I'm not sure if this is revelant to this news, but it could be the same thing:
Even as the company hypes Natal and its new mobile software, Windows Phone7, investors don't expect smash hits; in fact, they'd settle for small losses on these and other gadgets. "It's hard to make the case this has been a good use of shareholder capital," says Todd S. Lowenstein, who runs HighMark Capital's value fund. "I don't fault them for trying this stuff, but investors are getting impatient." Other investors suggest that, like IBM (IBM) a decade ago, Microsoft should refocus its efforts on its massively profitable PC and corporate software businesses. Its cash from operations last quarter alone was $7.4billion, a company record. Yet its shares are down about 50percent since Steve Ballmer took over as CEO on Jan.13, 2000. "The stock would go up if Microsoft exited its consumer businesses," says Bill Whyman of ISI Group.
Bussinesweek.
The only concievable benefits to changing the brand name are...-To give the company a clean slate in Japan
-To make the console sound more family friendly
The former is too weak a reason though. The Japanese game market isn't as big as America or Europe where xbox is successful. A name change only in Japan might be a good idea but every where else, no.
And the latter reason would be a big risk. The xbox is a big name now. I'm not sure sounding more friendly to mom is a good enough reason to alienate the core gamer demographic.vashkey
Totally agree with you. Plus I doubt that they will just up & forget about their hardcore fanbase which put them on the map for this gen to begin with. That would be suicidal.
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