MS: 'We want to be first again with Xbox 3'

[Shrygue]

via Computer and Video Games


At a "strategy level" Microsoft wants to be first to the market again with its next-generation Xbox, Entertainment & Device Devision boss Robbie Bach has said.

Speaking during an interview with Venture Beat, Bach said that if you asked him whether being first to market with Xbox 360 was the right decision, he'd say "definitely yes," and the platform holder has a desire to do it again with the next console.

"The last cycle for the original Xbox was a little shorter than typical (at four years). We started way late," he said. "If you take the question of whether it was the right thing to try to be first [with Xbox 360], the answer to that is definitely yes. It has given us a leg up in a number of places that are super important.

"It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly. At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes."

But the E&DD boss said it was "too early to tell" when quizzed on his expectation for the next console's release plans. "Our view is we will be selling Xbox 360 for a long time," he said.

"People ask me how many people I have working on the next generation. On the one hand, it's everybody. On the other, it's nobody. People are continuously working on new technology.

"We start thinking about the next generation before we shipped the Xbox 360," Bach continued. "It doesn't start with a date. It starts way upstream with silicon development.

"From that comes a series of data points. You start making early technology choices. It's an evolving thing. Stuff doesn't become concrete until you get inside a window of when you have to ship, more than 18 months or so out."

If we see anything before 2010, we'll be very surprised.

[____anders____]

hehe, you mean i should wait for the Xbox 3, not buying X360 now??

[JKKDARK]

Maybe in 2009 we will see an announcement or something. It will be 4 years of life for the 360, like the Xbox 1.

[Airdevil]

hehe, you mean i should wait for the Xbox 3, not buying X360 now??

Pretty much.

In terms of cost efficientcy, I would buy a PS3. Mainly because Sony say it has a 10 year lifespan, so you wont have to keep dishing out for a new console every 4 years.

[osgeld]

being first doesnt mean crap, sega was first 3 times (sg1000, gen, dreamcast, maybe saturn i dunno)

what matters is you dont bring out a big expensive machine with nothing to play on it

Xbox did it last gen but got out of their tailspin
PS3 did it this gen and im still waiting

but look at nintendo

after the sg1000 prompting the master system
after the megadrive
after the playstation
after the playstation2
and after the 360

and still sell like mad, why cause they have great games, and people will wait a year or 2 just to get them (eventho personally ive been joking about zelda #87, and mario #124 for over 10 years)

[devdj]

i just hope that the next xbox design is not as flawed as the xbox 360 as so far my 360 broke twice first with rrod and then after getting that repaired i got dvd magnet problem that i fixed my self by opening the whole machine up which i have to say is dam easy and reapply the superglue to where the crappy magnet was in the first place.

[agenericperson]

If they keep coming out quickly, I won't have reason to buy any Xbox's. The only reason I didn't buy an Xbox is the price was too high. When it became reasonably priced the 360 was out. Now that the 360 is getting close to reasonably priced, there is talk of another one?

The Dreamcast came out first too. It was a great system but it didn't do so hot.

[Veskgar]

Too much talk this early of another XBOX tells me that Microsoft is not all that satisfied with the way things are going. I will admit that XBOX Live is better than the PSN. But ever since I got my PS3 I have all but abandoned the 360. Its only used for Halo 3 currently.

The PS3 hardware is far superior and the fact that it doubles as a Blu-Ray player, supports HDMI, etc. makes it much more desirable to me.

Oh, by the way... Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the most amazing game thus far for the PS3. I'm blown away after playing that masterpiece and can't put it down.

[werpu]

Pretty much.

In terms of cost efficientcy, I would buy a PS3. Mainly because Sony say it has a 10 year lifespan, so you wont have to keep dishing out for a new console every 4 years.

Well the 10 years lifespan depends on how you see it. First of all you have to see it as it is. Pure and plain marketing bull$#@! along the lines of PS2 is a supercomputer. There never was the intention of Sony to support it for 10 years, maybe there was but the decision falls as soon as someone tries to push the next console version. Maybe you might get 10 years out of the PS3, but that will be like the PS2 with third parties supporting it longer than Sony does with official titles.
But one thing is definitely sure, the PS4 wont be backward compatible to the PS3 unless the processors and graphics chips are an evolution of the current architecture. Given the radical design choices Sony usually does, the chance is very high that it wont be. The architecture is way too complicated to be embedded for a reasonable price in a PS4. The PS2 support was dropped for the same reasons in the PS3 (price)

So given the history, count on following. PS4 in a 5 years lifespan very likely. PS3 10 years lifespan, I would not count on it remotely. Sony saying it will have a 10 years lifespan. The time Microsoft comes out with the next Xbox all this will be forgotten on Sonys side.

[mcdougall57]

The PS3 hardware is far superior and the fact that it doubles as a Blu-Ray player, supports HDMI, etc. makes it much more desirable to me.

Doesn't the XBOX have HDMI and have a more powerful GPU? and wont the XBOX 3 have newer and better hardware upon release while the PS3 is still in its lifetime?

Right now I really want a PS3 for MGS4 but i refuse to buy one for a single game so I'm just gonna have to borrow my cousins PS3 when he's completed it.