PlayStation 3 May Play Too Much

Businessweek has a piece looking at the PlayStation 3, worrying that Sony is confusing the consumer with all of the technology it's trying to work into the console. From the article: "Some question whether Sony is trying to cram too much into the new box. The PS3 is expected to cost $350 to $400. While it has the potential to be a megahit, Sony's message might get muddled in the process of going after too broad a market, says Deutsche Securities analyst Takashi Oya. 'It would be difficult to sell PS3 initially as anything other than a game machine,' Oya says. Sony declined to comment on such concerns."

Comments

Is this guy joking or what ?

[tibike77]

Hmm... "It would be difficult to sell PS3 initially as anything other than a game machine" ?
So what if ? No, wait... better: does anybody even expect to buy it as anything else than a gaming rig in the first place ?

XBox360, between 300 and 400. Games. Plus some other stuff.
PS3, between 350 and 400. Games. Plus some other stuff.
No idea on Nintendo.
Barebones but decent PC (plus cheap monitor or TVout capable), between 400 and 600. Trivial stuff. Plus some older games.
Reality check for PS3 ? Checked.

People who buy the PS3 will buy it *primarily* for the games ANYWAY.
They MIGHT use it for something else too, but at a price tag comparable to any other decent alternative, what's the harm ?
If anything (*shock*), people who didn't plan on buying it for games might actually buy the console.

Will PS3 games sales plummet because of that ?
If you look at it from a games sold per unit of console sold, then yes, that might go down.
But as an absolute number of expected sales... I really, really doubt a significant decline, no matter what anybody else might say.

OK, I'll correct you.

[danaris]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Sony stated that the PS3 will not have backwards compatability.

You're wrong.

The PlayStation 3 will be compatible "on the chip" with PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games, without emulation. It still is not known how Sony has achieved this (although Sony had developed a single-chip PS2 CPU/GPU solution, used in newer revisions of the "slim" PS2). Compatibility with PS2 online games and games designed for the hard drive have not been elaborated upon. In a recent interview Ken Kutaragi stated that backward compatibility will be achieved through a combination of hardware and software.

From Wikipedia

Granted, it could be wrong, but it matches with the most recent stuff I've heard various other places.

Dan Aris