Slashdot Mirror
Other Game Bundles For the Cost of the PS3
ImaNumber writes "When Sony announced the price of the PS3 many people were left dumbfounded at how expensive it was going to be. Microsoft joked that people would get the Xbox360 and the Wii instead. Brittlefish has taken this a step further and put together a list of some other gaming 'bundles' that you could buy instead of just getting one PS3. You might be surprised at what you can get for that kind of money."
That's the second article in a row (on my home page) dedicated to bashing Sony and the PlayStation 3. Even the New York Post does a better job of hiding its biases than Zonk does.
If you're personally offended by the very thought of someone, somewhere buying a PS3, you need to calm down. People blow their money on ostentatious things all the time -- let them! Must you make the world's purchasing decisions based on 100% rational thinking?
Isn't Zonk going a bit overboard with the anti-PS3 stories? I mean, this one doesn't even have much thought behind it. "Stuff that matters", remember? There are a lot of legitimate gripes regarding the PS3 release; don't insult intelligent commentary with fanboy tripe like this.
I know people are ranting and raving about the fact the PS3 is so expensive, but isn't Sony also trying to advertise the fact it is a media centre as well as just a console? I suppose if you remember that Sony are trying this angle too, the price seems more reasonable.
Then again, the Xbox and Xbox 360 are both capable of playing DVDs and CDs just fine and they never had such a steep price tag...
If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
This exact same sort of FUD about the 360 was going on in the months before it launched. But that has come and gone, and it's more fun to speculate/bash things that haven't come out yet instead of bashing things that have been out for months (old news).
Example:
The "I love Sony Anyway" Bundle: ~$586 Prices are from BestBuy.com unless otherwise noted.PS2 ($130)
Extra controller ($25)
Guitar Hero ($70)
God of War ($20)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence ($30)
GTA: Vice City and San Andreas ($40)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 ($15)
Resident Evil 4 ($40)
NFL 2006 (even though arguably earlier versions are better and cheaper) ($30)
Shadow of the Collossus ($40)
Final Fantasy X ($20)
Burnout 3: Takedown ($20)
Virtua Fighter 4 ($4 used from Gamestop.com)
Devil May Cry ($10 used from Gamestop.com)
World Soccer Winning Eleven 6 Int'l ($20 used from Gamestop.com)
Gran Turismo 4 ($20)
NHL 2002 ($2 used from Gamestop.com)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance ($25 used from Gamestop.com)
Soul Calibur 2 ($15)
Shipping if buying from gamestop.com ($10+)
So you can get a collection of outstanding games across all genres instead of a PS3. Of course, if you're already a PS2 owner and own most if not all the games above (and more), then well this won't apply. And don't get me wrong, I don't particuarly love Sony. I actually own mostly Nintendo systems. But I'm suprised there were no current-gen bundles at all. I guess that takes too much effort for a professional web journalist!In reality, a large portion of the anti-Sony articles is representative of the bulk of the news and commentary that is on the internet lately; the positive news/commentary about the Wii is also representative of what is available.
The way it works is this, Sony has been burning a lot of bridges lately; they seem to be gouging their most dedicated and well informed fans (their early adopters) with the price of the PS3, they have then demonstrated massive hubris and arrogance with their statements following their E3 presentation, and have yet to show any (game related) content that justifies the cost. Add to this the general damage the Sony brand has taken for releasing high priced electronic crap lately, the Root Kit fiasco, Sony's love for DRM and a generally poor performance of the PSP and you have a company which would have problem buying good press.
So submit some pro-PS3 news then.
You have to admit that Sony's been doing a pretty good job of shooting themselves in the foot lately, and the lack of positive news about the PS3 reflect this. It's not as if there's a mass media conspiracy to muzzle pro-PS3 news; it's just that the PS3 really is doing that badly.
Man, thank God you got one of the most obvious and overused troll posts in history out of the way. Yes, any parent who lets their children watch television and/or play videogames is doing a lousy job and doesn't even really like their kids. It's good that people like you are around to point that out.
If I want to spend $600 on something that's more than a console I'll just upgrade my PC thank you very much.
I'll grant you that your point about the comparison being flawed is legitimate. But, I'll also say you're missing the point, perhaps. I worked at Toys "R" Us for almost 10 years, first as a department head in RZone (videogames/electronics), then as a store manager. I was there for everything from the very tail end (IE, it's dead, Jim) of SNES/Genesis up to PS2/XBox/GC.
You know what I noticed in all of those years? The bulk of our shoppers fall into what I'd call the "clueless" demographic. They come to buy a system as a gift, or for their home, and they generally are shopping for some kids, somewhere. They looked at 2 things almost every time: the price tag, and the endcap display unit. That's about it. They didn't look at specs, or feature lists, or future expandability.
A typical shopping experience would be as follows: Shopper comes into the area, strolls around, stands watching the endcap displays (and occassionally plays one), then walks over to the display case to get the skinny on the cost. Usually they'll ask a couple of basic questions (how many controllers in the box, what kind of plug-ins do I need, etc). Now, the thing is, most of these were parents (maybe grandparents) and they wanted to get the most for their money. Plain and simple. They know that the kids/teens are looking to rip that sucker open, chuck in a game (not movie), and get pwning on some n00b.
I think maybe 3 times in 10 years did I run into a shopper who truly knew, or wanted to know, all of the particulars about a system. I would be astounded to be discussing polygon counts, resolutions, DVD/CD speeds, etc, with a shopper. Usually it was the same-old, same-old: I have $400, how can I get a machine with the most games. Or, perhaps, they would ask about backwards compatibility (now that's the one place I'll grant the PS3 will probably be more attractive).
So, here's my take. I think the kind of bundles mentioned in the article are going to be the exact sort of mental processes going on in most shoppers, whether you think it's a fair comparison or not. I know shoppers - I was PAID to know shoppers. People like quantity, especially when they're spending that much money. To spend $600 (or $500 even) and just walk home with a box with a machine and 1 controller, but no game, is going to be a serious case of sticker shock for a lot of "regular" shoppers. Especially when people could likely buy an XB360 (which might be $399 by then, never know) and a game, or a Wii and 2 or 3 games. HDMI? Half the "regular" shoppers won't even be able to use that. A large hard drive? That is relatively meaningless to many shoppers - witness the continued popularity of PS2 without one versus an XBox with one. (That was a major training point by Microsoft for us retailers: hype the hard drive and it's possibilities. It'll make sales. Never did.)
And as for BluRay? Why is that relevant to a majority of shoppers? I can tell you that when PS2 came out, DVD playback was never a major selling point at all. It will generally always be the case that a dedicated machine will be more feature enriched and [once a generation has passed] cost far less than a do-it-all machine. I'll grant you that a PS3 will be cheaper than a standalone BluRay for a relative time, but I will also say it's more than likely that given a year, perhaps, a BluRay player will probably drop down to the same (or less) than a PS3, and will also likely end up with more features. It's just common consumer electronics history. We rarely sold PS2s because they could -also- play DVDs - people wanted a videogame machine, plain and simple. (Ask XBox how that whole DVD Playback kit deal ended up...)
The PS3 is trying to do too much, and stuffing BluRay into it is the one thing which will cause it to lose perhaps 30% of the potential sales it could have had. Sony could have gone with HD-DVD, had the advantage of launching AFTER the XB360, and they would have been able to nearly match the XB360 price. PLUS they would have had better backwards compatibility
Londovir