Slashdot Mirror
Playstation 3 Soon Into Production
Roy van Rijn writes "According to Forbes, the Commercial Times reported that Taiwanese ASUSTeK Computer Inc. will be delivering PlayStation 3 consoles to Sony starting this month. The news comes amid concerns that Sony may not have enough Cell and RSX chips to meet production goals of 2 million units for launch. The report also states that, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, also a Taiwanese company, will soon begin making the PlayStation 3 consoles for Sony too. Total monthly shipments from manufacturers are expected to be 200,000 units per month."
The media will hype this as a good sign for Sony using the generic and technologically unaware phrases they always use:
"Well Jim, the PS3, as Sony has named it, is flying off the shelves. They just can't keep them in stock. This next generation gaming console is moving straight from truck to customer."
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Y'know, I can't refute your logic, but it is still flawed. What people say, and what people do, are two separate things. Plus, you're assuming that initial production problems will continue for the life of the product.
In addition, you cite the PS2 for two major problems the PS3 is facing: Initial production problems and low quality launch titles. The problem with using that logic is that you are making a comparison to one of the most successful consoles on the market. A console that is still outselling the 360.
If the PS3 is facing doom, why isn't there a sharp spike in 360 sales? Everyone who thinks the PS3 is crap but wants power should be flocking to Microsoft's banner. I have no current sales figures at hand, but the last time I looked I didn't see the 360 even beating the last generation console.
But as I said earlier, I cannot refute your post. Everything you say may come to pass and the PS3 will dive like Enron stock. But I think you base your conclusion on insufficient evidence.
Sure there are die-hard, rabid, Playstation fanatics who would still buy one if the price was your first born. But if you look at the fact that Sony has always had lame launch titles, the PSP's consumer excitement around it's launch could be described as "apathetic" with the die hard fans camping out for a product that didn't even sell out....
Its true that the DS is handily beating the PSP in sales, especially since the DS Lite launched; but apathetic is alittle strong. The PSP is selling about half as well as the DS. That's still something like 200k units per month.
Root kit lost a lot of fans...
Rootkit fiasco lost a lot of nerd fans. Jo Q Public still has no clue. They don't even know what a rootkit is.
Arrogance: check.
Wii rip-off: undecided. Its a natural progression, the tilt sensor they added, if you ask me. More likely this feature was bumped up in priority when Sony saw the impression the Wii remote made. I can see that one either way to be honest. This is sort of like saying that every single digital music player is ripping off the iPod.
MS 'guide' button: what are you talking about? I don't even know what this is. Hardly a feature that's touted as interesting, at any rate.
and perhaps most importantly THE PRICE.
Price is bad, I agree. Way bad in comparison to the other consoles, specifically. Of course, we don't actually know the final price yet.
Heck the reason for the high price was because of the Blu-Ray drive, and reviews thus far have shown that HD-DVD is stomping all over Blu-Ray.
Really! I'd like to see that. Cite a source?
HD-DVD has 2 layer discs (15gig per layer/30gig total) and uses the awesome VC-1 codec.
So? Blu-ray has a max storage of 200 gigs, over six layers. The codec is irrelevant; you can write a Blu-ray disc with MPEG-2, or the awesome VC-1 codec, OR the 'even awesomer' AVC codec. HD-DVD can only use MS-approved codecs and by the way, that has DRM built-in to the wrapper. (H.264/AVC does not necessarily have this stipulation (weak praise I know), but ALL MS codecs will have to deal with this.)
Blu-Ray can't get good yields on dual layer discs and even single layer discs have yield problems forcing them to only be able to use 80% of it... ~20gig.
I've seen this mentioned nowhere, and your use of the word 'yields' for optical media is kind of suspect. Source?
Not to mention they're using the woefully outdated MPEG2 codec and most reviews have said that some of the movies DVD counterparts look better then the Blu-Ray versions..
Yeah you said that before, and its still completely wrong. Check yer facts jack.
Even early Blu-Ray players can only read single layer discs, so will the PS3 be stuck to only reading single layer discs as well? NOT GOOD FOR PS3 SALES particularly if Sony was banking on people buying it as a cheap Blu-Ray player. nobody wants another UMD movie format.
Pure speculation and unfounded at that. UMD is a different animal.
I think low yield might be the least of their problems. Every day I see more and more of the die-hard Playstation fans going from "of course I'm getting one" too "I'll wait and see" or in some cases "I decided to get an 360/Wii instead".
Feel free to get up from Slashdot and leave the PC for a little while, your impression might change.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
There seems to be a lot of concern in this discusssion to pick a winner, and then for a winner be an early adopter, but for a loser never ever buy it.
I think that's fine, I've done that myself, however for PS3 here is how it will work for me :
I will buy it - I decided a long long time ago and I don't particularly care what other peoples expectations of its features, value or prospects look like. Whether it's $600, or $1200, doesn't particularly matter to me. They last me for many years and I get a lot of fun out of them - PS2 was a particularly good deal, but if PS3 can save me buying an expensive separate dedicated blu-ray player it might also turn out to be a bargain.
I wont queue up or pay deposits or try really hard to get one early. I will simply wait until I happen to be in a store that has a pile of them and then I'll just pick one up.
I'll buy a few games - Jak and Daxter, Gran Turismo, Ratchett and Clank, maybe Pitfall. I'm sure a few wll be wicked and I'll love them. A few I'll play for an hour and give up on.
If PS3 takes off and starts to have even more awesome games, I'll buy a few more. If it's a failure, well, that's fine, I'm not too worried. Hey, maybe I'll buy an xbox 360 too. Several high-end consoles and some games works out a lot cheaper per hour of entertainment than, say, getting a babysitter and going out to the movies over and over. In a few years I'll let my daughter play some carefully chosen games from time to time.
I'm not going to pick a winner, and I'm not completely on one "side" or the other. Unless you count the side that says if I had enough money I'd have all the consoles and all the games and I also wouldn't have to work and would actually complete the odd game!
Well the PS2 launched at the same price as the PS1: $300. In addition to that the PS2's only competition was the hanging by a thread Sega Dreamcast, which was following up one of the worst selling consoles in their history. MS wasn't even on the radar during the PS2 launch, and neither was Nintendo. PS2's only competition was the Dreamcast, a great console but poorly marketed, with little to no 3rd party support and following up one of the WORST selling consoles of the previous generation. Again again the PS2 wasn't expensive. It was the same price their previous console launched at, it wasn't surprising at all.
The PS3 doesn't have a market in their favor this time. Towards the end of the Xbox 1's life it was selling just as many units as the PS2 on a day to day basis, hardly a comparison to the brow-beating the Saturn got in comparison to the PS1.
As for the PS2 outselling the 360... need I remind you that the PS1 outsold the PS2 for the first year of the PS2's life, uptake on expensive new consoles is slow and it's expected that last gen consoles will still sell very well into the start of the following generation. I think it's actually impressive that the 360 is selling ALMOST AS MANY units As the PS2 considering it's more then twice the price.
I'd have to disagree, the PS2 launched with one non-competitor (the dreamcast) and 2 distant non-competitors (the unproven Xbox from that crap company MS and Nintendo's un-inventive Gamecube). The PS3 by comparison has a very serious competitor with a head start in the (Xbox 360) and they also have another very serious contender with the Nintendo Wii...
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