Does Microsoft Want Xbox 3 to be Out First Next Gen?
By Chris on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 9:26 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games Industry, Microsoft, Microsoft
Few people would argue that the Xbox 360’s year-long head start on the competition was extremely helpful. Those with an itchy buying finger helped Microsoft to reach the first to 10 million mark here in the United States, and Robbie Bach knows how important that lead time was.
“It has given us a leg up in a number of places that are super important,” Bach said. “It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly.”
“At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes. The truth is when we set that date, we didn’t do it to be first. We thought Sony would ship at that point. But they slipped a year.”
Bach believes the PlayStation 2’s continued sales show that cycles are lengthening and companies now have the ability to overlap consoles. From the sound of what he said, it seems like Microsoft would like to emulate that transition from one system to the next with the next Xbox. But Bach isn’t certain as to whether or not he wants to be first out of the gate with their next platform.
“[It's] too early to tell. Our view is we will be selling Xbox 360 for a long time. We are always working on new technologies. We have people working on those. People ask me how many people I have working on the next generation. On the one hand, it’s everybody. On the other, it’s nobody. People are continuously working on new technology.”
via VentureBeat
“Those with an itchy buying finger helped Microsoft to reach the first to 10 million mark here in the United States”
Yeah, they were first to 10 million in the US by about 24 days. That’s a pretty impressive lead.
That X looks sweet, way sweeter than the current 360 because that thing is ugly as my hairy butt.