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The days of seeing stories like 'PS4's outselling Xbox by almost 2-to-1' could be over as Microsoft looks to have called time on the console sales war.
Last week saw the Big M announce its quarterly results - yes, yes, fiscal announcements, yawn - but the interesting thing noted by Game Informer was the lack of Microsoft's usual hardware shipment metrics.
When quizzed on this a Microsoft source responded saying it was no longer using such figures as its measurement of success. Instead it would be focusing on user engagement, choosing Xbox Live figures as its leading stat. Essentially Microsoft has made a tacit announcement that, in terms of hardware sales at least, it has lost the sales war of this generation of machines.
Long-time industry analyst, Michael Pachter, told Fortune yesterday that he believes Sony's PS4 is set to have another excellent holiday period, outselling Microsoft's console, and would probably do so with or without the price cut which has given it price parity with the Xbox One.
"Microsoft should cut price only if it cares about how many consoles it sells," he went on to say.
And, given that it's both halted reporting on its own sales and refused calls for a price cut of its own, it sure looks like Microsoft has now stopped caring about such figures. Or at the very least wants everyone to stop talking about it...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday October 26 2015, @09:06PM
I own a WiiU and don't care in the slightest that it's selling poorly because I'm an adult and can accept that my choices weren't popular, and the success of the system has no bearing on me.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jimshatt on Monday October 26 2015, @09:08PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday October 26 2015, @09:14PM
No, I mean, I can care about things like having a discussion with a stranger. I do all the time. But I'm so glad I'm not 14 anymore and don't have identity invested in products.
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:29AM
Now if only most adults ever reached this fabled age 14....
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday October 26 2015, @09:27PM
and the success of the system has no bearing on me.
It would if there was any difference between the systems, which apparently there is not.
My son likes xbox360 minecraft so he can play with his school buddies, I prefer modded minecraft on a linux PC, currently in a FTB Infinity solo.
If you don't play platform exclusives, there's probably no major difference between consoles.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @09:29PM
If I want to play console games I play on Nintendo. If I want to play consolised PC games then I plug a controller into my PC. :-)
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday October 26 2015, @11:50PM
PC Master Race reporting in. I can confirm that some console ports are so terrible that you need to buy a controller to play them (looking at you, Rocket League).
Off-topic: Warhammer: EndTimes - Vermintide just released and it is a lot of fun : )
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @10:27PM
I own a WiiU [...] I'm an adult
I was going to leave a snarky comment but this meta-comment is all you get today.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @11:38PM
You'll say that right up until the Zelda doesn't drop for the system...
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday October 27 2015, @12:08AM
I agree--I think the Sega Dreamcast deserves more credit than it gets. That was one of my more favored consoles out there. MS had a hand in its demise as part of the xbox strategy, or so the popular wisdom goes. (How many windows ce games do you think came out for it...? and did the xbox ever have any windows ce games?)
(and, as long as I am on the subject of old consoles, I think the Atari Jaguar could have been something special but then Atari got in its own way, as usual. Laugh if you will -- many things from that platform still exist in some shape or form today in modern consoles.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:02AM
>the success of the system has no bearing on me.
Wrong. If the system is not successful, then developers are more likely to release their games on other systems. Thus, if you play games in general (sometimes known as "real" games), you have a pretty large stake in whether your system is successful enough and whether you can get away with not buying another console just for the sake of having access to more games.
Of course, if you bought a WiiU solely for the sake of playing a single game or only Nintendo games, then yes, the success of the system wouldn't matter much to you. However, most people who own consoles own them to play games in general, not just a single game or only Nintendo games (citation needed), so they have a real stake in whether their chosen console is successful or not.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:37AM
Doesn't matter for people who don't really need access to all the games.
Take Nintendo for example - lots of exclusive titles, and excluded from many other titles. But lots of people who have Wiis are perfectly content to play the ones that they like and simply forego the ones that aren't available for it. This is also why many adults and even children are perfectly well off with a plain smartphone or a computer that can play Flash games online.
All three of the major consoles have great games for each. None will have all that you like - just pick one that you think is good enough and be happy with it. It's only those who have a lust or entitlement to play every good game that comes out that really depends on their platforms being the most popular.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:58AM
The only game i play on the Wii is Star Trek something or other (haven't actually played it in a long time). (Bought it 'cause we thought out son (autistic with cp) could control it with hand waves, but not so much).
PC games are usually my thing (Total Annihilation and M$inecraft, usually, although Steam games...)
I've totally gotten away from console games (excepting trying to get i3wm on arch/antergos to stop mis-behaving (did an upgrade, and when i unplug my usb cable (external hard drives and mouse) i get a lockup (which is bothersome when all i want is to watch a movie (cvlc) while i do the dishes after supper)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:59PM
Aaah, my parser has thrown an error. You've left us parenthetically to emerge two levels down!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday October 28 2015, @12:12AM
Those people are regular people and not "gamers". This is also the reason "gamers" hate non-gamers, because their poor "taste" is diluting the quality of the industry.
Now, it's true that non-gamers are not the cause of the console wars, but at least without them, the console wars will only be fought by gamers and not outsiders.
(Extremely rough) analogy: People who like good coffee. Company X makes good coffee. Normal people get hyped about coffee. Company X now focuses efforts on cheaper, low quality to cater to the masses and make money. Coffee lovers have lowered access to good coffee. Coffee lovers are not happy.
Console war analogy: Two big coffee makers X and Y have different coffee lover followings. Non-coffee lovers pretend to be coffee lovers for hippie/prestige points and support X. Y supporters resent them because they have to defend what they love not against fellow coffee lovers, but outsiders, pretenders. X supporters may resent them as well.
Of course, casual gamers are free to enjoy casual games, but that still hurts gamers because what they care about is being belittled. At least back when games were not taken seriously gamers could rest easy knowing that other people just didn't try to "get it", but now other people are "pretending" to "get it" when they are completely belittling the things that gamers love.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!