E3 Halo game announce won't include Master Chief
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Firmware 2.40 still down, wait goes on for news
March 28th, 2008 @ 06:42
Ex-Microsoft Europe boss Sandy Duncan reckons this console generation will be the last.
“The industry is fundamentally driven by technology,” he said, speaking here. “I think dedicated games devices i.e. consoles (and handhelds) will die [out] in the next 5 to 10 years. The business model is very risky and the costs associated with creating new hardware are incredibly high.”
He has a point. We’re kind of sick of having to spend £40 million on boxes every console generation to play a few different games. Go Sandy, etc.
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March 28th, 2008 at 9:03 am
What a clot.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Sour grapes much?
(Not aimed at Blerk)
March 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am
It could equally have been aimed at me, I’m sure. I feel left out now.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:32 am
He’s completely wrong obviously, but I can sort of see where that point of view is coming from.
If I was a Microsoft shareholder I would have to question the wisdom of projects like Xbox and Zune from the point of view of maximising my share value and dividend. To those outside the industry, they must just seem like massive money pits. And even when those same shareholders see the commercial success of Halo 3, surely some of them are going to ask whether the same amount of money couldn’t have been made just by publishing the game on the Playstation 3 and PC instead.
Then again, Sony and Nintendo have made very, very successful and profitable businesses out of making games consoles and games, so it’s not like the industry as a whole is fundamentally flawed.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Exactly. I would like to know how J Allard managed to convince Bill that going from software to hardware was a good idea.
I hope that they tried to team up with Sony before they decided to create their own console.
And what exactly does he mean with “dedicated games devices”? The PSP sure ain’t a dedicated games device and neither is the 360.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I think there is a 50% chance the next “Xbox” won’t be a physical device and if a bookie offered such a bet I’d have money on it. Philosophically, LIVE is the Xbox, not the hardware, it’s a software platform.
Bizarrely enough a Nintendo platform (where Nintendo always make money on hardware from day 1), the Wii, only opens up this possibility further as it’s demonstrated that the next-generation does not have to be defined with a box with a lot of expensive new technology in it.
He’s talking rubbish about handhelds of course, that’s a completely different market but consoles, yeah it’s a matter of time.