My real fear about buying a 360...

[inkcil]

...is not that the system might break down, or that MLB 2k7 will suck and I'll have no next-gen Show. It's not that I have to pay to play online or even that I don't have HDTV yet.

My real fear is that somewhere down the line, that Microsoft will abandon me as a consumer. I went w/Xbox all of last gen (starting 2001) until Feb 06 when I broke down and got a PS2 and the Show, among other games. But I broke down mainly b/c MS stopped supporting the Box. Now I know it's a different scenario, and that MS wanted to go into next gen first and they were losing money on the Box...so on and so on. But that just left a bad taste in my mouth and on top of that ev'one is having all this trouble with their systems. So I thought I was a lock to buy the PS3 this Spring until I noticed something...that MS was finally about to fulfill a promise it made, but did not fulfill (IMO) on the Xbox. That promise was to have RTS PC games on the console.

Now with Command and Conquer coming out, Halo Wars and the success of LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, I once again feel the pull towards MS b/c of good, quality RTS (real time strategy) are finally coming to the console platform.

But I have fear...what do you guys think?

[Rodster]

In last weeks 1up.com's podcast the roundtable said they fear MS might do the same thing again in a couple of years with the 360. But you need to remember that, last time they bailed on the Xbox because they were losing lots of money.

Even if they do it again they own the rights to the hardware so backward compatibility won't be an issue. IMO I think the 360 will have a 5-6 year shelf life this time unless Sony begins talking about the PS4. MS has it too good right now to even start talking about a new console.

So if you want a 360 buy it and don't worry about the what if's because neither company won't say much about their new consoles.

[greenegt]

Have no fear. I'm thinking MS wants the 360 to be their "PS2", if you will. They've got better developer support this time around, they've got a nice lead on Sony at the moment, and they've got hardware that they will be able to turn a profit on. It would be silly for MS to abandon the 360, early.

[CaptainZombie]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rodster

In last weeks 1up.com's podcast the roundtable said they fear MS might do the same thing again in a couple of years with the 360. But you need to remember that, last time they bailed on the Xbox because they were losing lots of money. Even if they do it again they own the rights to the hardware so backward compatibility won't be an issue. IMO I think the 360 will have a 5-6 year shelf life this time unless Sony begins talking about the PS4. MS has it too good right now to even start talking about a new console. So if you want a 360 buy it and don't worry about the what if's because neither company won't say much about their new consoles.

Ink,
Like Rod said, I think that the 360 will be around for another 5 years. The longer you wait, the longer you are shortening it's life span in your eyes.

[coffeeholic]

As long as it doesn't have the words "SEGA" on the console,I think you'll be alright. The system is young,and has lots of promise IMO. As for Sega-I got burned by every console they made-err. Now for a paradox statement- I believe Microsoft aborted the Xbox too soon. It is still a class act system and was never fully pushed.

[USF11]

Microsoft's Next console would probably have a ATI chip making 360 games BC.

[Vince]

my fear when i bought a 360 was that there wouldn't be many great games apart from shooters and imo it has been realized.

[Altimus]

Will sometime late this year or next year we are suppose to have a different 360. Other than a bigger HDD and HDMI, it's suppose to have a different CPU as well.