Text 18604, 60 rader
Skriven 2007-06-09 09:39:58 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft yet another seismic shift in strategy?
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@dontspamhotmail.com>


http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/06/microsoft_xbox_.html

Key Xbox 360 execs, from vice president Peter Moore on down, have made some
revealing statements to Bloomberg today about the company's newfound desire to
capture the casual market with price cuts and family-oriented innovative
software.

If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will
wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million
people. What I need is a solid business with 90 million people. -- Peter Moore

When mom walks into the store and sees she can get a [Wii] with a game for
$250, she sees it as a $300 value. They've done a good job. -- David
Hufford, director of Xbox product management

When mom walks into the store and sees she can get a [Wii] with a game for
$250, she sees it as a $300 value. They've done a good job. -- David
Hufford, director of Xbox product management

This message coming from these three men is fascinating, considering that if
Microsoft wanted to be pigeonholed as a hard-core machine they would have done
exactly what they did over the last few years. Selling a game console to mom
because it's a good deal is one thing. Selling game consoles to mom because she
wants to play it is a new one, and it's because of the Wii's strategy, which
was a concerted effort from all sides to attract new players. Xbox 360 is an
expensive, complicated, high-end piece of machinery aimed at technophiles and
people who like shooting things.

It wasn't a bad plan, really, until Wii came along.

That's why one of the things emphasized in this piece (and it's what's getting
mentioned as this piece gets linked about today) is the possibility of a price
cut. In the article, Hufford mentions that $199 is the "sweet spot." But even
at the "sweet spot," what are you going to do when the content's not there?
Viva Pinata tanked. The more time goes by without a family-friendly lineup, the
less likely it seems -- especially with Nintendo absolutely gobbling up that
market while Microsoft sleeps.

Roger Ehrenberg of Monitor 110 has some solid analysis on this piece this
morning, pointing out that in his opinion, Microsoft has just woken up to the
realization that they have been wrong, and that it should be very interesting
to watch what they do now:\

When you've got your Head of Interactive Entertainment, the Director of Xbox
Global Platform Marketing and a Director of Xbox Product Management all
publicly saying that they've got to crack the mass market and that lower price
points are attractive, does this indicate a seismic strategic shift? I'd say
so.

Only question is, is it too late? For all the talk about how the console wars
are a "marathon, not a sprint" (this is usually gasped by the tired guy in last
place with a bum knee), a whole heck of a lot gets decided in the first year.
After building their HD Era, M-rated, Live-enabled strategy around the hardest
of the hardcore, can they take that same machine and sell it to Grandma?cc

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