Slashdot Mirror
Sony's PS3 Strategy Brilliant or Insane?
1up's Jeremy Parish has a piece wondering out loud about the sanity of Sony's PS3 strategy. From the article: "The veil of mystery surrounding the PS3 is downright maddening, and a little worrying. Consider that by March 2000, the company had already set the PlayStation 2's October 26th release date in stone. Yet here in March 2006, Sony has only been willing to commit to a 'spring 2006' launch for its latest console. Less than ten days from winter's end and gamers are left scraping together scraps of conflicting information trickling from the company's various divisions to try and get a sense of the bigger picture." We may find out which side of the coin they're on tomorrow; The current rumour is there will be some sort of big announcement about Sony's next-gen console on the 15th.
Sony have wowed the world over with the PSX, then they had a few... Unfortunate turns of events with the PS2. But they realized one thing : just as in music and film, it's not the actual content that sells, but the hype and marketing!
We have had countless reports on how shittily designed the PS2 was. The only console we had to turn upside-down to have it read disks!
So now, they're combining an awful pre-launch, with a lame try at "yawn, we're going to try to copy xbox live and the revolution download system, but it will be crap", and the "oh yeah, it's gonna be so expensive you'll sell us your unborn children's souls!", I just think that Kutaragi has become arrogant, as much as Yamauchi was in the SNES heyday.
Remember, it won't be a success because of the hardware specs, or the games, or anything. It will be a HUGE success because hordes of brain-dead morons who actually find the "cheese you can listen to" ads funny, will line up and get ready to buy it. You think these people care about DRM or blu-ray?
ONLY MARKETING SELLS!
"1) Under produced so that only 1% of the people who wanted one got one in initial release.
2) Under produced so that only 5% of the people who wanted one got one in the SECOND release.
3) No decent games.
4) that whole "broken" thing where you spent $800+ after waiting forever and it doesn't work. that went over REAL WELL.
5) did I mention that when it came out almost no one actually got one.
6) No decent games.
7) they were Microsoft. but of course, they can't help that....."
Hahahh. Soooooo Sony won't suffer from ANY of these. None at all. Microsoft at least releases solid information and specifications for their product. I'm going to enjoy when they have to substantiate their claims of the best system ever.
Of course, if it is, I'll eat my hat and buy it. But I'm not impressed by any means, and I own a PSP, DVD player, and several "prosumer" Sony cameras. I may love their released products, but the Playstation team seems to have such an aura of bullshit surrounding them that I can't take them seriously.
Wow.
What is the point of going over the top with your attempt to slam the PS3?
You would think Microsoft could afford better, and more effectively subtle, marketing talking points.