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Sony To Go From First To Worst?
There have been many analyst predictions in the early days of the next-gen consoles, but rarely have they been so direct. DFC Intelligence President David Cole has gone on record saying there's a very real possibility Sony could lose this leg of the race to Microsoft and Nintendo. From the article: "Sony's clear strength is the first factor: brand strength and current market position. The glaring weakness of the PlayStation 3 is price, especially when compared to the competition. However, it is more than just an issue of whether the PlayStation brand strength can justify a premium price. Of course, Sony would like to point to the hardware horsepower and extra features like Blu-ray. The problem is that is only one factor in our forecasting matrix. Furthermore, with the competition having features like Xbox Live and the Nintendo Wii controller, the PS3 may not have that much of an advantage in the elusive 'Wow Factor.'" 1up Editor Sam Kennedy has further musings on this subject, with Next Generation reporting that there may be a problem getting high yields in the PS3 production process.
Even if they had priced the PlayStation 3 at $59 instead of $599, I wouldn't have bought one. I still have not forgiven them for installing rootkits on all of my boxen, thus 0wning my boxen. It just goes to show: "0wn me and I won't 0wn your stuff."
I disagree. Sony won't be "last". What we're seeing is pretty clear market segmentation.
Nintendo is still for the kiddies. They have gimmicky controllers with a Fisher-Price look and feel. More importantly, most grown-ups don't want to play Mario anything (or Dragonball-Z, or Power Rangers, or whatever the popular Japanese crap is today). Nintendo focuses on twitch games that generally skip story altogether, or have some bizarre Japanese theme that most adults can't figure out. Geeks, please don't respond that you love Nintendo... we all know that many of you don't care about things like story. I'm talking about MOST adults.
The X-Box has moved in to the mainstream generic person arena. Regular lower and middle-class people of all kinds play the X-Box. They probably have the widest audience. XBox also caters heavily to the on-line gamer. The whole X-box online experience is great, but only a certain segment of gamer likes to play against hordes of 12 year olds, or has a group of gamer friends.
Sony has moved into a new market: the older gamer. People like myself that have been playing video games for 25+ years that now have disposable income. Also, people like me, who want more out of a video game than a twitch reflex also want a good story with movie level production value. I'm not interested in the typical Japanimation demon/dragon/kid hero story that is as embarrassingly bad as it is incomprehensible. I want good gameplay out of a game, of course, but I also want mind-blowing graphics and sound (The PS3 is supposed to be, unquestionably, the most powerful system). My game system gets plugged into a high-end amp and speaker system, and a high-end TV. I want all of that, packaged with a story that was written and created by somebody who speaks English (not Engrish), and some good Hollywood actors. I could care less about $600 or even $800 for a game box. And, I couldn't care less if the games are $70 each. It's worth it because 1. I've seen more games than most people have and 2. money really isn't an issue to me at this point. I just want the best.
On top of that, I think that Sony won't mind selling a few less units. I have a feeling that their profit margin is going to be significantly better than either MS or Nintendo with this generation.
I'm looking forward to the PS3.
don't know what the PS3 is about and do nothing but parrot each other "PS3 sucks raaaarrrrccck". It seems to me that none of you have been following computer gaming trends. The graphics for the PS3 are only going to be twice as good as the xbox 360 yes, but that's not the ps3's nor the cell's selling point. That's what the nvidia chip is for. The cell's selling point is physics. It is going to be able to do some 30,000 physical interactions on the screen at one time. That means when your greneade hits a wall the wall will blow apart, chunks will go everywhere. This means no more hiding behind wood crates for cover from high caliber machinegun fire. Computers are heading in this direction now....sony decided to jump on the bandwagon with physics NOW rather than waiting for the next round of consoles. The reason behind bluray isn't playing bluray movies....although that's what sony has turned it into. Back before there was a next gen format war Sony said the reason they were going to bluray was because developers were screaming that they needed more capacity on thier storage medium. Developers said they had hit the limits of dvds without using crippling compression technology, compression is the main contributer to load times. As for not wanting an hdplayer.....you don't have a choice software makers want it for capacity and hollywood wants it because dvd sales have been in a slump for two years. Just like the dvd to vhs switch you are not going to have a choice the studios will simply stop releasing movies on dvds. They don't have to wait for players to get perfect market saturation because the hd tvs are already at the point. If you watch a regular dvd on an hd tv it looks grainy as hell....there already a call from consumers to fix this issue. One more thing PS3 runs on linux not Micro$oft that alone should be a main reason for the readers here to support it. This could mean we may see some ps3 games ported to linux...this may be sonys answer to the 360/pc compatibility and the breaking of the microsoft pc gaming monopoly. I know if games started comming out for linux I'd jump off windows asap.
Side note: microsoft is more than foolish for not doing a halo3 price drop on ps3 launch day. It doesn't have to be a permanant price drop just a $50 special offer for the holiday season. This would kick sony in the balls so hard........