Sony vs. Microsoft, Tortoise vs. Hare

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Was Microsoft smart to rush out the Xbox 360 or is Sony smarter to wait and load PlayStation 3 with the latest technology? The Wall Street Journal analyzes the opposing camps' strategies; the stakes are high, as 'the Xbox group has lost billions of dollars since its start five years ago and will continue to lose money if Sony trounces Microsoft.' Several expected Microsoft announcements today, besides 'Halo 3', are meant to deliver the message that the Xbox's head-start was an advantage: 'Microsoft will also demonstrate ways for mobile phones to link with its Xbox Live service, which allows Xbox 360 users to play games with each other over the Internet. Executives will also announce new games for the Xbox Live service and are negotiating a partnership to build a "massively multiplayer" game for Live that allows thousands of people to play each other over the Internet, say people familiar with the company's plans.'"

Comments

Re:Wii for teh win

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, no official price has been announced.

Second, the 27 games are games playble at E3. They are not games that will necessarily be available at launch.

Re:Microsoft is actually learning

[EmperorKagato]

So basically Sega should have had a download service so that you could play Genesis games.

They did, it was called the Sega Channel.

cheap and fast always wins in console gaming

[Khopesh]

take a look at past precedent (second listed price is value adjusted for inflation circa 2004):

• 8-bit: Nintendo NES (1985, $200/351) > Sega Master System (1986, $200/345) > Atari 7800 (1986, $140/241)
• 16-bit: NEC TurboGrafx 16 (1987, $190/316, only big in Japan) > Sega Genesis (1988, $190/303) > Nintendo SNES (1990, $200/289)
• mid-90s: Sony Playstation (1994, $300/382) > Sega Saturn (1995, $400/496) >= Nintendo 64 (1996, $200/241)
  mid-90s Flops: Laseractive (1993, $970/1268), 3DO (1993, $700/915), Atari Jaguar (1993, $250/327, company went under)
• y2k: Sony Playstation 2 (2000, $300/329) = MS Xbox (2001, $300/320) > Nintendo GameCube (2001, $200/213) > Sega Dreamcast (1998, $200/232)
• mid-00s: MS Xbox (2005, $300+), Sony Playstation 3 (2006, $500+), Nintendo Wii (2006, $200?)

It's not an absolute rule, but releasing early was WILDLY successful for Sega's Genesis and Sony's Playstation, giving them access to an industry that they were previously all but unknown in. Dreamcast's failure was due to Sega falling apart, kind of like what happened to Atari's delayed and corporately ruined 7800.