IGN’s “Top 10 Moves to Put 360 Back on Top” = Epic Fail
IGN’s Xbox 360 site recently posted “Top 10 Moves to Put 360 Back on Top“, an article detailing, not surprisingly, their theories on what things Microsoft needs to do to improve sales of the Xbox 360. While the article isn’t totally useless, the IGN Xbox 360 team’s collective brainstorming session proves that sometimes more heads isn’t necessarily better than one.
Here’s their top 10:
1. More Halos
2. Make Xbox LIVE Free
3. Free Pack-in Game
4. Revamp the Marketing
5. Provide a Casual Friendly Controller
6. Play up Netflix
7. Redsign the 360
8. Adopt Blu-ray
9. Accessory Price Drop
10. Price Drop (Done…sort of)
First of all, let me get the ones I agree with out of the way.
Revamp the Marketing
Yes, revamp the marketing. There’s a suprising lack of advertising presence in mainstream media outlets for the Xbox 360, which is rather suprising given Microsoft’s deep pockets. More to the point, Microsoft should be upselling their new approach to the market, one that mimics Nintendo’s consumer and casual gamer friendly Wii.
Adopt Blu-ray
This point deserves special consideration. Over the last couple of months the PS3 has been edging out the Xbox 360 in sales. This began precisely around the time that Blu-ray defeated its rival HD-DVD as the High Definition disc format for video. PS3 is a Blu-ray player. It also happens to be a cheap Blu-ray player. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two-and-two together here: early adopters are purchasing PS3s as the Blu-ray player of choice.
The Xbox 360, on the other hand, has a regular DVD drive standard, with an optional HD DVD drive add-on which is now better used as a door-stop. To mitigate the sales spike of PS3s due to Blu-ray adoption, it would have been prudent for Microsoft to swallow their pride and develop a cheap Blu-ray add-on. I can only relate to my own experience: since Blu-ray’s victory, I’ve strongly considered buying a PS3. But I would not bother if there was a cheaper Xbox 360 alternative.
Now onto where I part ways with IGN.
There are several points on their list that I’m simply indifferent about. Specifically, “Play Up Netflix”, “Provide a Casual Friendly Controller”, “Accessory Price Drop”, “Free Pack-in Game”, and “Redsign the 360″. Meh to all. I don’t strongly believe that any of these suggestions would make or break the Xbox 360’s fortunes.
As for the others, my point of contention is not so much what’s there, but the order they’re placed in. Moreover, I’m also perturbed about what’s conspicuously absent.
The whole point of the article was to posit how Xbox 360 gets back “on top”. One must ask then who’s on top. Answer: Nintendo’s Wii. Then one must consider how they got on top. From there it’s a simple matter of projection: what the Wii did Xbox should do to. The staff at IGN Xbox 360 seemed to completely miss this point.
Absent from the list is a strategy that should have been near the very top: Focus on casual friendly games. The Wii has made itself a hit with the average person due in large part to its inoffensive, easy, simple and fun games. These games are also great for quick plays lasting no more than a couple of minutes, perfect for individuals that don’t want to get very involved in their games for very long.
Microsoft needs to push in this direction in a big way, and they seem to be doing just that. At this year’s E3, Microsoft’s press conference was at pains to show case its casual, mass-market software, and the “New Xbox Experience”. Amongst the games on show were Lips, a casual sing-a-long game featuring real music videos; You’re in the Movies, a bizarre vision camera game that records your movement and places you in a fake movie trailer after the fact; and Scene It? Box Office Smash, a follow-up to the buzzer controller implementing movie trivia game.
These games do a great job of pushing the casual boundaries while simultaneously carving out a niche for the older casual gaming crowd. Whereas Wii’s offerings skew very young, Xbox 360’s offerings skew to a decidedly older crowd, which is in keeping with their present line-up and fan base. Simple games, fun to play, appeal to a mass audience, and can be entertaining in bite-sized sessions.
If that weren’t enough, we now have the much more attractive and simplified Xbox 360 dashboard update due for release this Fall, the aforementioned New Xbox Experience. Implementing Wii-like avatars for players and new features like game shows based on their real world counterparts, any Xbox 360 owner can jump into a game of 1 vs. 100 to compete online with their avatar as their, well, avatar. It’s exciting, simple, fun, and attractive.
Suffice to say that Microsoft obviously gets what it’s got to do to get it done. IGN? Missed this completely.
And to push this new casual appeal into homes, it also doesn’t hurt to have an affordable system. Nay, it may be more important than the actual casual gaming push, given how many PS2s still sell to this day. Yet, it sits in the 10th position. This should have been in the top three.
Case in point, Microsoft slashed its prices on all Xbox 360 models only a few weeks ago, and they’ve seen a 100% increase in sales on average for all models and put them just ahead of PS3 sales for the month of August, despite the price cut only being in effect for the last week of August. Even in Japan, where the Xbox 360 has fared notoriously poorly, the recent price cuts along with the release of an anticipated game in that region vaulted sales of the Xbox 360 ahead of the Wii - hell subsequently froze over.
The Wii is such an attractive buy for people who don’t care much for videogames because it straddles that pricing sweet spot where impulse buying is encouraged. With the base model of the Xbox 360 now sitting at $199, Microsoft places the Xbox 360 in the same appealing purchase stratum.
Instead, we find IGN places “Make Xbox Live Free” and “More Halos” in the number two and one spot respectively. From this I can only assume that the boys at IGN let their hardcore gamer nerdom get the better of them and colour their reasoning with bias; the list really reads like a hardcore gamer’s wish list, not a reasoned approach to increasing sales. They should remain on the list, but in a much less prominent position.
Why not make Xbox Live free? Good question. I’m not opposed to it. In fact, I’d probably love to see the price dropped or eliminated altogether. But the point is that this would be a concession to their hardcore base only, and not likely to capture a new audience. I highly doubt that the casual fan is going to give two shits whether Xbox 360 will get them online or not, let alone whether it will cost them 70 dollars a year or none at all.
The same logic applies to “More Halos”. I enjoyed the Halo series. Immensely. I look forward to new editions in the franchise, be they first person shooters, third person adventures, or RTSs. But, again, these are concessions to the hardcore audience that Xbox has all sown up already.
Here’s a news flash: Halo 3 was expected to push Xbox 360s off the store shelves and into homes like gangbusters, but it didn’t. There was a surge in sales, no doubt, but it failed to sustain itself or make any real impact. Yes, Halo 3 sold very well, but it sold very well to the install base already installed.
Of course, both of these top suggestions play an important role: they keep the base that got the Xbox 360 to where it is happy, and encourages their loyalty and continued support. You’d be a fool not to treat your best customers well. That said, the Wii doesn’t have nearly the robust library that Xbox 360 does; Nintendo treats its traditional fanboys like a prison guard occasionally throwing a slice of bread to a room full of prisoners, only to watch them ravenously and raucously devour it quickly then disperse until the next slice is thrown. Still, we witness monthly how well the Wii is selling.
The fact that IGN’s list misses these fundamental truths is perplexing. Ergo, it is an epic fail. Microsoft is doing as well as it can and following the correct path for now. By expanding into new markets pioneered by the Wii while simultaneously pleasing their hardcore base, in this way they stand to put the 360 back on top.
peachey @ September 17, 2008