Rumor: Microsoft to allow third-party 360s
1UP's latest rumor column is reporting that Microsoft may only be a couple tossed-back drinks away from licensing Xbox 360 tech to third-party manufacturers.
We'll tell you what's up with Microsoft: new hardware options. It may sound totally insane -- trust us, we did a double-take the first time Qmann whispered it in our ears -- but word has it that Microsoft may begin allowing third-party manufacturers to create Xbox 360 hardware. And we're not talking about peripherals, people; we mean hardware that runs 360 game discs created by someone other than Microsoft. It's a novel way of dealing with that red ring issue, don't you think?
Plausible or not, it certainly would be interesting to see. It's the only way we'll ever see a Blu-Ray playing 360 in this lifetime.
Third-Party 360s? [1UP via Kotaku]
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I hope this comes true but I am highly doubtful. I have been saying since the first Xbox that MS should just sell the stand alone software like their other operating systems, not as an emulator but a fullblown OS. This would allow people to build PCs to run as Xboxes either standalone or in dual-boot mode. Afterall, the Xbox and the Xbox360 are just PCs in a different form factor.
Heck, it's not like MS makes much (if any) money off the sale of the Xbox boxes anyway, it's all about games, peripherals and Live right?
Probably good in the long run (and stunning if true!) But I've already spent hard earned rubles on an (unreliable) Xbox 360, so it kind of pisses me off. How many times will MS screw their early adopters on hardware?
Also, if this is true (and successful), how does this change the strategy for the next-generation of Xboxes? Will we be buying DVD players with the Xbox 720 "engine" included? Kind of dilutes brand presence....
Oh, and LOLz at the RRoD on the mockup DVD player picture.
Having someone else be the OEM doesn't mean that they are opening the sytstem to ANY manufacturer.
They'd just be cutting costs by having a manufacturer do the work. Or multiple manufacturers if they want to take advantage of decentralized mfg/distribution.
Wait a sec - isn't the ONLY 'advantage' consoles have over PCs that the platform is 'fixed'? Devs can optimize code to an extreme degree because every XBox360 is the exact same. Exact same memory, exact same chipset, exact same CPU, arranged in the exact same manner. So the games are tightly enough optimized that they look competitive vs modern PC capabilities, despite running hardware that would be obsolete in a PC gaming box.
If you take that 'sameness' away from them...?
I don't see it happening. The only real advantage of having gaming hardware be 1st party only is being able to guarantee that every user has the same experience. In no way is MS going to dilute their brand by letting 3rd parties cook up low budget Xboxen.
Don't forget that Microsoft is, first and foremost, a software company. Microsoft did very nearly the same thing way back in the day when they brought us MS-DOS and let other people do the hardware.
If Microsoft published specs and required conformance they could sit back and make money off the Xbox 360 operating system, game licensing, Live Gold memberships, Live software sales and not have to worry about selling systems at a loss.
This would not only be a really good business move on their part but also in line with their history.
This does make a sort of sense, as I understand that Microsoft makes a huge loss on the X-Box units, aiming to recoup the money through software sales. If they can persuade another, independent company (or companies) to market the hardware, they increase the market for profitible software sales, while reducing the deficit on hardware sales.
"dderidex" makes an excellent point though. The reason I have a console at all is because I want to be certain that I'm using the exact machine the games were designed for. If I wanted to get into the nightmarish realm of different hardware vendors' peculiar bugs, driver updates, version numbers and differing input schemes, I'd play games on my PC.
Mind you, my console is a Wii, marketed squarely as a toy for non-gamers. My friends who spend hours a day in the very latest games or tweaking their hacked consoles' Linux installs might well disagree with me.
This is pure genius. If they do it right.
All the concerns about consistency of experience can be allayed as long as the hardware specifications are strict and require absolute schematic congruency.
There's plenty of first-party precedent for this. Sony had the PS2 and the PS2 slim, Nintendo had the DS and the DS Lite (to say nothing of a dozen interoperable Game Boy models). It's a matter of functionally identical hardware between different devices, which should be entirely possible to arrange with a competent third party.
Now here's a thought... A Playstation 3 with an XBox 360 inside.
Interesting; I thought usually console manufacturers sold h/w at a loss and made it up in software. "Sure, you can sell the hardware at a loss for you, if you like..."
1) build consoles
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3) profit!
Its probably worth noting that about a year into the lifecycle of the 360, it WAS profitable on hardware sales. Manufacturing costs had dropped and for a while Microsoft was making about $70 on each console sold, almost unheard of in the console market. Since then they've released several new chipsets and set aside the $1billion to fix RROD problems, which has likely drained any profitability both past and future. That does, however, show that making the console could be profitable, and a third party doing it and adding value with other components in the box may do well. Its probably also worth pointing out that Sony has thus far lost more than $3.3billion in selling the PS3, selling it so far under production costs to remain competitive.
I think the blu-ray integration is where it's at.
If people want a blu-ray player and integrated xbox, some manufacturer can / will step up and do it. Maybe they'll even go one step further and make a full-fledged media pc / 360 that actually has a decent sized hard-drive or better streaming. The specs for 360 games aren't going to change, but that doesn't mean a beefier system can't reduce load times and possibly ratchet up graphics performance. Or even allow play of windows AND 360 games on the same box, with Live connectivity et cetera.
I've been saying this is the future since I've seen all the third party Sega Mega Drive/Genesis hardware done by Amstrad (the Mega PC), IBM (TeraDrive), JVC (Wondermega) and the Aiwa Mega CD.
Leave the console manufacturers to develop the hardware and set a rigid standard, then allow other manufacturers to build their own variations, each with their advantages.
I think it's amusing that people think "low cost" has anything to do with this.
I can't see this happening unless the third party devices are feature rich, luxury version of the 360 sold at a tremendous markup... Under no circumstances do I see this leading to low-cost 360 clones, nor do I see Microsoft allowing that in the terms of a licensing contract.