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Where the PS3 Stands Now
Phil Harrison and 1up's Luke Smith had a chat about the current positioning of the PlayStation 3, and it makes for some interesting reading. A quietly confident Harrison discusses the future of game distribution online, their attitude towards competition in the console market, and clarifies a few things about the potential for PS3 price cuts. The previous discussion about price cuts was apparently a big misunderstanding. "PH: Well, do you know what [Takao Yuhara] said was, cost reduction, not price drop, and there's a big difference between cost reduction and price drop. So, that I believe is where the confusion came from. Obviously, we are investing our money in making PlayStation 3s cheaper to manufacture -- that's part of our business plan. 1UP: You're not going to pass the savings along? PH: When we can, when there are savings to pass along to the consumer, we would obviously choose to do that. That's the business model. 1UP: Wait? You guys are doing this to make money? Really? PH: That's videogame hardware 101."
... lack of killer system selling game or games. It has to be said if the games were there even the high price would not be such a barrier of there really was a killer app that made people throw their financial reason to the wind.
The problem is 50% perception, and 50% targeted market. Here's what I mean:
"Perception": People see 600 - 800 dollars and no games. They see a huge Sony ego and laughable selling numbers. No one's buying it, no one wants one.
Reality: It can be bought here in the US for as little as 499 if you want the 20GB model, and if you're patient by summer we'll have a healthy injection of new games on the PS3. They even have more demos and movie trailers available in the PS3 network for free. Games are coming, and patience is key. I'm not an apologist. This is just how new consoles tend to work.
As for the ego, it's there. But it's not contempt for consumers, as most detractors would have you believe. It's confidence. They're saying, "we're number 1". Sony needs to be seen as confident in this console outing. You want them to say "Yeah it sucks, get an Xbox?"
The price is out of necessity, not arrogance. They're definitely losing more per console than Microsoft. Blu-ray was a risk, but not a totally harmful one. Prices will come down and the complaining will slowly go away
"Target market" is the other aspect that's hurting the PS3.
Not only do people not want to drop 500-600-800 dollars on a game system, they certainly don't want to pay more for the same games. That's the problem most 360 owners see with the PS3. They can't envy it any. Pay tons more for some future exclusives? Laughable.
The PS3 is for people who want blu-ray, PS3, PS2, and don't have a 360 already, and are willing to spend at least 500 bucks for it, probably more. That's not a great subset of people.
With all of that, it's a testimony to the power of Sony and its future exclusives that so many people are buying the thing.
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I consider myself to be a hardcore gamer and for me the Wii novelty wore off after about 2 weeks.
The problem for me is games like Wii sports are just lacking the depth to really hold my attention, and for games like Zelda the use of the Wii remote is just rather "meh". IMO it didn't add anything to Zelda and I would not have enjoyed the game any less using a Wavebird.
so about a month past buying the Wii it's started collecting dust and I've gone back to playing Xbox 360 games. IMO if the Wii wants to get past being a gimmick they need games that have the compelling depth of Zelda combined with the unique and value added controller usage of Wii Sports. So far the only title that really delivers that is Trauma Center, but I've already played that title... on the DS (widescreen support would have been nice too), Red Steel was close but the buggy game mechanics killed what uniqueness the Wii Remote added to it. I'm sure they'll come but as of right now I don't consider the Wii to be much more compelling then the PS3 is right now, if anything it serves as a nice show piece and entertainer when friends and family visit, and I'm sure there will be better games down the road... right now though, and I think the same holds true for many other hardcore gamers, there just isn't enough substance.
Collector's Edition