Why does everyone here think that Sony is bigger AND richer than Microsoft?

why not consider the market a bit, sony makes more products than just the ps2, they got their share of home entertainment, car audio, portable audio and video, even computers.
microsoft does mainly what, software, windows and office programs.(they also have mice and keyboards, and gamepads and such, but thats a small part of what they produce)
when you think about it, sony SHOULD be making more, because they sell a lot of products around the world, but they have more competition than microsoft does, right?  you go to buy a tv, there are at least 10 brands to choose from, but if you are in need of a new operating system, most like, you\'re going to choose windows, right?  the computer industry grew a lot during the start of microsoft (and i think they had a lot to do with it), so they benefited a lot from it (some say, "monopolized").
well, thats my $0.02 cents.

X Box
X box (Piss poor in Japan and Europe)
Lost 2 of its top brass as they "move on to better things"
Facing legal action with Navida over unpayed parts.
loseing "exclusives" like there is no tommorow.
lost a heck of a lot of money even before the European Panic attack sorry "price cut" 5 weeks after launch

Why do you care so much about the sales in Japan and Europe?  The US is the biggest market and the Xbox is selling very good there.  They aren\'t facing legal action with Nvidia over unpayed parts, they are in arbitration over the pricing of the GPU that is in the Xbox.  What exclusives are you talking about them losing?  

front-page article in the most recent issue of Money Magazine predictably discusses Microsoft\'s financial health, but the report raises some interesting questions. For example, Microsoft currently has a whopping $40 billion in cash or liquid assets and adds more than $1 billion a month to its cash stockpile. To put these numbers into perspective, the report states, that\'s "more cash than Ford, ExxonMobil, and Wal-Mart have combined and nearly four times as much as Intel, the tech company with the next largest cash balance. It is enough to buy the entire airline industry--twice. Or all the gold in Fort Knox, four times over. It is enough to buy 23 space shuttles or every major professional baseball, basketball, football, and hockey team in America." But here\'s the article\'s most amazing disclosure: Microsoft handles its investments with an inhouse software application called--seriously--the Catastrophe Hedging Program 2.5, which derives as much financial return on investments as possible while limiting exposure to changing interest rates. The result, says Money Magazine, is that Microsoft earned a remarkable 9.42 percent on its cash and short-term investments in fiscal 2001, despite that period being one of the worst financial environments in recent memory. The article contains a lot more information, but this report is a short take, not a financial dissertation. If you\'re interested in the truth behind Microsoft\'s success, you must read this fascinating report.

As you can see, MS doesn\'t have any money problems to worry about.

Link to Money article

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by inteq
Why do you care so much about the sales in Japan and Europe? The US is the biggest market and the Xbox is selling very good there. They aren\'t facing legal action with Nvidia over unpayed parts, they are in arbitration over the pricing of the GPU that is in the Xbox. What exclusives are you talking about them losing?

i thought Japan was the biggest market...?

anyhoo, Japan + Europe = Bigger than US  

and in comparison to the other two machines XBox isnt selling all that well.. faily poorly really.. i guess if it keeps going it will be successful, but sails are still on the decline at the moment  

and i think exclusive games such as Wreckless and others he is referring to (not that i want them in my house no matter what console they are on)

Why do you care so much about the sales in Japan and Europe? The US is the biggest market and the Xbox is selling very good there. They aren\'t facing legal action with Nvidia over unpayed parts, they are in arbitration over the pricing of the GPU that is in the Xbox. What exclusives are you talking about them losing?

Why?

Because Japan is the most importand market because of the developers. Capcom, Konami, Namco, Sega and heaps more are all japanese developers. They won\'t support or develop for a system that is dead overthere - or for this, the system would have to be very successful everywhere else. Because Xbox is flopping in Japan, developers are already rethinking their "exclusives". Silent Hill 2 is a nice example - it was ported to Xbox with exclusive extended content, but since they aren\'t selling enough, they\'re porting it back to PS2. Metal Gear Solid X? Yeah, if it ever comes that is... by the sales in Japan, why would Konami invest more money in this console? Potential? That potential is certainly showing.

Europe is also important because it is a market that is just as big as both US and Japan and even outsold both of them in a few categories. Microsoft can\'t battle or compete with the market leader by just doing well in one country.

Unless MS can produce top quality gaming, and on a frequent basis for the X-Box, they will surely melt under the heat of Sony\'s ever growing force.

I was going to post that Money article.  

Originally posted by seven


Why?

Because Japan is the most importand market because of the developers. Capcom, Konami, Namco, Sega and heaps more are all japanese developers. They won\'t support or develop for a system that is dead overthere - or for this, the system would have to be very successful everywhere else. Because Xbox is flopping in Japan, developers are already rethinking their "exclusives". Silent Hill 2 is a nice example - it was ported to Xbox with exclusive extended content, but since they aren\'t selling enough, they\'re porting it back to PS2. Metal Gear Solid X? Yeah, if it ever comes that is... by the sales in Japan, why would Konami invest more money in this console? Potential?  
That potential is certainly showing.

Europe is also important because it is a market that is just as big as both US and Japan and even outsold both of them in a few categories. Microsoft can\'t battle or compete with the market leader by just doing well in one country.

So I\'m guessing Tecmo is upset too with the poor sales of DOA3?  Oh wait, it has already sold over a million copies.  Where do you get your BS info?  Developers rethinking their exclusives?  Riiight, I\'m sure you were sitting in the meetings with them talking about it.  Do you really think the developers are going to give the money back that they were paid for the Xbox exclusivity?  

There are a pretty good amount of exclusive games from Japanese companies for Xbox too.  From Capcom there is Tekki, Dino Crisis 3, and Brain Box.  From Sega there is Shenmue 2, CT3, PDO, HOTD3, TJ&E3, WSB2K3, and Sega GT 2002.  But to tell you the truth, Japanese developers are overrated anymore.  Sega is the only one that consistently puts out original games, the rest are more bent on making sequel after sequel.  European and American developers are making a whole lot more original games right now, but fanboys will never believe this.

and i think exclusive games such as Wreckless and others he is referring to (not that i want them in my house no matter what console they are on)

What others?  Wreckless is the only game I know of, and I never knew it was supposed to be exclusive in the first place.  It didn\'t have the "Only on Xbox" thing on the cover did it?

someone posted a picture of it a few months ago

it wasnt on the cover, but it was on a magazine ad

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by inteq


So I\'m guessing Tecmo is upset too with the poor sales of DOA3? Oh wait, it has already sold over a million copies. Where do you get your BS info?

That and Halo are the only good games worth buying on Xbox. No wonder they both sold well.

Originally posted by inteq

Developers rethinking their exclusives? Riiight, I\'m sure you were sitting in the meetings with them talking about it. Do you really think the developers are going to give the money back that they were paid for the Xbox exclusivity?

In the long run, developing for PS2 rather than just Xbox is far more lucrative than whatever "exclusive" bonus money they got from MS. It\'s not inconceivable for developers to say, "We could rake in more cash from the PS2 market. Let\'s renegotiate, Mistah Gates."

Originally posted by inteq


There are a pretty good amount of exclusive games from Japanese companies for Xbox too. From Capcom there is Tekki, Dino Crisis 3, and Brain Box. From Sega there is Shenmue 2, CT3, PDO, HOTD3, TJ&E3, WSB2K3, and Sega GT 2002. But to tell you the truth, Japanese developers are overrated anymore. Sega is the only one that consistently puts out original games, the rest are more bent on making sequel after sequel. European and American developers are making a whole lot more original games right now, but fanboys will never believe this.

Original great games? Like what? Pwees tell me. The games you listed....are they not sequels? Yes? Oh....man, I guess you won\'t be getting those games.

[Bobs_Hardware]

do you really think Sega are happy when they release a game in Japan and it sells only 9000 copies in its first week..?  you think they jump for joy and go "THANK GOD AMERICA IS SUCH A HUGE MARKET"... seeing as there are only.. what?  1.5 million XBox\'s in america

Sega = King of bad business decisions

and im sure Tecmo are also sitting back going "whoo, our game sold over a million copies" while hideo kojima sits back and says "wow, 1.8 million in our first week in USA, and lots lots more worldwide.. good thing i released it on a cosole that has a 30 million user base, not 2 million"

thank you Bobs_Hardware and GmanJoe for pointing out the obvious which he obviously missed. I still have a few words to add on though:

So I\'m guessing Tecmo is upset too with the poor sales of DOA3? Oh wait, it has already sold over a million copies. Where do you get your BS info? Developers rethinking their exclusives? Riiight, I\'m sure you were sitting in the meetings with them talking about it. Do you really think the developers are going to give the money back that they were paid for the Xbox exclusivity?

Why should they give it back? Mostly, exclusivity are only bought on individual titles and usually last only for a certain amount of time. It won\'t stop them to rething their exclusives and put the next row of games on other systems with more potential. I\'m amazed how you still try to argue eventhough it\'s obvious: if you would be a developer from japan, for which console would you develop your game for? Take in mind though, that developing your game for a number of consoles drives up the price and resouces as hell - so the best option is to have it on one system only. At the current rate, you have PS2 with its 30+ million userbase.. and then you have Xbox which sold a bit over 1.5 million in the US and is being outsold by PS2 30/40 to 1 in Japan (your country). It\'s pretty obvious isn\'t?

And incase you didn\'t get the message the first time: Konami\'s updated version of Silent Hill 2 is being shuffled back to PS2. Guess why?

There are a pretty good amount of exclusive games from Japanese companies for Xbox too. From Capcom there is Tekki, Dino Crisis 3, and Brain Box. From Sega there is Shenmue 2, CT3, PDO, HOTD3, TJ&E3, WSB2K3, and Sega GT 2002. But to tell you the truth, Japanese developers are overrated anymore. Sega is the only one that consistently puts out original games, the rest are more bent on making sequel after sequel. European and American developers are making a whole lot more original games right now, but fanboys will never believe this.

To be honest, I\'m amazed at the support Sega is giving to Xbox. They must have lots of faith in that system... But the fact remains, Sega would make more money selling those games on PS2 - no matter what arguement you bring in here.

Personally, I like a lot of european and american games, but games from Japan are right up there. And I doubt this has anything to do with fanboyism. It\'s all personal preference.

What others? Wreckless is the only game I know of, and I never knew it was supposed to be exclusive in the first place. It didn\'t have the "Only on Xbox" thing on the cover did it?

What about Malice? Even if it wasn\'t a exclusive, it was never intended to go to PS2 and was hyped as THE Xbox game to put any other to shame. And now it\'s in development for PS2... go figure why.

oh and inteq, want more evidence of my BS?

Leave it to EA\'s ever-controversial president John Riccitiello to put the boot. According to El Ricco, by way of Blooomberg, "Microsoft has had its teeth kicked in, in both Europe and Japan". Ouch. This may help explain why EA has been quietly shuffling all of their European Xbox releases further back into the summer for the last few weeks...

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24630.html

Ouch. That must hurt, and it\'s not by a Japanese developer, it from EA. Go figure...

Who has more money, Scrooge McDuck or Richy Rich.

Answer: they both have a butt load, McDuck may have more gold stashed away but I rather buy a console made by Richy Rich Inc.

As flip as my analogy is, essentially it\'s what this MS vs Sony question boils down to. Most of the world places MS in the Screwge category.

Sega = King of bad business decisions

And why it\'s so fitting that we should see them giving eXbox such solid support  

[GmanJoe]

Originally posted by seven
oh and inteq, want more evidence of my BS?



Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24630.html

Ouch. That must hurt, and it\'s not by a Japanese developer, it from EA. Go figure...

Re-thinking their exclusives for Xbox?

yeh, i mean MS is used on like every pC:D