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Gamestop Managers Worried Over PS3 Launch
The Opposable Thumbs column has commentary today from some managers who attended the annual EB/Gamestop preview event. The reaction from the attendees to the PS3/Blue-ray presence is not inspiring. From the article: "The difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray was striking as well. 'Blu-ray had a tiny presence in the very back of the show floor, while Microsoft had large displays and surround sound systems in their hospitality suite so you can take a look at what their HD DVD drives would look like. It was impressive, and gave the feeling that HD DVD was real and Blu-ray wasn't ready for the show.' I asked him his feelings going into the PS3 launch with no word on allocations or preorders, and no news on what will happen towards the holidays. 'It's going to be ugly, there is no way this launch is going to go well.'"
But that's retailers fault more than Sony's. Even if Sony supplies enough quantity, and it does what they say it will, Gamestop and EB have been selling the short game, what they have on their shelves, all year long, and as a result, consumers have been hearing mostly baseless FUD about a potential $600 purchase.
In addition to that, Microsoft fucked up whatever trust the retailers ever had in suppliers int he industry.
FanFictionRecs.net
Quickly, Sony fans, tag this story as FUD or your favorite company may end up looking stupid.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
I was going to flame you, and then I read your justification so I figured I should actually look at the article. But then it looked like the article was only one page.
So I resort to my original stance. Fucking idiot.
Remember last year? Remember Microsoft botching the XBox 360 launch? Booking too much retail shelf space and not delivering product? Furious retailers? A product with heat dissipation problems? A weak selection of games at launch?
That's where Sony is this year.
2007 for the PS3 will probably look like 2006 for the Xbox 360. The PS3 will slowly launch over the next year, and finally start to sell in volume for the Xmas 2007 season. Probably at a lower price. This will give developers another year to get the Cell processor figured out, so the games will be better.
This is the price of increasing console complexity - the launch phase has more problems.
I have been calling EB Games daily and you still can't pre-order. With the launch 6 weeks away it's kind of disconcerting. I plan to pre-order the Wii and a bunch of controllers myself but I have been asking about the PS3 pre-orders out of curiousity. I wonder when that will be decided, does anyone have any inside information?
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There seems to be a big difference between the industry's perception of the PS3 and the public perception. Most average Joes I run across seem to be anticipating the PS3. But they can't explain why beyond the branding. "Oh, I really like the PS2, so..." Industry people and industry watchers are talking more and more about Sony's lack of strategy, Blu Ray concerns, hardware problems, price, etc. More and more, the assumption that Sony will once again dominate is dissipating. So I think the most interesting thing about the PS3 launch will be watching what happens with word of mouth once the console is out. Should we expect, "Oh man, the new Playstation might be expensive, but it's so cool! You need it!" Should we expect, "Oh man, my brother got a PS3 and all the games suck." What's going to happen? Is the PS branding going to crash and burn? Will everyone just save up to buy it because PlayStation has become synonymous with game console to them? Will it just do okay? I'll be sure to read all about it during my short breaks from the Wii.
http://nerdcartoons.com/
Sony has a huge mindshare... there are a whole generation of kids who use the word "Playstation" interchangably with "Game Console". There is a huge Sony fanboy presence on the internet. Sony is in decent shape.
They might lose a lot of ground to the 360, but they are not going to be wiped out of the market. The console race will just be more of a split, instead of Sony dominating everything like the last generation.
1. Sony has already slashed the number of units being delivered, due to anticipated lack of demand in the US and EU. This will create an artificial shortage so that they can try to spin it into buzz about how people want PS3 consoles. They already figure that the Wii will sell four times as many consoles in the US and EU as the PS3 will. Shipments prove this.
2. If you don't have a really big HDTV that currently uses 1080p, you probably won't care one whit about Blu-Ray for at least three years - by which point there will be another choice of better game consoles to be concerned with.
3. All of the DRM flavor is still baked in. Yum!
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Yeah, that whiney screed will stop the PS3 from flopping hard.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Well, considering the fact that at every Gamestop/EB games the official party line seemed over the last 1.5 years to be that the 360 was the end all be all of gaming systems and the PS3 was horrible, why am I not surprised. Seriously, when he was off the job the local gamestop manager actually was talking about how he was looking forward to the PS3, and yet go in and ask him, and suddenly he attempts to push 360 superiority. Recently this changed, but for a while, they basically bashed the PS3 as store policy. And now they're saying they think it will fail? I smell a combination of stupidity and possible payoff.
Yeah right. HDTV has many years to go before it is even on anyone's radar. 5 or 10 years at least. By then there will be a whole new set of game consoles anyway.
I mean crap, people have already been talking like you about HDTV for over 10 years and it's still not even slightly popular.
I take it you've never see a progressive-compatible game such as Metroid Prime 2 via component cables? Who cares about the screen resolution if the actual graphics look the same (shading, etc).
The PSP is also superior to the DS (I've changed my mind since the first time I saw it because the game I saw had crappy 3D) yet the DS is out-selling the PSP by a huge margin. The Gamecube and Xbox had superior graphics over the PS2, yet the PS2 was (and still is) king of the market. Better technology doesn't equal better marketshare (nor better games).
As for their characters, as long as the games are well made and fun, I'll be buying a Nintendo console if only for Zelda and Metroid, along with the great "out of nowhere" games like Pikmin.
Have fun with your boring "first person shooter #50" hi-definition games.
Um, no, it's not due to lack of demand, it's due to lack of components. Apparently the US government ordered too many for their special operations sharks.
Yes the sets that do 1080p are still a few k (but dropping).
However people have been buying sets for some time capible of at least 720p, with 1080i input allowed and downsampled.
Even at 720p HD content looks WAY better than DVD's. So there are a lot of people who are going to benefit from the new content, even if the displays they have are not the latest thing. For those that do have 1080p... well I envy them. But I'll not have to for long as display prices are dropping pretty rapidly.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"The room was filled with geeks drinking Rum-and-Jolt, ready to participate in the console unveiling ceremony. At last, the moment arrived: a giant mecha burst through the styrofoam wall, and walked in a straight line until it met the side wall where it could walk no more. The top opened: and inside was a dead nerd., clutching a bloody joystick. Our intrepid investigators arrived mere minutes later."
Where were you when the voynix came?
Glad the 360 and Wii are DRM free...
They slashed the number of units being delivered because they can't produce enough units. Sony is still in their magical Kutaragi bubble where everybody will get a second job so they can buy a PS3. If it was just a matter of anticipated lack of demand, Sony would be full speed ahead and damn the torpedos. Which they are doing anyway, it's just "full speed" means "a paltry amount of consoles for NA and Japan, and none for EU".
The Wii will sell four times as many consoles in the US because they will ship four times as many (if not more). And they'll sell infinitely times as many consoles in EU because Sony's not shipping there yet. It's a numbers game -- if you can only get 400,000 consoles on the market, there's no way you're going to sell 1.6million.
And this is why it's stupid for Sony to try to shove Blu-Ray down our throats. That said, the extra graphical horsepower of a PS3 or Xbox 360 will still be impressive on an SDTV simply due to more polygons and more budget for effects. You won't get the benefit of higher resolution textures, but PS3 games will still look much better than PS2 games on the same TV (just as 360 games look better than Xbox games).
As for another console being out in three years, don't bet on it. Maybe that will be true if Microsoft holds to the same 4 year cycle as they did with the Xbox, but I doubt that will happen. They entered this generation early because it was imperative to beat Sony and Nintendo to the punch. If that pans out for them, expect the Xbox 360 to have at least a 5 year lifespan before there's an Xbox 720 (or whatever it'll be called). And Sony expects the PS3 to last for 10 years, so don't hold your breath for a PS4 unless you can wait until 2015 ...
Is even at that price, they are likely to sell out almost immediately. Ok great, except that means that many people will be left contemplating another option. The word of mouth that will be dangerous is word of mouth about the Wii, but particularly the 360 (since it's more expensive and a more direct competitor). If they miss out on the PS3, but they hear great things about the 360, maybe they decide to take the jump. Once they do, that's probably it. For most people, 1 expensive next gen console will be it. They might get a Wii as well because of the price but the 360 and PS3 market will be pretty small.
That I think is the real concern here. It's not that the launch has to meet up to some certain standard of Sony quality, it's that it has to be good enough to convince people to hold on to their dollars and wait for more PS3s to come out rather than get a 360. I'll bet you MS drops a $100 price reduction and Halo 3 on the launch as well.
Quickly, non-Sony fans(and fanboys of other systems), post some crap about the EVIL company that will end up looking stupid.
....... Do I need to dig up similar crap posted here from before and after the first Xbox launch?
Apparently the US government ordered too many for their special operations sharks.
Are those the ones with the frickin Blu-Ray lasers on their heads?
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It's the same thing folks threw out with the 360 launch. They couldn't imagine that people would actually be willing to buy the console, so there MUST have been an artificial shortage
It's going to be the same with the PS3, but worse. The production of brand new hardware always has wrinkles in it, as well as general quality issues. Then there's also the news of a shortage of blue lasers, which is affecting high-def DVD manufacturers everywhere.
Despite all the (seemingly unending) bad news about Sony, there are still going to be legions of fanbois clamoring for a console come launch day. And there will undoubtedly be a lot of entrepreneurs hoping to snag a PS3 or two (or a dozen), so they can resell them on eBay for big bucks. Anyone remember the awful rumors of GameStop employees hiding 360 boxes in the backroom, so that they could sell them for a huge profit later? Expect a repeat of that again this year.
All in all, a shortage is not a good thing for a console manufacturer, even for one that is sold at a loss. The sooner you get the platform in people's hands, the sooner they can start buying games and high-def movies. Sony's already has mind-share and buzz, even though it's not all positive. It doesn't need anymore negative news of parents and gamers complaining that they can't get a console and are looking to spend their $500-600 elsewhere (Wii or 360).
-- jchenx
And this is why it's stupid for Sony to try to shove Blu-Ray down our throats. That said, the extra graphical horsepower of a PS3 or Xbox 360 will still be impressive on an SDTV simply due to more polygons and more budget for effects. You won't get the benefit of higher resolution textures, but PS3 games will still look much better than PS2 games on the same TV (just as 360 games look better than Xbox games).
Agreed, but I just can't see an ad for the PS3: "Now, with extra polygons!"
Yet another FPS or sports game with extra super polygons really just doesn't work. We want Hillary Duff in Sim 2: Pets, or Katamari Damacy, or Dance Dance Revolution: Sudden Death Danceoff, or Super Mario Underwater Twister Teleport Tango, or Spore.
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Might be a bit off-topic, but I noticed many of you still bring up that crashing "issue" from that article posted a few days ago. A UK-based PS3 magazine, PSM3, was given a Playstation 3 to play with for a day. Here are the links of the write-ups:
u p_pics_and
p sm3_the_aftermath
http://www.psm3mag.com/page/psm3?entry=ps3_power_
http://www.psm3mag.com/page/psm3?entry=ps3_meets_
They talk about impressions, heating, noice output and stuff like that. Given that it's a Playstation magazine site, it is a pretty insightful read on how the final PS3 models will, hopefully, work. Hopefully it can put to rest some FUD and shine some light on the PS3 and reveal the fingerprints of truth. (And yes, apparently it gets dirty much like the PSP. Ick.)
I'll be buying a Nintendo console if only for Zelda and Metroid, along with the great "out of nowhere" games like Pikmin.
Yes, because as we all know there are very few great concept games ever to be published on a Sony console. Frankly I am amazed for all the bitching about price that you see for the PS3 you don't once hear people around here pissing and moaning that the controler for the Wii will cost $60, multiply that by 3 (at least I would since Nintendo generally has fantastic 4P games) and you've got yourself a hefty chunk of change. All I'm saying is stop making wild acusations about systems when there is really no comparison to be had. Do the smart thing and hold off for 6 months while the 3 duke it out, by then HDTV's will have dropped substantially (they've already dropped by around a grand this year) and there will be a much better Idea of what each company has to offer in relation to one another.
I have to call bull here. There are a fairly decent number of people who are fanatical about HD. Take a look around www.avsforum.com if you doubt me. I took the plunge a couple months ago and purchased a Pioneer 930 Elite and despite being blow away by the awesomeness that is HD; I have no interest in the 360 or the PS3. I bought my system for TV and movies. In my opinion, it is the games themselves that are not ready for HD. They need to focus on gameplay, story, physics and AI before they even consider HD.
They don't pretend the world isn't moving, they decided it's not profitable to do HD.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
(I'm ignoring the PS3's attempt at their own network service, as they haven't really talked much about it, or their own motion-sensing controller, as those don't really distinguish themselves apart from the others
Network services for the 360? Big hit for a lot of folks, especially considering broadband penetration in the US is rapidly increasing. New control scheme for the Wii? Very popular, particularly with gamers that are becoming disillusioned with the current type of games (more graphics, less gameplay, and less fun).
The trend that Sony is focusing on, unfortunately for them, is something that the vast majority of users won't care about. They don't have an HDTV, much less one that does 1080p or perhaps does HDMI.
What Sony SHOULD have done is just focus on their massive developer support, and on the games themselves. They've certainly talked about it with the PS3, but that message is diluted too much with the rest of the Blu-ray, 1080p, SIXAXIS talk going on. If all they did was thump their chest and focus on the games, they would have sold a lot more people on the PS3 (myself included).
-- jchenx
Having hi-def doesn't exclude good games (and frankly, I'm waiting for the PSP to drop in price so I can buy LocoRoco), but it seems that every Xbox 360 and PS3 fanboy can only talk about hi-def graphics and nothing else.
I don't want hi-def graphics if they look like today's systems. The Xbox 360 graphics look pretty much the same as the graphics on the Xbox (but in hi-def). I do agree that the PS3 seems to be the real winner as far as "next-gen graphics" go, but I'll wait until I see a real unit running before judging on the graphics themselves. I recall pre-rendered trailers and fake screenshots for the PS2, so I'm not taking Sony's word for granted on that subject. And just because HDTV prices drop doesn't mean that people will buy them. I, for one, plan to use my Toshiba 36" CRT "HDTV ready" set until it dies. Not everyone keeps updating to the latest technology.
As for the added cost of additionnal controllers for the Wii, I except the same can be said for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. And even if the Wii-mote+nunchuck is more expensive than either an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller, it's not by much (it's not like PS3 controllers are 20$). The total cost for a four-players setup on all consoles probably still puts the Wii as the least expensive system.
Not to mention different series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or other exciting PS3 Exclusives. Nintendo's games are just basically, IMO carbon copy sequels. Final Fantasy has different characters in each game, not to mention excellent gameplay, storyline, and challenge. Blueray & hd-dvd will be better even at standard def, as there will be more room on the Disc for better quality video unlike DVD that is full of artifacts. The better processing power of the PS3 and XBox 360 will allow more depth in the games.
The reason why the PS2 was popular was
It used DVDs, more space than the proprietary shit Nintendo used
Backwards compatibility with the PS1, which couldn't be done with the Gamecube as Nintendo stuck with carts for the N64
Not to mention, DVD Video playback, better exclusive games, better controllers, and most of all a Linux kit.
Back to the topic, I think the reason why the Gamestop managers are worried over the PS3 launch is they will not have enough units to cover the demand. As such they will run out of PS3s. Have fun with your Carbon Copy mario,zelda, etc.
Not moving foward? Unless I am mistaken the Wii-mote is better tech than previous controllers. It also has some new and unused tech that haven't really been applied to the video game market. True the games won't run in 1080 but honestly WHO CARES?! I don't care if I can see the sweat rolling off some linebackers head while I am playing a game, I'm more concerned about how fun it is to play that game and kick my friends ass in it. I am supposedly in the key demographic for Sony and Microsoft 25 year old male who is into the high end technology and has money to blow and I am not going to waste my money on the PS3.... hell I'm having a hard time justifying buying a 360 cuz I am sick of the same crap over and over. I bought a PSP and Liberty City Stories and Burnout..... 3 weeks later I traded it in for store credit and bought a new DS and some games cuz it was the same recycled crap over and over. New graphics != mean a better system (sure it helps but its not all there is).
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Well Carbon Copy it really depends. I have a DS and I checked out recently a friends Cube... I would not call Nintendo games exactly carbon copy, they rely on some basic concepts yes and the same characters, but from every generation to every generation they try to push new concepts and genres within their character domain. What I see from most other japanese game makers is endless sequels of the same game with new stories same game mechanics. From most other US companies endless sequels even without stories. Nintendo is one of the few companies which really try to push new game ideas and sometimes fail but most of the times their games are excellent. This is one of the reasons why the DS won over the psp, the psp simply was the plain old, sports car racing here, shooter there while the ds had new gaming ideas, some gaming ideas taken from the pc world, and excellent old content renewed in a new fasion. As for the final fantasies, i hate japanes rpgs, no matter if they are final fantasy or mario rpg or whatever. I take a ultima or gothic over final fantasy any day. Japanese style RPG always feels like being forced on rails, and even while the final fantasies have advanced graphicswise, I see them as a phenomenon which simply shows the problems of modern gaming, way better graphics more movies, same old boring game mechanics, the same goes for most shooters btw...
Yep, just like the decision to stick with cartridges on the N64 was profitable. Oh wait.............
Hold on, the N64 was HUGELY profitable.
In fact in the last 200 quarters, Nintendo has only ever had one 3 month period when they weren't profitable.
Can you back it up with some proof, how the N64 wasn't profitable?
In high definition, the player can see farther away without having enemies turn into a blob of pixels no bigger than a micro-goomba from Super Mario Bros. 3. By similar triangles, a screen that's twice as tall (1080i vs. last generation's 480i) should allow over twice as much useful draw distance.
Nintendo Corporate profits/losses N64 Profits/losses
It could help, but they do have things other than consoles. Also, a nintendo console could be a total success and Nintendo could still be at an overall loss.
At the time the N64 was sold, pokemon was very popular, not just their Gameboy games, but also licensing of pokemon plush, pokemon cards, pokemon the series, pokemon toothpaste, you get the picture. That is where most of their money came from at the time. The sales of the N64 were so bad that they dropped the N64 almost immedately once the gamecube was released. The N64's biggest anchor was their decision to use the cartridges instead of using CDs. Other considerations is how they treated their 3rd party developers. That is another reason why they started going to Sony. If Nintendo would have just gone with the CD at a decent speed, the N64 would have torn the playstation apart, especially with the memory expansion. But Nintendo, similar with today with 1080 capabilities, just thought it wouldn't be profitable with CDs. They were wrong, as again it actually hurt them.
The Wii-mote, on the other hand could save them, or it could pose to be another hinderance similar to Rob the Robot & the Power Pad.
Okay, three options here: You have never played Nintendo games and simply don't know what youre talking about; you're a Sony/MS fanboy who choses to ignore reality; you're insane.
Take your pick.
Nintendo generally doesn't actually do sequels. They do franchises.
Now, first of all, let's get the sequels out of the way: there are Nintendo published sequels. Pikmin 2, Metroid Prime 2, Super Mario Bros 2 (Lost Levels, not the US/EU doki doki panic version), lots of the Pokémon games.
But most of Nintendo's so-called sequels actually aren't.
Is Super Mario 64 a sequel to Super Mario World? Is Wind Waker a sequel to Ocarina of Time? They re-use gameplay mechanics, they re-use characters and storylines, but they're totally different games. This is not "Madden 2004 vs. Madden 2005." Lots of these "Nintendo sequels" actually get tons of heat because they're too different from the previous versions - Double Dash, for example. And what about all the wholly new franchises which Nintendo creates?
Yeah, Nintendo re-uses its characters a lot. There's a Mario entry in every genre except first person shooters. That doesn't mean these games are "carbon copy sequels," and this is not a matter of opinion, either.
Nintendo used to be synonymous with video games, man. That didn't stop them from losing most of the market they once had a monopoly on when they made a series of terrible mistakes with the N64. And the sheer number of stupid moves Sony has made with the PS3 puts Nintendo's N64 fuck ups to shame. No one is invincible. Nintendo got arrogant and paid the price for it. Now it's Sony's turn if they don't deliver.
-Moses
My local EB manager today was being grateful his isn't an inner city store. There's really a potential for people to become violent as this thing is released. Given the 360 stories I was hearing this morning (while waiting to preorder my Wii), I think these guys have some very legit concerns...