News MS refused to sell Xbox 360s to US Army

MS are just embarrassed with all the idiotic mic spammers on xbox live

 

When a very large organization is looking to buy quantities of hardware that number in the hundreds, if not thousands, it's common practice to talk directly to the manufacturer. For one thing, as liratheal pointed out, if you're looking for stock hardware you avoid paying the markup at a retail outlet. Second, if a large organiztion is looking to buy a given piece of hardware in large quantities, there is the potential for modifications, such as custom firmware or hardware to meet specific demands.

As an example, when NASA is ready to purchase a new still camera, it talks directly to the manufacturer. The standard lubrication inside a dSLR will evaporate in the vacuum of space, so the company applies a special lubrication during the manufacturing process.

 

America's Army runs on the PC, If they think its a good enough game to recruit people then why not train people.
Practice makes perfect, I can now prone with my legs through any wall !

 

Really? By heavens, who'd have thought it.....
For one reason or another, many companies don't sell products directly to those asking for them, but that never stops them from getting stuff elsewhere, nor trying to make a news story out of it.....
If the deal was to include modifications to a base model then that is an entirely different premise on which to stop a sale, so that example is irrelevant. Apparently they just want to use it to run Arma or somesuch.
I`m sure if they did go to a middleman and asked for 10000 units they would be given preferential rates, even if t meant they couldn't then afford to run one of their aircraft carriers for 0.1 of a nanosecond......

 

well my guess is that the army would play dead or alive extreme beach volley ball and forget to take their guns with 'em . (no offence i' ma pc raper ie i love pcs and NO i m not a fanboy

 

I'm more interested to hear what game it is they want to train soldiers with. The mention of XNA hints that maybe they developed their own, it'd be interesting to find out.

 

Why not Halo? or GTA 4?

 

They need to learn to bunny hop snipe.

 

They would be used for operation training of UAVs and oher remotely operated robotic hardware. They would not be used for combat training.

 

You, along with about 80% of the posters here are missing what is the most logical reason.

I expect they wanted to use the console as a base, and use a custom OS - Hence the need for contact with Microsoft. Presumably, then, attach it to a training program of their own design.

To make those changes they'd need a licensing agreement of some sort with Microsoft, and with any luck, there wouldn't be Halo style bunny hopping, or recovering from a headshot.

 

Am I the only one who read this and thought that Stan Smith has finally let his alien friend out of the loft so he can get a job?

 

They could just buy them from a wholesaler or maybe even buy them at stores.

 

You're missing the point of purchasing direct from a manufacturer. Have you ever tried to call up your local retailer and asked for 5,000 game consoles? How many units do you think they have in the storage room?

I'm still curious as to whether or not the Army is looking for stock units, or if there were any requested modifications. The Wired article seems to indicate that the Army would be looking for stock hardware, given the cost savings over computers. Still, the article does go on to speculate about having a console for every soldier for training and e-learning. That many consoles would fall outside the capability of a retailer to support. I think the only way to buy in that kind of bulk would be directly through the manufacturer.

 

working as a defense contractor. You never buy from a third party source. Also you buy on a contract, not Point of service. Meaning your contract would say MS would provide x consoles for Y cost with soo many hours of training/ engineering support/ repair etc to be carried out by so and so. Can't simply go to a distributor or wall mart and buy up 10,000 consoles and call it a day. I don't see how a third party could beat MS on that price, hence they wouldn't win. A third party could be used to supply engineering and development support if MS was unwilling/unable.

all the obvious jokes about tea bagging and bunny hopping aside. As mentioned I don't think this was intended to use a simulation aids for combat training AKA Call of duty. I thought the idea was custom software for UAV training and other similar activities.

There was a game developed for the army a few years back who's name I'm forgetting (not America's army) it was a teaching aid for squad leaders and the likes to teach decision making. They also released a changed consumer version, anyone remember the name? it was unit based and you issued commands to your squad. It was one of the first games that you didn't really control the individual soliders so much as control the squad. anyways the Army ended up balking saying it wasn't a useful training tool and the dev's got off with a huge part of their development cost subsidized and a decent game.

Anyways as a company MS has every right to refuse product, probalby a money losing proposition for them. I know several vendors who won't handle certain DoD contracts or any at all because of the hassle. It's not profitable.

 

Because wars, unlike games, are fought against those dirty foreigners?

 

I heard CS:S was used pc based for a lot of training strategy. Those god damn "AYE Rabss!" as the yanks call them.

I think Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have made a great move to distance themselves from this kind of bulk sale. Can you imagine the next COD when some parent group stands infront of some news cameras blurting that little Timmy can train to kill just like our Armies! but then moan they need home land security in case of terror attacks.

Hey I'm as Holy as the next guy, Allah is Gay, Jesus was a Hippee and Buddha was a fat bloke who ate all the pies but do we really need to bring gaming into the arguement?

Didn't Saddam (pre-hangin on YouTube days) want to buy a sh!t load of playstation one's to build some kind of super (cough! crap cough!) computer to plan terror and chaos around the world? and we all know how that went!

 

That would be Full Spectrum Warrior!

For the people talking about the Army playing games - metarinka is right, the Army wanted to develop their own applications with XNA - not use existing off-the-shelf games.

I suspect the big sticking points were the aforementioned violence issues, and the fact that the Army would want a full development kit, full dev support, and a load of consoles - without releasing any games to the buying public, or buying games themselves. In essence there would be a shortage of consoles on the market for real gamers, and internal resources would be diverted to the Army when it could be better spent on profitable game devs. In short - MS/Sony/Nintendo would make zero money, and could even make a loss - the financial incentive wasn't there.

To be frank the Army will have to make a custom PC. While a console would have been cost-effective, clearly it wasn't in the interests of the OEMs. At least with a PC, making the prequisite custom peripherals will be easier Most they'll have to fork out is £500 for the 64bit key for signing the drivers - they would have forked out for Visual Studio /w MSDN and the design & manufacturing anyway.

 

Most of you missed the point entirely. When the Army used Doom to train with it was specifically tailored to a specific need. That is what they are after. They have the XBOX PlayStation generation working for them so what tool do you want to pick? Duh... I think MS is making a business mistake. They would set the price, they would make money, and likely a transferable R&D project to mainstream sales. There are pains in dealing with the government but MS already does so. Yes they could go PC but the game console makes logistic sense, all you need is a TV and a little power, PCs require too much effort to achieve the same outcome. Besides for most a PC is work a game console is fun.

 

This story is worthless. The U.S. military bought 1700 PS3 and has ordered 3000 more and the U.S. Military is very happy with the results.
I think the military was going to do something that the XBOX360 couldn't handle bottom line. That would have turned into a PR frenzy. No company ever turns down a U.S. Military contract. That's like giving away a winning lotto ticket.

DOD contract = FREE MONEY.

Nintendo is Japanese owned so I can understand them saying NO plus it's a kiddie system
Sony like i mentioned earlier has sold 2000 to the U.S. Military

 

Sony is Japanese as well, so wouldn't they have had the same reservations as Nintendo?

All three systems can cope with army related strategy training gaming. What can the PS3 do that the Xbox360 can't when it comes to gaming?

I smell a brainfart!