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Sony CEO Confirms Limited $499 PS3 Stock
If you were confused about yesterday's stock announcement, you wouldn't be the only one. Thankfully Kaz Harai, SCEI CEO, has clarified the situation: the $499 60GB PlayStation 3 is a limited offering. They'll only be selling it here in the states until their current stock of the system is cleared out, at which point the only SKU remaining in the states will be the $599 80GB + Motorstorm bundle. The catch is that there is probably enough stock in hand for several months of sales at this price; hence the confusion yesterday about a 'fire sale'. Hirai confirmed this to a Norwegian videogame news site, and the video of the interview is available online. For some perspective, Next Generation has a commentary piece on this strange matter. "Now Sony looks as though it's been spinning consumers. The smart thing to have done would have been to come out and say that the 60Gig version is being discounted and discontinued, and that the bells-n-whistles PS3 at $599 is better value than ever. That didn't happen, and what many have seen as a pretty successful E3 for Sony has been marred by confusion over the future of the platform's strategy. So in those meetings next week, Sony will have cause to look back and consider how things might have been done better."
Does anyone know the status of the backwards compatibility on the new PS3 model they're coming out with? Because I heard they were thinking of ditching it at some point. Will that be happening in the 80 gig model?
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
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Stop using 'SKU' in news stories and posts. The word has no meaning outside internal retail outlets and distributors. Saying it makes you sound like a marketdroid.
Not a typewriter
This 60GB PS3 will be the last available model in north america with the PS2 compatibility 100% in hardware, no software emulation?
Anyone playing FF XI on a PS3? Any screenshots comparison with the Xbox 360 version?
On Monday they announced the price cut of the console. Gamers were excited.
On Wednesday they showed off whats to come to the console. Gamers were amazed.
By Thursday, early reports were coming in that the price drop was limited.
At this point we were all fooled by Sony once again. They showed us all their new products and I will admit some of which look really cool. Then they tried to slip this under the radar without anyone noticing. That would of worked ten years ago without much notice but its not that easy today
Whats worst of all though, when their done selling the 60gig model, all you have is a 80gig model which is actually more crippled then then the launch model which had the emotion engine for backward compatibility.
Sony sells a bunch of PS3s at $500, getting their marketshare up and bolstering the confidence of third-party developers, then when they've done that they sell a slightly better PS3 exclusively at $600, hoping that the better line-up (and, hopefully, better press) at that point will keep sales going.
I don't know if this will work or just bite them in the ass. I think it would've been a good idea to sell the new PS3 at $550 and leave Motorstorm out of it, and maybe a better idea to just sell the 60GB PS3 at $450 and stop trying to screw around with the market, but only time can tell.
Rob
1. Load gun.
2. Aim at foot.
3. Shoot.
4. Repeat as often as possible.
(Yes, I know, "Step 5: Profit!" should go there, but seriously, have you looked at their quarterly reports recently?)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Oh please, you know exactly why people are upset about this. It's become clear you're a Sony astroturfer. You've posted in the other story on this topic and people were pretty clear why there were upset about it.
But to make it clear, it's that "cut the price of the 80GB console" part. There's no proof that's going to happen. People have been clamoring for a PS3 price cut for ages. There's clearly demand for the PS3, but not at the $600 price point. People have been wanting to see a pricecut.
So what Sony has announced is that there's a pricecut, but then they're going to sell a version that has about $20 worth of storage extra and a version that's not as backwards compatible with PS2 and PS games. (That's assuming $1/GB, which is high - it's closer to $0.75/GB.)
So, ultimately, Sony is announcing a new, worse version of the PS3 for the same price. That's why people are upset.
That assumes, of course, you're interested in playing PS2 games on the PS3. At this point in time, with the PS2 game library dwarfing the PS3 game library, it's a fair assumption that people would want to do that. You can also debate how much worse the PS2/PS emulation is, especially since the new emulation is already used to enable upscaling in the existing model.
However, this still comes off as Sony saying that they're selling a new, worse model for the same price, while trying to ditch the old model. Not completely true, but it sure sounds like it.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
You know... a lot of the problems that Sony has had recently are not necessarily the action they took. Discounting this version of the product so you can introduce an improved* version can be a great move. The quote in the summary brings up a good point, though - it's about their PR! They had a chance to make this great PR, or at least "neutral", but they instead choose to confuse everybody with this idiocy.
I think this has been typical of a lot of their boneheaded moves in the last few years; they have some brain-damaged idea they want to accomplish with the PR, and end up totally screwing the entire announcement. Someone needs to fire the entire PR department over there. It's really damaging their reputation in ways way above and beyond their "normal fuck-ups".
(*) - for some definitions of "improved", which is not really relevant to this point
Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
This will spark interest in the 60GB console, and when all the supplies are moved they will cut the price of the 80GB console to $499.
Well, I'd certainly hope that that's true, but remember that this is Sony we're talking about. The sales and marketing part of the company hasn't exactly been attentive to the wishes of the consumer in the recent past.
Rob
It seems likely that once the 60s run out that they'll sell an unbundled version of the 80 at the 499 price. It'd be insane for them to ditch that price just in time for the holiday sales.
Well, the word on the street is that Sony is moving to 80GB HDs not because of the extra space, but because they're cheaper in large quantities than the old (and now less-standard) 60GB HDs. So Sony is actually trying to unload the more expensive stock at a lower price. On the one hand, this lends credibility to the idea that they will drop the 80GB version to $499, but it also leaves a nasty aftertaste in my mouth knowing that people are essentially giving Sony $100 or more (the Motorstorm Blu-Ray can't cost much to produce) that would be better spent on buying an off-the-shelf HD to put in the 60GB version.
My other sig is funny.
If I was Howard Stringer the first thing I would do is fire the entire marketing staff. So far their advertising and handling of everything related to the PS3 has been bungled. From the crying baby advertisements that were outweirded only by Sega's Dreamcast campaign, the early arrogance in the press, to the latest price cut, its not a price cut debacle there hasnt been one element of their PR that has worked in their favor.
Sony could have crippled a 80GB hard drive and sold them as 60GB with drive firmware that only uses the first 3/4ths of the drive. Sony would have kept the same model number and marketing, gotten a lower price, and few people would be any wiser about it.. It probably helps them better to standardize the machines though, dropping the EE chip harmonizes the US model to be more in line with the rest of the world.
Yes, you think this is a great idea. We get it. EVERY SINGLE POST you make is plugging the PS3. Cut it out, you aren't fooling anyone here, shill.
People have been asking for a price cut for "ages"? Has the PS3 even been out for a YEAR? Stop trolling. And how is the 80GB a worse system for the same price? You get a "free" game, more HD space and upscaling........
drop the price of the 80GB before Christmas. The PS3 is finally selling like it *should*. Sony would have to be complete idiots to give up this momentum, this just seems like a strategy to unload the 60GB hardware. I'm looking forward to some kinda offer or incentive to unload PS3s even more, like trade in your PS2 and get an extra $100 off the price of a 60GB. I think 2 million 60GB are still unsold I expect them to be moved before Christmas and then the 80GB will have a "price cut". This combined with the upcoming games has me excited for Sony
Hey, I'm no expert, but I'd imagine that this *isn't* the PR departments fault. I imagine that Sony execs do whatever bullheaded nonsense they want (like this fiasco) and then when PR goes, "Whoa, whoa! If you do that you're really going to piss people off!" they just get a cold reply of, "Well, we're going ahead with it. You're PR. You fix it."
And that's why you see Sony PR guys always desperately spouting whatever bullshit they can muster to defend Sony. They know Sony is being ludacris, but their job depends on them somehow spinning Sony's actions in a positive light.
I mean, otherwise, you'd think for like $500 a call, they could call anyone of us and we'd be like, "Ummm... you know Sony, I just really don't think that's a good idea, you know, to screw your fan base like that," and they'd be like, "Oh... really? Ok, cool. I guess we won't do it then. Thanks for the advice."
There is a new rumor that the 360 will drop to $199 for the core and $250 for the "real" 360. If this rumor holds true, then Sony might as well pack it in, as there is no way a $599 system will be able to compete against a system that is 90% it's capability at more than 1/3rd the price. Sony Bots have been touting the "Incredible capability" of the PS3 and what an awesome value it is. My biggest question is why the PS3 is not significantly better than the 360, especially given the year's lead time? I own a PS3 and a 360, so don't mark me as a flamebait. I am still smarting after this past Christmas day when my friends (all in their 30's, who have owned every game system ever, like me) came over to see the PS3 and play Resistance: Fall of Man. They could not stop laughing at me and the game. The consensus was, "You paid $800 for this?!"
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
Here, as I understand it, is the situation. Hopefully, if I get anything wrong someone will correct me...
Backwards compatibility goes down with the newer 80GB US models.
As others have pointed out, the newer systems lack an in-built Emotion Engine chip, so they rely on software emulation rather than hardware emulation.
The emulation is decent, but it's far from perfect. Sony themselves quote a figure of 88 percent compatibility with the software emulation rather than 100 percent with the hardware emulation.
And, even amongst those 88 percent of titles that work there are some glitches: it's not the case that 88 percent of titles work perfectly while 12 percent have some problems or won't run, rather it's the case that 12 percent won't run at all and 88 percent will run to some degree.
You can read that many ways, but to me it seems to suggest that 88 percent is a marketing person's figure more than anything else: if a game won't get past a fixed point, it has audio or visual glitches all over the place, or if it falls over all the time then you're stretching things if you consider that game in your 88 percent.
Of course, Sony isn't exactly advertising the fact that the newer 80GB models aren't as backwardly compatible as their predecessors. Granted, it won't matter to everyone, but it will matter to some, and those people won't thank Sony for their penny-pinching and shortsightedness.
I don't know what the hell is going on with Sony. When it came to the original PlayStation they ran a flawless campaign and sucked millions of new users into the console market. With the PS2 they didn't put a foot wrong and cleaned up again. But with the PS3 it seems like they've decided to see how much they can piss away the goodwill generated by their previous two generations and opted for one boneheaded move after another.
If they're not careful they're going to end up as yet another sorry story on fuckedcompany.com.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
More info, from Wikipedia's PS3 page:
On March 20, 2007 Sony released a compatibility list; 1,782 of the 2,451 PS2 games (72%) released in Europe had noticeable issues, minor issues or no known issues, with the remainder being incompatible with the console.
As I understand it, the European PS3's only had software emulation. So, by Sony's own admission, backwards compatibility is at 72 percent, and may actually be even lower than that.
If I had any Sony stock I would have sold it a long time ago. These guys are finding new lows of stupidity every other day.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Yes but you lose the option to use hardware emulation for games that aren't supported by the software.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I never do this, but I must. The parent is correct. SKU is a game industry term, this is a story about the game industry, stop complaining about our vernacular. 3 SKU means there's three different versions of a product/game (3 platforms, 2 platforms, 1 special edition, or Halo 3's 1 normal, 1 special, and 1 uber special edition). Microsoft has 4 360 Console SKUs in america, meaning there's 4 different versions (core, premium, elite, and now halo 3).
People have been asking for a price cut for "ages"? Has the PS3 even been out for a YEAR?
People have been bitching about the price since it was announced, before it came out. As a PS1 and PS2 owner, I'm one of them.
In the world of electronics, this has been "ages." Especially with the ass kicking Sony is taking in console sales.
And how is the 80GB a worse system for the same price?
It's not. But the point is: The 60GB version isn't selling at $600! The Wii -- with it's ridiculous name and much more limited capabilities -- is outselling it 3:1. The 80GB version probably won't sell. And the "free" game? It's not all that appealing.
My god, where do these idiots come from?
/. and expect some sort of proof. Are you really so fucking stupid not to understand that? (Sorry "that" twice in your sentence bugged me, so I upgraded it.)
I don't know, but by your inability to read my post fully or comprehend the words, I'm guessing you work for Sony.
The PS3 is selling at roughly the same rate as the PS1 and PS2 were worldwide...Slightly faster than the PS1, and slightly slower than the PS2.
I didn't compare it to either. I said as someone who owned both, I wanted it to be cheaper. Is "cheaper" too big of a word for your dumb ass?
The Gamecube and X-Box both "lost" to the PS2. As it stands now, less than a year in, the Wii has sold almost half what the GC did, and the 360 has reached that point as well almost two years in. The PS3 has sold roughly ONE THIRD of their numbers. It doesn't matter how fast the PS1 and PS2 sold if DEVELOPER SUPPORT goes to shit.
The 80 gig will be moved down to 499 when they have sold through the 60 gigs. Are you really that fucking stupid not to understand that?
I don't take the word of AC Sony Shills on
And, yeah, that waggle hype is gonna last for another five to seven years...
I'm assuming, at this point, you're talking about the Wii. I will now point to the X-Box 360 -- which, before anyone accuses me of being a fanboy for, I don't own. They're getting a great many "exclusives" to be ported to their system. Sony doesn't just have to compete against Nintendo, and Nintendo isn't even trying to compete with the same demographic -- yet they're still kicking Sony in the teeth. The PS3 may or may not be selling at the same speed as the earlier systems, I don't trust anything you say as you're a) stupid and b) back nothing up. But all sales numbers indicate the Wii is roughly outselling the PS3 three to one. So by your own argument: The Wii is selling three times as fast as the PSX and PS2.
Even if you're right, and they drop the 80GB to $499: It's. Still. Ridiculous.
And it'll really piss off anyone who buys the 60GB unaware of the impending "upgrade" at that price range.
"Ridge Racer! Riiiiiidge Racer!"
Sorry, but that's a pretty dumb reason to be upset. If you already own a PS3, who cares? If you never intend to buy one, who cares? If you want to buy one, you can get the better one for cheap! What is everybody so upset about? This is such a non-issue.
So what happens to the customer who happens to own a copy of several of the 10 percent of titles, after the optical drive in the PS2 in the other room wears out? Particularly, the six single-player Final Fantasy games in PS family formats (VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII) are said to have emulation problems. Nintendo, on the other hand, has over 99 percent compatibility from GB to GBA SP, from GBA to DS, and from GameCube to Wii.
That's a rather worn our argument. Sure Nintendo may have better compatibility from system to system, but they don't necessarily have games everyone would want to play. As an example I'll use the games you mentioned in your post. The PS3 might have problems with the FF series, but that brings up the point, at least the PS family of products HAS the FF series. If you happen to be someone who likes the more recent entries to Final Fantasy then even 100 percent Nintendo backwards compatibility won't help you much. At the same time the PS3 can at least play all of the FF games since VII.
Despite incredible Wii sales and an obviously stronger install base, the major FF titles will still be for the more powerful systems. First, the Wii is marketed for the casual crowd, and without a doubt the casual crowd is the one showing such strong sales. Unfortunately these aren't the people who buy FF. The majority of FF fans on the other hand simply care too much about presentation to accept the loss in quality a weaker system would bring. Sure, Square Enix will likely make a few Wii entries, but unless you're happy with playing the I-VI games and spinoffs from the real major title, you'll still have a PS3 or 360.
That said, I would say the best idea would be to buy the system that will have the most games you want to play. If said system has backwards compatibility then you get a nice bonus of having access to may old games. If, on the other hand, the system does not play quite as nice then go to the other room, take the PS2 out to get the optical drive replaced, or even get a new one (or perhaps just go get an emulator that plays just as well).
Sony would have to be complete idiots to give up this momentum, this just seems like a strategy to unload the 60GB hardware.
A product that has "momentum" doesn't have to get "unloaded".
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
...well, remember the "hook to your TV" era of home computers? As soon as the 80GB model comes out, push through a firmware update that includes, oh, I dunno, something along the lines of BASIC w/built-in 3D graphics commands, and let people upload their software for free to a special section of the online store. I mean, $600 for a game console is insane (I'm still waiting for the price to come down and/or fewer bills) but $600 for a computer which you can develop homebrew games on, share 'em with the world, and, OH YEAH IT PLAYS GAMES TOO... see, that's a little more reasonable (especially if you already have the nice TV to hook it up to). Then again, I was always a fan of the TI-99/4A, so I wouldn't mind seeing things head back in that direction again.
As I see it, the XBox 360 is only about 1/6 as good as the PS3, and isn't that much cheaper.
First, the price: Microsoft charges for XBox Live. A couple of years of XBox live subscription pretty much wipes out any price advantage over the PS3. And I suspect the PS3 will continue to see price drops, but XBox Live will not. So, in the long run, the PS3 will be a bit cheaper. Not by much, but by a bit.
As far as the "goodness" of the system, the 360 is limited by the DVD, *not* by the hardware. The 360 has a better GPU, but the PS3 has quite a bit better CPU power. (Now, taking advantage of the cell architecture is a challenge; but the PS3 has quite a bit more raw horsepower than the 360.)
The 360 has about 8G of data per game. As it is, game companies often have to figure out how to fit their game into 8G. There are sacrifices, and those sacrifices are in *content*. The textures are scaled back, there's less video available, etc.
Blu-Ray can store up to 50G. That's about 6 times more storage than DVD. Sure, many games won't require more than 8G; but many will. Now, will they require 50G? Not many. But, *the option is there.* Game companies no longer have to sacrifice content just to squeeze the game onto a DVD.
So, by my reckoning, the PS3 is more than ( 100/90 )% of the 360. Quite a bit more. And since a lot of the value is on-line play, the price difference isn't that great, in the long run (though the upfront cost of the PS3 is daunting, for sure).
Sony has built a system that will take time to reach its full potential. That means the games will take more advantage of the system, and get better, just like they did with the PS2. Compare the first Rayman title with later titles like God of War or the later Ratchet & Clank titles. R:FOM is akin to the first PS2 Rayman title, in that it hardly makes use of the system.
Not that I'd pay $600 for a PS3. But I'm not a huge gamer.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
So from what I gather, the 80GB PS3 is going to be like the European models, but with an additional 20 GB. Are there no more benefits other than a larger hard drive and the removal of the emotion chip? I mean, for the 60GB over the 20GB, there was the built-in Wifi, card readers, etc. So what I'm trying to get at here is this: Why shouldn't I just get a 60GB PS3 for $500, then swap the default hard drive with a larger hard drive if the 60GB ever gets filled up?
Well, for a while, it sounded like the cheaper 60GB version was only going to be available for about two weeks. (Starting... now!) So it was like a brief price cut followed by the price jumping right back up again. In other words, it sounded like it wasn't really a price cut, just an attempt to dump a few old units before selling the new ones at the original price.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
You know, it's no wonder the PS3 is selling as bad as it is. How can anyone take this company or division seriously when you have an executive in Europe saying "they're doing this to clear out units", the American executive saying "it's not a fire sale" and then the head executive in Japan saying "the Euro guy was right but he forgot to mention we have enough stock to last a few months". I'll admit Nintendo's done some stuff like this before, like when people were trying to find out if the Wii was region-free, but when you have a system that isn't selling, it's not the time to be displaying confusion and incompetence of this magnitude.
It's really starting to get really hard to understand the truth in any news that comes from Sony these days. These guys should run for Congress.
Insert Sig Here
From a PR perspective, I completely agree that Sony has screwed the pooch on managing consumer opinions, at least within the industry. Outside, however, the average consumer just sees a $499 60GB PS3 on sale.
I disagree with the people that insist Sony is driving for some "magic" $599 price point. If it were, I think the sales spike the will see from this price drop will convince them otherwise. The reality for Sony is that they have a huge number of 60GB systems collecting dust on store shelves. The still-born 20GB is largely vanished, and the 80GB isn't even available yet.
Now, if Sony was to announce the 80GB system at the same $499 that the 60GB has just been reduced to, how many of those 60GB systems would they be likely to sell, now or in the future? Not many, I'd wager, unless they planned to drop the price on those even further. The company would be foolish to do that, especially since the 80GB won't be around until August. The smart thing to do -- and what I suspect is Sony's plan all along here -- is to release the 80GB at $599 with the no-longer-in-production 60GB at $499 until the 60GB units are either depleted or nearly impossible to find (as opposed to now, where it's the only thing available!), then get another PR boost with another price drop lowering the 80GB to $499 as well.
So if an extra 20GB is worth an extra $100 or a few months waiting for you, go for it. For me, 60GB is plenty, and the hard drive is already pretty damn easy to upgrade way past the 80GB anyway, if one were so inclined.
That's some serious "shillery."
It's long past time to call Sony's tactics for exactly what they are, from the PS3's beginning to right now: "Bait and switch." First, they released the $500 20GB version in such small quantities that people couldn't find them, then they discontinued them completely. Now, they've managed to convince people that selling a 60GB console at $500 constitutes a "price cut" (kids, if a console is $500/600 at launch and is $500/600 today, there's been no price cut), only to admit that they've discontinued that model, too - with every reason to believe, by the way, that the new 80GB model is costing them significantly less to manufacture than the 60GB model! The PS3's marketing from day one has been a scam, attempting to make consumers pay more for the PS3 than they expected. Bait. And. Switch.
This is why I also included the emulator option. By the time Sony stops offering replacements, PCSX2 and various other emulators should run more or less any game the PS2 can with better upscaling options than PS3 will ever have.
Cute assumption. Normally I wouldn't feed the trolls, but I am bored. Though I'm not the most hardcore gamer, I own PS3 and 360 both of which have games I want, or in the PS3 case will have when Sony gets it's ass in gear and starts releasing some of those cool titles. Then of course my PC which is in fact my primary gaming rig. With Wii on the other hand, I have played several titles at friend's houses during parties and have not seen a game I can sit down and lose myself in for a few hours/days (Yes, Zelda included). That said, I have been thinking of getting the Wii just so the family could also have a few games they can enjoy. If there comes a day when I walk into a store and it's just sitting on the shelves I may decide to grab it.
Finally, I doubt a Sony shill would ever suggest emulators as a valid replacement. Strange as it may seem there really are people in this world that don't fall into the casual gamer area. Is it that big a stretch to believe that those people would not like a console not designed and marketed toward them?
You decided to paint the Gamecube and Wii as somehow having inferior games (while the Gamecube had fewer games there were many that were excellent and didn't have Mario, Link or Samus in them), and I called you on it. Man up and admit that you were being a tool.
PS- Take that "Normally, I wouldn't feed the trolls" line and jam it in your 759,782nd bunghole.
I think you failed your basic reading comprehension test. No where in any of my posts did I say that Nintendo consoles have bad games no one should like. Fortunately I understand that your little brain may not truly grasp the concept that your opinion is not the end all of the universe, and that not everyone is obligated to share your beliefs so I will explain. What I did say was they do not have games EVERYONE will like, there is simply no perfect game or perfect system. The same can be said for each and any gaming platform in the world. I do not like Smash Brothers, I do not like Mario Cart or Mario anything really, and I do not like Meteroid. If I don't even like the flagship games, is it that hard to grasp that I might not like the majority of Nintendo games? Sure there may be a few that I would like should I actually dig though the multitudes of hype and reviews about Pokemon Deulxe Ultra Happy Pink Bend Over And Buy The 500th Version Of Our Game, but that would honestly take a lot more effort than just opening the PS2 reviews page of IGN and seeing many of the games I like gracing the top of the list.
Find me a decent Final Fantasy game for the GameCube or Wii (And please don't start spouting about the older system emulator, I've played those though too much on PC emulators to even consider going back to a console for them.) How about a playable RTS or TBS? Any MMOs? How about a really pretty shooter where I can feel amazed at the minute detail in a crawling exploding monster before it kills me?
P.S. Why don't you take your trolling at stick it up your 107076th asshole? If you want to piss over UIDs first have one that's somewhat impressive, next find someone who would be impressed.
I have a different take on the price drop that I haven't heard anywhere yet...I don't like it.
Why?
I have an XBOX 360 and a PS3, and I primarily play online games. When Vegas came out on the 360 I was addicted. When it came out on a few weeks ago on the PS3 I rented it to see the differences... and low and behold the online play on the PlayStation Network was 100x better than that of XBOX Live so I ended up immediately buying it.
Why?
No kids! I'm 28 years old and I can't stand playing games in rooms filled with 12 year olds. To me its like going to a movie and sitting right next to a crying 1 y/o...get a freakin baby sitter already! The lack of immature squeaky voices on the PlayStation Network can only be attributed to the PS3's price point.
So, in the end, I hope the Wii and XBOX 360 keep selling the way they are and making their way into the homes laden with kids because its providing me with a far superior online experience.
"The smart thing to have done would have been to come out and say that the 60Gig version is being discounted and discontinued, "
Can you imagine the field day, that Zonk and his Sony hating buddies would have...
Lets face it, it does not matter what Sony actually does, Zonk and his buddies will find a way to spin it into a negative..
If you want a $499 PS3, go out an buy one in the next month or so, if not, shut the fuck up about it.. It's really that simple..
If you want to talk Firesales, look no further than the HD DUD add-on for the 360...
I know of a particular product that requires a bit of momentum to unload.
Said product resides deep within the bowels. The literal bowels.
Hrm... might have a strong correlation.
Except that places such as Ars-Technica would catch on immediately, announce the change, and bring the wrath of the technically inclined on Sony. No one wants to hear that they paid for something that was crippled intentionally.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Probably none of these.
We won't get into the reason why one might never intend on buying a PS3, but some of these people probably don't care.
This here is actually the issue itself. $500 is not 'cheap'. As a minimum bar for entry it is too high for many people. Certainly, what is $500 now is a better value than what was $500 a month ago, but that doesn't factor in for people who (for whatever reason) can't shell out that kind of money on a game console.
What has people upset is that the term "price drop" is traditionally tied to lowering the bar of entry. Sony has not only managed to maintain the bar of entry, but potentially is increasing it when the 60gb PS3s finally sell out. Even if the 80gb PS3 drops in price (depending on how soon this happens, there might be some upset there as well), the bar of entry still remains $500.
That's the jist of what's going on.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
So what happens to the customer who happens to own a copy of several of the 10 percent of titles, after the optical drive in the PS2 in the other room wears out? Particularly, the six single-player Final Fantasy games in PS family formats (VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII) are said to have emulation problems. Nintendo, on the other hand, has over 99 percent compatibility from GB to GBA SP, from GBA to DS, and from GameCube to Wii.
Own them most of those on a EE chip enabled PS3. On software emulation (enable upscaling) XII runs fine and the AA definately helps that game look amazing. X runs fine but I haven't' played it much. The rest I haven't played recently so I don't know.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Well, for a while, it sounded like the cheaper 60GB version was only going to be available for about two weeks. (Starting... now!) So it was like a brief price cut followed by the price jumping right back up again. In other words, it sounded like it wasn't really a price cut, just an attempt to dump a few old units before selling the new ones at the original price.
There are more then a "few" PS3's in the channel right now. This fire sale aught to last a good month or more.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Some fun links:
PS2, PS3, and Wii Japan, America. and All Other combined
It is worth nothing in the other you have to mentally align the launch (for the big jump) to see the Wii slightly winning, and unfortunatly there is not PS2 to compare.
The PS3 sales are tracking PS2 world wide sales, only if you look here, you see the PS2 worldwide sales were Japan for a while (delayed US release). If we assume trends continue like last year, the toal Japan PS2 base is 22m (still growing quicker than PS3), putting the projected PS3 sales just ahead of GC, not matching PS2.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
This holiday season could be a "make or break" for Sony--and the fact is that they have little more to offer for Christmas than just a bunch of promises, titles that will also be released on the 360 (like GTA IV), and a $600 price tag. The 360 has Halo 2, Mass Effect, and a number of other EXCLUSIVES that will actually be sitting on store shelves this Christmas. And if MS lowers its price tag even more, Sony could well be permanently screwed, and see the PS3 go the way of the 3DO.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
VGCharts is fun. Unfortunately I think they're missing all of the european PS2 data, so you have to go country by country.
But here's some fun ones:
Japan PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - Note that the Wii is tracking like the PS2. The next chart demonstrates how bad the PS3 is doing in glorious Nippon.
Japan PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - I left the Wii in instead of the PS2 because the lines are really close. You'll note it's at this point the PS3 is doing worse than the GAMECUBE.
US PS3 vs. PS2 vs. Wii - This looks familiar...
US PS3 vs. Gamecube vs. Wii - So does this! Worse than the gamecube again!
So, that leaves Europe. Where, well, everything is dominating the PS2, because VGChartz doesn't have the data.
See, here. The Wii is still spanking the PS3. Everything is beating the PS2 though.
PS3 sales are tracking PS2 sales in no country on earth, except maybe europe. It's a fantasy.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
So, if they manage to sell 145k systems in the July NPD report, that's selling like it should? Yea, big improvement over the 80k they normally do, but still pathetic and still way under what the PS2 did and the Wii is doing.
Meanwhile, if I invested in entertainment I'd be dumping the stock of any 3rd party dumb enough to give the PS3 an exclusive w/o serious cash incentives from Sony. It's business, Sony is so far behind now that the cycle has already started. They're fucked. It's a failure.
The bright bit is that even the failures get a decent library, so it'll probably still end this as a good or great gaming system, but there's no huge turnaround coming, no when this game comes out it'll push the PS3 to number 1. It's an also ran. Live with it.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."