[*] Xbox 360 RRODs (yeah, that went on for years, but does anyone give a damn now?)

I care about the failures with the 360, and I think a lot of people have sworn off MS consoles because of that.

Thank you for that deeply relevant assessment of the sales landscape.

(I have no idea what you mean by 'a lot of people', or where you get this information, beyond "well, I've done it, so others must have, too." Statistic Brain, who says their data came from MS, cites nearly 60 million 360s sold, as of last month. The same site lists Sony data from last July, claiming 57 million PS3s sold. I'm not sure how you figure out how many have 'sworn off' one manufacturer or the other, and what those numbers look like...)

Well I can tell you if they hadn't (seemingly completely) fixed the problem(s) in newer models, and if it wasn't for Halo, I wouldn't buy another one; I can also ask how many people here decided to not get another MS console before the dumb stuff they said the last few months, although that wouldn't be a good representative sample.

I care about the failures with the 360, and I think a lot of people have sworn off MS consoles because of that.

Something tells me you're basing that on what angry people on the internet have said. How many times have we told you not to trust them? ;)

Anyway, I think it's worth considering that MS is well aware of the RROD problem (if you recall, they ended up doing a special warranty specifically to cover it). They are also, no doubt, aware of what cause it in the first place, considering everyone else already figured it out (flexing of the motherboard due to too-rapid and too-extreme heating and cooling). And they have practically limitless funds and plenty of time to develop and stress-test the new console. It's extremely unlikely that the XBox One will have the same problem. That's not to say that it couldn't have a different problem, of course.

As for the rest, I mostly agree (some people will remember and some of them won't be very forgiving), but I'm not sure what point you're getting at, if any.

His point was that he feels a significant portion of the gamer population will have largely forgotten about all the current console complaints in a year or so. And if I might add my own opinion, I'd say somewhere down the road a lot of us are likely to have purchased both regardless of the differences between them.

[*] Xbox 360 RRODs (yeah, that went on for years, but does anyone give a damn now?)

I care about the failures with the 360, and I think a lot of people have sworn off MS consoles because of that.

Thank you for that deeply relevant assessment of the sales landscape.

(I have no idea what you mean by 'a lot of people', or where you get this information, beyond "well, I've done it, so others must have, too." Statistic Brain, who says their data came from MS, cites nearly 60 million 360s sold, as of last month. The same site lists Sony data from last July, claiming 57 million PS3s sold. I'm not sure how you figure out how many have 'sworn off' one manufacturer or the other, and what those numbers look like...)

I still hold in my heart of hearts the hope that somehow we'll see Destiny be the first truly cross-platform shooter. The technology exists. It's possible, just not very likely. Because then the only difference in one's gaming experience is down to what hardware you have, and that eliminates all the proprietary gains each platform has made.

~M

but I'm not sure what point you're getting at, if any.

Oh, GV. ^_^

[*] Xbox 360 RRODs (yeah, that went on for years, but does anyone give a damn now?)

I care about the failures with the 360, and I think a lot of people have sworn off MS consoles because of that.

Thank you for that deeply relevant assessment of the sales landscape.

(I have no idea what you mean by 'a lot of people', or where you get this information, beyond "well, I've done it, so others must have, too." Statistic Brain, who says their data came from MS, cites nearly 60 million 360s sold, as of last month. The same site lists Sony data from last July, claiming 57 million PS3s sold. I'm not sure how you figure out how many have 'sworn off' one manufacturer or the other, and what those numbers look like...)

[*] Xbox 360 RRODs (yeah, that went on for years, but does anyone give a damn now?)

I care about the failures with the 360, and I think a lot of people have sworn off MS consoles because of that.

[*] PlayStation 3 launch price and lack of good titles (for a good 2 years post-release); getting rid of backwards compatibility in later models
[*] PlayStation 2 launch price and lack of good titles at launch (noticing a pattern here?)

Looking at it practically, does it matter that much how expensive something used to be, unless it kept you from something you needed or got you to spend more than you should've? For the games, that might not be their fault (it also very well could be, which would be annoying, but I'd call that incompetent, not a calculated attempt at more profit or anything).

As for the rest, I mostly agree (some people will remember and some of them won't be very forgiving), but I'm not sure what point you're getting at, if any.

Funnyily enough, it kinda does make sense, and yeah, things really did work out that way a good bit. The Xbox 180 is now see as as the console that might be a bit less powerful, but whew, at least we got them to reverse the plans on that check in thing.

Whilst I think the conspiracy theory angle is amusing and obviously not even remotely true, I have always believed that the gaming public is sufficiently fickle and short-of-memory that the furore over the Xbox One will be all but forgotten within a year of launch. History has showed us that so long as they course-correct somewhat they'll be fine. Think about all the other problems major consoles have had:

• Xbox 360 RRODs (yeah, that went on for years, but does anyone give a damn now?)
  
• PlayStation 3 launch price and lack of good titles (for a good 2 years post-release); getting rid of backwards compatibility in later models
  
• PlayStation 2 launch price and lack of good titles at launch (noticing a pattern here?)

All of these consoles were ultimately deemed successful (in fact, the PS2 arguably was the most successful modern era console ever). If you look back at the history of consoles, the ones that have tended to do badly in the longterm were those that were ahead of the pack in terms of hardware, but released out of step; the Dreamcast, the N64, the Saturn, the 3DO. They all succumbed to either the generation before (which had momentum) or the generation after (which rendered it obsolete before it could gain momentum). The only real exception to the rule was the Wii, which is seeming increasingly like a blip.

As I wrote on Twitter — my prediction is that in a year's time gamers will have forgiven Microsoft and Sony will still be releasing half-baked software updates.

The Tale of M and S

Funnyily enough, it kinda does make sense, and yeah, things really did work out that way a good bit. The Xbox 180 is now see as as the console that might be a bit less powerful, but whew, at least we got them to reverse the plans on that check in thing.