I think microsoft has done exactly what Sony is doing now - tried to run an economic model that is based incorrectly. Sony has had issues adjusting to the American market, Microsoft has had issues adjusting to the Japanese market.
My point had nothing to do with Sony acting like a video game monopoly or not, or whether they're slamming things down people's throats. My only point was that the PS3 (by my estimation) will not bomb because people are focusing entirely on the American market - which is secretly not the only market in existence.
Also an 'exorbitant' price such as $500 to $600 is not exorbitant. Maybe if the cost was $300 per console - but if you think about how much the console costs, it's not exorbitant. If they're selling it for a loss of $300 per each console, that's not high pricing, that seems like a good deal to me, for the hardware at least. While you may have a point in saying that they shouldn't be pushing Blu-Ray, it IS ahead of its time - the disc size is substantially larger than DVD-HD. Regardless of whether that becomes the new standard for movies, that's the disc I want for games. Sony designed the PS3 to be excactly what people are saying here - losses for the first several years. But the lifetime of the PS3 will be longer than that of the XBox 360 because it is 'technically superior', and has been designed 'ahead of its time' so 10 years down the road (i.e. psx vs N64 vs Dreamcast) it will be more viable than the XBox 360.
The XBox may be technically superior for specifications, but it had a LOT of issues early on with crashing and faulty components. That's not technically superior overall in my eyes. Or the eyes of Japanese consumers and game producers.
I want to get a PS3, but I'll wait a couple of years until the components get cheap enough and I can buy one for cheap.
You are all forgetting that the US is not the only market Sony serves. [Unless I didn't fully read everything, and if I didn't, I'm sorry] And while Slashdot is US-centric, Sony is not.
UMD is alive and well in Japan. Minidiscs are alive and well in Japan. New video games [for the ps2] normally cost around $70. It seems Sony is treating the US market as if it were Japan.
However, even if this strategy bombs in the US, there is still a huge market that will eat it up. People wonder why the XBox 360 does poorly in Japan. It's because there are no games for it - most of the games that Japanese like are for PS2. The trend will continue with the PS3. Even if sales in the US are poor, Sony will recoup some of the losses from overseas markets.
I'm just guessing, but the PS3 won't bomb nearly as badly, and it will make up ground. It may not end up being more successful than the PS2, or even the XBox 360, but I think it will end up being successful.
Slashdot Mirror
I think microsoft has done exactly what Sony is doing now - tried to run an economic model that is based incorrectly. Sony has had issues adjusting to the American market, Microsoft has had issues adjusting to the Japanese market.
My point had nothing to do with Sony acting like a video game monopoly or not, or whether they're slamming things down people's throats. My only point was that the PS3 (by my estimation) will not bomb because people are focusing entirely on the American market - which is secretly not the only market in existence.
Also an 'exorbitant' price such as $500 to $600 is not exorbitant. Maybe if the cost was $300 per console - but if you think about how much the console costs, it's not exorbitant. If they're selling it for a loss of $300 per each console, that's not high pricing, that seems like a good deal to me, for the hardware at least. While you may have a point in saying that they shouldn't be pushing Blu-Ray, it IS ahead of its time - the disc size is substantially larger than DVD-HD. Regardless of whether that becomes the new standard for movies, that's the disc I want for games. Sony designed the PS3 to be excactly what people are saying here - losses for the first several years. But the lifetime of the PS3 will be longer than that of the XBox 360 because it is 'technically superior', and has been designed 'ahead of its time' so 10 years down the road (i.e. psx vs N64 vs Dreamcast) it will be more viable than the XBox 360.
The XBox may be technically superior for specifications, but it had a LOT of issues early on with crashing and faulty components. That's not technically superior overall in my eyes. Or the eyes of Japanese consumers and game producers.
I want to get a PS3, but I'll wait a couple of years until the components get cheap enough and I can buy one for cheap.
You are all forgetting that the US is not the only market Sony serves. [Unless I didn't fully read everything, and if I didn't, I'm sorry] And while Slashdot is US-centric, Sony is not.
UMD is alive and well in Japan. Minidiscs are alive and well in Japan. New video games [for the ps2] normally cost around $70. It seems Sony is treating the US market as if it were Japan.
However, even if this strategy bombs in the US, there is still a huge market that will eat it up. People wonder why the XBox 360 does poorly in Japan. It's because there are no games for it - most of the games that Japanese like are for PS2. The trend will continue with the PS3. Even if sales in the US are poor, Sony will recoup some of the losses from overseas markets.
I'm just guessing, but the PS3 won't bomb nearly as badly, and it will make up ground. It may not end up being more successful than the PS2, or even the XBox 360, but I think it will end up being successful.