Get rich quick thanks to SCEA!

[War Lord]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/kotaku-magu...200-235204.php

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/10

I just got my EGM last week and read this whole interview. The guy is a nut.
I've seen PS3's on shelves every time I go to Wal-Mart or Best Buy or wherever and it's been that way since the Holidays. I wish I had known about this so I could have quit my job.

[g.iaroos]

Haha I can't believe this guy. Always look before you leap ... and this guy didn't follow the advice. PS3 weren't shipped in large quantity but there wasn't THAT many people that wanted one either. Especialy not a 600 bucks a piece.

[Tygore]

Welcome to Sonyland. Please check your dignity and basic numbers comprehension at the door.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

One could not talk about this subject without posting the latest Penny-Arcade. I apologize if it's a bit large.

[Warlock]

Yeah I laughed pretty hard at that. I was just at Super Target over the weekend and they had a ton of PS3s - which is not to say how many they might have even had in the backroom because there was no more shelf space.

[AtmaWeapon]

One could not talk about this subject without posting the latest Penny-Arcade. I apologize if it's a bit large.


[img GIGANTIC PA COMIC]

Way to read the first post man.

Anyway I was thinking about this last night and it kind of makes me mad and kind of doesn't. Sony's behavior as of late kind of reminds me of the press and hype surrounding the N-Gage. The target demographic is interested and curious but the marketing department is doing everything they can to alienate and insult the demographic.

Seriously. The way I see it, gamers are interested in the system and waiting for some killer game to come out that establishes the PS3's role in the pecking order. In the meantime, Sony has inserted its foot in its mouth pretty much every time they let their marketing department get interviewed.

I think the problem is they don't fully understand the situation the PS3 is in. The PS2 launched when the only viable competitors were the N64 and XBox, with the Gamecube still in development. Consumers were wary of the XBox due to distrust of Microsoft within the nerd community and a lack of stellar games, and the N64 wasn't exactly a tough competitor in the eyes of the Playstation crowd. Gamecube was coming, but still far enough away you could save your money and get it if it turned interesting. So the PS2 launched to a dedicated audience against virtually no competition. It was suitably priced and sold great because honestly it had no disadvantages at the time. By the time the XBox and Gamecube established themselves as worthy competitors, the PS2 had a library of exclusive titles that kept gamers interested in it despite its hardware shortcomings.

The PS3 launched in a completely different environment, and it seems Sony has not realized this yet. The XBox managed to attract an audience as strong as Sony's, and the XBox 360 had a full year to gain momentum before the release of the PS3. Nintendo responded to the N64 backlash by relying on its reputation for quirky, fun games, and the Wii promised to bring a completely new dimension to this experience. Both systems are highly anticipated, one is at least as powerful as the PS3, both are significantly less expensive than the PS3. Nintendo realized the Wii was a hard sell and responded by making a Zelda game, a sure sell, one of the launch titles.

In the consumer's eyes, the game library and functionality of the PS3 is not significantly competitive with the XBox 360. Until Sony can come out with a few of its juicy exclusives, the public's perception as I read it is the PS3 is a little bundle of potential. People don't run to the stores and drop a few weeks' paycheck down for "probable fun", they'd rather drop a mortgage payment on something that is fun as soon as they take it out of the box. So really, the somewhat stagnant sales of PS3 aren't necessarily a sign of consumer rejection, but a sign of consumer anticipation; the early adopters got the system ASAP like usual but the average Joe is asking Sony to make it worth their while first.

Sony does not understand this because investors do not understand this. The business types see the numbers and read them as "people don't want the Playstation 3" so Sony fires up the hype machine and makes wild claims in an attempt to do damage control. The problem is, while these statements keep the investors happy, they demean and insult the very people who are still waiting for that one killer game to buy a PS3.

Can Sony hold out until the good games start flowing, or will they pull a Nokia and discourage consumers from purchasing their system on principle? Only time will tell.

[MottZilla]

Your details are wrong there Atma. PS2 came out while N64 was out from the previous gen and DreamCast was out for the new gen. Xbox came out later, as did GameCube. But you're right, when PS2 launched it's competition was weak. And it remained that way so long that they were then doing so well they couldn't be stopped.

[Warlock]

Your details are wrong there Atma. PS2 came out while N64 was out from the previous gen and DreamCast was out for the new gen. Xbox came out later, as did GameCube. But you're right, when PS2 launched it's competition was weak. And it remained that way so long that they were then doing so well they couldn't be stopped.

Right. Dreamcast was the only real competitor and Sony had more "street cred" at the time with developers and gamers. Meanwhile, Sega was coming off Saturn which was pretty much a failure. Dreamcast was in all ways a better system than PS2, but unfortunately it just didn't get the attention it should have, especially with GC and Xbox on the horizon not long after.

Xbox might have stole some thunder if it didn't come out a year later and as Microsoft's first console (aka "We'll see if Microsoft screws this up first before we jump on board") and IIRC $100 more than PS2. It still did fairly well considering that though. GameCube was just not really in it - everyone still had their pre-conceived notions that Nintendo was a kiddie company, and Yamauchi being the dumbass that he is wasn't helping matters. Really I think Iwata taking over was the best thing that could have happened to Nintendo. I have to say I think he really saved GC from being another N64 by at least getting more third parties interested in the system and getting some stuff like Resident Evil on there (plus mending ties with Square, even if it was only for the semi-lame Crystal Chronicles.. maybe we'll see more on Wii though).

To be honest, what Yamauchi did reminds me a hell of a lot of what Sony is doing now. His mistake was that he always proclaimed that he knew what the consumers wanted - "Internet is a fad", breaking ties with Square, sticking with the cartraige format because "CDs are unproven", etc. In fact, it's really his fault Playstation exists at all. Kind of sad when you think about it. This is sort of the same thing I'm seeing with Sony. They keep proclaiming that everyone wants Blu-ray and that everyone will want their system at $600 with no games (and they *said* no games - "People would still buy our system even if it had no games" - something to that effect), etc. I really see Sony hitting the same issues Nintendo struggled through, but without the 1st party blockbusters (Mario, Zelda, etc) to limp themselves through it. Add the financial problems with stuff like the laptop battery recalls and Sony is setting themselves up for a world of hurt. They won't fall, they are too big for that, but I do think something's going to happen there. We'll see..

P.S. - No one was really curious about N-Gage. I think everyone knew that would be a complete failure from the get-go. It was a stupid idea (why do I need a gameboy that's also a phone? Especially when most phones already play games) and the market was already dominated by Nintendo anyways, not to mention PSP was coming around the same time (not that it did well, but people did buy it). Plus then I hear the thing was actually a POS, and that you had to talk through the phone part funny (I recall people describing it like talking into a taco - lol). And then it was like $200 or some rediculous price like that (maybe $150?)

[MottZilla]

Right. Dreamcast was the only real competitor and Sony had more "street cred" at the time with developers and gamers. Meanwhile, Sega was coming off Saturn which was pretty much a failure. Dreamcast was in all ways a better system than PS2, but unfortunately it just didn't get the attention it should have, especially with GC and Xbox on the horizon not long after.

Well, not quite. The DreamCast came out earlier and at a lower price point I believe, and so it didn't use some more expensive technology. The first issue was they used GDROM instead of DVDROM, they were betting the cost of the technology and adoption would be much slower than it turned out. Also GDROM was fixed, there was no room for expansion really. Also the system didn't have quite as much system ram, though it certainly had the VRAM. In a way it seems to me it had the graphical capability to keep up, though it might have lacked general processing power and sufficant RAM. But you never know.

Apparently the DreamCast did much better in the US than anywhere else too. Strange isn't it? What's stranger is there are still DreamCast games being released in Japan on real GD-ROMs licensed by and produced by Sega. Sega may be ended the GDROM production soon though.

[Warlock]

Well, not quite. The DreamCast came out earlier and at a lower price point I believe, and so it didn't use some more expensive technology. The first issue was they used GDROM instead of DVDROM, they were betting the cost of the technology and adoption would be much slower than it turned out. Also GDROM was fixed, there was no room for expansion really. Also the system didn't have quite as much system ram, though it certainly had the VRAM. In a way it seems to me it had the graphical capability to keep up, though it might have lacked general processing power and sufficant RAM. But you never know.

Apparently the DreamCast did much better in the US than anywhere else too. Strange isn't it? What's stranger is there are still DreamCast games being released in Japan on real GD-ROMs licensed by and produced by Sega. Sega may be ended the GDROM production soon though.

Well not the whole thing, but I mean the games looked a hell of a lot better than on the PS2. The graphics engine was superior, despite probably being built with inferior parts But then, Sony has always had shitty graphics on their systems.. I am so sick of their jaggies. Also, Dreamcast had a better lineup of games initially than PS2, for quite awhile in fact.

And on the GD-ROMs, I thought they already did? I swear I heard they were ending it (as of maybe a couple weeks ago?), but maybe that was only a "soon" thing.