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Microsoft Aims For 15 Million 360s By Next Year 147

Posted by Zonk from the lot-of-xboxen dept.
Gamespot is carrying the news that Microsoft is aiming to sell 13 to 15 Million consoles by June of next year. The story shows good and bad news for the company; While they've already sold 5 Million units, the Home Entertainment division lost about $1.2 billion for the last year. From the article: "Will Microsoft make its goal in the face of not one, but two rival next-gen console launches this fall? That remains to be determined, but the console will have the advantage of being cheaper than the Sony PlayStation 3 and having a bigger game library than the Nintendo Wii. The upcoming 12 months will also see several exclusive 'system seller' titles be released for the 360, including Epic Games' Gears of War, which is tentatively due this holiday season." Kotaku points out that, to sweeten the pot, a new bundle pack may be in the offing for the system.
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Microsoft Aims For 15 Million 360s By Next Year More

Microsoft Aims For 15 Million 360s By Next Year

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  • Isn't that par for the course? (Score:3, Informative)

    by iainl ( 136759 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:32PM (#15770417)
    I thought that the XBox division lose a billion dollars every year, and always have? I'm sure I remember reading that last year. They've just had to write off a load of R&D money for the 360, we know they aren't making any profit on the physical hardware, and the sales figures for the original XBox have totally nosedived, so it's hardly surprising.

  • No problem (Score:5, Funny)

    by eln ( 21727 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:33PM (#15770424)
    I think they can hit that mark easily. 15 million units produced should be no problem in that timeframe.

    Oh, sold? Well, that could be more of a problem.
    • Oh it's simple really... all they have to do is require that there is an Xbox360 networked to every vista computer if the user wants to use file and print sharing. You may laugh but I wouldnt put it past them.

    • Re:No problem (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:56PM (#15770593) Homepage Journal
      Shipped = Sold

      Microsoft sells Xbox 360's to stores. Thus, they've sold every one they ship. Most companies cite this metric, since it's the most direct relevant measurement they can get their hands on. (As opposed to calling up the store chains, etc.)

      Of course, fan-bots will say: "They shipped 5 million, but only sold 1 million!" That is a highly unlikely scenario, however. I mean, if you ran some national department store chain, and you had stacks of a product lying around, why would you order more? The only real danger of overstock is right when a product launches.

      So, while there is a number lag between when MS ships a unit and when it arrives in the hands of a consumer, it is not a statistical majority. If MS stops releasing new "X million boxes shipped!" statements, then you'll know they're in trouble. Otherwise, if they later announce "7 million boxes shipped", then it's reasonably safe to assume that at least 5 million have been purchased by end users.

      • Re:No problem (Score:4, Informative)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @01:05PM (#15770660)
        Most manufacturers of such expensive items (especially ones with such small profit margins, a few bucks per console go to the retailer IIRC) have to offer buying back unsold stock before larger retailers start stocking it. After all each unsold XBox 360 would eat the profits made from a hundred sold XBox 360s.
        • Even with buyback deals, it still costs money to stock, store, and/or ship unsold units. (Even if the shipping is covered, it's still manhours get shipments out the door.)

          That's why I didn't mention buyback contracts -- there still isn't motivation for retailers to over-order.
      • I mean, if you ran some national department store chain, and you had stacks of a product lying around, why would you order more?
        What can a little bit change the picture, is that big chains have the habit of only paying for the stock if it was sold. So the supplier only gets his money, when the inventory is gone. Until the point the devices are owned by the supplier, and they get billed when gone.

      • Re:No problem (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Frag-A-Muffin ( 5490 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @01:27PM (#15770850)

        Shipped = Sold

        Riiiiight.

        Ask Microsoft how many units they shipped to Japan. And guess how many units have SOLD in japan. Nice try.

        • As far a MS is concerned, those *are* sales. The retailer may or may not actually hand the product off to a customer, but Microsoft doesn't benefit from that subsequent retail transaction.

          Sorry, fan-boi, but MS is quoting the relevant figure here, much as you'd like to displarage it.
          • ### but Microsoft doesn't benefit from that subsequent retail transaction.

            Doesn't Microsoft make money with selling games? Wouldn't it help if the console are actually sold to people interested in buying games instead of being stuffed in some warehouse? And beside, isn't Microsoft selling the consoles at a loss? So every console they 'sell' loses them money, unless they can make it back with games... just a thought.

          • As far a MS is concerned, those *are* sales. The retailer may or may not actually hand the product off to a customer, but Microsoft doesn't benefit from that subsequent retail transaction.
            What the hell are you talking about they don't benefit? You MUST be kiddin' me? If MS were to "ship" 5million, but only sell 1million, you don't think it'll have ANY ramifications on MS' gaming business?! Third party developers want to know how many people actually have the console. They can care less how many consoles MS
            • Nope. MS does not benefit from the subsequent sale.

              You ask "B-b-but, what about third party developers? What about games?" Again, you're looking at the question wrong. The question of how many consoles sell is only tangentially of interest to Microsoft any more. The question that drive third party developers is not "how many consoles will sell to consumers", but "will enough consoles eventually sell to consumers to make it worth developing games," and, as we've already seen, the answer to that is "yes"

              • Nope. MS does not benefit from the subsequent sale.

                Right, cuz things like this [kotaku.com] looks oh so good on MS.

                • You're changing the subject. Sure, the 360 is doing terribly in Japan. That doesn't speak to whether (a) it's worth producing games for the console or (b) whether Microsoft's sales figure are valid or not. For the first of these, the Japanese market is a write-off for non-Japanese development houses, which covers Microsoft's main producers, so the only question is whether game developers can target the US and Europe, and still make money. As to the second, there's no way to refute it; it's the definition

      • Veering OT (Score:4, Interesting)

        by killmenow ( 184444 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @02:10PM (#15771168)
        I fear you have little experience in retail. Most large retailers (*cough*Wal-Mart*cough*) require the ability to return unsold stock to you and get their money back. Technically, even though the retailer may have bought the units, and have them sitting on shelves in stores, you cannot book it as sales revenue without also booking the RMA liability dollars (though some accountants are well paid for finding ways of doing so anyhow). Anyway, shipped is a long way from sold.

        Also, most large retailers have corporate buyers with certain authority what to buy, etc. as well as local buyers with some authority to buy and stock items particular to that given store. It is not at all unheard of, however unfortunate it might seem, that a corporate buyer is buying on a contract, purchase X number of units of some widget, sends a percentage of them to each store, even though some stores have pallets of them sitting in the back wasting space. That's when those "pre-authorized" RMAs start coming in handy.

        It is also common to have store FOO returning product while store BAR is buying more even though it is often less expensive to simply stock transfer products from FOO to BAR. A lot of it depends on the corporate structure and culture, the accounting setup, operating procedures, etc., and all that other corporate crap. I've seen managers of various levels refuse to ship stock from their store to another, even though they don't need it, the other store does, and there is nothing technically forbidding them from doing so...due to departmental and budgetary boundary lines (ie., some corporate structures, while looking good on paper, tend to create fiefdoms, enhance corporate politics, and all that jazz). Just remember: retailers aren't all perfectly oiled machines or even that adeptly managed. Just like anything else where people are involved. Nobody's perfect and it shows up more when there's less nobody around, if you catch my drift.

      • Re:No problem (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        > Shipped = Sold

        It is a pretty good indication of just how bad a console is doing in the market if one of its fanboys is furiously making the old "Shipped = Sold" rationalization.

        Sorry fanboy, Japan, Europe, and the US all have reliable console hardware sales tracking firms that every console developers has relied on for a very long time.

        The 360 is sitting just barely above three million consoles sold - with a little more than a million and a half consoles in the process of being shipped to retailers(US
      • Uhh...right...Just because thats the metric MS & Sony use does not make it the correct one. Look at the DS vs PSP sales figures. Nintendo states "sold to consumers" and Sony states "shipped" which means developers have a hell of a time figureing out which one they should develop for. Sony has suposidly higher shipped numbers month to month (usualy) in the US than Nintendo's sold numbers, but yet I see 10DSs for every PSP in someone's hands.

        Also lets not forget what I believe other /.ers have pointed o
  • Microsoft PR are just hope the "10 Million people aim to buy at least one 360s By Next Year" appears soon.

  • Smaller library (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Generic Guy ( 678542 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:47PM (#15770531)
    ...having a bigger game library than the Nintendo Wii.

    Let's be realistic here. The Wii will have Gamecube backwards compatibility, as well as the reported classic system emulations giving it a large library right from the get go. I'm sure the PS3 will also have a decent level of backwards compatibility as well. Backwards compatibility for the Xbox360 has been extremely hit-and-miss -- Dubious at best, certainly over-hyped, which forces Microsoft to rely on building new expensive titles for their new system. I predict their 15 million units prediction is also over-hyped.

    • Backwards compatibility for the Xbox360 has been extremely hit-and-miss -- Dubious at best, certainly over-hyped

      Based on what? There's lots [xbox.com] compatibile including virtually all the AAA titles. Sure they're missing a few I'd like to play again (Beyond Good and Evil and Soul Calibur) but it's a pretty big list. And it's not like the new system's short of games, esp. if you count Live Arcade.

      • Re:Smaller library (Score:5, Insightful)

        by grumbel ( 592662 ) <grumbel+slashdot@gmail.com> on Monday July 24, 2006 @02:15PM (#15771206) Homepage
        ### There's lots compatibile including virtually all the AAA titles.

        Isn't that part of the problem? Its nice to have support for AAA titels, but most people already have played them over and over again and there is a good chance that those AAA titles will get a successor sooner or later anyway, so at least for me I don't really consider AAA titles that important, at least not really more important then the rest and looking at that list Yager, Shenmue, Panzer Dragon, Psychonauts, BrokenSword, Fahrenheit, Advent Rising, Riddik, X-Men Legends 1 and 2, TimeSplitters2 and 3 all not listed, all quite good games, all games I own. So while the backward compability might be better then nothing, it is *FAR* away from being an XBox1 replacemet, since the fraction of games that work is still quite small compared to those games that are on the market.

        What makes things even worse is that Microsoft doesn't have offer any way to bundle XBox360 binaries with newly released XBox1 games, meaning even when a new XBox1 game is released there is nothing the developers can do to get XBox360 compability out of the box, it all depends on Microsoft to provide a patch or maybe not depending on the gamers luck. The transition from XBox to XBox360 is really far from optimal and I have some doubts that it will ever get much better before the XBox1 finally fades away completly.
      • AAA titles such as Microsoft's own RalliSport2? Didn't think so. Also - Halo 2 - still MS's flagship game runs very poorly at times on Live. Though it has undergone a couple of upgrades since I got my 360 a few months ago, it gets slowdown and sound issues particularly on maps that are "alien" and/or have lots of plasma pistols. Team duals - plasma is nearly unplayable due to slowdown. Also it tends to 'skip' animations such as throwing grenades depending on its current load and has sound issues. Can't wai

    • Re:Smaller library (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AkaXakA ( 695610 )
      but the console will have the advantage of being cheaper than the Sony PlayStation 3 and having a bigger game library than the Nintendo Wii.

      You can turn that around too:
      "But the [XBOX360] will have the disadvantage of being more expensive than the Nintendo Wii and having a smaller game library than the Sony PlayStation 3."

  • Step 1... (Score:5, Funny)

    by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:49PM (#15770544) Homepage
    1. Make less suck.

    Taking 300W, putting out enough heat to warm a house during a Siberian winter and catching on fire is not the first way to win over customers. :-)

    Tom
    • It may not be the traditional way, but at least they're trying to innovate.
      • Any jackass can consume 300W and deliver 3000MIPS. A smart engineer would do the same in 30W. That'd be innovation.

        Your comment [while I can smell sarcasm I'll answer anyways] is like saying "If we just make bigger gas tanks our SUVs can drive further, what wonderful innovation!"

        Tom
        • I took his sarcasm as more along the lines of "All in one DVD player, Game system, and Space heater! Now that's an innovation!", but I could be wrong.
    • Taking 300W, putting out enough heat to warm a house during a Siberian winter and catching on fire is not the first way to win over customers. :-)


      Shhhh .... I told my wife I was getting us a terrific new space heater for the living room! I'm hoping she won't catch on ...

  • I bet they can... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Siberwulf ( 921893 )
    I bet they can do it. Why? Simple. People that have a PS2, GC, or regular XBox right now want to see the entire playing field before they move to the next level. It has been impossible to tell what system will be the best, until all systems are available.

    (Might be harder knowing that most people will have already ruled out the PS3 due to the rediculous price tag)
    • ...due to the rediculous price tag.

      Balki ruined spelling for an entire generation...
    • You do relize that the PS2 is still outselling the xbox360 2 to 1. that's right the PS2 is selling more units than's MSFTs new toy.

      If memory serves MSFt shipped 200,000 units for 450,000 PS2's. but that's just from bad memory.
      • How many people buy the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out? When it comes to computers, personally I go by the 85% rule. I take the fastest speed out there, and then look at an item that performs up to 85% as good as the max. That way, I get something new, and I don't break my wallet out there. I'd guess that the heightened sales of the PS2 are directly related to the price drop associated with the release of "Bigger and Better" consoles.
      • If memory serves MSF[T] shipped 200,000 units for 450,000 PS2's. but that's just from bad memory.
        Actually, in calendar 2006, the 360 has been running roughly neck-in-neck, and even caught the PS2 once, in April. Not that is matters -- the parent's core point, that the 360 isn't beating a last-gen console, stands.
  • Well, with numbers like that victory is assured to the brave and noble 360 over the vile and shifty PS3! Onward to Victory!!

    Time to use that "zonked" tag again.
    • Okay, I ususally let you get away with this without comment, but what is your problem? Did you read the article, or the summary? They're hardly in favor of the 360.

      The 360 has been out for 8 months, and has only sold 5 million units total in all markets. That includes the markets they've started selling in that neither Sony nor Nintendo have ever significantly broached before. Now they're saying that in the next 12 months, they expect to sell double what they've sold so far, this time with competition

      • I agree the article itself is pretty reasonable.

        However you'll note the title of this story is not "Microsoft continues to lose money on 360". It is mentioned, but as aside - along of course with a positive story about how the 360 is going to see a PGR bundle (ironically at the same price as the base PS3).

        Basically the story summary was all about plucking the most positive aspects from the article possible, mentioning the one unavoidable fact to deflect potential criticism of the story, and then adding in
        • the 360 is going to see a PGR bundle (ironically at the same price as the base PS3).

          I saw that story too. The prices quoted were in Canadian Dollars.

  • Only 3 Million Sold After 7 Months (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The 360 has sold only 3 million and change after 7 months. And that is against nothing but a six and five year old console. One of which has almost no new games coming out for it. We all know the 360 is dead in Japan, but the bad news few people have picked up on yet is the 360 appears to have essentially died in Europe. From the latest Microsoft numbers, they only shipped 200k new consoles last quarter to Europe. That means that the 360 is basically living off of the US market.

    15 million? The 360 will have
    • I guess buying in early sucks :-)

      At least with the DS the games might suck but the homebrew scene is strong.

      Tom
      • DS games suck?

        I beg to differ. Look at the latest numbers for the top 10 console games sold in Japan

        http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm [the-magicbox.com]

        The top 3 spots are DS games and 7/10 spots are DS games.

        And on the US charts for July 2-8

        http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153855.html [gamespot.com]

        DS games are right up there, but only pushed down a bit due to the World Cup frenzy that pushed all the soccer games up the charts.

        • Ok I take that back. Most DS games sucks. I own about 10-12 games or so but most of them I only play on planes or when I'm otherwise forcefully confined. Given the choice I'd rather play NES or GB games instead.

          The problem with the vast majority of DS games is they're ports of side scrollers. Frankly, keep that shit on the GBA where it belongs (not that I hate side scrollers, I just think it's a waste of a DS). Then you have the crappy driving sims... boo.

          I like Mario64DSXPPROEDITION and I like a few o

      • duh? DS games? Suck? Are we both talking about Nintendo's Dual Screen?

        They may have pretty... unusual games... but most of the ones I own & play I would actually rank "good" to say the least, and I have nearly a dozen of games, and not enough money to buy the many other good ones (that've been released in yurop, then it'll be time to hit the import stores)

        • Yeah I was being critical. Because most games before this summer did suck. The racing sims are all crappy and side scrollers are old.

          Mario64, MarioBros and Advancewars are among my favs but only because they're classics. Mario Kart is fun but really requires other players, Metriod is just plain boring.

          I look forward to the Zelda game [again classic] but what I really want to see are remakes of ACTUAL 3D GAMES.

          Christ, test drive 3 in all it's flat shaded VGA glory was more exciting than the latest PS2 dow

          • ACTUAL 3D GAMES

            Well, while the system certainly has some 3D ability, it's still very limited: while it can theorically reach 120,000 triangles/sec at 30fps, it is limited to 4000 triangles/scene and was designed to render 3D to a single screen (which makes rendering 3D on both screens difficult, even though Vewtiful Joe Double Trouble manages it)

            And it doesn't feature any texture filtering but for antialiasing.

            You won't see many good 3D games on the DS, they'll just be too taxing for the console.

            Oh, a

            • Test Drive 3 was a 320x200 full screen 3d game that ran on 25Mhz 80386s with ZERO hardware support.

              If you can't emulate that level of game on a 33MHz dual-processor machine with some 3D hardware then we truly are lost.

              Fun is fun. You don't need to look photo realistic to be fun. Specially since the resolution is so small anyways. I'd settle for gouraud shaded flat surfaces any day over crappy side scrollers or low detailed textured games that are just plain not fun.

              Tom
              • True, you don't need to look photorealistic to be fun. You also don't have to be in 3d to be fun. I happen to enjoy sidescrollers. For instance, Castlevania DS was great, and certainly better than any 3d Castlevania has ever been (and I've played all of them). Forcing a game into 3d that isn't meant to be 3d is an unreasonable bias, and only hurts the game. There will be more 3d games for the DS as developers get more used to the hardware, but that won't automatically make the 2d games worthless.
    • Where are you getting the 3 million sold from? ArsTechnica reported 5 million sold [arstechnica.com]. That puts them on track for 7 to 9 million by the time of the PS3 launch. It would be nice to see a breakdown per territory, but I have not seen one. Do you have a link?
    • Well, the obvious solution to the problem is for Microsoft to produce even more FPS games.

      After all, if noone's buying a platform known for its sports games and FPS games, then obviously they need to make more FPS games.

      Oh, and more sports games too. You can never have enough lame golf games!

      [caveat - I'm getting a Wii, my last game console was an xBox]
      • No the obvious solution for microsoft is to supply more free games with each console, hey losing a billion dollars a year on a toy, might as well make it 2 or even 3 billion a year.

        Supply enough free games and the customers will be there, they won't be buying any games burdened with a xbox licencing fee but they will finally have the numbers.

        There of course is the other famous MS prediction about the future of hardware and software sales, hardware will be free and people will rent software, so go on mic

    • Chartered guides on slowing foundry demand, Xbox 360 demand poor! [fabtech.org]

      From the article at Semiconductor Fabtech [fabtech.org]:

      Chartered Semiconductor has warned that due to weaker than expected demand for end product devices in the second quarter, its customers are being cautious on committing to any increases in production runs. The foundry now expects business to be flat for the third quarter. [snip] More worryingly, Thomas noted that the foundry was seeing particular weakness in the consumer video gaming market, refer

    • I've got a theory on why it's not doing well in Europe - HD television hasn't really taken off here yet. So most European buyers are getting a console which has games designed for HD screens that they're only actually seeing in a qtr of this resolution. On a standard PAL/Secam TV the 360 is just ticking over. Not exactly value for money.

  • they seem to be right on target (Score:5, Funny)

    by Frag-A-Muffin ( 5490 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @12:58PM (#15770606)

    Home Entertainment division lost about $1.2 billion for the last year.

    They're on track to lose $4+ billion for this generation console. That's their goal right?! Just like the last one?! ;)

  • Microsoft is aiming to sell

    Oh, I thought they were aiming to shoot them, so that they wouldn't lose so much money on each console sold.

    The question to me is: Will they be playing catchup the moment a BluRay PS3 is available? How much are high-def, high capacity drives worth?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Sony has pissed me off ever since the onset of memory stick. As an avid photographer, I knew I should avoid Sony at all costs, but I have several friends that haplessly bought a Sony camera only to find out that the memory sticks cost twice as much as any other flash memory. Sony is continuing on that path with the PS3. I can't wait to get an X-box 360. Yes, it uses lots of power and has had some problems, but it is far superior to any Sony offerings. The PSP is another example of a Sony failure. At f
      • Don't forget the Sony Rootkit! "Hi, we're Sony. You want to listen to our music? Here, let us sneak in while you're not looking and install some software that will compromise your systems's security because we're really worried you will end up pirating our music. Thanks and have a nice day"
    • Why bother rooting for Microsoft when it seems pretty clear by now that Nintendo is going to be trouncing both of them?

      (Disclaimer: PC gamer, for reasons of Civilization rather than graphics-card-ness.)

  • No worthy software (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jarnis ( 266190 ) on Monday July 24, 2006 @01:09PM (#15770692)
    So exactly how they plan on selling them, with no worthy software?

    Or in other words, why should I - already having a top-end gaming PC - buy one? Which games does it offer that I can't play otherwise, and that are worth the ridiculously high prices (70e+ in some parts of europe)

    Gears of War has some potential, but so far its a shiny graphics demo. Nothing launched exclusively so far has had any real meat to it. X360 is missing it's 'Halo' to sell it, unlike the original Xbox at launch, and most announced shiny thingys at E3 are multiplatform, with versions also for PC and/or PS3. As long as PS3 has some major exclusives (Metal Gear series and Gran Turismo series alone will sell fuckton of overpriced PS3s), and Xbox 360 has only shinyed-up ports and crap, it won't sell.

    Consoles live and die by their _exclusive_ triple-A titles. Microsoft seems to have forgotten this one...
    • Halo 3 will likely be released on the same day as the PS3. There are plenty of good solid 360 games out right now, including Oblivion, Kameo, PGR3 and Prey.
      They may not be exclusives, but then not everyone enjoys PC gaming.
      I stopped playing games on the pc years ago because:
      1. I got sick of having to buy video cards that cost twice what I paid to build the rest of the box.
      2. I was tired of dealing with driver issues with new game releases.
      3. I now prefer to play games on my 52" TV as opposed to my
      • Yup. When I played the F.E.A.R. demo on my PC and realized that the fx5700 was getting a little long in the tooth, I decided to go for the 360 instead of a new video card/mobo/CPU. Also, the challenge of using the awkward controller has made shooters... I wanna say fun but different is a better way to put it.
      • As for the PS3, it's major downsides for me are size and price, both of which are oddly close to a compact car.

        Oddly I find the 360 better fitting that description, emitting heat like a radiator and only costing $100 less than the PS3 with somewhat better specs. None of the titles you mention are that a great a draw to me to buy a console for (and I have played all of them except for Prey).

        I generally agree with your points on PC gaming, except that I still prefer FPS games on a PC over a console... and RT
        • If you enjoy FPS games, go download the demo for Prey. It is available for the PC. It's a refreshing change from all the Quake/Doom/HL2 clones I've played.

          I haven't had any real heat problems with the 360, but then mine's in an open shelf with plenty of open air all around it. My Panny HT equipment gets hotter then it does.
          I wasn't going to buy the 360 as soon as I did, but Oblivion was the driving factor for me. I certainly don't claim it's for everybody, but I've gotten my money's woth out of it.
          • Oblivion is pretty good (I've played with a little at a friends house) but not compelling enough to buy a console for it, especially since you can get Oblivion for the PC as well.

            Prey does look pretty interesting, I've been waiting for that one for a while. I'll probably get it eventually, but again a PC version as I really prefer the controls there.

      • Halo 3 will likely be released on the same day as the PS3.

        I don't think that's correct. Last I heard, the PS3 will ship this November, but Halo 3 isn't slated until 2007.

    • Or in other words, why should I - already having a top-end gaming PC - buy one? Which games does it offer that I can't play otherwise, and that are worth the ridiculously high prices (70e+ in some parts of europe)

      If you have a top-end gaming PC, you SHOULD NOT buy the Xbox 360.

      However, here are some issues that make a console attractive:

      1. Your high end gaming PC is most likely a Windows machine. If you switch to a console for your gaming, you can switch to Linux or a mac for your PC use. Most of the power-
  • Aim Lower.
  • Instead of spending 600$ on a new console and maybe two games, I dropped half that on a new video card and an Xbox360 controller for my PC. Now I can play the same exact (decent) games, with the same exact controls, on a machine that doesn't overheat. Best decision ever.

    The wired 360 controller is just another USB HID device; as soon as I plugged it in, XP was like 'Hey! You've got a controller. Let me check windowsupdate for the driver! Hey! Even better! It's an Xbox360 controller! Here's the driver. Dot
    • Good Lord - you're using a controller with a PC? I always considered having a keyboard and mouse to be one of the PC's greatest assets, and now you're throwing that all away.

      Please tell me the controller is only for flight sims or racing games or something.
      • Controllers are way better than keyboard and mouse for platformers and most other games with third-person controls.

        Plus, with a controller you can really relax and get comfortable in a way that you can't with a keyboard and mouse.
      • Yes, I am. Though you do have a point. In the case of an FPS, give me a keyboard and a mouse any day of the week. Same goes for World of Warcraft, though I'm considering remapping just to see how it does.

        My hangup was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I found the keyboard to be awkward, and unwieldy. The necessary keys were too far away from my fingers to affect their functions quickly enough (or, perhaps as my old piano teacher - Mrs. Mellenger used to say - 'Stupid Fingers!'). I'm sure that the fact that my
      • Flight sims with a thumbstick? Are you insane?
  • That is MS being fucked up the ass by the DS. It got to hurt that an older handheld has not only already outsold your optomistic sales predictions but that even their sales preditictions for the same term are higher. No, I am not a nintendo fanboy. I just like handhelds because they allow me to game where I can't play real games because PC's are so difficult to fit in your pocket. For all the excitement about Wii if you read the previews at a site like eurogamer you might find very few games to get that exc
  • Microsoft Aims For 15 Million 360s By Next Year

    Well, good luck with that.

    Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 sure looks nice, though.... :p
  • I think MS probably meant "current gen" titles when talking about "game library", although the term needs to include ALL games you can play on the system (i.e. the insurmountable library available to DS owners).

    OTOH, I think it's funny for (some of) the PS3 and Nintendo advocates to complain that 360 has had a head start (# of games, quality thereof). Of course they do. That's what happens when you release first. Of course that's a double-edged sword, in that Nintendo and Sony got to see exactly what MS

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