Xbox Reveal

[Vindekarr]

This is going to bite them. Bad. Let me tell you folks a little parable that most Australians were raised to, the ballad of the Leyland P76.

 

The Leyland P76 was a car that was first sold in 1974 and was struck off the list again in 1976; where I come from it's a byword for total business failure in every respect and it's downfall has made it a common feature in jokes, even 40 years later. See, Leyland had a good idea of what the Australian market wanted back then: their new car needed to have a huge engine at one end, a huge trunk at the other, and as many seats as a bus somewhere in the middle, and they did achieve that: the P76 was a true leviathan of a car, but on the way to making it, they made several now legendary mistakes.

 

The first was assuming simply selling a car in one market was enough(Microsoft's selling in 21 countries policy) Even had it not tanked like an Abrams, Australia's tiny population meant they never would have sold enough to make up for the costs of designing a car just for it. Then they forgot to order enough steel, which meant that a lot of orders went unfulfilled. The next problem was they assumed nobody would notice if they skipped some quality control steps. This was their most dire failure; like microsoft they assumed the market were dumb yokels who'd pay for trash, but the Xbox tends to explode, and the P76's windows were so poorly fitted the back one could fall out given a hard enough bump in the road. As failures began to mount, Leyland stopped paying it's workers fully to try and increase profit, the notoriously militant factory worker's unions of the '70s kicked in hard, and the P76 was, within months, removed from showrooms to take it's new place as a true laughingstock. And for me, an allegory of the Xbox 1.

 

And as if this wasn't enough, like Microsoft, Leyland's rival, Ford, then made a similar but slightly better product to answer the P76: the Falcon was the same size, but like a certain Sony console, it had none of it's rival's tendancy to explode. And in the end, buyers spoke with their pocketbooks; the Falcon survived until 2013; the P76 vanished after only a few months production, taking Leyland with it.

 

We can learn a lot from this: you need a broad market, you need to treat your customers with respect, you need your product to be reliable, and you need to try and have a slight advantage over your nearest rival. Right now Sony has a significant advantage in reliability, hasn't come out and reffered to gamers as if they were stupid, and has a slightly higher performance product. I have a bad feeling the PS4 may be a Falcon XB to Microsoft's P76.

 

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/legend-of-the-lemon-20130614-2o7nf.html

Edited June 14, 2013 by Vindekarr

[sassycake]

I've pre-ordered Xbox One, a lot of people have been laughing at me about it, but I really don't see what's so bad about the console. I've been a happy Xbox owner for years now (first Xbox I got was in 2006, I believe) Guess I'll just have to wait and see in November how it goes.

[brokenergy]

You want something that doesn't allow to take your friend's games and play them without having an account and the need to be online once every 24 hours? Not to mention that it is region locked and not going to be released in other nations that are not in MS's list. Sorry but MS is full of BS. They are blind to think that people are willing to buy XboxOne just because it can connect to your tv. Early indication show that the PS4 is going to dominate and unless MS does something that is more consumer friendly, then this might be the last Xbox you'll see.

[Dark0ne]

If you live in one of 21 countries on the list, have an always-on, stable internet connection, don't share your games with others and don't buy pre-owned games then there's not much reason to not buy the XBone except out of principle.

[JimboUK]

This is going to bite them. Bad. Let me tell you folks a little parable that most Australians were raised to, the ballad of the Leyland P76.

 

The Leyland P76 was a car that was first sold in 1974 and was struck off the list again in 1976; where I come from it's a byword for total business failure in every respect and it's downfall has made it a common feature in jokes, even 40 years later. See, Leyland had a good idea of what the Australian market wanted back then: their new car needed to have a huge engine at one end, a huge trunk at the other, and as many seats as a bus somewhere in the middle, and they did achieve that: the P76 was a true leviathan of a car, but on the way to making it, they made several now legendary mistakes.

 

The first was assuming simply selling a car in one market was enough(Microsoft's selling in 21 countries policy) Even had it not tanked like an Abrams, Australia's tiny population meant they never would have sold enough to make up for the costs of designing a car just for it. Then they forgot to order enough steel, which meant that a lot of orders went unfulfilled. The next problem was they assumed nobody would notice if they skipped some quality control steps. This was their most dire failure; like microsoft they assumed the market were dumb yokels who'd pay for trash, but the Xbox tends to explode, and the P76's windows were so poorly fitted the back one could fall out given a hard enough bump in the road. As failures began to mount, Leyland stopped paying it's workers fully to try and increase profit, the notoriously militant factory worker's unions of the '70s kicked in hard, and the P76 was, within months, removed from showrooms to take it's new place as a true laughingstock. And for me, an allegory of the Xbox 1.

 

And as if this wasn't enough, like Microsoft, Leyland's rival, Ford, then made a similar but slightly better product to answer the P76: the Falcon was the same size, but like a certain Sony console, it had none of it's rival's tendancy to explode. And in the end, buyers spoke with their pocketbooks; the Falcon survived until 2013; the P76 vanished after only a few months production, taking Leyland with it.

 

We can learn a lot from this: you need a broad market, you need to treat your customers with respect, you need your product to be reliable, and you need to try and have a slight advantage over your nearest rival. Right now Sony has a significant advantage in reliability, hasn't come out and reffered to gamers as if they were stupid, and has a slightly higher performance product. I have a bad feeling the PS4 may be a Falcon XB to Microsoft's P76.

 

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/legend-of-the-lemon-20130614-2o7nf.html

 

Oddly enough the tale of British Leyland is much the same, in the 70's they built crap that fell apart, which had stuff people didn't want, didn't have what people wanted but got away with it because choice was limited, then along come Datsun (now Nissan) with well built cars that were priced right and gave people what they wanted. British Leyland are now but a distant memory.

 

@Dark0ne A stable connection is no good when things go wrong on the other end.

[Dark0ne]

Oh you're such a pessimist!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTT3RuWu_g&t=4m40s

 

"But who's to say there's going to be a strong wind"

[JimboUK]

Being a pessimist is great, I'm rarely disappointed.

[hoofhearted4]

If you live in one of 21 countries on the list, have an always-on, stable internet connection, don't share your games with others and don't buy pre-owned games then there's not much reason to not buy the XBone except out of principle.

this right here is why youll see the Xbone still sell, at least in America, which is largely where the 360 sold. i know the PS3 beat the 360 in every area except the US. here we have tons of stupidity. so theres one thing the new Xbone needs. we also have stable internet it most places, so most people wont even know/care that their Xbone is connecting. People will just bring their Xbone to their friends and hook it up to another TV, sharing games solved. and as far as getting used games, well the only games people will buy are Halo, Gears, and CoD for the most part. no reason to trade those in or buy used. and the always on Kinect? well apparently the NSA spies on everyone anyways, Big Brother, so people wont even care if the Kinect is spying on them, they can say "Xbone On" and their system will turn on, who cares if youre being spied on, as i said in my first point, America is dumb, this Xbone stuff wont even affect a majority of people here.

Edited June 14, 2013 by hoofhearted4

[Thor.]

i found a spec sheet of the ps4 if anyones interested.

 

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/130611a_e.pdf

[sassycake]

If you live in one of 21 countries on the list, have an always-on, stable internet connection, don't share your games with others and don't buy pre-owned games then there's not much reason to not buy the XBone except out of principle.

 

Yep. I never borrow games, I always buy them brand new. My internet is great and I have no issue with the Kinect thing either. So, I'm happy with Xbox One already, cannot wait. *excited*

 

My plan is, to have it set-up in the living room, and it'll replace the PC, my laptop and all the other tech stuff cluttering the space.