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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.'"
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
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...
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!
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