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How the PS3 Hit $600
Joystiq has up an interesting article today, gathering together information from a couple of places to discuss why the PlayStation 3 is so expensive. From the article: "Kutaragi was demoted after being passed over for the role of CEO and, when former Sony Pictures head Howard Stringer assumed the position, the relationship between the content and technology divisions of Sony became even more intimate. Stringer "quickly dubbed the PlayStation 3 as one of the company's 'champion' products." Kutaragi's desire to stratify the console market with Cell technology in effect wed Sony to the unpalatable prospect of charging an unprecedented price. Coupled with Sony's desire to not only push their own content on HD discs, but to control that medium with their proprietary Blu-ray format, the final price was escalated by two very advanced (and very expensive) pieces of Sony technology."
Don't you mean "in practice"? In theory, you and everybody else will buy a PS3 because it's a PS3 and you love Sony (damn, that Kutaragi knows everything). In practice, you're tired of getting poked in the butt by Sony and you really don't want to go get a second job just to afford a PS3, so you're not buying one. In theory, you'll buy a PS3 even if there are no games for it, because you're just that loyal. In practice, most of the games on the PS3 (aside from Gran Turismo: not quite HD and Metal Gear Suicide) will be on the 360 as well, and you're not quite sure that historical japanese warriors had to fight giant crabs. In theory, Riiiiidge Racer emulation of PS1 games would be the killer app to make you buy a PSP. In practice, the handheld is poorly designed with bad battery life, has no really good games (and what good games it does have, like GTA: Libery City Stories, will make their way back to the real consoles anyway), is ruled by an iron hand to prevent homebrew software (you have a choice -- either run homebrew or run real games, but not both), and UMD is a dead format for movies.
In theory, Sony's already won this round of the console wars, and probably the next two or three generations as well. In practice, Sony's minus one foot and taking careful aim at the one that's left. They'll be lucky if the PS3 gets even a lukewarm reception on launch, as the more likely scenario is a major crash and burn. The customer goodwill they're apparently trying to trade on has been gone for some time now, and they don't even know it.
Sure all the games are expensive, but I see more families renting games nowadays and only buying games for birthdays, etc.
Let's see how well that works if Sony manages to kill the secondary market for games.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
I bought my PS2 and GTAIII as a single purchase. Might as well have super-glued the DVD in the drive. (Until I got Vice City some years later. Might get San Andreas some day . . .)
-Peter
...what the man-years (decades? centuries?) of wasted useful thought will be from video games before the Huns come.
(sorry, the last console I played with was a Magnavox Odyssey).
I dunno - I know- Iknow... it's offtopic but really - throw me a bone here. Is the time wasted? Does it contribute to personal (or world, or Hun repelling) development in any way?
Cake or Death? Cake Please!