Retrospective: The Xbox Franchise – Part 2
As we’ve crested the 7th birthday of the Xbox, and the 3rd birthday of the Xbox 360, it’s time for a retrospective on how Microsoft has changed the face of gaming and what will be some of the fallout for the Next Next Generation. Readily burned into our minds are the obvious things like the Red Ring Of Death, and Xbox Live, but that’s only scratching the surface. Let’s pull back the outer layer and take a look at all of the little things that has helped advance the pastime of video gaming.
Previously, we looked at what the Xbox did to change the environment of console video game playing. This time, let’s look at what the Xbox 360 decided to bring to the table.
The early bird gets the worm
One of the foremost changes from the Xbox was Microsoft wanted to be first-to-market with their next generation console. This of course had many impacts, which will be touched on in further detail later, but had the biggest importance of giving themselves a 1-year lead on the competitors. There is no denying that the Nintendo Wii is the console with the largest consumer penetration, but the Xbox 360 still has more market share than the PS3 and even in the latest months has managed to outsell the PS3 in Japan. This is very notable because the Japanese market was never truly penetrated by the original Xbox, with its total sales around 473,000 units.
It’s not the size that matters
The Xbox 360 also departed from its predecessor by reducing the size of the unit and making it look more like it belonged in the family room. Borrowing from the mod community, it even has user-changeable faceplates to allow for customization of the console’s aesthetics. This caused another generation switcheroo as the PS3 now became known as the “big boy on the block” due its size. The controller, which is available in two flavors: wired or wireless, kept with the smaller size as well.
Another significant change from the Xbox was removal of the hard drive as a de-facto standard for the unit. This was done to allow a version of the Xbox 360 to be introduced at a lower price point to try and add sales. This brought about the effect of crippling the capabilities of the developers, who are interested in garnering the most sales, having to build a product for two possible configurations. This has caused users to need a hard drive for the online play of games, and a limitation in the size of the downloadable games on Xbox Live. The latter has been an area where Xbox 360 owners have missed opportunities or adultered releases. Recently Microsoft realized the need for permanent storage as a default option and added 256MB of internal flash storage on its low-end Arcade units. Some will compare this to the PS3 which featured many different versions, with varying capabilities. Out of each of the PS3 iterations, the core features required for standard operation still existed: next-gen gameplay, online capability, and mass storage. By making the hard drive optional, a ‘core’ feature was removed from certain SKU’s.
No longer a one trick pony
With the new Xbox360, Xbox Live received an update as well. Now gamers can download video content from Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, or stream it via Netflix. These additional capabilities reinforce Microsoft’s original stance that the Xbox360 was more than a console and attempting to become commonplace in the entertainment centers of homes around the world. In 2007, Microsoft announced that they would be adding IPTV capabilities. Since the initial announcement there has not been much information, but it appears that it is currently in testing. Microsoft obviously took note of what the mod community did to the original Xbox in expanding it into a media center. Also, the Xbox360 now includes the ability to play back media from a DLNA media server, although the formats and outputs are limited even compared to the PS3. With money involved with selling media and Xbox Live Gold accounts, it’s hard to blame Microsoft for limiting the playback capability.
One ring to rule them all
Out of everything the Xbox 360 has done, the one thing that will go down in the annals of history is the colorful light display that too many Xbox 360 owners have seen: the Red Ring Of Death. With the surge to be first-to-market, Microsoft pushed the hardware out the door too soon, which contained many design issues that led to premature failure. The problem grew to such epic proportions that Microsoft was forced to step up and acknowledge the problem, as well as extend the warranty on the device to cover the problem. This little snafu cost over $1 billion to fix the problem. Luckily this helped to the Xbox 360 to save face and continue its push into the market place. It was after 3 years into the device’s lifetime that Microsoft had finally solved most of the issues with system. Clearly, the system was not quite ready for primetime when it was originally released. The one saving grace at the time was the library that was already teeming with quality titles from nearly every genre for every player. If the software to back the system was not there, it’s quite possible that the Xbox 360 would have flopped and been overtaken by both the Wii and the PS3.
Overall, the Xbox 360 showed a continued commitment from Microsoft in providing a viable, versatile, and fun video game console. By fragmenting their user base, they brought with them some of the headaches found on its earlier gaming platform: the PC. If the system had been sound in the hardware department, it is quite possible that it may have been the console of its generation. It is nothing but a smart move to bring more features outside of gaming to their device, in attempts to consolidate electronics, as well as provide a greater value for the investment cost in purchasing the system. The experiences and feedback that Microsoft has received from this generation is going to fuel the fire for its next iteration.
Tags: Microsoft, retrospective, XBOX, XBOX 360, xbox live
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It goes to show how much people love using XBL that they will go through all the RROD issues and the public still continues to buy the console. It been very public and it still outsells the PS3 almost every month, something I didn't think would happen when the RROD stuff first broke out. MS was very smart to bite the bullet and spend that much money. They know if they want people to buy the Xbox 720 they will need to get back the gamers trust. I have had the issue once myself now, and while it sucked I was happy that I got my system back in less then 2 weeks. I think that Sony does produce better hardware, in terms of build quality, but you can always see that MS knows more about making good software….a unified console from MS and Sony could be very nice!
as much as i love my 360 i tink it is going to be hard for me to get the next generation xbox due to that fact that i am currently on my second rrod.i do like the support that the 260 has though from third parties.and richard even if microsoft did bute the bullet and absorb the cost i think the trust with the gamers is already broken due to the fact that some people have had over 10 broken 360's, sure they were fixed everytime no problem but do you really want your 260 to spend more time in the shop than at your house.
You act as though you think that the next Xbox will have the same issues as the first. The chance of the same thing happening with the next console will be very low. I think every company deserves one real big screw up. I dealt with 3 PS2's that broke on me. Luckily my PS3 has been a reliable machine.
If they lost the trust with gamers then the console would not be selling so well. I am sure those who have had it happen to them more then once are more likely to not buy the next Xbox, but those people are in the minority. You seem to not know how willing people are to bend if they get what they want in the end. If MS had no games and a crappy online service then the RROD issue probably would have been a nail in the coffin. Hopefully MS learns from their mistakes and spends a little more time testing the hardware before sending it out.
Richard, I would say that people have lost their faith in the hardware, but they continue to support it only for the games that are on the system. The red ring has become a joke of gigantic proportions, coming up on a regular basis in comics, blogs and Internet forums. I have to think that some will look at it when they are purchasing the next version of the Xbox console. It will not be a large percentage, but I would say it will on a similar level as those that decide to go to Linux over Windows after years of disappointment wtih the OS.
I would say that Microsoft has made the procedure painless enough now to swap out your console, getting it back within a week and a half of sending it out, there are as many stories about having to wait three to four weeks to get it back, which until then, most gamers are stuck looking at all those great games on the shelf, instead of playing them as they should be doing. But again, the games that are on the system have made people look past the faults. I also think that we will see the slowest adoption to a new generation, in general, due to unanswered questions about backwards compatibility, hardware stability, and cost of new equipment, which, if history is precedence, will be more expensive than the last.
Honestly, I think that's one thing that the 360 has shown us this generation: it's first and foremost about the games. The Wii came with games. Sony had the hardware at launch, but relatively no software. It wasn't until last year that the PS3 started to finally get a foothold and start moving more units. Before then, Sony spent a lot of time marketing the other aspects, specifically the Blu-Ray (which could be viewed as software), in lieu of having a compelling library.
You're spot on that Xbox Live is one of two prime reasons for the system's success. The other is marketing. Microsoft just knows how to market their products in the US, in stark contrast to other console makers.
How quickly it is forgotten that Microsoft basically had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the press into the offering the replacement program and for the longest time they bent, twisted, and outright pretended there wasn't a problem with the 360.
Part of that is, of course the nature of being a public company. They can't go and say their stuff is broken until they know for sure it is, and even then they have a vested interest in 1) lying as long as possible and 2) holding on until they have a cohesive plan to fix them. And maybe 3) finding a good time to throw someone under the bus like the Peter Moore when he was ready to leave for EA.
It speaks volumes about their overarching corporate philosophy, which those of us who have worked in the tech sector know all too well.
I have an article I've been brewing for a while now about attitudes of the three console makers in this generation as evidenced by their hardware, firmware, and business activities, and it doesn't treat Microsoft's competitors so nicely either.
In the end, though, Microsoft rushed the hardware to market in shockingly bad condition just to beat Sony to market. They did, and it worked, and surprisingly RROD seems to have lowered the quality bar for console hardware and software in conjunction with patching via hard drives.
Good point William, but I think if the most recent 360's that are starting to replace the older 360's that still RROD are out long enough people will forget.
I'm hopeful that Microsoft runs as long as possible with this generation of hardware, despite the fact tat they've rev'd their 360's almost as much as Sony has their PS3 models. The latest one has onboard storage that is just one step shy of an integrated hard drive for crying out loud.
Why do I want MS to run long with this generation of hardware? Because it will get cheaper to produce them, cheaper to sell them, driving the price down. It incidentally would give Sony a chance to catch up and put the pressure back on Microsoft not just to produce games and consoles, but QUALITY consoles.
There really is no excuse for defective consoles. Microsoft knew their systems were bad the first day they went on sale, the tell-all book explained it. It's a single platform that's supposed to be easy to test. Firmware bugs, sure, they happen, but deeply flawed hardware? Come on.
“RROD seems to have lowered the quality bar for console hardware and software in conjunction with patching via hard drives.”
I don't see how that statement makes any sense. I agree MS rushed things and ended up screwing up big time, but how has the software become worse? I am glad that todays games can be fixed via download. In the past if a game was broke it was tough shit. It can't have lowered the bar since no new console has come out. If the next round if consoles are crap then you might have a point.
The faith is only lost in the fanboys eyes. If games are delivered then all can be forgiven. We play games for god sakes, its not that complicated. If the trust was not there then things would be really bad for MS right now, but their not. They rescued themselves just in time.
I would say that it is not the quality in say the type of software, but more of the craftmanship that goes into making a console game. Programming for a console game use to be triple checked before going to a gold master either via cartridge or the first disc based games. Once you added a hard drive, you gave developers an easy out. This is not necessarily the fault of Microsoft or Sony, but indirectly, having local storage has made developers lazy.
Just look at some of the issues I had with the demo of Riddick. Floating guns that continue to fire, and displays that don't redraw properly are huge bugs. Since there was no disclaimer at the beginning of the demo, I have to assume that the demo is from the final version. So what happens: a zero day patch on the day the title launches. Again, not the fault of the developer, but they have fostered it with the availabilty of a hard drive locally.
The bugs have nothing to do with that. Bugs are more prevalent in games today because the technical side of gaming keeps getting more and more complicated. If we want better graphics and everything that comes with bigger and better games we have to accept that issues can arise. Games are still tested with extreme scrutiny by developers before being released. I played the Riddick demo and had none of these issues at all. But that is something that if its a big problem they will fix. If it doesn't keep the game from being played then the issue is not a big deal for most. Luckily huge errors that stop a game from being enjoyed are extremely rare.
With a current failure rate as high as One in Four.. the red ring of death is no laughing matter for the success of the upstanding X360. I'm so glad the issue has been properly addressed in today's times.
-X3N | http://www.squidoo.com/xbox360-red-ring-fix
http://sites.google.com/site/4improv says it all…
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