Sony And The No-Confidence Vote 245
Sony continues to spend the goodwill it has achieved over the last generation of consoles. As widely reported over the weekend, last Friday CEO for SCE Europe David Reeves spoke to the press. "We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even it didn't have games." This 'you'll buy it anyway' attitude has further annoyed gamers already rankling from the announced pricetag. Next Gen and IGN talk about the two sides of the coin, with IGN laying into the company for the lack of HDMI output in the cheaper model, and Next Generation saying that Sony is far from defeated.
Yeah, everyone will buy one. Suuuuure. (Score:4, Interesting)
Granted I don't have my finger on the pulse of the entire world, but the people I hang around have nothing but bad stuff to say about the PS3. Sorry the market's so fickle, Sony, but 2001's "xbox is heavy" and "Gamecube is for kiddies" is this year's "PS3 is expensive"
HDCP not needed for HD? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060521-688
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/22/studios-wont-d
Re:They Had My Money (Score:4, Interesting)
But Nintendo is still only charging $250 or so
And $600 just strikes me as WAY TOO MUCH. Even if it is not that bad historically. I could buy a decent laptop for that. I could buy a new HDTV. I could pay 2 months of car payments on a VERY nice car.
If MS wanted $400, Sony wanted $600, and Nintendo wanted $400 then I might be willing to pay more. But if Nintendo can sell their console (that I REALLY want) for $250, then Sony won't get me to buy their "ultra powerful do all" console (that I'm somewhat interested in) for 2-3x that.
And that assumes Nintendo doesn't go with $200 (1/3 the price of a PS3) or $150 (1/4 the price).
Big ships keep going by momentum (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony's engine is blown. Yes, they'll sell this generation of consoles. No matter what. People loved their PS, they loved their PS2, they'll buy the PS3. No matter what. But, and here is the problem Sony has to solve, the PS4 sales will rely on the PS3 results as much as the PS3 sales will benefit from the PS2 experience.
Because a ship that's dead in the water takes an incredible amount 'til it gets going again.
Re:Yeah, everyone will buy one. Suuuuure. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:HDCP not needed for HD? (Score:1, Interesting)
HDCP is already cracked. The studios don't care.
The point of HDCP is not to prevent piracy, it's to lock 3rd parties out of the hardware market. They want to avoid a repeat of the flood of cheap chinese knock-off DVD players that appeared after CSS got cracked. If HDCP actually stops a few people from copying movies that's a bonus, but it's not the main reason for HDCP.
Re:Goodwill equity does not exist in a market (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, this assumes the customer realizes he's been hurt. Or perhaps knowingly hurting a small percentage of your customers is acceptable because it's more cost effective. Or perhaps you've just taken over a business with a good reputation and are perfectly happy to destroy the business in a year or so, harming many customers in process, in exchange for a short term increase in profit. Or you've got a monopoly through some means and can generally treat your customers like crap because they don't have other viable options.
The market may self-correct, but it doesn't do so instantaneously. During the churn as the market adjusts, innocent people get hurt. A tobacco company willfully suppresses information on the danger of their products. A con artist convinces people to invest in his new company, then skips the country with the money. An automotive manufacturer ships a car with a deadly flaw because it's cheaper to pay off the occasional lawsuit that will result instead of fixing the flaw. A construction firm building a house runs massively late because once construction is underway it's extremely difficult to change companies. A software company ships deeply buggy software because its users are trapped by incompatible file formats, bad standards, or license agreements. If you wait long enough the market will correct, but in the meanwhile people get hurt. And when the market corrects, it's just time for the next dishonest businessman to step to the plate of greed.
Re:Crown isn't hereditary, really (Score:2, Interesting)
everyone is suddenly thinking Sony is the only company in the history of corperations to act like they are better then everyone else.
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Microsoft pull this off years ago (and still pulls it off today)? Didn't Apple act this way back in the 80's (and once again today)?
Nintendo did it with the SNES (going into the N64 they were acting like everyone would buy it simply because it was Nintendo), Sega did it going from the Genesis to the Saturn, Sony is doing it going from the PS2 to the PS3.
Give it a few more years and be amazed when we see "editorials" like this poping up again Complaining about Microsoft's price hiking on their latest system going from a previous one, simply because it sold better then any other system that generation.
I don't get why everyone is so suprised about this, Sony is riding high just as Sega was when they charged $400 for the Saturn, Just like when Nintendo charged $300 for the N64 (I couldn't find them anywheres around here for less) even though both their previous systems sold for $200, Sony released the PS1 for either $400 or $300 (depending where you looked, Toys 'R us charged $400 for it but everywheres else I looked it was only $300) then the PS2 was $300 because they were still trying to break into the gaming market, with the PS2 they got alittle more cocky because they had more third party's on their side then Sega or Nintendo.
Come 2000, Sega is gone, Sony is riding high and Nintendo is trying to reclaim it's crown, Microsoft comes out of nowheres with a system (just like Sony did 5 years prior) and it suprised people, They didn't really have the same support as Sony did 5 years prior but they had enough.
where did the change happen and when did I miss it? Microsoft announced $400 for a 20gb hdd version and everyone is all excited about it and doesn't think it's strange and they justify it instantly. Sony announces a $600 60gb hdd version and suddenly everyone shits their pants and can't understand why they are charging so much for it...what? A new processor is being used, a true next gen drive is in it, it can read just about every kind of card you can think of, yet no one can justify it, Yet when it comes to the 360 "oh yeah it's got that HDD that's why it's more" and that's it, that justifys the $100 higher over last generation?
What's going to be interesting is to see what Nintendo unltimatly sells the Wii at, everyone is automatically assuming it will be no more then $200, But what happens if they charge $250 or even $300 for it? will people act like they are over the PS3 or will they justify it quite nicely and act like it was to be expected?
Sony already lost me... (Score:2, Interesting)
I have 4 consoles sitting in front of my TV now: NES, SNES, Gamecube, PS2. Can you guess which 3 I haven't had problems with? And if Sony thinks I'm gaga over blu-ray they can sit on their thumb and twist! I have around 50 DVDs sitting on my shelf. I could care less about blu-ray when all the movies I actually want to watch are sitting in my entertainment center already. I'm getting a Wii once they come out, no doubt. I might even get a 360 if the price ever drops... But, I will not get a PS3!
True up to a point (Score:5, Interesting)
But what is even more amazing is how unbalanced fanboys can be.
For totally nuts check this out. A lot of 360 owners slam Sony for not having the cool controls of the Wii. Hello? Doesn't the 360 have zero innovation in its controller? So you slam Sony for adding only 1 small feature vs Nintendo redesign while being the proud owner of a console that has that same old controller that been used for the last decade?
Pot calling kettle black?
I seen a lot of complaining about 360 not being fully backwards compatible. Both the PS3 and Wii promise to be different so how come MS ain't slammed for that?
It seems that a lot of people got something against Sony. Perhaps it is just a David vs Goliath syndrome, we love to see the big guy taken down a notch and perhaps it has to do with the root kit (then again if you run windows surely you gotten used to be rooted by now)
However fanboys vendetta's do not make accurate sale predictions.
So far as I can see the consoles all got their weaknesses.
Will it matter? We will know in 2010 when the next-next generations consoles will start to be talked about.
In short the real weakness of the PS3 is that it might just not be able to actually produce any games that are richer then the 360 or even worse, the Wii. Rich for me means AI, Physics, unit count, size of area etc etc. NOT resolution.
Not that any of the console companies are likely to care but I predict that PC gamers will once again look at consoles and go, "nice game kid". Pat the player on the head and go play a real game.
Or put another way. Console fanboys eat my keyboard!
Re:Goodwill equity does not exist in a market (Score:3, Interesting)
"Agreed, but you forgot the music industry. They've been seriously hurting artists and customers for decades, and the market still hasn't corrected."
I don't think he did. The market is self-creating in their case, but it is taking longer because they've had a complete monopoly for so long and they still have a lot of popular artists on their side. There simply wasn't an alternative in their case, but now there are alternatives and more alternatives keep arising. But it is happening. I think that proves his point quite well -- no matter how deeply entrenched a monopoly may be, it will eventually be broken, if it takes 80 years or even longer.