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PS4 sold last year 530,000 units in the UK in five weeks (outsold Xbone by 166,000)
- Thread starter Cyberia
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I think it takes a special kind of mental retardation to not want competition. Competition brings out the best.
People will buy products for multiple reasons. I remember seeing a person get a PS3 early last gen (2006) "for Madden" as if the game was exclusive. Though he might have done it simply due to controller preference if he played the game on the PS2 (as many did back then).
Anyway, since the systems have similarities, many people are going to be buying one over the other based on exclusive features and content no matter how small or silly they may seem to you and/or me.
Also have to say how funny it is to see people want to see a system completely fail just because it doesn't have anything for them. The PS4 should do well regardless even if the Xbox One doesn't completely flop like some here (apparently) want it to.
The original Wii didn't have much I was interested in (though I still had one) but I didn't really want to see the system fall flat on its face due to it (or get mad at how well it did). I just simply played what I liked (on the 360) and eventually dismissed what the Wii was getting (after Mario Galaxy 2) since I eventually lost interest in playing the console. The whole "no one should want an inferior product to do well" is hilarious to me. A product being inferior is based on what you are personally interested in and/or want. On top of that, as I said previously, if both do well then you should still have multiple differences between future consoles since while consoles have similarities, there will never ever be exactly alike.
That whole line of thinking is just really shortsighted, selfish, and funny to me
You mean like paying for online? Great results. Great results.
Chobel
Member
Competition =/= Sale parity.
Crimson_Gold
Member
Yes. The competition in the US cell phone service industry has led to technological advances and prices that favor the consumer...oh wait. Competition for the sake of competition benefits no one. A product of competition can lead to a product losing and another coming to take its place. Propping up a product for the sake of their being "competition" brings out the best of nothing. Sony got drubbed initially with the PS3 and now we have the current situation of the Ps3 and PS4. If the XB1 is drubbed this time, maybe we will see an amazing XB2.
PS2 era was pretty great, last I checked.
And are you seriously surprised people have come to dislike Microsoft during the last year?
Acting like people are just hating on poor old Microsoft for no reason is hilarious. It's only natural that some people soured on them after all that happened.
That only happened because people supported it on 360 which made it look like Sony was leaving money on the table.
It does bring out the best.
If I have a race with Usain Bolt we'd be having a competition. But he'd storm off into the distance. It's still competition, but sometimes one team in that competition will do substantially better than others.
Last Gen with the PS360 both selling 80m and the Wii doing nearly 100m was an aberration, not the norm.
I'm not surpriised & I don't know what a 'stronghold' is exactly.
Nonetheless, a 2 million lead in UK vs 14 million lead in US is pretty comparable once you adjust for population.
Not in areas where Sony were outclassed. Online on PS2 was atrocious and half assed.
Byakuya769
Member
So you don't know what market competition is, huh?
Louis Cyphre
Banned
This is why competition is good. Sony came out with a $600 game console when the PS3 dropped. Do you honestly think they would have worked as hard to bring the price down quickly, improved it's online services if it weren't for competitors? It's why the PS4 was designed and priced the way it is. Developers also had options out there which changed Sony's philosophy on how to design hardware. If the PS3 was a runaway success like the PS2 was I imagine the PS4 would once again be a difficult system to make games on.
This is why Nintendo will continue to struggle in some key areas, they work within their own bubble. MS on the other hand got bitch slapped but luckily it happened before the product launched so they could make some changes. Would Nintendo have made those changes if they were going to do something that consumers didn't want?
It was great in the fact it dominated which meant a ton of 3rd party exclusives so choosing systems became much easier. Are you trying to suggest having those titles be available on better hardware like the first XBox and PC wouldn't be beneficial? Last I checked there was nothing unique about the PS2 that made games better on it.
infiniteheteroskdasticity
Member
That's actually a pretty huge gap considering the 360 was the UK's console of choice. This just goes to prove that the UK gaming market always buys the cheapest console and shows very little loyalty.
I'm guessing he assumes all market competitors should have equal market share which sounds a bit more like a command economy.
Or they're not idiots and don't want to pay considerably more for a weaker system?
Louis Cyphre
Banned
If only things were that black and white. You better tell Apple their products are overpriced, I'm sure they would hire you in a second.
freenudemacusers
Member
It's also weird how there is an assumption that competition has to come from Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo. This kind of thinking just leads to disruption (for example, mobile gaming)
Uno Venova
Banned
No one has to tell why competition is good, people keep getting that mixed up with sales parity though.
PhoenixDark
Banned
Impressive numbers for both. It'll be interesting to see what happens once the XB1 reaches the PS4's price.
velvet_nitemare
Member
You have to qualify that statement somehow, since Wii U is cheapest and selling like shit
Oh boy, people are mixing up sales parity with competition again. Reposting for educational purposes:
Y2Kev said:
zenosparadox
Member
One of the obvious ways that competition is good is that complacent, lazy market leaders can get knocked off their throne. This helps keep egos and policies in check. It happened with Sony after the PS2, Microsoft after the 360 and now Nintendo after the Wii. The people at the top stumble, others pick up the slack and we (hopefully) get better products as a result.
Edit: fixed a typo
Edit: fixed a typo
:lol You'll say wow.
Precisely, it's not black and white. Which is why I was offering an alternative to this:
The point being that there are a lot of factors that have swung many previous 360 owners towards Sony this coming gen. It can't be boiled down to "Brits buy the cheapest".
Crimson_Gold
Member
My point is that competition does not always produce the result that people assume. I mentioned the US cell phone industry because the providers tend to mirror one another's behavior and rarely do much to disturb the norm. T-Mobile and Sprint have tried a few new things but the big boys have the market pretty cornered.
Sony did learn lessons because of competition and made corrections. If you are unhappy with where it appears MS is headed with the XBox line, then you don't want sales parity. You want to see what some may view as a superior product to win the market. If not, you'll continue to see things like paid online and other ideas will proliferate the video games industry.
It'll be a few months before we see how the market is shaping up with both consoles readily available. The competition going forward is only good if it forces competitors to do things that benefit the consumer. Not adopt one another's ideas that are anticonsumer due to limited backlash. This generation will be a lot of fun, but remember competition for the same of competition is pointless.
(Thoughts after a wild NYE)
The only way that is happening is without a Kinect in the box.
Which basically removes the one trump card the Xbox one has got going for it.
If anything, didn't many predict that Sony is actually in a more favorable position to drop the price in the future because of the GDDR5 dropping in price?
Now that we know that the Wii U outsold the xBone in Dec things are pretty interesting. I'm not that surprised, we've been enjoying a bunch of games on our U this past week. I preordered both a PS4 and XB1 in June; sold the bone to a friend. Haven't played the PS4 much at all over the holiday aside from NBA 2K14 and AC4; between 3D World and NSMB Wii U we've been busy on the U.
From my position, if I were MSFT I'd be worried about how compelling PS4+WiiU is right now. Aside from Titanfall, why should I own a bone again? I liked Killer Instinct but I'm not paying $500 for one game. Anyone who likes Halo knows that Destiny is multiplat.
Seriously, convince me if I can only have 1 or 2 systems why I wouldn't go PS4 + Wii U first...
From my position, if I were MSFT I'd be worried about how compelling PS4+WiiU is right now. Aside from Titanfall, why should I own a bone again? I liked Killer Instinct but I'm not paying $500 for one game. Anyone who likes Halo knows that Destiny is multiplat.
Seriously, convince me if I can only have 1 or 2 systems why I wouldn't go PS4 + Wii U first...
We do?
I know you're new here so I'll be gentle but we do not allow figures cited from the place you got them from on the board.
Bone less Kinect still costs more than PS4 to produce. Sony are in a strong position on cost reduction and MS has no appetite to bleed more. They are going to lose the scale game by big numbers on software due to the inferior hardware for multi's which seems to have resonated out to the wider market. The whole thing is a giant clusterfuck for them.
Chobel
Member
Source? not the ******* ones.
What?
velvet_nitemare
Member
Byakuya769
Member
Which is a mistake that a lot of people keep making, but pulling out a "mental retardation" blast to support it is a new low.
Louis Cyphre
Banned
On that note I agree.
The cellphone analogy isn't really that good of an example because that is locked to the U.S.A. Games are global and a company like MS has learned very quickly that a competitor outside of the U.S.A. can be more competitive on their own turf. It took years for example for China to allow Apple to sell the iPhone there. Now look at what's happening.
Two products can still do well without both having the EXACT same sales. Heck, it's almost impossible for these consoles to have the exact same overall sales based on the differences in how both released (or are releasing) in countries outside of NA alone.
...Unless you somehow think that one console selling more than the other automatically makes the other one "a flop".
...Unless you somehow think that one console selling more than the other automatically makes the other one "a flop".
Delusibeta
Banned
Stop reading Chartzzz.
True dat
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the Netherlands demand for the PS4 is still crazy, even above Wii levels. I preordered a PS4 two months before release and am still waiting. The estimated delivery time for new orders is now three months.
That or supply is ridiculously low, but I doubt it.
That or supply is ridiculously low, but I doubt it.
I can answer that one - because they deserve it for what they tried to pull and their attitude towards their customers. I supported them across the life of the 360 which was an excellent machine until they made it worse and worse in the closing year or so with the advert spammed dash.
Lower sales puts them into a weaker position, apparently the only time some large corporations will start to do things for the good of their customers again.
Crimson_Gold
Member
Comparing whether a market is global or not does not change the fact that perceived competition through sales parity does not benefit the consumer, nor does it bring out the best in market competitors all of the time.
On a global scale, both Sony and MS have done things to target various markets. MS focusing mainly on the US and sony taking a more global approach. If MS loses badly, we may see a shift in focus that leads to both companies having global approaches.
secondspace
Member
I'm even less convinced about Kinect after buying the console, it's more interesting than exciting. Fighter Within seems to have bombed hard, it's the only Xbox One game I've seen cheap. How MS react once they start to get the data back about how many owners are using Kinect in a meaningful way will be interesting.
You're not alone broheim.
I'm putting my bets on big chains like Saturn or Mediamarkt getting the larger shipments. But everywhere I go they are still backordered to hell and back.
Smaller stores like GameMania or Bart Smit just start laughing when I mention PS4. I made a huge mistake not preordering.
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