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Fewer PS3 Units Tomorrow Than Hoped For?
Gamasutra is reporting on the possibility that there may only be 150,000 - 200,000 PS3s available tomorrow. Kotaku has heard that this may stem from removal of the 20 GB units from the shipment to the U.S., though this is just speculation at the moment. Several bloggers have noted that their local videogames store has notified them of lowered availability, so it doesn't seem that this is outside the realm of possibility. From the article: "'Due to the limited initial installed base of the platforms, we believe the financial impact over the holiday period will be more significant for hardware manufacturers and video game retailers (such as GameStop) than for software publishers.' In addition to predicting a strong push for Xbox 360 products due to a shortage in PS3 supply, Sebastian also says the newly launched consoles may not have as significant an impact on holiday sales." A reader also wrote in to mention the cost that Sony is sucking with each of these units. Apparently, the company is eating about $300 for every PS3 sold.
1. Lose Money on Each System 2. Sell less systems, create marketing hype 3. Systems become cheaper to make 4. Finally meet demand 5. Profit!!
Even more interesting is the fact that I don't think I've spoken to a single person who is actually buying the machine to play. Everyone's just buying them to sell on eBay, for "mega profit."
Which, of course, makes me wonder -- if people only want it to sell on eBay, who's going to buy it on eBay?
Yes... just like all those that bought the XBox to "stick it to Microsoft" really hurt them. Sony would love to sell each and every one of these, don't fool yourself. Sony will make a unit regardless of if you buy it at least initially. If it sells they loose $300. If not, they loose what.. $1000? (no sale of unit, plus loss)
I hope by wanting Blu Ray (however it's spelt) to fail, your also not supporting HD-DVD right? Blu Ray failing hurts more then Sony, they're just one of the partners in that.
You forgot the biggest problem, if the parts are hard to break and new, how do we know they will still work 1 year from now? The answer, they probably won't. If you thought the 360 had hardware failure, wait until Blu-ray starts dropping left and right.
The numbers are awful, but if the failure rate is as high as I expect it's going to be a sad sad day for Sony/consumers.
So Sony creates a $900 machine and sells it for $600. They lose $300 if you buy it. If you don't buy it they lose $900. Yep, if you buy one, you will really show them who is in charge of economics.
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
What, are they going to have negative PS3s?
So, at E3 there were going to be a million, then they had to reduce it to 400,000 a few months before launch. Then the day before, the announced there would only be 200,000. So I'm expecting them at about 6pm to say they only have 100,000 in retail stores, then at 9pm, they'll announce that due to an error some boxes did not have a PS3 placed in them before shipping, so really stores only have 50,000 or so, and then at 11 they'll announce contract dispute with retailers, meaning only 20,000 will be allowed to be sold, and at midnight they'll announce that the North American launch has been delayed until March 2007.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
I'm really not that upset about the shortages of available PS3s. I want one, but really, those guys that I saw with their tents set up outside of best buy on my way to work this morning, tents covered with a layer of ice- they want it more than I do- and so that's fine.
The thing is, I do wish sony would just come out and admit that this isn't really so much of a launch as a preview. Then they could tell us when they are going to really launch- launch as in, if I were to stand in line for 3 or 4 hours I would be able to get one. That's the thing, I would be willing to stand in line for several hours- maybe even camp out- if I thought there was any sort of reasonable chance of getting one. The fact is that if I lined up in front of best buy this evening and tried to get one at 8am tomorrow, I would be probably like the 20th person in line to NOT get one.
I will stand in line for the Wii though- not that I want it more than the PS3 (I'm actually slightly less excited about it, because until I actually have a chance to play it I'm still just not sure how well the wiimote is going to work out) but because i know that I might actually have a chance to get one.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Thank you. I do not get people who think that by buying a product, they are somehow hurting a company. They've already accepted and budgeted the loss from a sale of a console. You're not going to hurt them by doing this.
You hurt them by *not buying it in the first place*. They are *not* prepared to eat the total cost of the console, and therefore *not buying the console at all* would be the proper way to hurt the manufacturer.
As for Blu-Ray, Sony is the one fully behind that. HD-DVD would be the competing (and in my eyes, superior) technology. Sony is trying to wedge BluRay into the market by selling their gaming consoles with this technology to artificially create a user base, which is reprehensible, and typical of Sony's evil marketing schemes as of late.
This is a sig. Deal with it.
This is Linguo, the Grammar Robot. I see that you are trying to communicate with people on the Internet. After reading your message, it's obvious you either suffered a severe epileptic fit while trying to type or you need help making your message clear.
Assuming it's the latter, here are my suggestions. You wrote:
You probably meant to write:
Had you been coherent enough, Slashdot would have been blessed with clear but obvious statements that look like a desperate attempt to boost your karma. I hope for your sake that you were indeed suffering from an epileptic seizure and are smarter than you appear.
Regards,
Linguo
That only works if production outstrips demand. Until that happens, it's more like "Sony creates a $900 machine and sells it for $600. They lose $300 if you buy it. If you don't buy it, someone else does, along with accessories and games (like Sony is banking on)".
Not that I advocate buying a machine you don't want just to stick it to a corporation. They may be out $300, but you'd be out $600.
Otherwise, when you buy one Sony takes a $300 loss, but eventually they fabricate and sell one to the guy who will buy the accessories, games and what-not. And at that point they get to say, "hey look, our install base is huge, only a truly foolish game producing company wouldn't make a game for us!" And perhaps their software-sales to install-base ratio will be a bit lower than they might expect, but the huge install base will likely lure more development and thus people who might be on the fence will also fall into line and buy the unit, creating a cycle that leads to the success of the PS3.
If you don't buy the unit at all, you're right the guy who wants one for the games gets his much sooner and so Sony recoups their losses on that unit much sooner BUT they will sell far fewer units and thus perhaps lose the developer support or at the very least not dominate this console generation.
At least I hope they sell far fewer units, I hope there aren't too many people willing to shell out for this POS, but then again nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the public...
The difference between the cost of the parts of an Xbox 360 and a low end PS3 is $482.55. Even with manufacturing costs and other costs getting the system to the store, in order for Microsoft to lose as much money per console as Sony they would have to price an Xbox 360 at $99.
Microsoft makes over 10 billion dollars a year in profit. They can afford to lose money in the short term for long term profits. Video on demand is going to be huge. Once they get a large install base, they can start providing video download services for other electronic manufacturers. You could buy a Toshiba DVD player which has video on demand provided by Microsoft. Microsoft and Toshiba would each make a few pennies for each download that the customer makes. There will be competitors, but that's business. While Sony has Blu Ray as its huge potential market, Microsoft has video on demand.
If Microsoft wanted to really screw Sony, they could have a one day sale with the Xbox 360 premium and a copy of Gear of War for $299. If they feel like it, throw in a year of Xbox Live Gold and a copy of Project Gotham Racing 3. Or a Core system with a memory card and a copy of Project Gotham Racing for $199. Nov 16 would be a great date. Right between the PS3 and Wii launch. It would cost Microsoft money, but it would steal thunder from their competitors. Of course, it's too late now.
It will be interesting to see whether the PS3 is worth $499 for the low end model. I honestly believe that people will buy the Wii regardless of what it costs or what the other console makers do. You're either a Wii fan or your not.
Taiwan will only have 500 units for the whole country! Granted there are only about 23m people living there but still... why bother?
-- jchenx
C'mon even my local paper had 2 PS3/Wii stories today. Including a decent description for the features of both. This is Spokane i would hope that a nerdy site would outgun us on gaming 'info' ;)
Today's the 16th. One day before launch.
We finally got 1/3 of our (reduced) allotment of launch date PS3's in. The other two are who knows where.
No launch games have been delivered, nor have any of the accessories.
Sony, in it's infinite wisdom, seems to have given ever box it's own purchase order number. Which means that the carriers make no attempt to keep all the boxes together, which they would with a single P.O. number.
So, we have 2 PS3's. No games. No accessories.
Nintendo however has nearly doubled our launch allotment of the Wii.