• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox had to spend millions to compete with a dominant PlayStation

Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

Gold Member
Former Xbox and EA executive Peter Moore has shed some light on the history of PlayStation vs. Xbox console war in a new interview, arguing that Microsoft had to create console wars in order to make its mark in the industry. Moore is referring to the time when Sega’s gaming hardware business collapsed, making PlayStation the dominant player in the market.
Click to expand...
In a recent interview with Iron Lords Podcast, Moore said that Microsoft had “nothing to lose” when it came to console wars back in the day because the market was already dominated by PlayStation. “You’re writing really big checks to get content — you don’t have an install base that you could point to,” Moore said, adding that Microsoft spent millions to ensure that games were released on Xbox day-and-date with PlayStation.
Click to expand...
Apparently, Microsoft needed to travel the world to speak to developers and publishers because they were “in Sony’s pocket coming out of the Dreamcast falling off.” This specific conversation starts at 1:46:00 mark in the video below.
Click to expand...
www.youtube.com

Peter Moore Former Head Of Xbox & Sega | EA & Liverpool FC | Starfield Goes Gold | Embracer |CWA ABK

#advancedgg #dreamcast #xbox360 https://lordsofgaming.net/1) ADVANCED GG Use Code "IRONLORD" to save 10% off at https://advanced.gg/?ref=LORDCOGNITO2) NEW...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
www.playstationlifestyle.net

Game Companies Used to Be in Sony's Pockets, Former Xbox Exec Claims - PlayStation LifeStyle

Former Xbox and EA executive Peter Moore has shed some light on the history of PlayStation vs. Xbox console war in a new interview.
www.playstationlifestyle.net www.playstationlifestyle.net
 
mansoor1980

mansoor1980

Gold Member
we know peter , you were also a part of that spending spree

CGxWg1ZXAAAS0Iy.png
 
Snake29

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
The wanted to compete with Sony in the livingroom. I mean that was the case based on their documentary, now you failed.
 
twilo99

twilo99

Member
DenchDeckard said:
It's true. It's like Apple fans. It takes years to nurture that kind of fandom. Props to them. Imagine trying to sell an android phone to an apple fan.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You can’t achieve this level without producing extraordinary hardware that people love in the first place. This situation is not a given.

They can even afford to let things loose a bit and still ride the wave.. the PS5 is not really their best work all things considered.
 
Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
And after all that, with all that money spent... I dare say if I were at the helm, I would have spent that money differently and Xbox would have been better for it.

vaibhavpisal said:
Developers being in Sony's pocket is bad for industry. As of now, Sony isn't a sort of company that can ensure industry growth.

Look at what happened in Japan. Developers are clueless as to what sells well in Japan and rest of the world.
Click to expand...
Errrrr....
 
Last edited:
Pallas

Pallas

Gold Member
This us why Google gave up too easily with the Stadia. They weren’t willing to spend as much and put in the work. Say what you will about Microsoft, they put in the work, just as Sony did when they jumped in and just like Nintendo did after the video game crash during the 80’s.

Mr.Phoenix said:
And after all that, with all that money spent... I dare say if I were at the helm, I would have spent that money differently and Xbox would have been better for it.


Errrrr....
Click to expand...
It’s easy to sit there and say that you could have done better but it’s really never that simple lol.
 
Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Pallas said:
This us why Google gave up too easily with the Stadia. They weren’t willing to spend as much and put in the work. Say what you will about Microsoft, they put in the work, just as Sony did when they jumped in and just like Nintendo did after the video game crash during the 80’s.


It’s easy to sit there and say that you could have done better but it’s really never that simple lol.
Click to expand...
Honestly, if you are Microsoft, with the resources they had/have... it really is that simple.

MS came in in 2001, and they had Bungie... they even got GTA4 exclusive content at some point, and had Epic making games for them and being one of their biggest third-party partners.

Then look at every studio Sony has acquired since, every partnership made, or the fact that MS had COD marketing rights before Sony and let go of that license because they felt Halo was better.

MS isnt where they are now because they couldn't have competed, or even beat Sony at every game Sony tried to pull. MS are where they are now because they made bad decisions after bad decisions. Over and over again.
 
Long Far Gone

Long Far Gone

Member
twilo99 said:
Sony is a very difficult business to go against…

Remember when bill said this?

Click to expand...

'Bricks', eh? Well, that's an ironic headline given the date. I remember those days and my 360 bricked itself twice. I had to send off for, admittedly free, repairs each time. After the 3rd red ring of death (RRoD) I threw in the towel and bought the OG PS3; that thing was built, and almost weighed, like a tank. Lasted, without fault, all the way until 2014 when I sold it off to buy a PS4.
 
SenkiDala

SenkiDala

Member
twilo99 said:
Sony is a very difficult business to go against…

Remember when bill said this?

Click to expand...
Honestly any other company would have got bankrupt after the PS3, those first years were catastrophic but people were buying it whatever it means.
No indie games, no achievements, no party chat, not a single good 1st party game, 599$ in front of 399$, no vibrations in controller, backcompat cancelled after a few months...

We already had this (at a smaller scale) with the PS2 that didn't have any good games for months and beating all the selling records while the Dreamcast was releasing bangers after bangers (Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Code Veronica, Jet Set/Grind/ Radio, Sega GT, Grand II, Ecco, Power Stone 2, Quake 3 Arena, Ready 2 rumble 2, and more) while the PS2 had Ridge Racer V (worst episode in the series), Tekken Tag (same)... And still everyone just wanted a PS2. I had a friend (we all had friends like this) who recognized Dreamcast games were awesome, looking better than PS2 games (hello Dead or Alive 2) but he just wanted the PS2 because it is the PS2.

The PS1 was such a hit, the bigger thing that happened in the VG industry since its creation, that people are since then are devoted to Sony no matter what.
 
Bernkastel

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
C

crackajack

Member
I guess the 360 must have been rather cheap then. With the PS3 architecture hardly making it easy, requiring some extra effort and actually good devs digging deep, so costing a bit to develop for, and publishers probably more easily convinced that 360 gets their game, while asking Sony wtf they were thinking. Especially at the beginning with a decent start in the gen.
Everything else was an uphill battle though, sabotaged by wii-too ambitions.
 
X-Wing

X-Wing

Member
Mr.Phoenix said:
Honestly, if you are Microsoft, with the resources they had/have... it really is that simple.

MS came in in 2001, and they had Bungie... they even got GTA4 exclusive content at some point, and had Epic making games for them and being one of their biggest third-party partners.

Then look at every studio Sony has acquired since, every partnership made, or the fact that MS had COD marketing rights before Sony and let go of that license because they felt Halo was better.

MS isnt where they are now because they couldn't have competed, or even beat Sony at every game Sony tried to pull. MS are where they are now because they made bad decisions after bad decisions. Over and over again.
Click to expand...

Preach GIF
 
P

Physiognomonics

Member
As usual MS strategy since it entered the videogame market has being throwing money to the problem. They are still on that strategy today. Nothing changed and this is why many of their games (but not all, they are doing some great stuff) are soulless.

What they don't understand is the human aspect of the problem. The IPs, the games are made by humans and teams first. If you neglect those, either they'll leave or they'll do mediocre stuff.

By the way what MS is doing could be compared to communist strategies. In the end they never work well because they are treating humans like slaves.
 
Matt_Fox

Matt_Fox

Member
That's not securing parity, it's spending money to compete in a market dominated by a rival.

Securing parity would be adding a clause to a multi-format game, that it cant run better on rival systems (and this does indeed go on, as anyone who read the leaked Resident Evil Village documents know).
 
Snake29

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Matt_Fox said:
That's not securing parity, it's spending money to compete in a market dominated by a rival.

Securing parity would be adding a clause to a multi-format game, that it cant run better on rival systems (and this does indeed go on, as anyone who read the leaked Resident Evil Village documents know).
Click to expand...

The whole document was misinterpreted:





 
Last edited:
Bernkastel

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Snake29 said:
Yeah it's pretty sad that it was their purpose indeed and they failed ever since. So you've seen it and you ignoring it.

He,y, their own words from the documentary...but keep sucking them!
Click to expand...
The voices in your head are not "their own words". Competing in the living room does not mean "they failed because they did not validate my projections of the only metric of success being deleting your competition".
 
Bernkastel

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Snake29 said:
We know what Microsoft purpose was with this. During the ABK trail we have seen what they want.
Click to expand...
Ahh, so there was nothing about "deleting the competition otherwise we fail" in that documentary.
Snake29 said:
I mean that was the case based on their documentary, now you failed.
Click to expand...
Snake29 said:
Well, you must have seen the documentary right? The purpose of the Xbox was to delete Sony's machine from the living room.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Pelta88

Pelta88

Member
Now they're spending billions to keep parity with PlayStation and it's still just a drop in the ocean. Being able to point to an instal base and saying X amount will purchase your game, is everything.
 
TheGodfather07

TheGodfather07

Member
Well no shit. The audience was on playstation and that's where there was money to be made. Of course Microsoft would have to convince developers to support xbox. It was a new unproven brand with no install base. It flopped aswell selling only 25m. It was with the 360 when developers really started to support the xbox brand.
 
Last edited:
Snake29

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Bernkastel said:
Ahh, so there was nothing about "deleting the competition otherwise we fail" in that documentary.
Click to expand...

There was, but in other words. But they clearly wanted to be the market leader and dominating the console living space. YET, the ABK trail has RECONFIRMED their purpose.
 
Last edited:
Chukhopops

Chukhopops

Member
Bernkastel said:
Ahh, so there was nothing about "deleting the competition otherwise we fail" in that documentary.
Click to expand...
Adding to this, the ABK trial showed that console market is their #3 priority behind mobile and PC.

What was the plan 20 years ago isn’t necessarily the plan today - having a physical box installed in people’s living room isn’t required to reach an audience.
TheGodfather07 said:
Well no shit. The audience was on playstation and that's where there was money to be made. Of course Microsoft would have to convince developers to support xbox. It was a new unproven brand.
Click to expand...
Especially after the PS1 gen where the market was completely taken over by Sony.
 
yazenov

yazenov

Member
Well, no shit.

Why would you expect equal treatment when you have a fraction of the competition's user base? How does business work?

They should ask Bobby Kotick for some pointers.

What's up with MS's execs / former executives playing the victim, please give us your sympathy card. It's becoming a trend.

www.ign.com

Microsoft Claims Bobby Kotick Demanded Bigger Revenue Share to Put Call of Duty on Xbox - IGN

In another bombshell in Xbox's in increasingly wild battle with the FTC over the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Xbox vice president Sarah Bond claimed that Bobby Kotick demanded a greater revenue share to put Call of Duty on Microsoft's platforms, and that Xbox ultimately caved.
www.ign.com www.ign.com

metro.co.uk

Microsoft had to pay Activision extra to get Call Of Duty on Xbox

Despite downplaying Call Of Duty’s importance, it turns out Xbox paid a lot of money just to have the games on its platform.
metro.co.uk metro.co.uk
 
Last edited:
JohnnyFootball

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Mr.Phoenix said:
Honestly, if you are Microsoft, with the resources they had/have... it really is that simple.

MS came in in 2001, and they had Bungie... they even got GTA4 exclusive content at some point, and had Epic making games for them and being one of their biggest third-party partners.

Then look at every studio Sony has acquired since, every partnership made, or the fact that MS had COD marketing rights before Sony and let go of that license because they felt Halo was better.

MS isnt where they are now because they couldn't have competed, or even beat Sony at every game Sony tried to pull. MS are where they are now because they made bad decisions after bad decisions. Over and over again.
Click to expand...
CoD went to Sony because console sales DRASTICALLY shifted in Sony's favor at that point. MS felt that CoD was too tied to the Xbox brand that it would have minimal impact and the cost was likely too high. I can't say MS made the right or wrong decision to let CoD marketing get away, but it was definitely a good move for Sony.
 
Kilau

Kilau

Member
Wow, they had to travel the world in a worldwide industry they were entering to make inroads with developers and publishers? What a horrible strain to put on a startup such as Microsoft. Then they were asked for financial incentives to bring content to a new platform? What is wrong with this industry? It's amazing poor little Microsoft has managed to survive, truly the underdog story of the ages.

Sad Heavy Rain GIF by Holler Studios
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
Did they expect to get equal footing for nothing? You need to invest in the areas of industry you enter.

Incidentally, I think per dollar spent, Sony have done better than Microsoft. They’ve just been more consistent with international support, investing in teams around the world, advertising and building appealing platforms. If you are gonna go up against that, you’ll need to spend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Data suggests PS5 outsold Xbox S|X at 2:1
47
3K
Kacho replied
PlayStation Just Reached A Huge Milestone For Total Number Of Monthly Users - 123 Million And Counting
News Business
0
618
Lunatic_Gamer replied
[Verge]Why Microsoft might be considering Xbox exclusives on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch
2 3
115
8K
mckmas8808 replied
[Bloomberg] This PlayStation Veteran Is Helping Make the Xbox Relevant in Japan
2
66
4K
yurinka replied
[Windows Central] Microsoft and Xbox announced 'Marvel's Blade' at The Game Awards — but could it also be coming to PlayStation?
Platform 6 7 8 9 10
499
35K
Darsxx82 replied
Top Bottom