Xbox 2 to take 30% market share?

[gaming ultima]

Industry bosses speaking at the Piper Jaffrey conference in New York have sounded notes of cautious optimism about Microsoft's next-generation plans, with EB president Jeff Griffiths saying that the system could win 30 per cent market share.

"Yes, they could get a 30 per cent share, " Griffiths told the conference, speaking about the Xbox 2 console which is widely expected to launch by late 2005. "I think if they got less than that they'd be disappointed. If they come out earlier than Sony, if they have the breadth of exclusive titles like Sony had for PS2, I think they'd definitely have potential for market share leadership."

While it's obviously positive that key industry executives such as Griffiths believe that the Xbox 2 could share leadership in the next generation, his statement has a number of important caveats - particularly in terms of Microsoft's ability to deliver on exclusive titles as Sony has.

"I think Microsoft is being more aggressive," agreed THQ CEO Brian Farrell, but like Griffiths, he too qualified his optimism heavily. "Can they gain share?" he asked, "Yes. Do they have to have a solid value proposition? Yes. Do they have to have aggressive marketing? Yes."

The aggressive marketing, at least, is almost guaranteed - reports within the industry suggest that Microsoft has earmarked a marketing spend for Xbox 2 which is twice as large as the massive above the line campaign for the original console.

Xbox 2 is expected to launch well ahead of its competitors from Sony and Nintendo, with the new console potentially arriving at US retail by the middle of 2005 - having slipped past Microsoft's original highly aggressive target of Christmas 2004.

Although many in the industry expect the Redmond-based software giant to grow its market share of the games industry significantly in the next generation, some industry bosses have expressed concern at the prospect of having to support both Xbox 2 - a next generation platform with a small installed base - and PlayStation 2, a current generation system with a massive installed base - for a number of years, as cross-development between the two platforms will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

gamesindustry.biz

[The_One]

read that quite a while ago. Not entirely impossible IF Xenon ends up being something good, and not a crapped up piece of hardware. Although it'd be quite hard to grasp that other 15-20% from Big N to give M$ a total of 30% market share... trying to steal any fanbase from Sony would be a stupid idea, seeing as how they'll most likely fail...

[gaming ultima]

read that quite a while ago. Not entirely impossible IF Xenon ends up being something good, and not a crapped up piece of hardware. Although it'd be quite hard to grasp that other 15-20% from Big N to give M$ a total of 30% market share... trying to steal any fanbase from Sony would be a stupid idea, seeing as how they'll most likely fail...

I would hope you read that quite a while a go as well, as its old news
and most likely M$ is going to be mainly competing with Sony next gen as with this gen as they have the same target audience. and this whole release before Sony thing will either be a really good move for them or a really bad move, a bit of a gamble to take really, but there desperate so...

[heerokenshin]

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64197

im planning on doing an article on this in the morning, if you can get to it before me, more power to ya, otherwise, id like to cover this. thanks!

Sega has announced that Full Auto 2: Battlelines is armed and ready for an appearance on the PlayStation 3, but this time it'll be completely exclusive for the PS3. Hurray!

Pseudo and Sega plan to include all the bells and whistles of the original Full Auto, but prettier and more destructible. This includes the unwreck feature, which erases the stupid mistakes you make during a race. Also packed in with the game are 25 vehicles, 20 tracks, and 20 weapons.

"The destructible environments in Full Auto 2: Battlelines are both stunning and strategic, especially in multiplayer combat," says SEGA's Scott Steinberg.

Full Auto 2: Battlelines will include a new single player campaign in which players take control of Staunton by defeating opponents, and obtaining their weapons and vehicles. Along with the single player campaign, comes the standard deathmatch mode, base assault, and gladatorial style gameplay modes.

No word as to whether its a launch title, but you'll know when we know.

[luxurys]

lol...looks like Ian beat ya to the punch. Good article by the way.

[Rebon]

Good work Ian! Live! And sorry Dusty, too slow =)