Slashdot Mirror
Wired Dissects Sony as PS3 Effort Falters
PetManimal writes "Wired has an excellent analysis of Sony as it struggles to overcome the failures of the 1990s and make the PS3 live up to its promise. Sony is counting on the PS3 turning around the company's fortunes, but it may have been too ambitious. Besides being hamstrung with an unusual company culture that emphasizes small hardware teams and proprietary formats, Sony's efforts to make the PS3 kill several birds with one stone and appeal to a wider customer base is turning off the PS3's core support network: gamers. From the article: 'Then there was the decision to build Blu-ray into the PlayStation 3. Sony's logic seemed ironclad: Not only would the hi-def drive's huge storage capacity allow for far-more-realistic and complex games, the PS3 would carry Blu-ray into millions of households and drive sales of HDTVs as well. As it turned out, however, Blu-ray has done nothing good for the PS3. Blu-ray was the main reason gamers weren't able to get the new machine last spring: The launch had to be postponed because the new format's digital rights management system did not yet satisfy every Hollywood studio.'"
I am half expecting the PS3 to be a smshing sucess at this point.
I would like to call this the inverse internet expert principal or IIEP (in short the louder and more athoritative the armchair expert is the less accurate they become) but not only is the acronym probably taken... I don't think it is a new idea.
Blah... Why do I care? I'm mostly a PC gamer.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
Right beneath this article on my front page is one called Ten Gaming Myths Debunked. Myth #1: "The PlayStation 3 Will Fail"
The real winners in the Sony-Nintendo-Microsoft battle for console supremacy: on-line advertisers and opinion columnists.
For more information, click here.
Nintendo.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Who cares who is number 1, 2, and 3? Buy whatever you want. I personally don't give a flying shit what game "experts" say (that's an oxymoron, if I've ever heard one). I'm buying a PS3 because I want to.
Blu-ray was the main reason gamers weren't able to get the new machine last spring: The launch had to be postponed because the new format's digital rights management system did not yet satisfy every Hollywood studio.
Wouldn't that mean that Hollywood is the main reason the PS3 isn't out now?
Rob
Gamespot, GameFAQ, Penny Arcade, PVP, all of them think the PS3 is a white elephant. A bunch of people in the traditional early adopter group say they'll buy it, "eventually, when the price comes down".
All together, it looks like It's going to be Microsoft and/or Nintendo in the lead, with Sony left in the dust.
[Nintendo is] the only gaming company left that doesn't have some ulterior motive.
Are you kidding? The only reason Nintendo can't be said to have an ulterior motive is because they have no leverage with which to accomplish any ulterior goal. Am I the only one who remembers the draconian censorship policies and ludicrous licensing fees that existed back when Nintendo was the only store on the block?
Nintendo is a heartless corporation, same as the other two. You don't notice only because it has been mostly irrelevant for the past decade. I might not be rooting for Sony or Microsoft, but I'm sure as hell not rooting for Nintendo.
Rob
your points are a little off and it appears your using your magic 8 ball again. Also I swear I've seen an identical post on another sony bashing article a few months back..
"sets are dropping in price like mad right now. Every electronic store is pimping 1080p sets with older sets getting pushed into the back. You will almost certainly be able to get a 1080p set for less than a grand by the start of next year. And here comes Sony with the cheapest 1080p HD BluRay player"
uhh yea ok buddy, dropping like mad. After checking bestbuy.ca and futureshop.ca I found 1 1080P HDTV and it was not 1000 bucks, it wasn't even close.. I've only seen a 1080p TV in a super high end audio/video store. And they didn't even have anything that could drive 1080p at the time. So I doubt this point has any merit what so ever for driving sales of the PS3.
another bad point
"HD-DVD sales are in the toilet, while Sony has been stockpiling hundreds of thousands of BluRay drives to launch in a couple million PS3s in November"
so they're stockpiling hundreds of thousands of bluray drives to launch a couple million PS3's. Anybody else see what's wrong with this statement? what about the other 1.5million PS3's that will supposedly be ready?
"Pre-orders are stronger than the 105+ million selling PS2 - and the demand is greatest for the 60gig/HDMI PS3"
Ah this must be the mystical 8-ball I was referring to. Where the hell did you get this information? Also NO MAJOR RETAILER HAS YET TO HAVE ANY PRE-ORDERS. Maybe it's different in Japan, but since I don't live there I can't comment on it.
Look, I want PS3 to be kickass, make me grill cheese and do my homework. But if they don't get they're shit together and stop being arrogant assholes they're going to fall like sega (Next gen doesn't start until we say so, ok buddy, piss off).
I totally agree. Nintendo definately did a lot of bullying themselves, when they were the King of Console Gaming. I remember when Sony started this little thing called the PlayStation, nobody believed in it. But developers flocked to it, one reason was due to the licensing and censorship issues they faced in Nintendo at the time. (Anyone else remember the Mortal Kombat fiasco?) That was also the time of $60-80 video games, and this is NOT at today's prices.
That said, I think (maybe more along the lines of "hope") that the Nintendo of today is far different than the bully of years past. But to all the fanboys who think that Nintendo can do no wrong, they need to remember that these are still corporations we're talking about. Not people. They all will do what it takes to make money. Part of it, though, does mean treating customers with respect, and doing the right things for gamers, so that they'll come back to you time and time again. I think that's what Sony has lost (and arguably, that's what toppled Nintendo back then too).
-- jchenx
I'm not saying 'they can do no wrong', but Yamauchi retiring was a good thing for their company.
Too bad it won't take a 1080p signal. You've fallen for one of the great wonders of the video world, advertising scalled inputs resolutions while actual native input resolution being something different hidden amongst the fine print.
And they've also been forced to do other questionable things simply because of the position they're in, such as making a gimmicky controller in an attempt to tap the non-gamer market.
Yeah, no kidding! It's like that other gimmicky thing they came up with that was supposed to appeal to non-gamers... the, whatsitcalled, the... DS! Yeah, that's it! Man, where's that ridiculous thing, now, I wonder...
No, the main thing that Nintendo has going with the Wii is that it is a unique product in a market full of generic products; the PS2, PS3, XBox, XBox 360, and Gamecube are virtually identical products that differ only in graphical quality and price (I have yet to see a XBox 360 that could not play exactly the same on the XBox).
The biggest advance for the 360 outside of graphics wasnt in gameplay, but usability. Xbox live fully integrated into the system with downloadable demos, xbl arcade games, leaderboards, and persistent chat and friends list capability is something that honestly takes a few months of use and may not be totally appreciable by people who havent owned the system. Unfortunately nintendo chose to forego most of this, and i think this is gonna hurt bigtime.
As for the control schemes, both of you guys are right. Articles for various games at different points in their development cycles have been extremely positive and extrememly negative. Its up to the developers to make it work, and if nobody can, well, we might just have to blame nintendo for making it too hard to use properly. Either way, we wont know until we try it out for ourselves on finished products. Its similar to the ds in terms of the love/hate people have with the control scheme. Personally i hated playing metroid using the stylus as my aiming device, and wont buy other games that control that way because of it. The touch screen has thorough use in first party franchises, but not so much in the average third party game- for the success of the wii developers have got to do better with the wiimote than with the ds.
The name is accomplishing its intended purpose. To advertise to folks who are traditionally "non-gamers". And it's managing to harness viral marketing without directly making Nintendo look juvenile. (A big problem with a lot of the viral marketing campaigns.) In short, it's not stupidity, it's genius.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
They weren't. During the respective lifespans of the consoles, 21 million GameCubes were sold versus 24 million Xbox.
Now benefit-wise, Microsoft lost $2b while Nintendo once again racked in profits.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
His answer shows his thinking. All he knows is media. He has no idea that the media division is crippling the hardware. If it weren't for Sony's disdain for mp3s, they could have easily came out with an MP3 player and beaten the iPod. That's worth more than a whole year's worth of blockbuster movies.
Blame Howard Stringer and his media cronies for infecting Sony. They've helped their positions by helping the media division at the expense of Sony's core strength - electronics.
Hello? Video Game Crash of '83/'84 mean anything to anyone? What caused the crash? Too many poor quality cartridges hitting the market. What did Nintendo's contracts require? A limited number of cartridges per publisher.
You also seem to forget that Nintedo was the first company to embrace third parties rather than tolerate them. Atari never liked Activision and IMagic. Mattel and Coleco wanted all the profits to themselves. Nintendo said, "sure, sign on the dotted line."
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"predating anything Nintendo produced."
Where can I buy one of these PC controllers that detect absolute position, not relative motion?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Not for a second.
If it drops the prices of the console by a third? How about yes?
Uh... you lost me there. You're not trying to imply that higher resolution + more storage = innovation are you? Cause if you were I've got bad news for you: my computer has 4 500Gb hard drives, and I can play in 2560*1600... I guess my currently available computer is somehow more innovative than your currently-non-existant PS3 isn't it?
Yep, just as well as they learned their lesson from the Betamax fiasco before launching the minidisc and the memory stick.
Mmmm let me guess... The N64 got beaten by the PS1, the GC got annihilated by the PS2 and the Wii uses perfectly standard DVDs?
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
The XBox 360 supports HDTV and uses DVD.
Explain how Blu-Ray - by itself - will result in better HD gaming? Sure, Blu-Ray discs have added space vs. DVD, but we're seeing HD capable games on the 360 fitting on a single DVD with no problems. In fact, most PS2 and XBox games barely filled half filled a single layer DVD.
RPGs, which could run into problems with storage capacity, have been released across multiple discs since the days of the PS1, so this would hardly be something new to the market.
As for Nintendo's discs vs. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, Nintendo's format is ONLY used to play games. Not videos. Sony expects to use the PS3 to help launch Blu-Ray into millions of homes, but this then means if the PS3 flounders, Blu-Ray is basically dead in the water.
Seven words: Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Anacondas Opening Weekend
- $12,812,287 (USA) (29 August 2004) (2,905 Screens)
- £194,597 (UK) (14 November 2004) (157 Screens)
Motherfn' Snakes on the Motherfn' Plane Opening Weekend
- $15,206,301 (USA) (20 August 2006) (3,555 Screens)
- £1,069,608 (UK) (20 August 2006) (354 Screens)
Obviously the hype has had some effect. When the movie is out of the theaters we'll have to see how much it fully trounces Anacondas' numbers.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I think games are going in an entirely new direction - one where algorithmic interpretations overtake straight data like bitmaps and pre-rendered video.
Want to see the future? Take a look at 'Spore' from EA/Maxis. I think it's The Next Big Thing. The sheer amount of gameplay is amazing - and I'll bet it's not over 4 GB.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Interesting article, but I think it missed a bit on the cause. It starts out good with the line "PR fiascoes tend to be a sign that nobody's thinking about the customer". That is the main problem with Sony.
Sony seems to have an extremely entrenched philosophy that says that the only way they can do well is to lock in the customer. Like the article touched on, the beta wars, the memory card wars, the mp3 wars... This attitude is amplified by their music division, and they do their utmost to lock the customers into proprietary formats. Putting this in front of giving their customers what they want is what is really killing Sony.
It is a long time since I stopped buying Sony products, even though they do have really great stuff. I also actively discourage other people from buying Sony. They promote mp3 players that dont play mp3? What the f#%k!
It is sad, but I think the unhealthy business attitude runs so deep in the company that there is no turning back. Personally I agree with the conclusion. For me its going to be the Wii.
-TN
Since 1985, there have been a total of 7 main-series console Super Mario games, one of which was an archive(All Stars). 3 for the NES, 1(or 2) for the SNES, 1 for the N64, and 1 for the Gamecube. A 7th(or 8th depending on whether or not you count All Stars) is coming out in 2007. It will be the third 3D main-series Mario title released in just over 10 years, and the 7th(or 8th if you count all Stars) game in the Super Mario series released for a console in just under 22 years. Now if we count handhelds(3 unique handheld games), cameos(tons), spinoffs and the like, that number increases(to 140 appearances in 26 years), but that's not really fair to do. Super Mario RPGs, the Yoshi series, the sports titles, etc. they're all different games, just sharing the same character. And the cameos may as well not even count.
Add one and subtract a few years from that if you want to count the original Mario bros. Oh and add one if you want to count both versions of Mario 2.
There have been a total of 6 actual console Zelda games(unless you count four swords), since 1987. 3 2D, 3 3D. A 4th 3D is coming out this year. It will be the 8th Zelda in just under 20 years. There were 4 unique portable Zeldas(first in 93), with a 5th due out early next year.
Metroid? 1 for the NES, 1 for the SNES, 2 for the Gamecube, 1 for the Wii. In just over 20 years. There's also 3 handheld games(with a 4th rumored). So 8 games in 20 years total.
Kid Icarus? 1 game. 20 years.
Mario Party? No fucking argument here, there's a new game of this almost every year.
In the meantime, Jak and Daxter, a game first released in 2001, has already seen 4 console games in the main series and one handheld game, with another 2 games supposedly slated for 2007(one portable, one console). That's just under 1 game a year. The same holds true of Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank. Metal Gear Solid will have seen 4 in 9 years(decent pacing). And Final Fantasy will have seen 7 main series titles in 9 years(little fast). Madden(and most Sports games) are 1 a year.
See the difference here yet? A lot of the franchises established not even 10 years ago are hitting 5th and 6th installments, while most of Nintendos are only slightly above that(three games max).. despite having been around a decade or more longer(in the case of the PS2 platformers, 15 years+ longer). Oh, and no one, and I mean no one, can challenge the Blue Bomber, Megaman, for sheer milking. There were 9 main-series Megaman games alone, another 8 X platformers, and 4 Zeros, and now ZX. This isn't mentioning the RPG spinoffs or the 3D games(of which there were 2!) or the Arcade games, etc.. Nobody, and I mean *nobody* drives a character/franchise into the ground like Capcom can(23 platformers total in 20 years! And that's being conservative!). I think if you total it up, there's been a new megaman game with basically minor tweaks(and a franchise update!) from the previous one, every year since Megaman's inception(sometimes twice a year!). He's like the Madden of platformers, only even older and slightly more promiscious(Castlevania is getting pretty bad here of late too, but mainly on portables).
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."