Microsoft XBox is Having Its 1990s Apple Moment (Near Bankruptcy), Says Respected Insider
15 hours ago by Ella Chakarian:
Microsoft's CEO has already admitted that XBox is having serious financial problems and hence imminent mass layoffs (thousands affected). Based on separate statements made regarding hardware costs, it's not clear if it's the "end of the line" for the console. What is clear is that many studios will be cut (trimmed) or shut down for good.
"Mahler compared Xbox’s current position to Apple’s turnaround under Steve Jobs in the late 1990," says this new article. He is essentially comparing XBox to a company on the verge of bankruptcy. Microsoft keeps getting bailed out by the US government and unlike Apple, Microsoft has "subsisted on government bailouts / handouts for decades -- and not just the US government either," to quote a somewhat familiar (with the 1980s and 1990s) person who used Apple products for many years. And "also there is no quality-focused co-founder to come back and save the day [as] Gates was (and is) a bumbling fool with a very small tool set: bluffing and extending established monopolies [...] he did not even establish his first monopoly but instead got that from IBM via his mom."
An associate of ours has said, "keep in mind that the Xbox was never about games and only ever about implementing DRM in commodity hardware. It is possible that they feel they've gotten where they want to be in regards to restricted boot, UEFI, and other DRM with Vista 11."
They already try to reuse the brand "XBox" to refer to Vista 11 or vice versa (a PC being "XBox"). But given that the market share of Windows is fast-falling (all-time low this month).
It's all downhill from here; XBox will be in the headlines quite a lot this month. And "it would be important to point out for how long Microsoft has had financial trouble from XBox," we're reminded, as "it has been many years and rarely (if ever) profitable" (Techrights has provided supportive citations for this for over 15 years already!).
In fact, "they used to lose money on each unit, though not buying a unit makes them lose the most," we are told, citing more recent coverage/cases [1, 2, 3]. █