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CNN Money :Sony's PS3 A Sinking Ship: Sales Plummet
- Thread starter Hammerhai
- Start date
Earthpainting
Member
We most definitely needed more PSTRIPPLE IS DOOMMED!!!!1!1oneone themed threads and articles. Thanks, OP.
"2. The PS3's big bonus is its ability to double as a Blu-Ray player. Too bad no one seems to care about hi-def DVDs. The differences between Blu-Ray and DVD are hard to see on a TV less than 50"."
I only have a cheap 26" HDTV and HD content is massively better than SD content, I have 16 HD DVDs and they all look spectacular, so this guy is either blind or an idiot.
That aside, the elephant is still in the room, PS3 sales FELL YOY in November, and the single biggest issue is price, SCE may not be able to cut the price of the PS3, but when the 360 is available at half the price it will continue to dominate the "HD" console market.
I only have a cheap 26" HDTV and HD content is massively better than SD content, I have 16 HD DVDs and they all look spectacular, so this guy is either blind or an idiot.
That aside, the elephant is still in the room, PS3 sales FELL YOY in November, and the single biggest issue is price, SCE may not be able to cut the price of the PS3, but when the 360 is available at half the price it will continue to dominate the "HD" console market.
Articles like this reinforce Sony's big problem; if you are going to have a premium-priced system, you have to convey a sense of added value to the average consumer. The fact that some jackass at Time is whining about the 'mediocre' content of the PS3 is obnoxious, but still, PS3-exclusive IP just doesn't seem to take hold in the mind of the average consumer. Why is that?
Seriously, why are LBP, MGS, Motorstorm, etc., all not more broadly recognized by consumers? Aside from price as a the main barrier to entry, I think this just shows how shitty Sony's marketing has been with the PS3. When I speak to casual gamer friends, they generally have awareness of 360 and Nintendo IP, but almost no awareness of PS3 IP.
Seriously, why are LBP, MGS, Motorstorm, etc., all not more broadly recognized by consumers? Aside from price as a the main barrier to entry, I think this just shows how shitty Sony's marketing has been with the PS3. When I speak to casual gamer friends, they generally have awareness of 360 and Nintendo IP, but almost no awareness of PS3 IP.
Saren is Bad
Member
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Whoa, not HDD.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
No. *hugs his 320GB PS3*clashfan said:
DeaconKnowledge
Member
A lot of you guys seem to be forgetting the 40-90 dollar Upscaling DVD players being made now.
Why the hell would a person buy a Blu Ray player when they go into Best Buy and the guy in the DVD sections tells them that a DVD player at the fraction of the price can make the DVDs they already have look better?
I know personally, I'm not buying a Blu-Ray player until they massively drop in price and the Blu-Rays aren't a ridiculous price to rent at Blockbuster. I bought a 1080p Upscaling DVD player for my 42" and I couldn't be happier.
Why the hell would a person buy a Blu Ray player when they go into Best Buy and the guy in the DVD sections tells them that a DVD player at the fraction of the price can make the DVDs they already have look better?
I know personally, I'm not buying a Blu-Ray player until they massively drop in price and the Blu-Rays aren't a ridiculous price to rent at Blockbuster. I bought a 1080p Upscaling DVD player for my 42" and I couldn't be happier.
a Master Ninja
Member
When I talk to consumers, they almost never say the reason they want to buy a PS3 is some exclusive title. They typically cite wanting to play multiplat titles like Call of Duty, GH, GTA, etc. What turns many of them off from the 360 is having to pay to play online. Sony should better advertise that playing games online is free. This resonates with a lot of gamers.lawblob said:
I don't know why anyone would still fight the whole MGS4 exclusivity thing.
First of all, yes, right now it IS exclusive, but sony will not pay much to keep it that way. It's not in there interests or strategy for this generation. If they cared about third party exclusives, they would have bought them, that's for sure.
All of their money is going into their first party studios so they can build them and their franchises into blockbuster hits and by doing so, they can ensure the future of their consoles will be full of franchises that are great, and have no choice but to stay exclusive. If Killzone can be a breakout hit like Gears was, or if Infamous becomes the next hit IP, (I'm just pulling names out of my ass, it's just for exemplary reasons) they control the exclusivity of it and thus, don't put themselves into a situation like this generation. Imagine Gran Turismo 5 going multiplatform?
It's a shitty short term proposition, but if it works out, is in actuality, a very effective long-term strategy.
So will MGS4 stay exclusive forever? That's not for me to say, but it's not in Sony's business to plan to keep it that way because if it was, GTA4, FF13 and Tekken 6 would probably be exclusive.
On-Topic: The article sucks. Seriously. We needed this article to tell us PS3 sales were floundering? We already know, and we know it's because of the price and because owning two HD consoles is redundant. If Sony gets the hyped exclusives of 09,10,11 and so on, people who are bored of their 360, or want something new will switch.
I don't care what the console sells, that's Sony's responsibility, as long as I get my God of War 3, all will be well in the world.
First of all, yes, right now it IS exclusive, but sony will not pay much to keep it that way. It's not in there interests or strategy for this generation. If they cared about third party exclusives, they would have bought them, that's for sure.
All of their money is going into their first party studios so they can build them and their franchises into blockbuster hits and by doing so, they can ensure the future of their consoles will be full of franchises that are great, and have no choice but to stay exclusive. If Killzone can be a breakout hit like Gears was, or if Infamous becomes the next hit IP, (I'm just pulling names out of my ass, it's just for exemplary reasons) they control the exclusivity of it and thus, don't put themselves into a situation like this generation. Imagine Gran Turismo 5 going multiplatform?
It's a shitty short term proposition, but if it works out, is in actuality, a very effective long-term strategy.
So will MGS4 stay exclusive forever? That's not for me to say, but it's not in Sony's business to plan to keep it that way because if it was, GTA4, FF13 and Tekken 6 would probably be exclusive.
On-Topic: The article sucks. Seriously. We needed this article to tell us PS3 sales were floundering? We already know, and we know it's because of the price and because owning two HD consoles is redundant. If Sony gets the hyped exclusives of 09,10,11 and so on, people who are bored of their 360, or want something new will switch.
I don't care what the console sells, that's Sony's responsibility, as long as I get my God of War 3, all will be well in the world.
Sony's pricing/packaging strategy has been totally retarded this year. First they start off really well by dropping the price to $399 and releasing an 80gig MGS4 bundle. Thats an 80gb system with ps2 bc, card readers, and a game. It sells really well because it's a good value, and people recognize it. Then what do they decide to do? Release an 80gb model with no ps2 bc, no card readers, and most of all, no GAME, and they decide to go into the holidays with this bundle? Seriously Sony? You're going to make the holiday bundle LESS of a value than the model you were providing at the beginning of the year? And you expect people to still consider it a good deal? Bra-fucking-vo!
Psychotext
Member
I wasn't replying to the article... I was replying to the person who was talking about what a big difference they saw.Zoe said:
H_Prestige
Banned
lawblob said:
Their marketing does suck really bad. They already have added value in the ps3. They just don't advertise it. Blu ray, hard drive, wireless, free online, and exclusive games. Their latest batch of commercials looked cool, but I couldn't even tell what they were showing a lot of the time, and I even knew what games to look for. How on earth does someone who doesn't know about R2, LBP, uncharted, or MS figure out what the hell he just watched?
And they should put that ps2 chip back. I don't think the Uncharted bundle is selling nearly as well as the MGS4 bundle did.
RadarScope1
Member
lawblob said:
Yep.
tekumseh
a mass of phermones, hormones and adrenaline just waiting to explode
RadarScope1 said:
Fucking Joe Wal-Mart still has trouble buying dvd's that are not full-screen, so he can see the "whole picture" and not have to look at those black bars taking up his 27 inches of valuable 4:3 viewing real estate.
The bigger thing that this guy missed out on is that Sony still sells hundreds of thousands of PS2's each month, a stream of revenue that Microsoft abandoned when it moved to the 360. Sony also has a nice handheld division that Microsoft doesn't have. When you combine the sales from the 3 systems Sony has in the marketplace, they sold over 1,000,000 new systems in November. Microsoft sold 836,000.
Mindshare is all important, this year has seen exclusives like MGS4, Resistance 2, LBP, MS2 GT5P yet SCE (And especially in the UK SCEE) have completely made a hash of marketing the PS3.lawblob said:
The PS3 is a fucking fantastic console, it really is, we (As hardened gamers at GAF) know this and thus accept the entry price as acceptable, value for money wise the PS3 still beats the Xbox 360, the general public? Not a chance, and it is all due to poor marketing.
Higher end products can sell shedloads (See the iPhone for an expensive, overpriced device that still sells like mad) if people perceive it to be worth it, in the PS3s case, Sony haven't conveyed successfully to the general public that the PS3 is worth the extra cash compared to the Xbox 360, hence the slipping sales figures.
The problem for SCE now, is that it may be too late to convice the consumer base that PS3 is worth the money, especially during the recession, leaving them with 2 very painful options:
1: Leave the price as it is as long as possible, and ride the storm with at least a modest profit on hardware sales (PS3 HAS to be profitable per unit by now, if not...fuck), while accepting that hardware sales will be severely affected during the coming months, or...
2: Drop the price, right now, have the shift ripped from your backs on hardware sales, and hope that software carries you through and long term, it pays off.
I wouldn't want to be a SCE exec right now.
You may want to change the and between PS3 and PC to or, as Halo 3, Fable 2, and Gears 2 aint going near a PS3...ever.TheExodu5 said:
DrPirate said:
Yeah. You'd imagine that one of America's biggest news networks would think twice before posting news that the few thousand people who regularly post on GAF already know about. The way they carry on, anyone would think they have a broader audience of millions of people from all walks of life.
RadarScope1
Member
tekumseh said:
Oh, I don't think we want to get into that do we?
R, Persona 4, Valkyria Chronicles, then I'll comment on this article.Stop It said:
Well I meant or. I don't want to add a filthy edit tag to my post. :lol
Wasn't trying to discredit 360 exclusivity, just his post. Timed exclusivity is all that matters when it comes to system sellers, which is what we're talking about here in the first place. I doubt timed exclusives like Bioshock didn't sell any PS3s when they hit. It would have, however, sold 360s and PC hardware.
Sony needs to fire who's in charge of their marketing, people barely know about their IP's. They dropped the ball with LBP by not releasing any merchandising or starting any pre-hype outside the internet. Nintendo's IP"s are this succesfull because back in the NES days Mario's face was on all kinds of products. Cereal, Mcdonalds, merchandising etc. There's Wii and DS product placement on all kinds of TV shows.
Microsoft did the same with the HALO franchise. Their advertising was so good that I bought HALO 3 allthough I didn't care about the series at all and I'm still shocked that I actually got it at launch.(Writing Halo in caps, is something that the marketing burned into my mind as well)
Starting an expensive marketing campaign for a new IP is a big investment, but it pays off when millions of 'fans' are ready toe buy the sequel. You'd think that after both PS1 and PS2, Sony knows how to market consoles and games.
Microsoft did the same with the HALO franchise. Their advertising was so good that I bought HALO 3 allthough I didn't care about the series at all and I'm still shocked that I actually got it at launch.(Writing Halo in caps, is something that the marketing burned into my mind as well)
Starting an expensive marketing campaign for a new IP is a big investment, but it pays off when millions of 'fans' are ready toe buy the sequel. You'd think that after both PS1 and PS2, Sony knows how to market consoles and games.
a Master Ninja
Member
Understatement of the YearH_Prestige said:
The MGS4 bundle was wildly popular. This bundle has been a massive flop. It's the SKU nobody asked for. Expect the bundle's price to be significantly reduced after the holidays because of retailers have stacks of this "limited bundle" left unsold.
Haunted
Member
wordGaborn said:
It's not about there not being a difference, it's about the mainstream consumer not really caring about it.
Also, I've never heard of Silicon Valley insider, but the tone of the article is rather unprofessional. Or just brutally honest because people on CNNmoney don't give a shit about fanboy feelings, I don't really know which.
Zoe said:
Even cheap upscaling DVD players treat the 480i source material like shit. They de-interlace horribly, and leave plenty of scaling artifacts. You need an Oppo or a PS3 to get in the realm of good DVD quality...but of course, at that price point, Blu-Ray players are fairly cost effective. Most people just don't give a shit though...I'm always amazed how my mom can't tell the difference.
lowlylowlycook
Member
Stop It said:
First the iPhone example would be closer to the mark if iPhones could only call other iPhones or something. It's pretty well set in stone that the PS3 isn't going to be getting more than a very few 3rd party exclusives from now on. That's why it's hard to imagine an "expensive" and "exclusive" console really making any sense.
I hate to break it to you but the rising Yen has probably pushed the PS3 pretty far from the break even point in the US. Last I remember the $500 was breaking even. Even it might be in the red now.