New Xbox more than a game console for Microsoft
Microsoft Corp is set
to make a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox
game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of
the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry. But the small device
faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by
Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market.
Gamers are
gravitating to online play - suggesting the hey-day of console games are over -
while Microsoft wants its sleek new toy to finally cross the bridge to the
mainstream and become the family's entertainment center."Core gamers are
very hungry for a new machine but the difference between 2005 and now is that
the stakes are so much higher," said Ryan McCaffrey, executive editor at
entertainment website IGN.com, harking back to Microsoft's last Xbox release.
"The entire Xbox experiment from Microsoft was for it to be the center
piece of your living room."
To that end,
industry-watchers are expecting a raft of improvements from the new Xbox, when
Microsoft unveils it at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters on Tuesday, from
closer integration with the TV and link-ups with mobile devices to access to
new and even exclusive content. Console gaming still takes the lion's share of
a growing gaming market - about 42 percent of the $65 billion world market,
according to Microsoft. But playing games on smartphones and tablets, or as an
offshoot to online social networks, is gaining ground fast.
Console sales have
been in decline for the last four years, chiefly because of aging devices, but
the first of the new generation of machines has not reignited the sector. Nintendo's
Wii U, launched in November, had sold only 3.45 million units through the end
of March, well below the company's initial forecast of 5.5 million. Hopes for
Sony's PS4, teased in March, are low key.
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