kyoukan wrote:I would explain to you why selling consoles at a loss makes good business sense but your childlike grasp of how economics work combined with your moronic eagerness to spend $500 on an inferior piece of hardware makes it kind of a waste of time.
Oh no please continue. Whenever you attempt to say anything about the financial back end of the business it's a field day for me. Don't stop.
You can start with telling me all about Sony trying to make up the money with "plus sales" which Microsoft already does on their more successful "Live" platform and about how all the money is in the overpriced games they sell. (same for Microsoft). You do know that Microsoft crushed Sony in gaming division profits this generation no matter how close the console sales were right? Xbox sold more games per unit. Take a gander:
As of Feb 2013:
Games sold:
Xbox 360 with 732M
PS3 with 635M
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Number of games available on each platform:
Xbox 360 with 940 retail, 564 downloadable = 1504 total
PS3 with 772 retail, 559 downloadable = 1331 total
So yeah, you sell those consoles Sony! Microsoft is busy making money where it counts. Making more games (for gamerz!) and selling more games per unit (even with RRoD...imagine the numbers without that this next generation), offering the entire package including kinect from day one not to fragment it's user base.
Most people used their PS3 to watch media (i'll link the stats which I already demonstrated on another thread if needed...the PS is for gamers line Sony pumps out is hilarious considering more games, more sales per unit, and more time playing games were on the Xbox platform). Xbox One offers Blu Ray this gen and much better multimedia integration and a rock solid Windows Kernal driving their UI so the casual couch potato crowd has a better chance of migrating to Xbox this round.
Microsoft has a bazillion dollars in cash and could practically give their console away. Any company that has 40 Billion to blow on buying back stock is in a much better position than a company in debt, heading for more dept.
Last generation Nintendo didn't heed your advice and look what happened? Tons of morons bought their console even when it was a 480P suckfest machine with absurdly bad online capabilities.
As for inferior hardware. We'll see. PS3's "superior" hardware did crap because they are idiots and just looked at the raw numbers and not how well everything works together. That's Sony's thing. Hey loooook, higher numbers! (except for our profits). "But this generation is different!" Yeah, we'll see on that too. It's all about networks and online this generation and Microsoft dominates in that area.
Microsoft has the superior usability features in the kinect, controller and online service. Sony cut corners leaving out their toy Camera. Microsoft has much more flexibility in pricing while Sony is stuck. Depending on how the first few months go, Microsoft can easily undercut Sony in hardware prices but why do it now? Both consoles will sell extremely well at launch. Lets first see if Sony can manage to not fall flat on its face.
If Sony was worth it, Microsoft could use the 40 Billion designated for stock buy back and buy Sony at twice it's current market cap if they really wanted their highly profitable insurance division that Sony is leaning on to survive.
