Headline: Is This the End of Microsoft's Xbox?

[adam1991]

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2 ... -xbox.aspx

[makryger]

In the console wars, the Xbox 360 was consistently the best selling console for years. It was the one bright spot in an otherwise constantly declining Microsoft market share. MS may have swapped spots with Sony with the most recent generation consoles, but then again, Sony showed that you can be number one, drop down, then regain the top spot.

With that all being said, I think it would be foolish to spin off the xbox business.

[jaywdetroit]

This comment could almost certainly be posted in any thread, but it is relevant here. Microsoft continues to baffle me year after year by dictating to the public what they are going to have, rather than giving them what they want. Microsoft has shown me, that time after time, if it comes between protecting the interests of corporate partners, over the interests of the consumers, they will choose their corporate partner every time. They are DRM crazy and trying to use the XBOX platform to promote money into the pockets of content providers and driving up cost for consumable media for the end user. This tends to make people hate you. I have two XBOX 360s and can't think of a single valid reason I would want an XBOX one. Microsoft is choosing to protect the pockets of their friends in the Cable industry by abandoning Media Center.

[Embiggens]

MS could even throw a bone to enthusiasts by allowing streaming from a NAS.

[glugglug]

CableLabs approved DTCP-IP as a 2nd approved DRM mechanism instead of just MS PlayReady last year.
PS3 and HDHR Prime already support it. Eventually the PS4 will as well.

Hopefully the approval of DTCP-IP use makes the barrier to entry for PC-based DVR software with DRM support much lower than it is now, and we will get viable alternatives to WMC, with Playstations being the new extenders.

The main thing that seems to be driving tech companies these days is imitating each other. If MS sees some WMC alternative take off, it may put some effort back into WMC to compete, or create a new Metro version of it.

[RyC]

DTCP-IP is an alternative to WMDRM, not PlayReady. I'm not sure what alternatives there are to PlayReady, I'm sure others know more...

[STC]

This comment could almost certainly be posted in any thread, but it is relevant here. Microsoft continues to baffle me year after year by dictating to the public what they are going to have, rather than giving them what they want. Microsoft has shown me, that time after time, if it comes between protecting the interests of corporate partners, over the interests of the consumers, they will choose their corporate partner every time. They are DRM crazy and trying to use the XBOX platform to promote money into the pockets of content providers and driving up cost for consumable media for the end user. This tends to make people hate you. I have two XBOX 360s and can't think of a single valid reason I would want an XBOX one. Microsoft is choosing to protect the pockets of their friends in the Cable industry by abandoning Media Center.

Very nicely said. I agree.

There really appears to be a massive disconnect between the corporate side and what is essentially reality, i.e. the end user - us!