Gamerscore Blog

Wow! A attach rate of 7.0-  Us 360 owners are  a dedicated bunch!

Heh. Guess which graph is going to be used in a bunch of college "Intro to Business" papers.

a big personal thanks to you, ushman360, for helping bring the average up...  :)

It'd be nice if we could find out how XBLA factors into the attach rate, or if it does at all.

Where do you draw the line between XBLA games and retail discount games? Is stuff like Sneak King being counted while Lumines Live is not? Live Unplugged?

http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/01/24/557135.aspx#comments

I have some questions about the quarterly numbers and the over all business plan for Xbox and Zune.

From what I've read and heard is the rough number that Microsoft had to invest in the Entertainment & Devices Division to get to this current point in the Xbox and Zune product lines is roughly 6.6 billion dollars.

I heard that they are selling Xbox 360 units at around a $100 loss but make up to 50% profits from accessories. How many games and accessories do a gamer have to buy to make up the manufacturing and development cost? Does that compare to the current attach rates?

Given the current amount of profits from the last two quarters how long would it take to get back the start up costs of the division?

What is sort of the debt limit that the Microsoft board will allow the Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division to spend? I mean are we talking about decades before the division recoups the start up costs? How many generations of hardware are we talking about for both Zune and Xbox?

Is both the Xbox and Zune a defensive product line that can operate at a loss to prevent Sony, Apple and Nintendo from dominating the digital entertainment devices market without a significant Microsoft competitor?

So can we expect a price drop in the 360 hardware when the "Jasper" motherboard comes out in the fall of 08?

I am not trying to put the thumbnails to you folks but these are the questions that's been kicking around my head.


PS Dick's drivein in Lower Queen Anne in Seattle is within walking distance of the Seattle center and is completely indoors and would be an awesome place for a Seattle area "Meet and Eat". If they can handle the rush crowds after the Sonics and Key Arena they can handle a reader meetup.

hehehe

Sorry, I had to snigger at the use of the word "life".  It just made me think about what IS the average "LIFE" span of a 360?

Anyway its all good so long as Xbox as a whole continues to live.  While the design of the 360 turned out to be fatally flawed and cost a ton of cash to cover that fault, it does bring you back to the "what does not kill us can only make us stronger".  I do not think the NEXT Xbox will be pushing the heat vs airflow ratio quite as tight.   I'm fairly certain the problem only happened because Microsoft wanted to attract more users from Sony and everyone was moaning that the Xbox was too big.  Ironic in the end as the PS3 is the most hideous shape/size of all, I simply could not fit one in my room even if I wanted to plus a giant breadbin would look a bit odd under my TV.

So yeah to keep on-topic, my point being that the success of 360 is of huge importance to us all as it pushes Sony to make more of an effort next time and Microsoft have no doubt learnt from their mistakes on the 360.  Most of all they do not have to sacrifice size/cooling efficiency to pull in customers which as I said above, I am sure was purely to appease Xbox haters who would rather buy an inferior but "cooler" looking console.  So long as the warranty stuff is sorted and not having to send refurbs back every couple of months. (fingers crossed, my first red ring'd console went back on Monday)

Awesome to see MS turning a profit now.  It really is no easy task to break into the game industry out of nowhere like MS did with the Xbox and go up against the already established Sony and Nintendo.


360 fans are very Lucky MS is such a strong company that was dedicated to establishing the xbox brand because quite honestly there probably isn't another company in the world that would of took the losses MS took, for as long as they did, and the hardship from the faulty hardware and stick with it until they turned it around.

oh, now you guys REALLY did it!  You had to go and become profitable.  What's next?  Total world domination???

::paranoid, looks over his shoulder::