Sony PS3

[The Author]

I think Sony finally has their marketing down.

Great idea. If you can't beat the competition, confuse the customers.

[The Damned]

OK, so the Japanese fucking loved the PS2. Really, they bought it and bought it and bought it some more. Kind of like the DS nowadays.

So how are things going for the PS3 in Japan right now? So bad, a book asking why it failed is number 15 on Japanese book lists.

So why is it that Sony went from market leader with a huge lead over the other two guys, to a distant second and getting comfy with the gaijin console in only a few years? How can any company screw up so badly so quickly in their own region?

[shikigami]

So why is it that Sony went from market leader with a huge lead over the other two guys, to a distant second and getting comfy with the gaijin console in only a few years? How can any company screw up so badly so quickly in their own region?

by marketing to the base which has the fewest amount of people.

[lazygecko]

Hasn't the overconfidence and the "screw our customers" attitude been pointing towards that for a good while now?

[The Author]

Sony in general has been doing badly. The battery thing really ruined their reputation with many people.

Think about it, if they can screw up a 20$ battery, they can screw up a 700$ console.

In addition, they keep changing it, trying to convince us the PS3's newest iteration is an improvement, but they keep removing things.

Even their price cut was on a discontinued product.

[Devyn]

The Heavenly Sword demo was just too damn short.

I didn't like it too much but saying that I am playing through Ninja Gaiden Sigma right now and to be honest i don't think anything bar Devil May Cry and God Of War can hold a candle to the sheer greatness of NG (all versions)

I agree. What an excellent game.

[shikigami]

Sony in general has been doing badly. The battery thing really ruined their reputation with many people.

Think about it, if they can screw up a 20$ battery, they can screw up a 700$ console.

i dont know maybe they have shitty business analysts who think a $700 console that provides a gargantuan amount of processing, 80% which will never be used before the next generation of consoles, and a pure lack of development interest will sell OK.

[Bigfoot]

Rumored $399 40gig PS3 with Spider-man 3 Blu-ray coming this Holiday season along with a $99 PS2.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/09/09/500-80gb-ps3-with-a-spiderman-3-blu-ray-pack-in-our-mole-lets-us-in-on-sonys-future-plans

[SilverStar]

OK, so the Japanese fucking loved the PS2. Really, they bought it and bought it and bought it some more. Kind of like the DS nowadays.

So how are things going for the PS3 in Japan right now? So bad, a book asking why it failed is number 15 on Japanese book lists.

So why is it that Sony went from market leader with a huge lead over the other two guys, to a distant second and getting comfy with the gaijin console in only a few years? How can any company screw up so badly so quickly in their own region?

Distant 3rd. Wii is about 11 million, X360 is about 10.5 million, PS3 is just shy of 5 million.

[The Damned]

Is that in Japan only, or world wide? Because I was talking about Japan only.

[SilverStar]

Is that in Japan only, or world wide? Because I was talking about Japan only.

I'm talking globally.

In Japan, PS3 is still 3rd place, because DS still outsells everything else under the sun. And to say it isn't competing for the same market there, is kinda foolish. Over there, if they have a DS, they don't need much else to play.

Also, I just realized something.

It isn't Nintendo who designed themselves out of the console race this generation, by "not competing" against the other two. It's actually Sony who designed themselves out.

They created a machine that had the focus on absolutely EVERYTHING, before games. At first, they were actually saying it was not a game console, period. It's a home computer.

As a home computer, the sales aren't too bad.

As a Blu-Ray player, the sales are pretty damn good.

As a growing media center PC, it has lots of potential.

But only last week did Sony even say that the PS3 is a game machine. The one aspect they've failed to even try to push on the world. And because of that, PS3 is competing in the same market as general, all-purpose home computers, with a TV output instead of standard monitor jacks on a video card.

As a game console, PS3 is a failure. And at this point, they'll probably see more influential productions in the BD-Java department, than in classic console games.

X360: Games first and foremost. Even if you just get the core edition, it can play every game out there currently(not including XBLA). Yes, that will change, but only for certain titles. It does that job rather well.

Wii: Designed exclusively for games. It has a web browser, but it's totally optional and more or less tacked on for those who just want one for the hell of it. Out of the box, it has everything you need to start playing games without worry. Including downloadable titles.

PS3: Designed as a high-class, entry-level Blu-Ray player. Has official Linux compatibility. Feature set is still fluid in design, with reports and rumors of ever-new models coming out, while they constantly phase out old models. Core backwards functionality was removed after 10 months, in favor of software, to varying levels of success. Online media store functionality is in the works, along with a very heavy advertising campaign for it.

Games? Yeah, it can do that too. But you can't find a better Blu-Ray player for the price! That's where the power is!

Sony actually designed the PS3 as something other than a game console, and as such they're failing in the one market everyone expected them to be in. But the other markets they're in, they're doing respectably well in. They could just put it in a micro-tower case and release it as a standalone PC and it might appeal to a broader market.

[Bigfoot]

The PS3 was an awesome choice for a blu-ray player from launch because most Blu-Ray players at the time were no cheaper than $999.

Now they're starting to get below the $500 range.

[SilverStar]

Maybe they should focus more on everything but the gameplay "experience" for PS3 games, and try to rebrand it to fit in with the set-top-box ideas? Go for a TiVo idea, but with the ability to do a LOT more. Record your shows, while using a fully functioning, fully featured Linux OS, or record while watching a DVD or BluRay movie, so you don't miss out on your favorite program.

Or, if they were to do something so you could record your program while actually playing a game.. that might earn them some good cred, there.

[Bigfoot]

They should also not force the motion sensing capabilities of their controller onto players. Look what happened with Lair. Imagine how much better that could have been if they added the option not to use them.

I seriously thought that game could have been a good title, but then I started reading reviews and ouch..

[shikigami]

Maybe they should focus more on everything but the gameplay "experience" for PS3 games, and try to rebrand it to fit in with the set-top-box ideas? Go for a TiVo idea, but with the ability to do a LOT more. Record your shows, while using a fully functioning, fully featured Linux OS, or record while watching a DVD or BluRay movie, so you don't miss out on your favorite program.

Or, if they were to do something so you could record your program while actually playing a game.. that might earn them some good cred, there.

youll never get a job at sony because you have good ideas.

[SilverStar]

They should also not force the motion sensing capabilities of their controller onto players. Look what happened with Lair. Imagine how much better that could have been if they added the option not to use them.

I seriously thought that game could have been a good title, but then I started reading reviews and ouch..

Curse of the Dragon.

the only good dragon-centric games to be released in anything close to recent history, have been the earlier Spyro games, and the Panzer Dragoon saga. Anything else that tries it, fails. Miserably.

youll never get a job at sony because you have good ideas.

Yeah, I know. Plus, I wouldn't try advertising PS3 with games like PGR3 or Halo 3.

Too bad Sony just doesn't seem able to get their advertising.. or even just their focus, done anything sane, these days.

[The Damned]

They should also not force the motion sensing capabilities of their controller onto players. Look what happened with Lair. Imagine how much better that could have been if they added the option not to use them.

More importantly, they could have just not slapped it on at all. They only put motion control on their system because they saw how much attention Nintendo got when they did it.

But even then, there are the developers that could have taken more time getting what little functionality it has, and tried harder to get it to work better.

Seriously, Lair seems rushed in almost every regard.

[SilverStar]

More importantly, they could have just not slapped it on at all. They only put motion control on their system because they saw how much attention Nintendo got when they did it.

But even then, there are the developers that could have taken more time getting what little functionality it has, and tried harder to get it to work better.

Seriously, Lair seems rushed in almost every regard.

Except that it was sent back for an extra 6 months of work and still came out as being the laughable gimmick everyone thought Wii would have been.

[The Author]

Sony helped Nintendo on that aspect.

If the Wii had been the only motion sensing console, it would have been the worse as well as the best. Now, with Sony placing themselves firmly in the worse position, they allowed Nintendo to be the best.

Seriously, if we have no point of reference, we cannot evaluate something.

[Hector]

PS3 may be doing well as everything but a game console currently, but that is where it is most important for it to succeed. The PS3, like the 360, is about high-production value games. Each title sold improves the profit margin of a game. Therefore, if Sony fails to get sufficient market share, the high-production value titles will cease to come through for them. And that, means a reputation for mediocrity. The Gamecube suffered this same problem last generation, having the smallest market-share companies devoted the least resources to it--which led people to consider it the weakest console.

If the PS3 fails in this respect, the 360 will clean house with them. The 360 has similar multimedia capabilities to the PS3 (wasn't it also supposed to get an HD-DVD attachment?)--just not quite as powerful. With the leverage provided by its gamer fan-base, the 360 will become the more dominant multimedia platform. Home-brew electronics favor the most prevalent platform, this is even seen in Linux with its preference for PC hardware. Gamers are one of Sony's most important assets for pushing their electronics. They cannot afford to lose them to 360.

And for Wii fans: the Wii isn't designed enough as a multimedia platform, so Microsoft's edge over Sony is more threatening than Nintendo's.

[shikigami]

And for Wii fans: the Wii isn't designed enough as a multimedia platform, so Microsoft's edge over Sony is more threatening than Nintendo's.

except whether or not it comes with a dvd player is irrelevant to me when im buying a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE.

[Bahamut]

Who the fuck cares about the stupid console war notion?

[shikigami]

Who the fuck cares about the stupid console war notion?

shigeru miyamoto feat. hiroshi yamauchi, ken kutaragi, and bill gates.

[SilverStar]

Even for the same market, there's nothing a $600 PS3 can offer that the $399 X360 doesn't already do, often better.

And that is, to play games.

For all the other features the PS3 has, I have a PC. Which does it all better.

So, PS3 is X360 with a 200 dollar premium, and 10% of the content.

[KakTheInfected]

I'll buy a PS3 when Gran Turismo 5 is out and it doesn't cost $5-600 to play it. Until then, it remains nothing but an overpriced system for graphics whores (Lair lol).