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Sony Promises 1M PS3s This Year
Joystiq reports that Sony is still promising 1 Million PS3 units in North America for this year. This, despite much lower estimates as released yesterday. From the article: "basically, these numbers don't mean anything. Despite what appears to be gross incompetence to much of the gaming press and the hardcore industry watchers (that's you guys), the mainstream gamer is blissfully unaware of reductions in shipping estimates. To him, it will appear that the PS3 is the hottest thing this holiday -- just like the Xbox 360 appeared to be last year and the PlayStation 2 back in '00 -- and may have no problem waiting for the demand and/or price to go down. People are still buying PS2s today, remember? Just a reality check before the hype consumes us all." For more on this, 1up has analyst reaction to the release news, and comments from GTA creator Dave Jones on his reaction to the news.
I won't be buying one.
Thanks for thinking of me though!
-- http://frobnosticate.com
And where are they getting these numbers? It's like they're saying look over here at these magically appearing numbers while over in the corner they sit and hope like hell that we're all entranced by them and we won't remember when no PS3's ship this year. You'd think after all the screw ups in the past they might just try telling the truth for once.
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So, I wish them luck in reaching their goal, but also, I am calling BS on them.
You heard me Sony... BS. http://games.slashdot.org/search.pl?query=sony+li
To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion...
It's amazing. I think they're research into duplicating the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field have backfired. Instead of projecting a delusional field of product love outward towards the consumer, like Apple, instead the field has inverted and Sony staff are the ones with the warped sense of reality.
Sony made a decision to sacrifice the Playstation3 on the altar of Blu Ray. If they had released the PS3 with a standard DVD-ROM, it would cut their cost by about $300 dollars (it's estimated by Merrill Lynch that Sony's cost for a Blu Ray drive is $350 a unit). They could easily sell the PS3 for $350 taking less of a loss than they are currently taking per unit. They could have released it at the same time as the Xbox 360 and kicked Microsoft's teeth in. Instead we witness the delays and dramatically cut production. When most companies release a new product, they don't risk their bread and butter products that make their profits. Microsoft doesn't put the Windows franchise on the line in order to sell their music player (which will probably fail terribly). Nintendo didn't risk the DS on the release of the Wii. If the Wii fails, Nintendo will still have the DS as a profitable part of their company. If the Playstation3 is brought down by Blu Ray format, it will be a very messy situation for Sony. Sony has setup a situation where the Blu Ray format must succeed. No rational company does this.