Ch. 15 - Retailing

When it come to Retailing, you can find Microsoft's Xbox 360 almost anywhere. You can find it online on Ebay, Amazon, Gamestop.com , etc. You can also find it in Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, and or your local video game store. I tend to stick to more towards Best Buy and Gamestop because of the attention that is given to you there. Just the other day I walked into Best Buy to ask a couple of questions regarding the Xbox and i was surprised to see how much the employee knew about the Xbox. What surprised was that he didn't even own one. This shows that Best Buy takes the time out to understand and decifer the most common problems and questions of the Xbox 360.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is known globally to be the superior online gaming console. The Xbox 360 has two memberships. They have the silver which is free and the gold membership which is paying. While playing on a silver membership you cannot play online games or watch movies etc. When comparing this to Sony's (free) Playstation network it can be very easy to pick Sony over Microsoft because Sony's Playstation network does what the silver membership from Xbox cant do. But when you upgrade to a gold membership you can access Netflix , play online, download demos from the soon to come games, access Espn, twitter, Facebook, etc. Now u may be thinking why pay when i can get the same features for free. The Xbox Live has way less lag then the Playstation network and also you have less time down for maintenance and updates. Also most people choose Xbox because of some exclusives for the Xbox including Halo and Gears of war. In conclusion although they both have the same features Microsoft's Xbox dominates when it comes to online gaming.

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Many may not know it, but Microsoft's Xbox 360 lags behind Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's Wii in the Japanese market. The Xbox 360 is not as popular in Japan as it is in the U.S. In a survey posted by Matthew Humphries it shows that 35.71% of the Japanese gamers surveyed said that they don't buy Xbox 360 because they are worried about the future of the console. The Xbox 360 has something known as the 3 rings of death which indicate that the system has a problem. This is a problem that Microsoft has struggled with since its first release. Also 3.57% of the japanese gamers surveyed said that the Xbox 360 has no games that they want to play. This is probably one of the major reasons why the Xbox does not dominate over the Playstation 3 in Japan. The Xbox 360 doesn't have as many role playing games as the Playstation 3 has which the Japanese enjoy. This was proven when Namco released Tales of Vesperia, a game exclusively for the Xbox 360. Tales of Vesperia was released in August 7, 2008. In the week of August 4-10 the Xbox 360 sold 24,962, In contrast the Playstation only sold 9,673. With the sales highly increasing due to the exclusive role playing game Microsfot is considering making more japan specific titles to satisfy the Japanese gaming market.

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is targeted mainly to those people of Generation Y. Generation Y are those who are born between 1979 and 1994. Xbox 360 is targeted to mostly male gamers and also female partners who live with male gamers. The Xbox 360 targets the females that live with the male gamers by adding add-ons like social networks including Facebook and Twitter and by adding Netflix to the console. At the date of release the Xbox 360 was originally 400 dollars. The first generation of Xbox 360 wasn't successful. They eventually caught something known as the ring of death. Which is when 3 out of 4 lights turn red indicating that your system has a malfunction. Microsoft quickly came up with the Xbox 360 Elite. Not only did the Elite have more memory and a stylish black finish to it but it was also cheaper. The Xbox 360 Elite was sold at 300 dollars. A few years after the Xbox 360 Slim was created, but it had problems with the internal wifi. And once again Microsoft fixed the problem.

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Microsft has launched their newest product for the Xbox 360. They call it the Kinect. The Kinect is the first motion sensor game for the xbox 360. It is somewhat similar to Nintendo's Nintendo wii. Except that the Kinect is free of controllers , your body is the control. While creating the Kincet for the Xbox 360 Microsoft kept in mind one of the well known epidemics in America, Obesity. Microsoft created games keeping in mind the obesity problem. You can get a extreme workout with almost any Kinect game. One of the most popular for losing weight is Your Shape fitness evolved. This game gives the player full control of their fitness. In conlusion, not only will you be losin weight by playing this game but you will have fun doing it.

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Microsoft being the last to enter the video game industry had to find innovative ways to compete with Sony who dominated with their playstation 2. Microsoft decided to try new ideas to stand out from its competition. One example is Xbox live. Xbox live is a feature that is only compatible with the Xbox 360. Subcribers of xbox live can interact with other subcribers either if its privately chatting or online gaming. The capabilites of Xbox live up to date is unmatched. Another example is being the only platform to have the games Halo and Gears of war, which are very popular games. Microsoft also decided to have Netflix available for subscribers of Xbox live. Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the first to have Netflix, of cousre now all systems with online availability have Netflix. A few more examples include being able to download demos and game add-ons also available for Xbox live subcribers. In conclusion for being one of the newest members of the video game industry it has made its name as one of the preffered video game consoles.

Week 1:History and mission statement

HISTORY

The xbox 360 (created by Microsfot) is part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Seventh generation video game consoles differ from other video game consoles. These consoles include online multplayer gaming.The xbox 360 was created because Microsoft's core pc business was slowed, and they wanted to create somehting different that pcs. The xbox 360 took gaming to a whole new level. Microsoft accomplished this by linking the console using the internet. The xbox 360 was launched November,2005. The xbox 360 is available in 3 versions. The core system, the premium, and the elite. The core system is the less expensive of the three versions, followed by the premium then the elite. The core and the premium diffe in that the premium brings a hard drive of 20GB to be able to store downloaded content such ad music, movies and or games.The premium and the elite differ in that the elite has a bigger hard drive of 120GB and the elite has a black finish while the premium and core system are white. Both the premium and elite now include a wireless headset (used for communication) and a wireless control.

MISSION STATEMENT

Microsoft's mission statement is to “Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices.”

Microsoft's mission statement for the xbox 360 is "to provide fun online gaming and interactive gameplay for any age group".