Bonum Certa Men Certa

Early Eulogies to Xbox 360 (Gloomy Forecast, Poor Preorder Numbers, Bungie Leaves)

The mummy



Summary: A roundup of news about Xbox 360 and the new controller which hasn't yet arrived or shown much demand

THE Xbox 360's reality becomes more evident as the weeks go by. Maybe the Xbox 360 will be the next "KIN"-like victim of tough competition; the death of Original Xbox Live was mentioned here in April and questions are still being raised about it. Video games are not as profitable as they used to be, so participation in this area becomes less attractive over time.



DFC says that Xbox 360 will suffer a fall in sales.

DFC Intelligence, the analysis firm, has estimated that Xbox 360 is likely to lose its demands shortly. In the upcoming months, it is going to lose its market to rivals, added DFC.


This is also covered in:

i. Microsoft Xbox 360 Set To Decline Says Analyst Firm

Industry Market Analyst DFC Intelligence has issued a note saying that Microsoft's flagship gaming console, the Xbox 360, has already passed its peak and is set to weaken over the next few years.

The brief, Gamasutra reports, says that Kinect, the newly announced peripheral, will have a neglible impact on the sales of the Xbox before adding that "The Xbox 360 has some good years left, but the platform is clearly on the downside of its lifecycle".


ii. Analyst: Xbox 360 'Clearly On The Downside Of Its Lifecycle'

But despite its efforts to move beyond its core gamer demographic, Microsoft will struggle to make its console relevant to the mass market, as the Xbox 360 moves into its fifth year, according to one analyst.


iii. Has the Xbox 360 hit the 'downside' of its lifecycle?

DFC Intelligence believes the Xbox 360 may have "some" good years left, but estimates the console is on the "downside" of its lifecycle - despite the advent of Microsoft's Kinect platform.


iv. Kinect will struggle to hit mass market

Microsoft may struggle to take the Xbox 360 to the mass market level and it's likely that Kinect, the new Xbox controller, may have a "negligible impact" - that's according to market analysts DFC Intelligence.


That last one talks about Kinect (formerly "Natal"). It was hyped up rather aggressively by Microsoft (marketing costs a lot of money), but Microsoft Kinect pre-orders are said to be disappointing:

Microsoft might have made a major mistake by pricing the Microsoft Kinect as high as $149, a price that means that the peripheral could well carry a suggested retail price of around €£129.99 in the UK.

[...]

He added that pre-orders, at least for Shopto, are currently very low.


"High Kinect Price Leads To Low Pre-Orders," says the headline of another article:

The Kinect has garnered mixed reviews since it was fully unveiled at E3. Fudzilla reports that the biggest issue the motion-capture peripheral faces may be due to its high price tag. The Kinect is set to retail for $149, although Microsoft is adamant that the price could change before launch.


There are claims of a 2-player limit, which would harm the gameplay. The lack of a price tag is also a problem (only specifications are known) and "Kinect will struggle to hit mass market," says this news headline:

Microsoft may struggle to take the Xbox 360 to the mass market level and it's likely that Kinect, the new Xbox controller, may have a "negligible impact" - that's according to market analysts DFC Intelligence.


One Web site asks, "Is the Xbox 360 In Its Death Throes? "

Microsoft has made it clear that they believe Kinect to be the shot in the arm the Xbox 360 needs to remain relevant for another half-decade. Market research firm DFC Intelligence disagrees, and believes that the Xbox's best days are behind it, and Microsoft has hitched its gaming wagon to an old and dying horse.


There are many doubts about the project due to lost leadership [1, 2, 3]. Greenberg is still on board with 'damage control' for Milo, but the bad press keeps coming. "Crackdown 2 Soundtrack Confirmed By Microsoft Is Terrible," says this one Web site and even Microsoft's marketing people cannot stick to one position on Milo, which is embarrassing.

Conflicting reports from Microsoft PR


One site accuses Microsoft of bribing people who write and it asks: "Does GameStop Promote Microsoft Over Sony?"

Microsoft is into giving gifts. Just ask anyone who goes to any trade shows or anyone who has worked for a GameStop or EB in the past decade or so. I was working at an EB when the first Xbox launched and to help promote it, Microsoft reps handed a ton of goodies to EB managers and assistant managers at the annual company meeting. Just recently, when I was down to GameStop, the employees were talking about their upcoming meeting in July, and they all fully expect to get preferential treatment from the big M$.


Microsoft's bribing of journalists for positive Xbox 360 coverage is a subject we wrote about last month [1, 2, 3].

Another site ridicules Microsoft for just playing catch-up by copying competitors and Bungie is officially leaving Microsoft after telling the world that Microsoft was a suppressor of creativity. This was expected and it's not quite the exception, either.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
 
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day