Pika

When Leonidas meets the other city's ruler (Can't remeber his name) and he says you have only brought 300 soliders and Leonidas points out he has brought 300 more warriors than the king. Completely sets the scene for how bad ass the spartans are without showing them fight at all.

I think these missed target goals are a clear sign MS is overpriced. They will not be able to significantly expand their market share further without cutting the price. $400 bucks is still a lot of money for an entertainment device. If they match the rumored Sony drop of $100 bucks and drop the Core combined with the stellar fall software line up I think MS will soon be annoucing they are exceeding targets not missing them. A $300 dollar premium system and $380 dollar Elite would defintely move some kits, especially with the new warrenty.

If MS got really aggressive and matched Nintendo at $250 for the premium they might be able to knock out Sony completely. Don't see that happening though with a $1Billion dollar write down for the new warrenty.

Words to live by from the great John Wooden "If you don't have time to do it right the first time when will you have time to do it again" Or money to do it again in MS case.

I don't think the attraction to the Wii is going to wear off soon for people who enjoy and are looking for the software the Wii is providing. I do think as this thread has shown that the appeal of the Wii has definetly worn off for some people interested in what has been your more traditional AAA software, the so called hard core gamer.

Also why do people keep holding onto the belief that the 360 is exclusively an FPS system. I admit the first Box had WAY to many FPS games. The 360 however has a very well rounded game library. Yes Halo 3 is the headliner of the fall games but Blue Dragon, Overlord, Two Worlds, Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect, GTA IV, Too Human, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell, there are ten highly anticipated non FPS games just this year. The library already has Crackdown, Saints Row, Viva Pinata, Oblivion, Dirt, DoA 4, Forza 2, Dead Rising, Guitar Hero, Marvel U.Alliance, and Lost Planet and Gears (Granted they are third person shooters). Not to mention all the games on the Live Arcade. I don't expect everyone to want an X-box but saying it is just FPS games just seems totally incorrect to me.

I agree with the comments above. I purchased a Wii in January and I LOVED it for three weeks. Then I wanted more depth from Wii Sports and could do the Wario Ware games in my sleep. I Got a lot of games from Gamefly and none of them had any staying power. The total lack of online and the tech demo minigame feel of most games just wore off real fast. I agree that Wii games are just fun for a day or two. I'm also not convinced yet you can really improve on traditional games with motion controls. Finally, call me a graphics whore if you want but the Wii games do look dated and that bothers me when I look at Excite Truck and then Dirt. (By the way I think Dirt Controls MUCH better with my Feedback wheel than tilting my Wiimote also)

My Wii just gathered dust for the last few months until last week when I traded it in for a PSP bundle of the system, 3 games, 3 movies and 4 gig card. A LOT of people have told me I'm crazy but I travel a lot on business and I think the PSP is finally coming into its own (God of War, FF Games, DD Tactics). I have actually enjoyed the PSP games and its nice to only carry my PSP on trips now instead of multiple media gadets (God Bless Handbrake!!)

I also looked at my limited home gaming time and didn't see my Wii even getting looked at when Shadow Run, Dirt, Blue Dragon, BioShock, Two Worlds, Overlord, and the Darkness drop this summer. Then the fall is just as good with GTA IV, Mass Effect, Assasian's Creed, Halo 3, and Lost Oddessy.

I just hope that these excellent sales numbers for the Wii don't lead to a lack of third party development of, I hate this term, hardcore games in 2008 and beyond. It will be unfortunate for ME if the top 3rd party teams are working on mini games or casual games because of the install base of the Wii. I hope Wii gets some more complex games and someone proves me wrong on motion control, I would love to have a reason to buy another one. (When they are $150 like the tech in the box should cost!!!)

Sweet if PS3 is 4D I can only imagine what the 5D PS4 will be like.

Wyrdtoo, would you rather make $64,000 a year and keep $1,200 after taxes and benefits or make $37,000 a year and keep $14,400. Yeah I'd rather be option #2 as well. Just an example of how silly your Revenue trumps net income statement was.

No one is even talking about Sony's out of control cost of capital and serious cash flow problems due to their high short term borrowing requirements. Cashflow is the life blood of a company and Sony's cash flow position is very weak compared to MS which has cash just stacked up in rooms in Redmond.

I agree with #2. This purchase would have major impact to the stock prices of both companies and the deal would NEVER be confirmed in a an interview with a video game site. The fact that neither side flately denied it is interesting. MS just refused to comment with a stock answer and Capcom didn't say they were not for sale just acknowledged the rumor was old. Further I would think Capcom would benefit from high speculation of an MS purchase as it would likely drive up the stock. I find the possibility of this rumor to be quite good from a buisness sense.

Capcom recently closed the studio that did Viewtiful Joe and Okami due to cashflow issues. I hear constantly that Capcom makes to much "profit" to be purchased and they are to big to be purchased. That has nothing to do with Cashflow. I have seen numerous companies show high revenue even high profit but not cashflow. Just because you are recognizing revenue does not mean you always recieving the cash you need to run your business. If, I don't know if this true, Capcom has some bad supplier terms with customers they may really have a lack of cash in their bank account to cover their current expenses.

MS has NO ZERO NONE cashflow issues. They can heat their half caf skinny mocha chocha lattes by burning big stacks of benjamins. The last time I looked at an MS quarterly they had somewhere around $35 Billion in cash reserves. That is more than enough to purchase Capcom. Not to mention that any bank anywhere in the world will loan MS anything they want. They have no debt currently. By becoming part of MS Capcom would never again have to worry about cashflow. Capcom could just focus on making bigger and more expensive games flush with MS cash to cover the costs. Capcoms shareholders would also make a nice return on their investment in Capcom and then hold large shares in possibly the most stable company in the world. Pretty good reasons for Capcom to sell.

MS would certainly sell more units in Japan if they were the only place that Japanesse gamers can buy their next biohazard, breath of fire, and Onimusha. US gamers would also be much more inclinded to stick a white box under their TV's. Capcom's great backlog of 8 bit and 16 bit games would also give Live Arcade a strong answer to the virtual console. I would love to play Strider or Trojan or some classic Megaman on the Arcade. Pretty good reason to buy.

If this rumor is true look for it to be annouced after the end of trading on the Nikkei exchange as Capcom's stock will be the most affected. Of course it could also come after the end of NASDAQ trading as well.

In no way saying I think this is definetly happening just that there are some signs that real world business needs could facilitate the sale. The ravings of Fanboys around the world will be priceless if this does happen.

I have to agree with #64 on this one. I see a lot of similarities between this format war and the SACD DVD-A fight. Both the new video and audio formats required relatively expensive equipment. Both offered a smaller performance increase over the previous format than the jump to DVD and CD. Neither offered a huge improvement in usability such as DVD and CD not requiring rewinding. Both also required additional equipment that was not in every home. HD-DVD BD require HDTV's DVD-A and SACD required 5.1 input equipped tuners.

Finally, both will face direct competition from digital downloads in general and Apple in particular. iTunes came out of no where to be the new digital music standard with the ease of downloading your music and storing without physical media that can be damaged. Apple also won with a product that provided inferior performance (audio quality) to the two new audio formats. Audiophiles bought the new formats but Joe Consumer downloaded iTunes and got an iPod.

Fast forward to today. Apple is prepping their video service and other video downloads services are offering burn to DVD functionality. Can Apple pull the double down and beat out HD-DVD and BD with digital downloads, with inferior quality, and a true video iPod with some chic apple design and ease of use. It won't surprise me on bit.

I am an early adopter and purchased the PS1 and PS2 on the first day they were available. I bought the X-Box 360 day one as well. I will not be buying the PS3 at launch however and I am curious if Sony is not going to find out that a lot of the people who bought their first 3-4 Million PS2 units are making a similar purchasing decision.

PS3 Premium = 599.99 (I have an HDMI equipped TV so it makes the most sense)
GT4 HD = 60.00 (The only game I am truly excited about in the launch window)
Controller = 40.00 (Best guess)
Total = 700.00

Gears of War = 50.00
Enchant Arms = 60.00
Bio Shock = 50.00
Mass Effect = 50.00
Splinter Cell = 60.00
Wii Console = 250.00
Zelda TP = 60.00
Mario Galaxy= 60.00
Metriod Prime 4= 60.00
TOTAL = 700.00

For me my purchasing decision is about the gaming utility I recieve. On the PS2 launch the system provided significant gameing utility over comparable purchases. This time though, as I showed above, the combinantion of X-Box 360 and Wii provide significantly more gaming utility for my $700 dollars IMO. MS has a solid lineup of software which will make it difficult for the PS3 to provide more utility than X-Box due to the high initial investment into the PS3 hardware. The lower cost of the Wii hardware coupled with the new game play makes the comparable utility of the Wii much higher. Thus the rationale for my purchase this round.

Furthermore, I have found the media center extender features of the X-Box 360 to be an often overlooked advantage. To me this blunts the advantage of the blu-ray player in the PS3. I have built a media center PC and loaded it up with storage capacity and did so very inexpensively due to the fact I used no graphics card and limited RAM. I have ripped all my DVD's to the MediaPC and truly do not miss the use of a physical media. (It also makes Netflix a real easy way to buy Movies WooT). The quality is lower than Blu-Ray, I know but the advantage of not switching disks is increadible. I think many people would agree with me in they played around with my set up. If I decide I really need a HD solution I will look for that involves no physical media.

I believe MS is actually hoping for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to fail. The HD-DVD drive is tool to this end. Many people here cite the similarity of HD-DVD vs. BD to VHS vs. Beta-Max. However, I think SACD vs DVD-Audio to be more approrioate. I purchased a Sony DVD player that played SACD. It really did sound better and all my friends that listened to the two SACDs I bought agreed. However, the players required additional gear (A tuner with 5.1 inputs) and the improvement was not as substantial as the jump from tape to CD. Ala Blu-Ray /HD-DVD. They require HD-TV and the jump is not a huge as the jump from VHS to DVD. People forget what a pain it was to rewind audio tapes and VHS I think. The two formats confused customers and neither took off. Now which format really replaced CD. Digital MP3 and AAC. Apple a computer company become the dominant player in digital music. I think it is MS's goal to do the same in movies. UMPCs, Windows Mobile PDAs, Mabe even a X-Box portable could be the iPod and X-Box live marketplace and live anywhere could be iTunes.

Just some thought on why MS seems to be just barely taking a side in the high capacity optical storage fight. I know that was a long rant but I have wanted to say my peace about all this for a while and never posted. Stop the bickering and enjoy the amazing GAMES!!!

I wonder if the smaller click wheel on the nano might be show up in a video iPod? Thus, allowing for a larger screen that could be viewed wide screen if you held the device in a landscape orientation. Apple could essentially make a much more attractive screen without having to really change the form factor for the existing iPod.