Tag Archives: gamer group

For some the E3 is still in the front of their minds. For some it is the confirmation of things to come and of things about to happen. For some it is also the start of a nightmare.

When it comes to gamers, we often see the start of name calling. We might hear words like Nerds, Geeks and a few others. It makes the people who do not understand gamers happy and comfortable. There is however the group that thinks of them as exploitable. That group is about to see the light in ways thy have never experienced it before. In this I am talking about Microsoft.

You see Microsoft had a good name, for some this good name remains. The Xbox and the Xbox 360 are good consoles. I have a 360 and I have enjoyed gaming. I will enjoy gaming a while longer, but no matter how good it could be, the X-Box One (XB1) is currently not on that list. You see, Microsoft wanted too much, too quickly and now they are at risk to pay dearly. There were these large thoughts of charging pre-owned games for usage, to be online at least once every 24 hours. This has nothing to do with gaming. This is all about keeping tabs. I wonder if the scare the NSA PRISM issue gave many has anything to do with it.

The truth is that the gamer group wants to play games pure and simple. I belong in this group. I can afford a new game with some regularity and I have been part of Gaming and the Gaming Industry since 1986.

I know plenty of people, many mothers who want to give their kid a nice game, but $109 is just not in their budget. Even for some it is over the top for a birthday present, which is very understandable in this economy. These people RELY on pre-owned games, and in this economy that group will grow exponentially for a little while longer. So when Microsoft enabled the chance to go after gamers, I revolted! The reason is simple, if we gamers do not unite, we get taken for a data-collection and money grabbing ride.

Some will not care about not being online, about privacy and they just buy games and play. That is fair enough. Buy your XB1 and game. Many of those will keep on gaming happily and all. I feel for those unable to buy new games, and even though they would face a season-pass fee to play multiplayer online (which in my mind is fair enough). they end up paying a lot less than the $100+,  to play.

So as gamers feel betrayed by the issues raised by Microsoft (or M$ as some now call them), they will move away and run towards the PlayStation 4. So Sony is more than the big winner, they are likely to leave Microsoft with their XB1 (or X-Bone as some call it now) far behind them and no longer see Microsoft as a contender in the gaming industry.

This also opened a door for others. Even though this market has had a long time 3 player supremacy, Microsoft has opened the door for Google to enter in the low class with their OUYA and open up for a new form of gaming. Even in old Roman days (not the one shown by the new game RYSE), we know that the people want bread and games. Even if everything goes down, political and industrial power remains where the people have bread and games. So as OUYA enters the field, as Sony strengthens its pure gaming power core, Microsoft is about to lose a serious amount of market share.

They will deny this and over time they are likely to show on how the ‘home-entertainment’ market is so up in revering the XB1, the gamers will see a shift in the balance of power. Nintendo has always been a gaming world and as such it has a unique family based following. Yet, the others will feel their markets. Sony will be up and Microsoft will go down.

I thought about this, and should I win the $25M jackpot (extreme wishful thinking), then I know exactly where to go. You see, Microsoft is about to leave a quarter of a billion dollars up for grabs for those who know how and where to take charge. It is very certain that Sony will grab part of that, yet they remain high end. Especially if we look at countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, France, US and the UK. These nations are saturated with people who just cannot afford the high end gaming market and a $99 Google AUYO with a Google play approach of less than $10 games might sound small, but when you consider a market of 30-50 million gamers that is now up for grabs, that market will amount to serious coin.

Will Microsoft fade? No, they are too big to fade and when the Microsoft Lawnmower man comes in to trim the size of MS management and reshape their entertainment side. When they see the nightmare they themselves created, they will refurbish their share and they might even regain some of their lost market share. However they are unlikely to regain it all until the economy gets a whole lot better. This is not likely to happen before 2015. Until then Google gets a chance to get into a market they did not expect to have. A multi-Billion dollar market the got opened to too many factors of greed and they tried that in a place where greed gets stopped real fast.

Consider a count of games that consoles offer at launch date. In fairness all systems have start-up issues sith games. It comes with the territory. The Google OUYA at prelaunch (today) has registered 146 games for purchase. That is the biggest start EVER (ps1 games on ps2 launch date do not qualify, neither do NGC games on Wii). If this ends up about timing, then Google’s timing was perfect.

More info at http://www.ouya.tv/