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Sony's Future Analyzed - PSX, PSP, PS3?
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Gamesindustry.biz's analysis of Sony's game console brands, called 'Playstation: Evolve, Multiply, Conquer'. The article starts with the statement that "Sony clearly sees the games market as a stepping stone to dominance of the home entertainment sector", and goes on to look at the 'Playstation 2 Plus' PSX device unveiled this week, as well as the newly announced PSP portable. The piece concludes by looking at what the Playstation 3 might be, suggesting a family of complementary games consoles may be Sony's eventual goal - "..in an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want."
i would love to be able to play psx, ps2 games on a portable. ahh, i can feel my thumbs hurting now from playing mr. driller everywhere.
a slut did tulsa
I, for one, welcome our new Playstation overlords.
erm.... does nobody else view the "PS2+" or whatever they call it simply a way to stay "current" with the Xbox in terms of press coverage, and online capability, and for the larger part, trying to hide the fact that the PS3 is a long ways off? methinks they hit a serious hiccup in PS3 technology development and this is to keep the executives happy....Just trying to keep things exciting for the consumer by wrapping the same old hardware in different clothing, while at the same time profiting off of more hardware sales, and lengthening the product cycle?
+1 Troll
moox. for a new generation.
Anyone else who finds this angle in the article a little funny? I mean, just how much more mass-market acceptance is there to get for the PS range?
... The PSX looks more like something to get into the few living rooms outside the mass market that think of themselves as too stylish to house a black (and games only) unit.
Maybe I'm ignorant, but it feels like any move in relation to the mass-market living room is going to bring the PS farther away from it
Sony should be careful not to dilute the brand name Playstation by putting it on every peice of crap with blinky lights.
Sony took the Walkman name (which was the portable stereo brand that stomped on all others in the 80s) and started putting it on ultra-low end equipment - in the end the name means nothing. Consumer trust gone. You can spend $25 on a walkman AM-FM tumer and find out it's no better than the $10 Radio Shack piece of crap. But the sony radio is good looking.
"..in an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want."
That one over there that has the word "Nintendo" written on it. But that's just me, the die-hard fan. (I swear, after figuring out that it's my middle fingers that belong on the L & R triggers, the GameCube controller is even more comfortable than the N64 one!)
In any event, it would seem that Sony is dangerously close to seriously confusing the customer. "This PlayStation plays games and DVD movies. And this PlayStation plays DVD movies and doubles as a satellite TV tuner. And this $1500 model over here does all three. But this $2000 package over here does all three but includes expansion bays for future capabilities." They're aiming for market dominance, sure, but neither they nor their potential customers seem to know which market they're aiming for.
And even then I'm not sure how well all these boxen will sell as real audiophiles seem to rather have different components made by different companies than to rely on a one-size-fits-all solution. And I don't think the general market is interested in paying hundreds of dollars for features they don't intend to use (ignoring its first month or so in Japan for the moment, how many people bought a PlayStation 2 just as a DVD player?).
The article starts with mention of the death of the SNES CD concept without quite understanding why it died.
I suspect this will be the move with which Sony self-destructs at least it's Playstation division, if not the entirety of the company. I have never seen a company that is not Disney really successfully synergize among its different branches, and even Disney has been having some trouble of late, in that its last few animated features have bombed.
Here, I think the problem is that parents look for game systems for their kids, and they look at DVD players/recorders and TiVos for the family. Therefore, when a parent is shopping for a game system, the fact that it has a DVD player/recorder and is a TiVo will not matter to them (And the fact that the box is more expensive will). Likewise, when they're looking for a DVD Player/Recorder or a TiVo, the game system will not be seen as an important bonus to them. Especially because I can't imagine that anyone who would be tempted at this point to buy a DVD recorder wouldn't already have a PS2.
Long term, I think this strategy is suicide as well. The gamers are already buying Sony, and the non-gamers will look at the product and go "But the Playstation is for teenagers and video game players. I want a Toshiba."
Which is fine by me. I like the Gamecube. =)
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Not only does it gloss over how Sony is pulling a Sega (price cut PS2; put out PS2+ with progressive DVD, built in network adaptor, and built in IrDA; put out PSX soonish; put out PS3 -- can you say Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn?), it doesn't even have basic facts correct:
.. all GBA SPs use LiIon, rather than AAs.
"A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) "
They don't have a picture of the N-Gage next to the paragraph talking about the N-Gage, even though all previous paragraphs had the apropos Sony technology displayed...
Then they gloss over all the "detailS" about how multi-CPU consoles (Jaguar, Saturn) are hard to program in favour of saying, "MORE POWER!" and throwing in a quote about how Nintendo quakes in its boots when Sony clears its throat.
Read the last sentence where the first-mover advantage is lauded as being the reason Sony's "winning" the console war, yet in the same sentence the author says that probably would be a stumbling block for Xbox 2. Well, is first-mover advantage real or not? He can't decide.
The only people that win from console competition is the consumer. When Sony was enjoying its 2000 and 2001 years, there were no price cuts, and the games sucked (first-gen and second-gen were also on CDs, for crying out loud!). When GCN and Xbox came along, Sony started to have to actually do things. Like lower the price on their console, and put out more good exclusives.
Microsoft has the only good online strategy and with standard system-link support, Nintendo is the first company to push a peripheral that'll be supported (because it's the GBA) by a lot of developers. Sony's ditching the Firewire port on the PS2+, much to the chagrin of the 3 or so systim link games out there. Except for Half-Life, I can't find games that support USB keyboard and mouse on the PS2.
Who's innovating again? Not Sony.
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Funny how Microsoft said something similar but they had to scrap their plans because everyone (the gaming press) was up in arms over the fact that they weren't focusing on games first. Then sony does the same thing. Personally I don't mind these convergence devices but I don't think that I'd be eager to buy one just because it had a console. I'd rather keep the console a separate unit. VCRs, Tivos, DVRs, etc. can all sit comfortably in my audio rack. I prefer to have a console slide out on the floor so that I can sit back on my couch with the controller. I think Microsoft understands this because they have great, long cords on the controllers with breakaways. Nintendo does too b/c of their support for wireless with the wavebird. But I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with controller cords hanging out of the front of my A/V rack, with the potential for someone to trip over them and wreak havoc.