Sign in to follow this  
Kolzig

Can the PS3 save Sony?

Recommended Posts

Huh. A damn interesting read. Don't know about the accuracy of the title though. Seems like the message is "The PS3 had Doomed Sony." Still, it's always good to brush up on your tech-behemoth history.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wonder how much legs the PS3 will have. Obviously it's going to sell out for the first year or whatever, but with a rumored price of 6700 SEK ($910) here in Sweden, I can't think of many casual or semi-casual gamers that would get one later on. Sony better have some sweet marketing up their sleeve to pull that one off. Obviously the slightly better pricing in the US might help some sales there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I wonder how much legs the PS3 will have. Obviously it's going to sell out for the first year or whatever, but with a rumored price of 6700 SEK ($910) here in Sweden, I can't think of many casual or semi-casual gamers that would get one later on. Sony better have some sweet marketing up their sleeve to pull that one off. Obviously the slightly better pricing in the US might help some sales there.

It's a straight story, if Sony does not bring up good games - games what they really need, not just bringing up old franchises - then they will be forced to lower not just the prices, but their expectations also. The market has changed since the launch of PS2, Microsoft really plays its cards well, Xbox 360 sales are not as high as they should be, but the software support is awesome: just look at this year's lineup, or the Q1 of 2007 - games like Dead Rising, Gears of War, Mass Effect and Lost Planet can give a huge boost to Xbox: don't forget that the machine-selling games (like MGS4, DMC4) for PS3 are not going to come out before the end of next year! (Of course, PS2's lineup wasn't very good either, the machine's biggest selling point was the built-in DVD player - but the situation is not the same this time, people are not as interested in Blu-Ray now as they were back when the DVD-Boom happened!)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think that the bottom line is that Sony is a huge company. It is far bigger than just games and music.

Blu Ray might be enough to "kill" Sony, but I don't believe that PS3 will.

It could happen, but is unlikely. The PS3 would have to fail so horribly that the stock holders of all of the Sony companies got nervous enough to sell their stocks. (Sometimes the failure of one company rubs off, and this happens. It's VERY unlikely though.) In the event that this happend, its competitors would try to buy the stocks in an attempt to gain a majority.

I can't stress how super-dooper-insanely unlikely this is, but I guess it could happen.

The PS 3 could start a chain reaction though. They've invested so much in Blu Ray that if the failure of the PS3 somehow made the Blu Ray format look bad, it could damage the overall strategy that they've been using.

The PS3 has been all about getting Blu Ray into homes. To make people who may have a DVD player in their car, laptop, pc, portable dvd players ect... swtich to a format that requires a large HD tv to notice a difference, they have to be very convincing.

They probably would have been better off waiting to do Blu Ray with PS 4, but there are a good number of risks that would have come with that. (Right now they have brand recognition with the PS systems as #1... who knows what 4 years would do.)

Many people bought PS2 as a cheap DVD player. DVD was the "big thing" at the time, and there were many reasons that people chose to switch to this format. I'm not sure that we've been show much of a reasoning as to why Blu Ray is something to spend our money on. I certainly won't be getting one, because aside from my giant DVD collection, I don't have the money for a largish HD TV.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
They've invested so much in Blu Ray that if the failure of the PS3 somehow made the Blu Ray format look bad, it could damage the overall strategy that they've been using.

Phil Harrison himself said that the "next-generation" (PS4<) will not benefit neither from blu-ray, nor any other formats - as we all know, the future is digital distribution. THat's why Microsoft's fight with HD-DVD is meaningless, and they really know that - it doesn't matter which format "wins", it's just something to spend time with.

But - the Playstation brand never sounded that bad since it was introduced back in '94: we have seen nothing from the machine, except some mediocre demos running from early devkits. It's just a great looking plastic balloon with a big dump of hype inside. It could easily pop off.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Eurogamer

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that the release date for PlayStation 3 in PAL territories has been pushed back until March 2007.

Said so? :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, it could be a lot worse for Sony...

Oh wait, what's this?

In the U.S., about 400,000 PlayStation 3 machines will be available when they go on sale Nov. 17. About 100,000 will be available on the Nov. 11 Japan launch date.

:cens0red: So fucked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Didn't the 360 release in the US with similar numbers?

Yeah, the 360 launched with 400,000 units for North America. Not sure about Japan, but I think it was 150,000 or thereabout. You have to factor in that Europe also got 300,000 units though. Anyway, that launch was nothing but shortages, expect for Japan, and considering the number of sold PS2s versus the number of sold Xboxes one would think that the user base is larger for a new Sony product.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Is 400 000 a small amount? Maybe Sony realized it won't sell at that price ;)

The PS2 launched with 500,000 units in NA and around 1,000,000 in Japan so this is pretty underwhelming any way you look at it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this