For those of you thinking the Xbox is in some sort of financial trouble take a look at these snippets of a few articles from www.gamepro.com - go to the site to read full articles (they are still on the front page): "Xbox Revenues Better than Expected News by: Aki Sugawara 24-OCT-03 Microsoft has announced a 20 percent increase in revenue from the Xbox for its first quarter of its financial year, which is slightly better than what analysts expected. The company announced revenues of $8.22 billion for the September quarter, a six percent increase over the $7.75 billion reported in the previous year, and had net income of $2.61 billion—up from $2.04 billion last year. The Xbox shows no signs of slowing down in the United States, as it has a solid holiday release of games." and..... " News by: Aki Sugawara 24-OCT-03 Sony had a 34 percent drop in second quarter operating profits and a 25 percent drop in net profits to 33 billion yen ($300 million). Operating profits from games dropped 91 percent to 2.2 billion yen ($20 million) while sales dropped 36 percent to 161 billion yen ($1.47 billion), showing signs that interest for the PS2 already peaked and is on the decline. " and..... "We feel the PS2 sales have been lackluster, especially in America, because of the Xbox picking up steam and the gamecube floundering."
I am the one of the staunchest supporters of the Xbox, but even I have to throw up my hands here. Revenue and income do NOT equal profit. You are comparing apples to oranges. Sure, PS2 sales are slagging, but they are on their 4th year in the market, no? Regardless, I still don't think the Xbox is even close to being profitable. (And I think we would have heard if they broke through . . .) The PS2 console still sucks, but from a business perspective falling profits are still better than slowing losses. (For now.) As an aside, the words "XBox" and "financial trouble" should never be in the same paragraph. Microsoft has decided that they can do this right, and is willing to bankroll it indefinately. Whatever they are losing on it right now, even if it is into 9 or 10 digits, is a fingernail for them. They will not fold before 2010, no matter what.
I hope Nintendo doesn't go under. I still like their Zelda and Mario games to be honest. The problem for them in part is due to my next sentence: I know that when I eventually (inevitably now) settle down and have kids, that's what I'd want to get them. They just handled the launch and development totally wrong. I enjoy my PS2, but dont' like the multitude of buttons. ANd I don't have the XBox yet.
MS isn't going anywhere, until Everyone learns Linux and accepts it as their Master and Commander. I tend to lean more to the XBox side of thing because I love Xbox Live and HALO and the up coming HALO 2 has my brain buzzing...(like the Adu signing) HALO 2 may be outlawed as some type of Endorphin or some other halucinogen or something...
How many divorces and split ups do you think Halo 2 will cause? Ladies be aware no more 4 hour LAN Parties, 8 hours minimum. Hail to the Master Chief