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Johnny Minkley at gamesindustry.biz:
The war of words between bitter rivals Microsoft and Sony has intensified, with top Xbox Europe execs launching an astonishing attack on the Japanese firm’s decision to include its next-generation DVD technology in PlayStation 3 as standard.Speaking to Eurogamer TV in part one of an exclusive E3 interview broadcast today, Xbox UK boss Neil Thompson and Europe boss Chris Lewis both accused Sony of “forcing” its Blu-Ray DVD technology onto consumers.
“Sony are now making people pay an extra few hundred pounds for a Blu-Ray DVD drive which we don’t know is going to be the standard in the next-generation DVD formats,” Thompson insisted.
“This is the company that brought out Betamax – we don’t quite know where they’re going to go with this,” he added, in a pointed reference to Sony’s defeat in the format war against VHS.
Microsoft believes Blu-Ray’s inclusion in PS3 plays right into the US firm’s hands, since it is offering Xbox 360 users the option to upgrade to next-generation movie tech later this year with the release of a standalone HD-DVD drive.
“If gamers over time choose to go to HD-DVD we’re going to give them the choice to do that, but we’re not going to force them to buy that day one,” Thompson remarked.
It’s sure swell the way they are looking out for the rest of us.
Speaking of which, last week Nintendo announced pricing for their next generation game console, and as expected. it was low compared to Sony and Microsoft:
Nintendo has revealed its next-generation console, the Wii, will retail in the US for $250 or less, and no more than ¥25,000 ($220) in Japan. It also expects to have shipped more than 6m of the machines by March 2007, the company said today.That’s as many machines as the total number of PlayStation 3 consoles Sony is expecting to ship in the same period. Sony’s box is more than twice the price of the Wii. Both Sony and Microsoft have suggested consumers will buy a Wii alongside each company’s more advanced console because the Nintendo machine is relatively so cheap.
Their helpful suggestion is likely the child of the hope that it’s “alongside” as opposed to “instead of.”
Comedy aside, both Sony and Microsoft have to convince the fans that the inflated price tags on their consoles are worth it and Sony having the highest price, has the biggest job. I don’t blame Microsoft at all for working that pain point.
Microsoft Corp.’s Steve Ballmer is heading to Wall Street to meet with analysts and investors in an effort to blunt criticism that he’s ignoring shareholders.
This may be a cross cultural experience for all involved, since Mr. Ballmer famously told shareholders that Microsoft “measures its success by its products, not its share price.”
The chief executive officer of the world’s biggest software maker will spend two days this week giving speeches and hosting small gatherings in an effort to persuade shareholders that his new spending plan will help bolster the stock price.“He’s not spending enough time listening to people in the capital markets,” said Michael Holland, who oversees $4 billion as chairman of Holland & Co. and has owned Microsoft shares since he founded the firm in 1995. “What I want to hear is how much he listens. I want to see how well he does not being defensive and adversarial but being interested in hearing people.”
Ballmer, who will host events with investors in New York tomorrow and in Boston the following day, has never done anything like this in his six-year tenure as CEO, spokesman Tom Pilla said. Investors want him to respond to calls to boost the stock by using Microsoft’s $34.8 billion cash hoard to buy back shares.
Shares of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft are trading near their lowest in 3 1/2 years. The stock is the third-worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2006.
We’ve mentioned the desire for a buyback previously, and some suggestions from fund managers quoted in the article include Microsoft taking on $40 billion in debt for a $75 billion total buyback or using the yearly $15-17 billion free cash flow plus more for annual buybacks. That’ll certainly put a dent in even Microsoft’s piggy bank and would be an impediment to management’s desire to use the loot for capital expenditures and expenses in their self-declared Web war with Google et al. Here’s the net:
“Microsoft isn’t a private company, and they need to worry about the stock price,” Holland said. “If Ballmer is dismissive of the idea, it’s a bad sign.”
More details on the Ballmer agenda by following the link.
You may recall that Microsoft offered and then withdrew a Vista product guide in early April, but Greg Keizer now reports at TechWeb that it is back in all its massive glory:
“Windows Vista Product Guide” can be downloaded from here in either Word format or the original XPS (XML Paper Specification) format, which Microsoft touts as a replacement for Adobe’s popular PDF. The latter requires an XPS viewer application to read the guide in Windows XP. (Caveat: The Word document is approximately 60MB in size.)
I opted for the Word version and would say that it’s a credible high level catalog and explanation of Vista features and versions,.
It’s not official, but Robert McMillan has the scoop at PCWorld:
Microsoft will complete its entry into the desktop security market next week with the general release of its Windows Live OneCare antivirus software.OneCare, which also includes backup and PC-tuning software, has been available for free in beta form since November, but as of next Thursday customers will be able to purchase the final, supported product, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans.
OneCare will cost $49.95 per year, which will cover licenses for as many as three Windows XP PCs. That means “98 percent of homes in the U.S. will be able to buy one subscription and be able to cover all of their PCs,” Microsoft Group Program Manager Brian Hall said in an interview earlier this year.
Since that’s about what the existing vendors charge for one machine, it’s a new price point in the market.
Market leader Symantec, which sued Microsoft last week claiming misappropriation of intellectual property, is clearly anxious about the software giant’s entry into its market space.Company executives have said that they expect to compete against Microsoft by offering superior technology and staying one step ahead of their new competitor. “Microsoft is very much focusing on the old-world problems of viruses and worms,” according to Symantec Chief Financial Officer James Beer, speaking Monday at the JP Morgan Technology Conference, in San Francisco. “We’re focusing on what we would call the new-world problems.”
These “new-world” problems seem to be phishing, identity theft and related issues.
I tried the OneCare beta, but had problems with excessive CPU utilization so gave it up. I assume that in due course it will be a “good enough” offering for most people, so the question is whether the price and the fact that it is from Microsoft gives them any leverage in the market. It will also be interesting to see the extent to which Microsoft bundles OneCare subscription opportunities in the client OS, particularly Vista.
