Slashdot Mirror
PS3 Delay May Hurt Current Gen Too
Next Generation reports that, in some analysts view, the real victim of the PS3 delay may actually be current gen console publishers and gamers. Houses like EA and Activision have a lot of money tied up in creating games for the next generation, and if the PS3 isn't launching here in the states until after summmer... They end up laying out four increasingly bad scenarios for the industry. From the article: "The third scenario theorizes on a 25 percent price cut on current generation software. We've already seen substantial price-cuts from EA, as the current-gen versions of The Godfather, Black and Fight Night Round 3 all debuted or will debut at $40, a 20 percent cut from the normal $50 price tag. The erosion of sales prices may be caused by publishers trying to unload inventory, or by publishers that target budget shoppers. This scenario could cause major publishers' earnings to drop between 35 and 49 percent."
Gentoo will be fine thank you. And it will probably run faster on teh PS3 than other Linuces because it is optimized for... Oh wait... :)
Blame them thar pirates again. Yarrr!
---- Take the Space Quiz!
Maybe they could go back to making good games. Seriously, I haven't bought a PS2 game in ages. Not because I want to save an extra ten bucks, but because the games all suck.
Look at how much money they're raking in now, though. If EA takes a bath for a quarter or two, the company's not going to suffer in the slightest. They'll just make most of it back when they release the next go round of sports titles.
Goo goo g'joob.
Is that the season wedged between spring and autumn?
Trolling is a art,
According to the interview cited here it won't launch in Japan until Holiday '06, which puts the US release sometime in '07!
How could the delay of PS3 hurt the current gentoo?
... ;)))
Is a gentoo porting for PS3 planned ?
heh
-- "If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." - Einstein
Cheaper games are always welcome. Try again later, thanks.
Now, maybe Sony claimed something specific about American release dates that I didn't see at some point. But that brings me to my point: Practically nobody knows they were supposed to be expecting a ps3 spring launch in the first place unless they follow websites and magazines like this one religiously! Sony's been so tight-lipped in the general american press about the PS3 it's crazy. A lot of people don't really know anything at all about the PS3 except that it's someday coming-- which is something they probably knew two years go, too. The uncertainty about the release date is a big deal on internet message boards, but internet message boards are not the market.
How can delays in the PS3 possibly hurt PS2 game sales when practically nobody knows a delay is happening in the first place? Especially considering
It just seems kinda silly to me. PS2 hardware sales are probably going to drop off as people increasingly wait for the PS3-- I know I personally would have probably bought a ps2 several months ago if I weren't waiting for the PS3-- but the PS2 sales base is already ginormous, and they're talking about game sales in this article. PS2 games absolutely can and will continue to sell briskly right up to the PS3 release, even if there is a "next gen" system already available; look at Final Fantasy 9, a PS1 game which came out shortly after the PS2 launch and after the Dreamcast had been out a year. It was a top seller at release despite being widely viewed as the worst game in the series**.
This whole thing just sounds to me like gibberish from analysts trying to rewrite reality to be more dramatic.
* Though if they don't announce a release date at GDC on March 20, I will take that as a sign the Japan launch date has slipped as well. You do not go from media blackout to release in under three months unless you are Sega and you have a death wish.
** Mystic Quest doesn't count.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
....the real victim of the PS3 delay may actually be current gen console publishers and gamers... "The third scenario theorizes on a 25 percent price cut on current generation software.
The way I see this, is that the publishers lose, and the customer wins. So, does that mean if the PS3 were here now, prices would be higher and the publisher wins and customer loses?
There is the concept of 'risk' that every company must analyze and accept. Sometimes you win some, sometimes... well, you know...
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Think of it this way, you just bought a new computer with XP. Why spend money on software or hardware that either won't work, or won't work to its fullest capacity on your new machine?
What's the matter, James? No glib remark? No pithy comeback?
Practically nobody knows they were supposed to be expecting a ps3 spring launch in the first place unless they follow websites and magazines like this one religiously!
Actually, I had to have my PS2 replaced by Sony a few months ago, and a customer service rep I spoke with on the phone was allowed to tell me that the release is expected to be in the March-May time frame.
I don't respond to AC's.
Wouldn't now be the time for the software houses work on different/quirky games for the current consoles? Now I understand that it takes a lot to get a game out on a console, but it seems to me that there is a lull in the gaming market. Other than the 360, most consoles should have well developed/tuned library that they could churn something out easily. What if they did a google labs kinda thing? Take a quarter or two and incubate some low budget games. Peridocially you see what's sticking and cull the stuff that's not. Who knows, maybe this will give them a new franchise to run into the ground or even better a new genre of game.
Brought to you by Team SPAM! where we believe: "Information in the noise!"
The one "good" scenario deals not with the developers and publishers, but with Sony. If the system is delayed, that will allow any last minute "bug crushing" to finish - and more importantly, allow more titles to be finished by launch date. Instead of having 10 games (and a large library of backwards-compatible titles), Sony could wind up with more.
Granted, that means the publishers are screwed over, but as someone else mentioned, they'll just blame it on piracy and life will move on.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
> Since commercial BluRay players already exists it is doubtful
...with retail units hitting the shelves around June/July in Japan.
> Sony will have any problem in manufacturing them.
Oh, really? Because they've made a few thousand of these they'll have no problem making a million? In just a few months?
>
> And most likely September in the US. $349/399.
What - exactly - are you basing this on and which oriface did it come from?
> Don't worry, if you get your order in you'll almost certainly be playing
> the fantastic PS3 title currently in development long before the
> 2006 holidays.
No, that doesn't sound like shilling at all.
I'm not saying there is or is not a delay. The only thing anyone outside of Sony can say with any degree of confidence is "We don't know."
So either you're a shill, or you're talking out of your ass.
I'm guessing the latter.
Sony has been backing away from claiming compatibility. "It's hard to say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 percent backwards compatible but as we said earlier this year we aim to make it so as much as possible."
Sony will probably try software emulation, but there's no guarantee it will be fast enough to play all PS2 games. Tetris, no problem. Call of Duty, maybe not. "Compatible" might have to be an upgrade deal; turn in your PS2 game disk and get a discount on a PS3 version.
If you can believe The Inquirer and Variety, the PS3 is delayed until the end of the year because of "a hold-up with chips crucial to the success of the console's Blu-ray functions".o ryid=18&cs=1&s=h&p=0
See http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30108
or http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117939258?categ
Nobody believes the official spokesman, but everybody trusts an unidentified source. -- Ron Nesen
Really?
I've never heard that. In fact, most people that I know of would tag 8 as the worst, or maybe I or II.
9 seems to be viewed as a nostalgia-fest, but most people liked it. I know I did.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Wouldn't now be the time for the software houses work on different/quirky games for the current consoles?
There was an article on Slashdot just this past week on some of the new PS3 titles, and there were a lot of different/quirky game titles for the PS3, so the question becomes, should they not just concentrate on porting more Japan-only games instead.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
$800+ for the components.
Even if they priced this at $350-$400, how many parents would balk at that price? Even worse, how many single moms making $40k a year will be able to buy this for their kids? Yes, you the AC in his parent's basement and no GF to spend money on will be able to buy it and every game that comes out, but thankfully, you are few and far between. Idiot.
It doesn't take advantage of HDTV (PS3 and 360 do), it doesn't play the brilliant GTA games (PS3 will, and 360 will a few months later), no high-def DVD player (PS3 will ship with Blu-Ray, 360 will be updated with whichever format catches on) and, most importantly, it doesn't actually exist yet.
It delivers 480p, seems to be good enough for most people.
GTA 3 is a current gen game, if you want to play that you can grab a current gen console.
The 360 is not guaranteed to be upgraded and more importantly it won't help those who already bought one.
The Revolution has specs since it has final (or near final) devkits that have been shipped already. Nintendo just doesn't release specs to the public because the public has no use for the specs. They're given to developers that are bound by NDAs.
The PS3 is going through some delays due to the lag in Blu-Ray support, but it has an actual spec, and games are actually being written for it right now.
Guess what, the Revolution does, too. Except for the Bluray delay, of course.
Nobody seems to even have a clue what the controller will look like at this point.
You may have missed all those pictures released since last year's E3, there are pictures of the controller.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Wow, troll. Thats just fragged up man. Mods must have a hate on for you for calling that a troll.
While the console will probably cost 600 - 800 to sony, I highly doubt that it will be retailed at that price to compete with MS. I would expect in the 300 - 400 American. I know I paid 500 CDN on the first run PS2. Which is about 400 American I think. (Lazy to find a currency calculator for that time).
Lots of people won't buy the first run because of cost, but I think thats the same with every console on the market. People who just have to have now will pay more than the console is worth. (See XBox 360 prices on Ebay)
The cost of this console generation will be comparable, if not less when the inflation is factored in.
- my $.02? - you can't have it...it's all I have!!
As previously commented, most people have no idea when the PS3 is going to come out. "Everyone" knows that the PS3 is going to be backwards comp. with PS2 though. So what's the issue here? The /. commentary seems to state that publishers are going to cut prices on PS2 games before PS3 games come out. Hmm, I doubt it. I'd say that most PS2 games will stay right at their current price point until shortly after the PS3 goes on sale. You'll see maybe a $5-10 drop on the big seller games while those that have been on the shelves and not moving will be dropped to $20-25 dollars. Alot of PS3 buyers will just pickup cheap PS2 games rather than spend $50-70 on "new" PS3 games. Backwards compatiblity is really bad for "new game" sell, but great for reselling the same stock over and over again. (That publisher that has sequel 3 that is moving well, with I don't really see a negative if they plan on just dropping prices for the PS3 release just to move stock. Trust me, the publishers aren't going to be losing money.
Even if they priced this at $350-$400, how many parents would balk at that price?
Not many more than already balked at the XBox 360. The only one going for a reasonable price seems to be Nintendo. I know that was the reason I got a Gamecube back then, 200 is a lot and more than that is plain insane.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I was thinking a delayed PS3 made the developers think more about enhancing the distribution, instead of spending the time playing that darn thing!
"If you loved me, you`d all kill yourselves today"
Spider Jerusalem
The RSX graphics rasterizer(not GPU) is built on very mature process tech.
Funny how you say that, as I certainly think that NVIDIA would object to their 300 million transistor, GeForce 7800-derived chip being called a "graphics rasterizer".
I don't think any such statement was made at E3, and your own link "re-confirm"ing the launch says:
Here is an article titled U.S. November Game Sales Decrease Confirmed. So, no they won't. The industry is in transition. Transition won't end until PS3 ships. Please, god, let it be soon.
The article in no way demonstrates the lack of sales were because of "transitions". In fact, the article says quite the opposite, blaming the drop in sales specifically on:Sales last november were poor because the game selection was poor; it wasn't consumers were unwilling to buy PS2 games, it was that there were no PS2 games worth buying in that period.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
The only one going for a reasonable price seems to be Nintendo. I know that was the reason I got a Gamecube back then, 200 is a lot and more than that is plain insane.
Not just that, but think of all the money you saved by not having any new games to buy!
Not much because I still managed to get 35 games for it, ~80% of which ran me 60 Euros each.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Not much because I still managed to get 35 games for it, ~80% of which ran me 60 Euros each.
Ah, you must be a fan of the Mario Party games.
(juuust kidding)