Microsoft: cheapskate or secret genius?
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It’s no secret that I’m no a fan of Microsoft. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I hate the company. And it’s not just because I’m an Apple Fanboy. Oh no, I hated the company before I saw the light and switched to Macs. It just seems to me like they do everything wrong. Everything except their gaming devision, which has somehow managed to turn the Xbox 360 into the only next-gen console I’ve purchased or even care about purchasing. I recently had an epiphany that changed my original opinion of the consoles lack of out-of-the-box HD-DVD support.
I’m as big a fan of HD content as the next geek, but I don’t own an HD television. Because I do not, I wasn’t super disappointed long ago when it was announced the the Xbox 360 would not have a built in HD-DVD drive. I did, however, find it funny that everyone was comparing the prices of the the three next-gen consoles in terms of pure dollar amount and not the actual bang for your buck. The truth was after buying the add on HD-DVD drive (to equal the Blu-Ray DVD player standard on the PS3) the two consoles are almost identically priced.
So, at the time of release, it was quite obvious to me that the decision to ship the Xbox 360 without a built in HD drive was simply a ploy to lower the cost of the system to make it more appealing when compared to the PS3. The epiphany came to me when I began thinking of the “Console War” in terms of the “DVD Format War”. It would seem, and I may be giving Microsoft too much credit, that they might have had the future in mind and weren’t just being frugal.
Due to the recent decision of some big hitting movie studios to exclusively join the Blu-Ray camp, it looks like HD-DVD may be on the way out in the coming year. To present day, Microsoft has been standing firmly on the HD-DVD side of the war. Here’s where the genius comes in. Even though their chosen format is on the verge of being phased out, they never offered them built in. The Xbox 360 offers the technology as an external attachment. In theory, the Xbox doesn’t care or even know what type of drive is connected to it via USB. It just knows their is a USB device that’s sending HD content down the pipe.
This means that if, and when, HD-DVD loses the format war, it wont be hard for Microsoft to make the switch over to Blu-Ray by offering another external drive. Unfortunately for sony, if their format loses the war, the PS3 is stuck with it’s built in dead format. It really makes you wonder. Was this Microsoft’s secret genius plan all along, or was it just blind luck?
posted by Christopher Schnese
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One could argue that the biggest advantage Blu-Ray has over HDDVD is the very fact that it is built into the PS3. This acts as a Trojan horse, so to speak, to get a Blu-Ray player into a vast number of households. Perhaps if Microsoft had bundled the HDDVD player, or built it into the XBOX 360, the momentum would not have shifted toward Blu-Ray.
This somewhat supports Michael Bay’s theory that Microsoft chose to back the HDDVD format, solely to cause a stalemate long enough for the XBOX Live Marketplace to build up enough downloadable content. While Microsoft now seems to be sitting on the fence when it comes to the next physical High Def format, they are signing more and more studios to provide digital content (http://tinyurl.com/2cjufl). Which ever format comes out on top, Microsoft wins.
On another note, the thought of an XBOX 360 with HDDVD and Blu-Ray addons somewhat frightens me. If, and when, you get the elusive Red Rings of Death, there goes your whole entertainment center.
I would argue back that the Blu-Ray being built in is not the “biggest advantage”, but really the only advantage (besides studio support) that it has over HD-DVD. Blue-Ray is a far more expensive format and putting it in the PS3 and taking a loss on it was the only way to get the price down in the beginning. If Sony was smart, they would have never manufactured a stand-alone Blu-Ray DVD player and would have rebranded the PS3 and sold it exclusively.
You also have to remember that Blu-Ray is a first party format for Sony. They weren’t putting it into the PS3′s because they thought it might win and wanted to be better than the other next-gen consoles. They put it in because they knew it was a guarantee to place Ble-Ray in a large number of homes around the world.
Unfortunately, the cost increase of the player added to the console has left them losing the console war. Additionally I’ve heard of studies showing that there re huge numbers of PS3 owners who had no clue that their console had a Blue-Ray player in it at all.
As for Michael Bay’s theory… I’m sure they chose HD-DVD because it is the cheaper format. Furthermore, their work towards digital content on the Xbox Live Marketplace is likely more to compete with Apple’s iTunes Store rather than Sony’s Blu-Ray. It’s not like Microsoft has anything to fear from Sony anyways, their sales are absolutely crushing the PS3.
Lastly, I don’t think Red Ringing is as big a problem as it was at the release. I’ve never had a problem with mine and I bought the first models that came standard with HDMI (right after the first big price drop).
I don’t think Sony would have wanted to sell the PS3 as the only Blu-Ray player. That would make them too dependent on gamers to push the format. Especially when there are plenty of stand alone HDDVD players.
The XBOX 360 may be crushing the PS3 at the moment, but I don’t see that trend sticking. There are quite a few factors that come into play. XBOX had a year head start. It had quite a few exclusives. Better online component. PS3 was a beast to develop for. But, much of that is changing. Microsoft is losing a lot of those exclusivity deals. It is very likely that we could end up seeing future Halo’s or Mass Effect’s, etc on multiple consoles. Sony is ramping up their online component. The PS Home network is looking somewhat promising; plus it’s free. Most importantly, developers have had more time to spend with the PS3, and they are getting past a lot of the hurdles. Soon enough, the PS3 is going to have it’s fair share of impressive exclusives, and we may see momentum shifting.
I really don’t see the XBOX Live Marketplace and Apple’s Itunes store in the same category. I don’t believe they are in direct competition with each other. The driving force behind the Itunes store is the music component. Sure, the movies and tv shows sales might be decent, but they are hurt by the loss of nbc and the lack of movie studio support. The lack of high definition content is also killing them. Whereas, the Marketplace thrives on those tv shows and movies, and music is non-existent. For me, Itunes is the place to go for content on my ipod. The Marketplace is the place to go to rent a movie or watch a tv show in high def (though who knows what Apple as up their sleeves).
That’s why I said Sony should have rebranded the PS3. Under it’s new branding, it could be stocked in the DVD section and in the gaming section. It would be one box marked to two crowds. The gamers don’t need to think of it as a DVD player and the Movie buffs don’t have to think of it as a Gaming machine.
You are right, PS3 is gaining momentum. And, specific games are going to be pushing sales of the PS3. But, the fact remains that installed base is very important. If you are only going to own one next-gen console, chances are it’s going to be a Wii or a 360. Cost and available titles [ at the moment] ensure that. As more games come out and more deals for exclusive rights begin to crop up, the tides will turn. The real question is will it be too late? And how many people buying PS3′s in the future will be buying their second or third next-gen console?
And I should have better explained my comparison of Xbox Live Market Place and iTunes Store. I didn’t mean to imply that they were in direct competition with each other. I was merely saying that Microsoft is trying to capitalize on that market [of downloadable media] that Apple sort of legitimized into the main stream. They server different audiences, but their ideas and objectives are very similar.
P.S.
If you go back two episodes (think it was) in The Major Nelson Podcast, they talked about how the Gamercard system and the Zune Marketplace ID are integrated on the back end. So, while you don’t see Xbox live marketplace as a music store… in some ways (and probably eventually) it is.