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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.
While I think the premise is interesting, the article has some really loopy conclusions. First, there seems to be a lot of MS love, considering the author's assertion that Nintendo is now a distant third and the 360 is primed to take over the market. The 360, which is plauged by issues and being outsold by the PS2?
Plus, his idea that every decade the industry just changes itself is a little bit absurd. The changes he cites came about for different reasons. Atari failed because of public indifference to "games" (hence "entertainment system"). Nintendo's failure was more technical than social, even against trumped-up charges of mistreatment regarding developers (which were serious, to be sure, but definitely not the main reason everyone jumped ship). Just taking periods of time and saying "hey, they're similar!" and then basing your entire analysis on that is ridiculous.
As for the secrecy potentially being a huge problem for Sony, I agree completely. He should have fleshed that idea out more, however, rather than just throwing around poorly-informed speculation.
...Yes.
While I can't be sure what their release srategy is, Sony knows that they control the majority of the console market. With this, they can continue to play and prod with release dates, demos, and specs. With each new tidbit, they make the fans drool all the more over the system, increasing the hype. (To be fair, Nintendo does the same to us Nintendo fanboys, only we get less promises and specs, and at a much slower rate.)
However, one has to wonder how long they can hold this off. I'm sure PS2 hardware sales are already dropping as game stores start pushing for reserving a PS3. Eventually, the numbers will reach over into game sales (where Sony makes up profit loss on the console), becuase no one will be buying a new PS2, and thus won't get Grand Theft Auto 10 or whatever. If they hold off too long, this could give them a big bite, though I'm sure that software sales will surge (including PS2 titles) when the PS3 comes out- assuming it has backwards compatibility.
In fact, the same thing is happening across the board, excluding the XBox (360). As news of the DS Lite travels, regular DS sales will slow as people decide to hold off for a few months to get The Next Best Thing. Same thing goes for the Gamecube and the PS2.
It seems, in fact, that even the components are going to be copied: the bad bad Cell (anyone even remember the supposed promise of the Emotion Engine?) will be used in computers.
They're poorly trying to play catchup on the Xbox Live|SNES/NES download services. Downloading a dual-layer PS2 DVD sounds very bizarre, if their service is ever built to the specifications they listed. Certainly we will have the ability to, one day, get 9GB file via Wifi in Tbilisi, but what's the point now?
And where are the exclusive PS3 titles? Metal Gear, Gran Turismo... I know there are enormous fans of these games, but my inclination is "so what." I'll give you Symphony of the Night, but can anyone name another PS1 game that anyone truly cares about playing again via their download service? It seems that most of their decent earlier games (as in 8 years ago) are available for the N64. Sony simply does not have the franchises that Nintendo has cultivated and Microsoft has basically bought for Xbox Live.
Even the bluray will be available in other devices. (That, of course, bodes well for the bluray format, but does it really matter with the PS3?)
The PS2/Revolutionalike controller scheme honestly reminds me of the 32X, and we all know how badly that went.
I was about to write, "Like every videogame war, it comes down to the games..." but I attended E3 in 1999 and remember the amazing promise of the Dreamcast's games, which gave the system the most quality-game-heavy launch in the history of videogaming since the NES. With the iPod now the gold standard in consumer electronics, it's about creating a complete experience for the user, and I can easily see the PS3 as all-things-to-all-people.
Xbox360 is a 1.5 upgrade. PS3 is copycatting. Combine this with the rootkit fiasco, the accompanying media hype (always impossible to meet) that blurays require a DRM-friendly HDTV, kaboom.
Nintendo all the way. I don't doubt a great deal of hype accompanying it, but it will be more of the "look at this weird thing" variety, much like the DS, and look at the DS now.
In the USA. Overall, Nintendo actually sold slightly more consoles than MS. Don't discount how well they do in Japan.
so long as all the blogs and media outlets are talking about Sony, talking about Blu-Ray, and talking about the really cool games that are coming with the PS3, they keep you from wanting to buy an xBox360.
Most people I know are waiting until all the consoles are released before they buy, and I live in xBox360 central (Seattle), so you know it's working.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
If all you care about is graphics you can get an xbox 360. If you want good games get the Revolution. What is the point of the PS3? The only people that I can see buying one are people who are hooked on GT, or PS2 fanboys who would buy a PS3 if all it did was make toast.