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SCEA President Hypes PS3 Shelf Life Over 360

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hype-from-sony-never dept.

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.'"

10 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. omg teh ps3 pwnzorz by PSXer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:omg teh ps3 pwnzorz by Babbster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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!"

      MS won't ship 360 games on HD-DVD for precisely the reason you give. And you're right that people won't dismiss 360 games because they're on DVD, but that's not really the point Sony's trying to drive home here. They're trying to push the idea that the PS3 is more "future-proof" than the 360 because of Blu-Ray. They're kind of right and kind of wrong.

      They're right in the sense that, yes, games continue to expand in size, so if the PS3 sticks around for more than 5 years then Blu-Ray's capacity advantage may shine.

      Where the theory goes wrong, however, is that it focuses entirely on the storage medium and ignores the rest of the system. If MS releases a followup console 4-5 years from now while Sony continues pushing the PS3, the new Xbox 1,440 (going with "720" is just boring) will, presumably, have a much more capable graphics solution and much greater processing capability (eight cores all running at 6GHz, or more). It would also contain a high-capacity disc drive which, by that time, will cost as much as a fast DVD-ROM drive does today. As a bonus, if the PS3 turns out to be successful at its high price point, MS will be able to charge more for their next console without setting a new pricing precedent.

      All that said, if folks actually believe that Sony won't have a PS4 hitting the market in 5-6 years, then they're more gullible than I think. :)

    2. Re:omg teh ps3 pwnzorz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, MPEG2 videos (not real game content) are what fill up most PS2 game discs. The same will be true of Blu-ray discs because the Cell can't decode MPEG4 at HD resolutions and do other stuff at the same time. The PS3 is also not going to do half of the promised "interactive" features of a standard Blu-ray player. Thanks to Sony strong-arming the committee, those features are now optional in the Blu-ray spec to accomodate the PS3. The 360 has no such HD video decoding problem because ATI (unlike Nvidia) didn't skimp on the video processor of the GPU. The "Enchant Arm" guys found this out. They expected to take up multiple DVDs for their cut-scene heavy (typical of Japanese RPGs) game. But once they got to use a modern codec, they found they had plenty of space on the disc. Blu-ray is necessary for all the old-school MPEG2 videos you'll see on PS3 RPGs.

    3. Re:omg teh ps3 pwnzorz by Doomstalk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They didn't do that because of hype, they did that because those consoles weren't dedicated Halo/Madden players (XBox), and had more of a library than Zelda/Mario/Metroid.

      You've got kind of a chicken and egg problem there. Does the Playstation line have such a deep lineup because of its large installed base, or vice versa? It's probably the former (the PS2's launch library was pretty sad, but it sold a lot anyway), but it's pretty much impossible to know for sure.

  2. "It's all about the games..." by CaseM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not remove the Blu-Ray and drop the price $200, then, genius?

  3. Even if by Karem+Lore · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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...
  4. Do you need HD? by gakon5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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
  5. Keep talking..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If Sony keeps talking (hyping), they will lose yet another customer. SHUT UP AND DELIVER!

  6. Re:Zonk's EasyBake 360 Fanboy Blog by Babbster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    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.

    Yes, that's exactly the plan. Sony intend to sell the PS3 initially to people who are willing to pay $500/$600 for it, then to gradually lower the price over time and sell to those who waited for a lower price. They may or may not have correctly judged the numbers of early adopters willing to pay the higher price. The overall strategy though makes perfect sense and from your comment you fit into it perfectly.