Bachus: Next-gen War 'too Close To Call'

April 13th, 2006, 18:34 Posted By: wraggster

Kevin Bachus, the man formerly in charge of Microsoft's original Xbox effort, has been putting pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, to give his thoughts on how the next-generation battle will shape up, describing the almighty tussle between Sony and Microsoft as simply too close to call.
Speaking to respected UK trade mag MCV, Bachus began by dissecting the recent slew of PS3 announcements which saw Sony confirm the debut of the console at the end of this year, opining, "I think that Sony really had no choice but to announce a global release for PS3. At this point, any delay to the launch in any territory is going to create bigger challenges both for Sony and for its publishers.

"Sony's greatest strengths historically have been manufacturing and retail and one would expect them to muster everything they can between now and the November launch to take full advantage of those strengths."
Moving on to talk about online, which many seasoned industry watchers see as one of the key battlegrounds in the next gen, Bachus seemed to fly against perceived wisdom saying that, "Sony is clearly playing catch-up in this area, but it's unclear whether online is the console purchase driver that Microsoft believes it to be. There seems to be a growing awareness that bad behaviour of online gamers has become an impediment to gameplay."

Still, Bachus did go on to say he rated Microsoft's chances this time around, although victory for the Redmond giant was far from a given. "360 still has a chance of winning the next-gen battle, but it's far from a certainty," said Bachus. "If Sony can leverage its brand, aggressively cut prices on both hardware and software, and deliver just a few platform-driving franchises as they've done in the past with Final Fantasy, GTA and others, they can quickly reverse Microsoft's early lead"

"If our industry's brief history has taught us anything it's that there are no set 'laws' regarding console adoption - despite what the manufacturers might claim."

So what factors will really determine the winner this time around? Well, Bachus believes it comes down to what gamers want: "At the end of the day, the questions on the minds of the gamers are: who has the best selection of games, whose games look and play best, which system can I afford, and which system are my friends buying? Neither Sony nor Microsoft can yet lay claim to those answers with certainty."

However, like most industry watchers, Bachus believes the competition will only benefit you, the ordinary gaming punter, concluding, "As always, the winners will be the consumers and the publishers ....This generation will be decided not on production capabilities or on technology, but on brand, price and content."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=137577

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here