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SCEA President Hypes PS3 Shelf Life Over 360
kukyfrope writes "Sony Computer Entertainment America President Kaz Hirai recently talked to San Jose Mercury News about their upcoming console. His argument is that, by waiting to deliver Blu-Ray and performance hardware, even at a high price, the PS3 will be in greater standing than the Xbox 360 in the long run. Hirai also takes a cop-out on the amount of hype surrounding the PS3 hardware performance saying, 'It's all about the games. We all know that [...] This is a console that is here for the long haul and is not on a five-year cycle. Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do.'"
It is possible for MS to start shipping 360s with HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray if they wanted to) built in if that's what the market decides is necessary, you know. Of course, they wouldn't be able to put games on the new format unless they wanted to say "screw you" to the previous 360 owners, but I doubt people would be saying "Xbox 360 sucks because its games are on DVD!"
In six years, Blu-Ray will either still be a niche market, in which case the average person won't care, or it'll be popular enough that you can get players cheaper than the PS3.
As for the PS3 being more powerful, even if true, it won't matter. Did anyone in the history of gaming say "I'm getting Xbox because it's more powerful than PS2"? Well, somebody probably did, but not many.
As to which will have better games, guess we'll just have to wait and see which one attracts more devs in the long run.
It would take Sony a hell of a lot not to wipe the floor with Microsoft, but if they aren't trying their damnedest to fail...
English is easier said than done.
SCEA President Hypes PS3 Shelf Life Over 360
XBOX 360 has pretty short shelf life: when they put it on the shelf, someone comes immediately and buys it (well, except Japan... yet). That will happen with the Wii too. That sucks for them having so short shelf life.
But PS3 will have a great shelf life...
When Microsoft or Nintendo release a new console, Sony will have to anyway. People will move to the newer consoles because they'll have the impression that Sony isn't going with the times. Consoles nowadays seem to be released in cycles (i.e. N64, PS1, Saturn then Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox and PS2), and Sony will have to keep up with this regardless or risk losing fans.
If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
What do you mean "Sony Hypes shelf life"? In the article he claims that based on Sony's 10+ year market history, they can predict what will happen again. I don't see how this is "hype" at all. Hype gets me excited about whats coming by making big promises or revealing cool stuff. All this is is market forcast.
And over there we have the labyrinth guards. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one stabs people who ask t
Performance hardware? hahaha. Kaz, everyone knows you only want to get Blu-Ray into our living rooms. And how is Microsoft's strategy a bad one exactly? I don't see how not forcing people into an HD video playback solution they may not want, and thusly keeping the price of the gaming hardware (which let's face it is why most people buy a game console) down could possibly be a bad thing... Ah the sony spin machine at work...
Why not remove the Blu-Ray and drop the price $200, then, genius?
I hate fsckin' addons. Even the new Wii controller, cool as hell, will have addons. Ugh!
--
Ticks and tocks will break your heart.
Even if MS brings out an external HD-DVD drive one year after the release of the XBOX 360, it still means that I will be able to get my hands on one before I can get hold of a PS3. And a hunch tells me that it will be approximately the same price as a PS3 minus the current cost of the XBOX 360 or possibly less...
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do.
Stupid Microsoft, having to come out with an accessory just an year after they launched.
Do as Sony does: they've not even launched yet.
I like how Microsoft is doing this. Like, I can buy the HD add-on if I want, and if I don't, I can just ignore it and not care and save some money. Expensive prices are going to keep back plenty of people. Fortunetly for Sony however, they've got legions of fans just waiting to have their pockets emptied by Sony for a console that'll "replace PCs."
Sony also likes to point out that games in the future may be upwards of 50 and 60 gig. I'm not quite familiar with console game sizes these days, but what games will be on three DVDs? (as Hirai puts it) And besides, even if a game does take up multiple discs, whats the big deal in changing them? One of three discs should give a solid 15+ hours of gameplay, right? Maybe more... I have no idea. Or less.
It's almost like Sony is acting like Microsoft in a way. They convince themselves (and try to convince everyone else) that what they're doing is right, and that any other way is wrong.
Oh, and the last two paragraphs I find hilarious. In response to Sony's being accused of "arrogance," Hirai points to how "awesome" Sony and the PlayStation are.
Fascinating.
"Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about Rock and Roll..." ~ Shigeru Miyamoto
Then I can sit in a corner and play with my Wii for a year or two, waiting for the PS3 price to go down and library to build up, then that awesome shelf life means that I'll still be able to get lots of use out of it.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
What I've never understood is that if the PS3 will loose money on each sale, and it depends on games, why does it cost about 200-300 more than the other consoles. That is money that could potentially turn into Sony game sales, which actually do make money.
On a slighty offtopic note, has anyone noticed since the change of the Revolution to the Wii, all the names of the game consoles rhyme?
PS3
Wii
Xbox 360
Before you die, you see DoubleRing...
If Sony keeps talking (hyping), they will lose yet another customer. SHUT UP AND DELIVER!
the ps3 will be a collectors item. "the console that tanked and nobody bought, and forced sony out of the home console buisness."
-schwal "Hanging is too good for punners, they should be drawn and quoted"
"Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do"
Ya, giving your customers choices is like soooo totally stupid. Please, shove your undead-Betamax player onto me.
especially now that the image constraint token is dead
Okay, people have to stop saying this. While it's true that there is currently a moratorium on the use of this "feature" (for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), it's only temporary. Supposedly, most of the studios have opted to hold off on its use for a while (Warner is apparently considering using ICT for particular movies) but all of them would like to. The "security" consultants have gotten the executives to believe that the "analog hole" is the primary risk in terms of piracy, despite the fact that most movie piracy is fully in the digital domain, ripped straight off DVDs, and the same will happen with the new formats once the protection is busted. As long as the studios believe in the evil of analog, they're going to want very badly to use the ICT.
At best, ICT is in a state of hibernation, and when it wakes up it's going to tear the arms off of anybody who has an HDTV with no digital input who bought an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.
Didn't you get the memo? ;)
1080p movies with any 1080p TV that accepts component
Wrong. It will do 1080i- there's no way to do a progressive scan signal at that resolution via component. This doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you takethe Image Constraint Token into account. Supposedly there's going to be a moratorium on the ICT, but if/when it goes into effect any movies made afterwards WILL NOT play in their full resolution over analog outputs. Furthermore, there's no garuntee that BluRay will become the next movie standard. This hardly seems futureproof to me- indeed, it seems like a huge gamble for the consumer.
Bzzzttt!
The PS3 will do 1080p over component cables just fine.
People have been buying and using 1080p over component for some time now.
"there's no garuntee that BluRay will become the next movie standard. "
Every single person I know who has a 1080p TV is waiting for a PS3 to use as a HD BluRay player for 499 or 599.
Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do.
Makes sense to me. It didn't work particularly well for Sega with the SegaCD and the 32X. Add-ons for consoles just generally don't go over too well.
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
Look, I am as excited as you are about the PS3, it definitely has everything going for it, but you jumped the gun when you mentioned that 1080p TV sets will be available by September for around $1000. Not to be picky, but we are just getting HDTVs with native 1080p resolution on the market now and they aren't anywhere close to $1000. Before now, all HDTVs would down convert or blend the 1080i/p resolution down to the set's native resolution -- in some cases 720, in others 840 or 1000. I think Microsoft was wise to choose 720p as their base HD resolution as that is typically the highest resolution available to the installed base of HDTVs in the U.S. at the moment, and the price of the 360 reflects that.
One thing many North Americans cannot seem to get their heads around is that Sony is primarily a Japanese company and their strategy is long term. Everything they've done to this point bears this out: the initially high cost, the choice of 1080p as the base resolution, the choice of Bluray, an exceptionally powerful yet expensive custom microprocessor, including HDMI, and rolling out an untested Internet service. Viewed through the lens of long term strategy all of these choices make sense; game data storage and processing requirements will only increase, Bluray will emerge as the HD-DVD standard, 1080p TVs will be standard and HDMI will provide the connection, and the high cost will come down thanks to mass production. Sony expects tbhe PS3 to be on the market a long time.
Microsoft, on the other hand, looked at what is currently available and built their machine around those standards.
I am pretty sure that I just saw a 1080p set at the local electronics store for around 1600 dollars. Wasn't a giant screen, maybe in the 40" range or so.
I know that my friends who have been looking to buy a 1080p set have been holding back since they are seeing prices dropping very quickly. I don't know about September, but I would not be surprised if by the end of the year or January after the holiday sales you could pickup a 1080p set for 1000 bucks.
The TV manufactures have to know that there are soon to be millions of 1080p BluRay players out there starting with the PS3 come November and certainly will want to have sets that are targeted at gamers.
Let's say the ps3 is built to last. Then, when the next gen consoles come out, we wouldn't have to spend money on the ps4 but on the games instead. So, in Sony's point of view, they are making money where it counts - license fees of games. I'm all for the ps3 built like a computer. Only when it is absolutely necessary to upgrade (eg. Final Fantasy 20 needs a quad core) will I upgrade the ps3.
On a side note about game pricing: Won't some games still be in DVD9 format for the ps3? Like budget-esque games such as Katamari or not so graphically oriented like Lumines?
Every geek has some sort of website, programming or computer project. Here's mine: www.youtasteit.com . What's yours?
One risk with trying to expand the console cycle past the five year mark is that consumer trends change. The PS3 is not a pretty machine. The PS3 seems large and ugly TODAY, how will it look five years from now? Or eight? The answer: not any prettier.
I am sure Sony could release new slim line models but then people have to go re-buy the same machine again. If the PS3 is going to be 'expanded', then won't it look the same ugly way for the next 5+ years?
The reason why I mention this is that in the 70s, the wood finishings on the Pong and Atari 2600 looked cool for its time. Today, they look ridiculous. The gray tone with the black lines of the NES looked cool then. After all, the console's design was to fit the taste of the 80s. The Super NES looks like an abomination today. I know Xbox players mad at the Xbox 360 lack of BC since they can't throw out their Xboxes. And I know Gamecube owners who can't wait for the Wii so they can remove the purple lunchbox away from their living room.
Even if the PS3 is upgradable, it still is an ugly fit. Over time, a console gets uglier in the living room, not prettier.
Every single person I know who has a 1080p TV is waiting for a PS3 to use as a HD BluRay player for 499 or 599.
That's hardly a scientific sampling.
What's a Linux and where do I plug it in.
Looks like YOU need help with math...
We'll round up $1 to make it simpler.
PS3= $500 *OR* $600
360= $400
Wii= $250
500 - 400 is indeed 100.
600 - 400 is 200.
500 - 250 is 250.
600 - 250 is Three-hundred-fifty dollars.
Not to mention that a) the price of the 360 will likely come down either before or not long after the PS3 is launched, and b) the Wii may even be less than $250.
Even if you only compare the PS3 'lite' with the 360, $100 more than 400 bucks does not in my book qualify as a good deal.
You live and learn. At least, you live.
Is it really surprising that people with 1080p sets want BluRay?
They really have three options:
1) Stick with DVD and upscaling - Not hideous, but it's like buying a sports car and never taking it out of first gear
2) Buy a HD-DVD player - Very expensive for a standalone player - but the HD-DVD support from content companies started out small and appears to be shrinking
3) Buy a 400 dollar Xbox 360 and wait for the unknown priced HD-DVD add-on - Probably going to end up spending 600+ bucks for a clunky solution that most likely won't even be able to output 1080p
4) Buy a 499 or 599 PS3 - Their existing DVD collection works as it did and they can buy 1080p BluRay movies as they start to come out
Option 4 is the only sane option for 1080p TV owners who aren't audiophiles with wads of cash to spend on a high end standalone BluRay player.
The reason the price isn't lowered is simple: They can't. Remember there's a format war in the wings between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The two camps are pretty evenly divided at the moment, with a slight content owner advantage for Blu-ray and a slight hardware maker advantage for HD-DVD.
Sony is selling the PS3 for *less* than the price of a standalone Blu-ray player. They can get away with it and make it back on games and movies, but that doesn't make their hardware partners any happier -- Sony is undercutting their prices. They'd go bankrupt trying to make their Blu-ray players price-competitive with the PS3. They're having a hard time with this alliance already, and if Sony were to reduce the PS3's price anytime soon, those hardware companies would bail and head over to the HD-DVD side. Once you see that happen, the content owners would soon follow. Blu-ray would be a Sony-only format, and would be seen as a dead-end.
It might happen anyway if the other blu-ray manufacturers can't sell enough units to sustain themselves in the meantime.
Sony already has a console coming with large storage, an advanced architecture and lots of input and output options. It has an HD in every unit so right off the bat game makers can take advanatge of it instead of watching sales numbers to guess if enounh consoles with HD's exist to add features that depend on it. Even a new console in a few years would be hard pressed to greatly exceed its capabilities at the same price (which will of course be lower by then).
Even today Sony has not yet released a console, and PS2's are still selling really well - with major new games on the way. This despite the arrival of the 360, whcih disproves your assertion that if someone else arrives with a new console Sony "has" to release another as well.
Nothing would please Sony more than to have some other company (say, Microsoft) invest huge amounts of capital in a gaming system just as the old one starts to pay off the R&D it took to deliver. If Sony can just take three years longer (and they already have a year past the 360 release) between console cycles that is a HUGE financial advantage.
They might have some current owners buy another new console, but those people may well continue to buy games for the old console as well.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
People like to think that Microsoft will not deliver games on HD-DVD, because it would anger current owners.
They are wrong.
Microsoft will be forced to allow use of the HD-DVD drive for storage by angry game manufacturers. They will rationalize it by saying that you can always buy an external HD-DVD drive, and it will appeal to Microsoft's desire to push that format.
Multiple discs are not really a good answer for a game maker because they have a fundamental problem - inherant linearilty of content. Once you switch to one game disc you don't want to have to keep switching back and forth, so it affects game design and forces a "transition point" where you are on one disc or the other and can't really move back beyond a certain point. And what about things like fighting games that are completey non-linear, in that you'd want to be able to load up any arena at any time?
So would you like to place bets on which title will herald the need for HD-DVD on the 360? My Guess is Halo, though in trial baloon form - a normal Halo disc for sale, but also an HD-DVD version with more content/better graphics. After all, they are using Halo 3 to push VIsta...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why not remove the Blu-Ray and drop the price $200, then, genius?
Because a next generation console built on the concept of powerful graphics has next generation storage abilities - like large capacity game discs or hard drives in every model.
Why would Sony give up such a huge advantage when the console costs only $100 more than a 360?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sony also likes to point out that games in the future may be upwards of 50 and 60 gig. I'm not quite familiar with console game sizes these days, but what games will be on three DVDs? (as Hirai puts it) And besides, even if a game does take up multiple discs, whats the big deal in changing them? One of three discs should give a solid 15+ hours of gameplay, right? Maybe more... I have no idea. Or less.
Multiple discs imply a more linear game to avoid disc swapping. I do not like media dictating game design.
The PS2 has already seen a number of two-disc games, but all of them (as far as I know) are RPG's with cataclysmic events in the middle.
It's almost like Sony is acting like Microsoft in a way. They convince themselves (and try to convince everyone else) that what they're doing is right, and that any other way is wrong.
But what if they are right? That's a possibility that people seem to not understand at the moment. If the inclusion of Blu-Ray means that format wins because Sony has millions more players than the HD-DVD camp, then we'll see Sony crying all the way to the bank as it were.
Without Sony including Blu-Ray in every console we'd see a horrible drag-out knock-down format fight far far worse than beta/VHS. But Blu-Ray being included in a console that will sell in the millions and tens of millions will elevate that format pretty fast.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ya, giving your customers choices is like soooo totally stupid.
So you'd claim the Sega CD was a stroke of genius?
With consoles, choice in add-ons are giving people a choice of things people will not buy and game makers will not code for (and with the HD-DVD drive Microsoft claims it's not even something you can use to play games!)
Why is delivering a $200 add-on that can't play games on a game console smart again?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The thing is, if enough people do not buy equipment that supports the ICT flag then later in the future the same equations will apply for the studios - if enough people are effected by the ICT flag then they can't ship movies with it enabled. It's that simple. Why do you think they aren't enabiling it today? Because far too many potential buyers are not able to support HDMI yet.
That is why it's imperitive that people who are buying the PS3 buy the $500 model without HDMI. You can still play games at 1080P. You can still watch movies at 1080i, and if enough people continue to buy the cheaper model you'll be able to do so indefinitely. How often do you get a chance to save $100 and reject some form of DRM (even if only a small portion) at the same time?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you think it's taking us a long time to come out with the PS2's successor, just wait!
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Every single person I know who has a 1080p TV is waiting for a PS3 to use as a HD BluRay player for 499 or 599.
90% of people (many HDTV owners included) don't even know what an actual HD signal looks like, let alone care what 1080p is. I have written a short play, complete with soliloquy, to illustrate how absurd your statement is.
What the Hell Are You Talking About?
A short play by A.C. Slashdotter
Setting: The office water cooler
Dramatis Personae: Steve from accounts payable, Bill from human resources
Steve: "Say Bill, I can't wait to use the Playstation 3 to watch high definition movies on my 1080p capable TV. Aren't you?"
Bill: Um, yeah. Sure. [To audience] I have no idea what the fuck he just asked me.
End scene.
Hello again.
People like to think that Microsoft will not deliver games on HD-DVD, because it would anger current owners.
Microsoft have repeatedly confirmed that they will not ship games on HD-DVD.
No-one wants multi-disc games, publishers as well as gamers, but they simply won't be necessary, even on DVD, for the vast majority of games.
What takes up the most space on a disc? Not gameplay code, or even textures. It's cut-scene video - and there's many ways of reducing that. Faster, multicore CPUs can use better compression algorithms (lower bitrates or resolutions are also possible, in a pinch). Game-rendered cutscenes take a fraction the space, are already popular, and getting more practical all the time. Even HD textures aren't a big deal - they can be compressed on disc with better algorithms too, and similarly, procedural (or procedurally-modified) textures are fast, popular and ever more practical with today's GPUs.
In the PS2's day, MPEG2 cutscenes were all the rage (and early PS2s couldn't even read dual-layer discs), but we've moved beyond that now. When faced with long cutscenes, a PS3 developer may have the space to be lazy, but a 360 developer has the devkit tools to be efficient.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
The PS2 has already seen a number of two-disc games
Early PS2s could only read 4.7GB from a DVD. Are there any dual-layer gamediscs for the PS2? Are there any two-disc games for the Xbox? Besides, there are many more possibilities today for keeping content size down than there used to be, especially if the game design is at stake.
But what if [Sony] are right? That's a possibility that people seem to not understand
Betmax. Minidisc. UMD. Memory Stick. The fact that it's Sony makes it less of a possibility that Blu-Ray will succeed than it otherwise would be.
Blu-Ray being included in a console that will sell in the millions and tens of millions
You may not have noticed, but Blu-Ray being included in the PS3 is the single biggest factor working against it selling in the tens of millions. Gamers are being turned off by the price of a component they don't particularly care about. HD movie freaks have the option of a same-priced player, today, that will undoubtedly get cheaper faster than the PS3. Sony have successfully reduced their market to die-hard fanbois and compulsive early-adopters. The rest of us will wait a year or or two for things to settle down, by which time player prices will be low enough that the "bonus" Blu-Ray player will hardly be a factor.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
It's quite possible to transmit a 1080p signal over component. The spec allows for it - take a look sometime.
However, finding a consumer display device that will accept a 1080p component signal is another matter entirely. I'm not aware of any (and no, the Westinghouse LVM-42W2 won't do it).
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
... it's not going to be used for games?
It's for playing movies, nothing else. It will be bought only by people who want to play HD movies (because it's cheaper than a standalone player), and being an optional add-on, it has the not-inconsiderable advantage of saving money for everyone else.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Sure you can, but without any consumer-level display devices that will accept 1080p over component, how are you going to see them while you play?
Take a look at the specs for the Samsung HL-S5687W. It reads:
2-component video inputs
(480i/480p/720p/1080i/1080p)
Yes I admit somewhere just under $3k is somewhat expensive for a TV. But lots of people are buying HD sets that expensive nowadays. I'm also sure there are less expensive examples, that's just the first one I came up with in ten seconds of googling.
What you have forgotten is that if Sony had planned to have a base model that supported 1080p over component for some time, they might just have TV makers making displays that can accept 1080p over component inputs as well. It's called "strategic alliance". Furthermore these same TV makers, being no fools, could also independantly note that a console about to sell a few million units will offer 1080p over a component input and move to support that.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes, and we all know how successful console add-ons generally are. How many people are really going to pay $200 to watch some fifteen discs of content (even if one of them is Serenity).
There's no way they are going to have about a 10% purchase rate for these external players. Meanwhile every PS3 that ships is another Blu-Ray player in a house. Sony can point to those numbers alone and make a compelling case for a studio to provide a movie in Blu-Ray even if they also produce HD-DVD's.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I was never interested in the original Xbox. I bought an early PS2 (which is still running fine) when GTA3 came out and then I bought a Game Cube because it was damn cheap and I really wanted to play Rogue Leader which looked amazing on a projector. Nothing on the Xbox really grabbed me. I bought Halo for the PC and it was OK but I just didn't like anything else. Well, this time I decided to give MS a chance and bought the 360. On the plus side, it is actually very well made and presented. I've only bought a few games (Halo 2 when I got the console and then Burnout Revenge and Table Tennis) but I have learned to appreciate the wireless controller which feels really nice to use. The only problem is that there are still so few killer games. The graphics are a step up from the PS2 and GCN but not massively but it is early days. I'll definitely buy a Wii and I'll wait until the new year before I even consider a PS3 but any purchase will require some killer game. Shelf life? Dunno. The 360 seems to have the necessary grunt for this generation but then so did the Dreamcast. Lack of HD movies may be a problem, I won't be buying an addon drive for it that's for sure.
I don't know where this is going really. I am still somewhat ambivalent about the 360. I'm not sure about the PS3 and am taking a wait and see approach. Definitely excited about the Wii though. Shelf life? I think Nintendo wins on that front by a very very large margin.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
Now all we need is some real evidence that the PS3's component output can also do 1080p, on the low-end model.
I agree that's a little fuzzy, I'd like to see some real specs on these things...
Here's another pretty interesting article on HDMI vs. DVI vs. Component, and why the "digitalness" of HDMI may not be entirely superior to component for some uses (mainly cable length). Read comments to the end because there are some people there who also think component can't handle 1080 - i or p.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You're right, Sony has had its many successes too, but although it's way too early to say for Blu-Ray, UMD's recent and public failure didn't exactly endear Sony movie formats to the studios.
All is forgiven when you are putting millions of players into peoples hands. That's why Blu-Ray currently has a longer list of studios behind it than HD-DVD (even though there is some overlap) and Blu-Ray also has more exclusive studios (Disney and Sony at least, I think there may be others). I am pretty sure studio support for Blu-Ray would look for more lackluster had Sony not opted to include Blu-Ray in every PS3.
Sure, but how many people actually bought them at those prices? 500? There will always be people prepared to pay whatever it takes, and Sony will have its fair share. Selling a million probably won't be hard, as you say. Selling ten million at $500 will be a lot harder, I predict.
I recall news stories noting that tens of thousands of 360's sold that way. Not impossible as there were many hundreds of auctions listed each day all through December and each one of them ended with a bidder. I watched every day just to see when the madness would subside and how the prices fluctuated over time and throughout the weekly cycle... it wasn't really unti after new years that prices started to stabiliize closer to retail instead of hundreds over. At the peak people were paying over a grand for the 360, a common steady state figure for much of the rest of the month was between $700-$800.
Those previous prices, that's on eBay where it's pretty risky to buy something expensive, not a store. It's not hard to imagine a few million people paying out $500 to buy a game system and a player that takes advantage of that $3k TV they have. Interestingly both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media seems not too badly priced, $19.99 for most titles on Amazon.
You don't think $500 is cheap for a Linux PC dedicated to video? Still sounds pretty cheap to me.
Also, another thing that humorously going to help PS3 sales is all the reports of the console costing $600. When the base comes out at $500 people will snap it up, thinking it's been discounted!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Or are you Kaz Hirai himself?!
Nintendo is also a Japanese company, and yet:
- They have a low initial cost
- They're aiming for 480p
- They're not getting into next-gen movie playback
- They're primarily using off-the-shelf parts, including component video
- Are expanding upon their existing internet service that they introduced for the DS
I fail to see how where the company's headquarters is located can hand-wave away what many consider to be complete blundersIt is highly unlikely that the price of the 360 can come down before the PS3 launches. The price won't likely come down until after the first die shrink (unless Microsoft wants to lose even more money on the system), and that's not going to happen until 2007.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
The expected release date may have changed since the last time I cared to take a look at PS3 info. For a while, the PS3 was scheduled for 2007. Now that I check, it does seem to have been moved back up to November '06. At any rate, it'll come down before the PS3 price does.
You live and learn. At least, you live.
When Sony and Microsoft do price drops depend largely on when they transition their chips to 65nm. None of the chips in question (Xenon, Xenos, Cell, RSX) are small chips by any measure. Dropping the price until a 65nm transition is going to be a stretch. Microsoft is scheduled to do a 65nm transition for Xenon in Q1 2007, meaning a price drop maybe around spring of that year. Sony definitely won't be able to transition to 65nm so early, but they'll do so as soon as their fabs in Japan are able to pump out 65nm Cells. I'd put money on that happening in 2007, meaning that the 360's price drop won't occur much sooner than the PS3's.
The thing is, I think Sony really was planning on releasing the PS3 with a 65nm Cell in 2007. I think the 2006 launch at the fairly high price is a matter of realizing fairly late in the process that they didn't want to miss Christmas '06.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I agree it's pretty much impossible to purchase a display without the technology.
But that's OK so long as we all purchase players without HDMI/HDCP. If enough people do so eventually we will see cheap Chinese displays that support 1080p but only take in stright-up DVI and component inputs, because there will be a market for that. At the point we see that, ICT is really dead. Until then it's a war to get HDMI capable players in peoples hands, which again is why it's so important to buy the $500 PS3 if you want to use Blu-Ray discs at all, because then there will be enough players to make the non-HDMI market for cheaper displays appealing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I generally agree with you, however the AACS spec states that the player cannot do more than 1080i over component (even though of course the component standard itself can support it).
So we need to see if Sony was more desirous of marketshare or strict adherance to that standard.
Even 1080p games alone with 1080i movies would be pretty good though. At least you still have the full resolution.
You're right that the 360 can't do 1080p at all - and I think the Wii is limited to 720p, but then they have a different focus.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Pretty ridiculous that some moron modded this down. Tis a sad day for Slashdot when anything even remotely pro-sony are modded down for being "Trolls"