

Why is Microsoft helping OS X by encouraging people to buy game consoles? - amichail

I've been using OS X since mid-February and find it comparable to Win 7 if you exclude games.<p>With the xbox 360 Microsoft is encouraging people to play games on game consoles instead of Windows.<p>This only helps Apple.  Why is Microsoft doing this?<p>Could it be that Microsoft only cares about business purchases of Windows and doesn't believe that web/Mac apps will replace Windows business apps any time soon?
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jrockway
I think the reality is that Microsoft needs to not lose money and mindshare to
Nintendo and Sony. If Microsoft didn't have a console, then people would write
games for the Wii and PS3, not for Windows. Microsoft would get nothing in
that case.

Also, since Microsoft controls the APIs for the Xbox 360 and for Windows, they
can ensure that an Xbox 360 game is "just a recompile away" from being a
Windows game. Then they kill Apple, Sony, and Nintendo all at once.

Finally, who wants to play video games at their desk when they can play on
their couch instead?

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ido
> Finally, who wants to play video games at their desk when they can play on
> their couch instead?

Apparently not Americans. But in Europe PC gaming is more dominant. And IIRC
in Japan & Korea mobile gaming is more popular than both.

Not all markets behave the same way as the one you're in.

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adamc
Why do you assume that without the XBox 360 everyone would play Windows games?
My guess is that more folks would buy a PS3 -- it's much more similar to the
360 than is Windows from a user's standpoint.

Presumably that is Microsoft's analysis as well. It could cost them a few
sales on Windows and still be a net moneymaker. And the fact that 360 games
are easy to port to the PC actually _helps_ the PC (while at the same time
encouraging development for the Xbox).

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tptacek
It's not a game console. It's a set-top computer. Set-top and mobile are two
of the major computing land grabs of the past decade.

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jay_kyburz
Yeah, Any day now people are are going to realize that you can plug a 360 into
a monitor, add a keyboard and mouse, and with a good web browser have access
to a set of office apps (thanks Goggle) and, well... the internet.

The kids will love it because it has all the coolest games, the mums and dads
will love it because it's cheap and only needs upgrading every 5 years.

I can only assume Microsoft is not pushing it because of antitrust issues. I
imagine people would freak with Microsoft dominating both hardware and
software.

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rsheridan6
I already do this with an old linux box. You can also watch videos on a real
TV rather than a little monitor.

Somebody needs to come out with a good, inexpensive way to interface with it.
I have a wireless keyboard with a trackpad, but I don't like it and it was
expensive.

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zacharydanger
Try using one of those Gyration mice. That's what I do anyway.

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rsheridan6
I thought about that but there are still too many times when I have to do
things at the command line like:

mplayer -dvd-device Barbie\ Goes \To \The \Beach/barbie.avi -mouse-movements
dvdnav://

Which is kind of inconvenient to do with a mouse. Maybe there's a reasonable
way to achieve the same goal (in other words, an alternative to mplayer that
doesn't suck) with a gui, but I don't know about it. I'd be willing to crouch
in front of the TV with a wired keyboard if it was just for occasional admin
work.

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buugs
Because the pc game market has always been a smaller crowd than the console
market, console is a cheaper solution as well as an established solution.

You won't ever see a release like halo 2 or halo 3 for a pc game because not
everyone has a grand to drop on a computer than can play something somewhat
well for a couple years.

Sure their is a separate online market for the pc but xboxlive and playstation
network keep getting closer and closer.

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litewulf
Gaming by and large is dominated by casual games which do not require these
"thousand dollar machines" (which outside of the true "enthusiasts" I doubt
people are really buying anyway.)

Most everyone has a computer, and I'm sure anyone that has used a computer has
discovered solitaire.

As for being established: I remember getting a CD full of shareware games
around the same time I was playing games on the NES. Consoles and PCs have
largely matured together and there is quite a bit of shared development.

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buugs
It is not dominated by casual games it is now dominated by latest and
greatest. It is still hard to find a computer at the store that can play games
well without any additions for cheap by the relative consumer. Just the other
weekend I had to add ram and a video card to my uncles computer to play half
life 2 comfortably/smoothly and that game is from 2004.

Sure there is a market for board games and such but that is largely moving to
flash/net based alternatives the real games are played on the xbox... it is
hard to meet a person where I live that hasn't heard of halo or xbox but
finding a person who plays video games on their computer is in the minority.

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litewulf
Uh, when I say casual games, I really mean people playing scrabble on facebook
or the games on yahoo, or things like bejeweled. I have a sneaking suspicion
they enjoy a much broader demographic than half life 2 and its ilk.

