NEWS - Thursday, April 12, 2001
The Cost & The Muscle
Two very interesting articles are up on Daily Radar regarding the cost of delaying the release of the XBOX and how Microsoft should use it’s muscles to market the XBOX.The first article title "XBOX: The Cost of Delay" states 7 reasons why Microsoft needs to get the ball rolling on finalizing the hardware/software and have those assembly lines cranking out XBOX’s pretty soon or it may loose it’s place in line.
4: History Has Shown Timing is Everything In the Console BusinessMarketing Muscle: Xbox vs. the Competition is the second article of interest. This time DR looks at how other key players in the console wars did things right as well as what they did wrong. Several tips are offered as to what Microsoft should do to help get the buzz going for the XBOX, lets hope the marketing dept catches wind of this. The marketing for the XBOX is "supposed" to start full force at next months Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) with the XBOX coming out with fists flying and hopefully knocking some sense in to those would be PS2 buyers to save their money and buy an XBOX. Unfortunately , every hardcore gamer who is saving up their pennies to purchase these killer machines will not be able to attend E3 to see that hype (myself included.. dammit!).Timing is a crucial factor for those who want to be successful in the console business. Take the Dreamcast, for instance, even though it was a solid system supported by great games, it launched between two console generations. Sega’s last console wasn’t a big enough leap over the PlayStation generation of console hardware and it wasn’t as exciting as the hardware that was coming.
If the Xbox is delayed, it will be in a similar situation. The PS2 and Gamecube will be supported by developers who have already broken the ice on those systems, and because of that, those games will look as good or better than the majority of the titles playing on the more powerful Xbox. Plus, if the Xbox is pushed into next year, it would suffer a few years from now. When Sony debuts the PS3, the Xbox will be two years behind the PS2 in software sales and market penetration, and at that point it will be hard to maintain momentum.
Source: http://www.xboxaddict.com/
