Did anyone read this CRAP??? 360 in 3rd place by 2009...

[Village Idiot]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportdan30

Who cares really? ... Whoever wins, wins.

Thank you.

[SLAYER]

As gaming grows (again), so does its capacity to have healthy support for more than one leading console. All three, however this shakes out, will be fine.

[jfsolo]

I don't care about the console race, but I'm hoping we don't see the next gen of consoles until around 2011 or 12. I may be dreaming, but I hope the next gen consoles aren't rushed the next time around and launch with several AAA titles out of the gate, with at least a couple of them being fully polished, fully fleshed out next gen sports titles, that immediately take advantage of all aspects of the new hardware in terms of gameplay, features, and A.I.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nivek

MS needs Japan to stay afloat.

Xbox was a complete bomb in Japan and Microsoft still released Xbox 360.

Microsoft doesn't need their console to sell in Japan to stay afloat.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft come out with their new console in 2-3 years. The current DVD is less than 10 Gigs and this will probably hurt developers in the future.

But back to the original topic, I'm surprised so many people are interested in these types of predictions/comments. They are pretty much worthless in my eyes.

[HMcCoy]

The Japanese gaming publics nationalistic stance doesn't have much impact on Japanese development decisions per se. Pretty sure Capcom doesn't give a crap that the 360 isn't selling in Japan when they're sitting on 2 (Dead rising and Lost Planet) million-sellers already...Those devs like money just like everyone else does. As long as MS owns the gigantic US market, and that market keeps buying games like madmen, the Japanese publishers will make sure their devs crank out games for them whether they like it or not. (see heavily rumored 360 version of MGS4)

[Court_vision]

I live in Asia at the moment and have a lot of western and asian friends throughout the region. Everywhere from Japan to Thailand to Hong Kong...

NOT just Japan...the entire region.

The 360 is basically dead in these parts. In many countries, they hardly are even selling them anymore due to the high failure rates.

There's also a massive...and I mean MASSIVE...amount of people here who are still on the PS2 and will all go for the PS3 within the next 12 months.

The 360 is basically a non factor.

The main danger for Sony is the Wii.

That is doing incredibly well.

I can't emphathise to you guys just how dead the 360 is in these parts. I arrived here just over a year ago and the 360 was in most gaming shops / doing okay.

Now...95% of places don't even stock it anymore.

It's seriously absolutely dead in the water in this region.

This is just one region though...albeit a very big one.

[HMcCoy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Court_vision

I live in Asia at the moment and have a lot of western and asian friends throughout the region. Everywhere from Japan to Thailand to Hong Kong... NOT just Japan...the entire region. The 360 is basically dead in these parts. In many countries, they hardly are even selling them anymore due to the high failure rates.

Its a real shame that MS shot themselves in the foot with poor hardware, but lets be realistic. If Sony had the same issues, those consumers would be returning them and complaining just like we are, but they'd still support the brand. As of Early September, new chipsets have shipped, eliminating MS's hardware problems...will Japan and Asia suddenly 'jump in'? Of course not. as I've said ad nauseum, if those friends of yours want to turn down a pretty damn good gaming experience just for ridiculous, blind brand loyalty...then they deserve the delays, cancellations, and the steady flow of inferior ports that they are currently getting. Sucks for them.

Here in the US we embrace Japanese/Asian products. If they are too biased to do the same for a US product, that's pretty sad, actually. Oh well, can't win 'em all...

[Court_vision]

Quote: Originally Posted by HMcCoy

Its a real shame that MS shot themselves in the foot with poor hardware, but lets be realistic. If Sony had the same issues, those consumers would be returning them and complaining just like we are, but they'd still support the brand. As of Early September, new chipsets have shipped, eliminating MS's hardware problems...will Japan and Asia suddenly 'jump in'? Of course not. as I've said ad nauseum, if those friends of yours want to turn down a pretty damn good gaming experience just for ridiculous, blind brand loyalty...then they deserve the delays, cancellations, and the steady flow of inferior ports that they are currently getting. Sucks for them. Here in the US we embrace Japanese/Asian products. If they are too biased to do the same for a US product, that's pretty sad, actually. Oh well, can't win 'em all...

It's not that Mac.

Most countries in this region embrace US culture much, much more than they do Japanese culture mate.

Japanese are actually not overly popular in the region as they're seen as "the arrogant" brother in Asia. I.e. the big rich guy.

It seriously simply is that MS screwed up with their hardware.

You have to remember that there's very, very little customer service here on imported products. That essentially means that anyone thinking of buying a 360 in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore etc has to decide to do so, knowing there's a 30-40% chance it won't work at some stage.

As I said before, with my PS3, the guys in the gaming shops will swap it back for you if there's a problem.

However...as the 360 has had so many problems, they've decided to end this policy. It's basically "take your chances".

Would any of you guys in the US buy a 360 right now knowing that you'd simply lose your money if it doesn't work? I don't think so.

That's what has happened here...and that's why the 360 has just absolutely died here.