The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[JonCole]

I thought they get some kind of licensing fees through the publishers/devs, as well as all the certification stuff, and access to XBL?

 

The Surface is obviously going to try and get the usual App store fee cut, assuming that other Win 8.1 tablets play the same game. ( Full disclosure (haha) I got a Surface Pro 2 256 gig, and I love it!)

 

The XBL fees and platform license fees wouldn't be counted separately from Xbox as a total unit. I'm sure they somewhat balance out unprofitability of actual hardware, which is what I think you're referring to, but it's still a wash overall.

 

Glad you're enjoying the Surface 2 Pro, looks like a sharp piece of hardware. Could never convince myself to buy one over a Bay Trail equipped ~$500 convertible tablet from Asus or Dell, though. I just don't need a ton of horsepower from a tablet, though I use devices like that almost solely for consumption and not creation.

[Merus]

I really wish Nintendo was better at doing things online. They're so hesitant to do things for the sake of "protecting the children" that it just puts a damper on everything. They need to outsource their online infrastructure. Or stop making hardware and just become a software developer. Whichever.

 

They really should outsource their tools development, because it's been years and they just are not good at it. That is probably not a thing they should outsource, though.

 

I think Nintendo will stop making hardware when they are dead. Their industrial design is their most underrated asset, but they could make basically anything and it would be inexpensive, curiously absent of some seemingly important features, and be both utterly charming and figuratively bulletproof.

 

If they put half as much effort into their firmware and development tools, they would be formidable.

[Dewar]

The XBL fees and platform license fees wouldn't be counted separately from Xbox as a total unit. I'm sure they somewhat balance out unprofitability of actual hardware, which is what I think you're referring to, but it's still a wash overall.

 

Glad you're enjoying the Surface 2 Pro, looks like a sharp piece of hardware. Could never convince myself to buy one over a Bay Trail equipped ~$500 convertible tablet from Asus or Dell, though. I just don't need a ton of horsepower from a tablet, though I use devices like that almost solely for consumption and not creation.

 

It's more appropriate to compare the Surface with ultra-books. I'm not sure if I really needed one, but having it has been nice, and I can play real (if somewhat old) games on it. The touch screen is a super cool Wacom model, which is cool because it saved us a few hundred not having to buy a new Wacom tablet for my wife.

[feelthedarkness]

yeah, it being able to function as a budget Cintiq was a big factor. 

[JonCole]

I was looking at the Dell Venue 11 Pro for myself, which has a digitizer-laden screen for pressure-sensitive stylus support and a tablet keyboard option that effectively makes it a laptop. Sure, it only has 2GB of memory and a mobile-friendly, somewhat underpowered CPU, but it seems a fair exchange for the price ($500 vs $1200) and extra battery life.

[Dewar]

Extra battery life would definitely be nice. I'm not sure if that touch screen would be good enough for art, even with a nice pressure sensitive stylus, but I'm not the expert in that. One thing that struck me about a lot of the cheaper models of tablets is that the screens looked really plain and washed out. Obviously, it depends on if you notice these things or not.

[Henroid]

Sony has a new thing going for them. Amazon has a store for PS3, PS4, and PSV stuff, an alternate to the PSN in case people don't want to have to use Sony. Very counter-culture to what MS has been doing for all their business (route everything through them and them alone). Plus, competition breeds good customer deals, so good move Sony.

[JonCole]

Amazon actually used to sell both XBLA codes and PSN game codes, but they stopped in 2010 if memory serves. Good to see it come back, I much more regularly have Amazon credit that PSN Wallet credit.

[Merus]

I'm curious to see how deep the integration goes: do you download the game files from Amazon's servers?

 

I imagine Valve will be all over this.

[Henroid]

That's a good point. Is Valve continuing their "Steam for Playstation" thing? I imagine this gesture will at least make them consider it if not.

 

Edit - Oh! This is only tangentially related to the VG industry but apparently Netflix is finally launching an interface that's the same across all platforms. I didn't know it was different.

[JonCole]

I imagine you get a code that you redeem in the SEN Store/on your PS3/PSV/PS4's storefront, just like the download code for wallet funds. I haven't used it myself yet, maybe I'll try it out on AC4 later this year.

[Justin Leego]

Microsoft co-founder and now big-time investor / philanthropist / sports team owner Paul Allen agrees with CEO candidate Elop, reckons Xbox should be sold off or spun out.
 

Not because it isn't profitable but because it's not part of MS' focus on enterprise or cloud business.

[JonCole]

Ars wrote up a good article on MS/Elop thing: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/microsoft-shouldnt-hire-any-ceo-who-wants-to-kill-bing-and-xbox/

 

I just think that unless Microsoft wants to be IBM, they can't kill Bing and Xbox. And if they want to be IBM/obsolete, I want nothing to do with them as a consumer-level customer.

[feelthedarkness]

If a console cycle is 7 years now, I assume that the goals for the Xbox ARE to transition it to a cloud service, like their own Steam. They have their own app store for the Surface. I know the always online thing stumbled, but I can see them retrying a variation of it, for a download store.  

[Dewar]

Microsoft co-founder and now big-time investor / philanthropist / sports team owner Paul Allen agrees with CEO candidate Elop, reckons Xbox should be sold off or spun out.

 

Not because it isn't profitable but because it's not part of MS' focus on enterprise or cloud business.

 

I think that would be a poor decision, if for no other reason than having a presense in a bunch of different areas means you can cross-advertise.

[Henroid]

This is pretty low-ball for this thread but I love this size comparison shot. It makes me think back to the original XBox and how it got slammed for its size.

 

 

Now you can relive those days with Xbox One! ITZ HUEG

[Nachimir]

It is pretty huge, though putting it near the edge of a shot taken with a wide angle lens is definitely doing it no favours.

[JonCole]

What makes it even more silly is that the Xbox One has a power brick while the PS4's power converter is internal. So not only is it that big comparatively, but the power cord adds a nice chunk of volume as well.

[Roderick]

Yeah, frankly I'm baffled at that exact thing. Has the Xbox One been that much sloppier designed? Where's the rub? How could it be that a machine that's a little less powerful is 2,5 times as large (power brick included)!

[Justin Leego]

Airflow design could have something to do with it as there was talk of the Xbox One being able to adapt performance according to its own internal temperature (so we know that figured reasonably highly on as an engineering priority (if not a PR priority)).

In contrast to Microsoft's Millenium Falcon, the back of the PS4 is practically open to the four elements: dust, pet hair, tears of sweat and salt, and dorito flakes.

[JonCole]

All of that said, I can't help but boomerang back to my original overarching sentiment - who cares what these things look like? The only reason I am feeling slightly down on the Xbox is that power brick because I've never found those dumb things fit very well in my admittedly cheap, tiny entertainment center.

[tegan]

All of that said, I can't help but boomerang back to my original overarching sentiment - who cares what these things look like?

 

I think that the Xbone might actually be too big for my entertainment center.

 

Also I'm totally the type of person who cares entirely too much about what electronics look like.

[Henroid]

Sales ratings:

 

1. Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3) - 1.1 million
2. Pokémon X (3DS) - 1.7 million combined with Pokemon Y
3. Pokémon Y (3DS) - See Pokemon X
4. Battlefield 4 (360, PS3, PC)
5. Batman: Arkham Origins (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
6. Assassin’s Creed IV, Black Flag (360, PS3, Wii U)
7. NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PC)
8. Skylanders: Swap Force (Wii, 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS)
9. Lego Marvel Super Heroes (360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS, PC)
10. WWE 2K14 (360, PS3)

 

I'm really bothered by the fact that Pokemon X and Y are charted separately, yet their combined sales numbers are disclosed and beat GTA V. In the past I'm like 90% sure that Pokemon games would be on the same line. So really that chart should be

 

1. Pokemon X / Y

2. GTA V

[Dewar]

Until sales rating numbers count "digital" sales, they don't mean much.

[Henroid]

Until sales rating numbers count "digital" sales, they don't mean much.

Video games sold at retail and digitally tend to show their strength via the retail end. Digital sales for those games actually don't mean much.

 

Now, as far as digital-only goes yeah it's not fair because they don't count those at all. But the people selling things digitally have to be willing to play ball and give their data to the NPD group. Nobody is required to.