The Making of

Xbox 360
By Aditya Deshmukh

Introduction
The Xbox was a 6th Generation Video game Console produced by Microsoft Corp released on Nov.15th , 2001. The 7th Generation Xbox 360 was launched in May 2005. It had features like Media Centre photo archive music download, internet access etc. The new design was simple with convergence features

The main Competitors were Sony Play station and

Nintendo

Segmentation
Target audience were aged between 16 and 26 years. Brand was positioned to target the group who at least spent 10 hours every week playing game. Microsoft also planned to cater to two other groups who played games for 3-6 hours a week, comprises of 8-15 years old and 1822 years olds.
Age of game players 25%
31%
>50 years

Gender of game players

38% 62%
<18 years

00

Female FEMALE

18-50 years

44%

Men

Inside Xbox
Features
733 Mhz CPU, 250 Mhz Graphics Chip, 64 MB RAM , A DVD Drive & 8 GB Hard Drive. Other Features include an Ethernet Port and a 3D Audio Processor.

Competition
Faced tough competition from Sony PS 2 with Sony leading with a market share of 57 percent . The primary reason for that being the High Cost of the Xbox Console.

Drawbacks
Emphasis on features rather than Design , Marketing Failure , Lacked Good Games

The New XBOX

Code named Xenon

Planned to launch it well before Sony could launch Playstation 3

Aimed to create a new console that would be compatible with other digital device (Digital camera , MP3 players) etc.

Design of Xbox 360

Microsoft wanted the new Xbox to convey power and grace. Two design studio one in San Francisco and other in Japan . The new Xbox developed was 30 cm high and 7 cm wide with curving inside.

It was off white and silver color

The LAUNCH of XBOX 360

In the US, XBOX 360 launched on November 22,2005

The launch was supported by a massively huge advertising

campaign on which Microsoft spent US $ 500 million which resulted in heavy initial rush with more than 1.5 million

consoles being sold

New games were also launched which became very popular

All in all the X BOX 360 received a positive response from

both the gamers and analysts

OUTCOME
Microsoft emerged as the leader in gaming console market.

Dec 2006, Microsoft sold 10.4 million consoles.

Microsoft Positive response from gamers and analysts.

DRAWBACKS OF X BOX 360

Games in Xbox could not be played in Xbox 360 Special Software had to be installed Manufacturing Cost > Selling Price

X BOX 360 LOSSES OCCURED

Materials costed $ 470 before assembling Out of the total cost Chips alone accounted for 72% of that. Including accessory cost increased by $55 pushing loss per unit to $126

The Road Ahead

By December 2006 , the XBOX 360 had clearly emerged as the winner of the console wars followed by Nintendo and Playstation on the 2nd and 3rd place. Microsoft wanted to capture the iPod and iTunes market by

releasing Zune audio player and music library

Microsoft was the only company to dominate the gaming market for the maximum no. of generations and after the success of XBOX 360 , Microsoft wanted to bring out some new models of the Consoles.

Its good to play together!