Slashdot Mirror
Don't Count Sony Out Yet
Eurogamer is hosting a GamesIndustry.biz article, an editorial that wants readers to make sure not to write Sony off yet. From the article: "Even if Sony is failing to endear itself to the media, to analysts or to gamers at the moment, that's no reason for the reality of the next generation console battle to be ignored. Judging from reports in the past fortnight, it would be easy for an outside observer to assume that it's all over already; the media paints a picture of Microsoft being victorious before the first shot is even fired, with Sony's overloaded battlecruiser set to sink before it even leaves port."
All of this stuff about the PS3 being dead is pure media hype originating from Microsoft. No one who is actually in the game industry believes a word of it. We watched the sales of the XBox 360 and could already see the writing on the wall. All hype to the contrary, it tanked. Within a couple months of release, Microsoft was already making the "We'll get 'em next time" speech. Piles of them collected dust in the Asian market, and they are still collecting dust.
The PS3 will own the Asian market. That's a given--the brand loyalty over there is very strong, and $600 is nothing for a console over there; game afficionadoes in Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the richer parts of china have a stack of consoles, a drawer full of handhelds, and a state of the art PC. They'll spend $600 on their graphics card--every year. They love their gadgets, and they always want the latest. In Japan, you can walk down the street on garbage day and pick up year-old big screen TV's that have been left out of the curb just because they're a year old. You can furnish your apartment in grand style by garbage picking--I know people who've done just that. Those for whom it is a lot of money are already saving up for their PS3. The PS3 will make more sales in Japan alone than the 360 has made worldwide.
Sales in the North America and Europe may start off slow, but they will continue to be steady throughout the PS3's lifespan, as prices and production costs drop. The PS2 continue to sell more units than any form of XBox. And to get to the basic configuration of the PS3, you have to spend almost as much on a 360.
Nobody in the industry would even consider writing off the PS3. To see posts about the alleged failure of the PS3 on Slashdot of all places, the most anti-Microsoft site pushing Microsoft FUD, is mind boggling. I'm sure the people at Microsoft's PR department are all high-fiving each other, even as the bean counters look at the numbers and glumly acknowledge the awful truth.