCT!!!!!!!
@joeboosauce @SavageEvil Just to clarify - I am not a fanboy - I think all people who have a full time job and having tighter and tighter livong costs know what they are paying for. As I made my point earlier - yes, Xbox live does not need to be a paid for servcie- BUT (and this one is the key in the arguement) it will be YOU and me who foot the bill. Xbox live make up a huge part of microsofts entertainment quartely profits. It allows them to charge the developers less and spend a huge amoutn on R&D (Almost 3 times that of Apples last year). -
Although you make a good point about P2P during gaming (Although Most Xbox Live content is routed through Microsoft's Xbox Live servers. For the Xbox Live launch in 2002, Microsoft installed massive arrays of servers in four locations in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. At that time, analysts estimated that the network costs alone would be $500 million, a quarter of the investment Microsoft reportedly spent to institute its first Xbox console) - That is neither here nor there.
Sony has posted net loses (1.6 Mill in Q3 2012) and Q4 and so on - you can not run a Business like that. Slam xbox live but lets face it its not going away is it?
I think there may be a bigger picture here that we all take for granted. The Business model Microsoft employ seems to work incredibly well- whereas the freebies of the PSN may not wholeheartedly be good in the long run.
Take for example the development costs - and publishing costs. Its a known fact Microsft take a smaller cut than Sony when publishing titles. This is most likely why we have more titles ,NOT Forza, Halo, Gears etc, but smaller indie titles taking to the xbox as the choice platform. Now Microsoft have to make that money back too.
Then there is server maintenance and connection quality, which Microsoft not only have built and maintained their network properly, but, because we pay for it, they are obligated the upgrade and support connection issues. Again - This must be maintained.
Then we come to horrible bit - Money - Last few quarters have been horrible for PS/Sony:
"The Consumer Products and Services division - which houses Sony's PlayStation, TV, video, digital imaging, PC and mobile businesses - recorded a quarterly operating loss of 85.7 billion yen (£710.3 million), versus a profit of 63.5 billion yen (£526.3 million) for the same period last year."
That is heavy - heavy loss. Now despite the freebies on the PSP, the free games and syncing services- those things are causing PS to lose a huge amount of money. Sadly, money really matters. Large corporations like Activision, Blizzard, EA and 2K micromanage many of the developers we love and they have the wallet to make things happen. Looking at certain DLC, like Skyrim, even though the knee jerk reaction to the xbox/pc only dlc is coding, my thoughts are always the amount of money it costs Bethesda. Ergo, we may draw the theoretical conclusion Sony doesn't make financial sense.
Now Microsoft:
"The Entertainment & Devices Division posted revenue of $1.62 billion, a decrease of 16% from the prior period due to a soft gaming console market. Xbox remained the top-selling console in the U.S. for the 15th consecutive month, and the company announced new television content partners and experiences for its 40 million Xbox LIVE members."
With this financial position, Microsoft have the ability to invest in making the current platform more innovative (Look at the iPhone App / Kinect Services/ Various iteration of the dashboard that are successfully received and are profitable) even using the money for R&R on the next generation platform.
Morally they should take away the fee for xbox live, but at the end of the day- the figures add up for Microsoft. Sadly us (the gamers) will eventually foot the bill should they remove the fee, with developers finding it harder to pay for development, a less tuned xbox experience and eventually (potentially) more expensive DLC and games.
Dan
Quote from "http://www.computerandvideogames.com/334247/sony-posts-pound13-billion-quarterly-loss/"
Quote from "http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2012/apr12/04-19fy12Q3earningsPR.aspx"
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