Get rich quick thanks to SCEA!

[AtmaWeapon]

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.

Well I didn't express my idea clear enough but your claim my details are wrong are kind of hindsight-biased.

In the eyes of the consumer the Dreamcast was not a player on the market at this time. Looking over the wikipedia articles I used for launch dates, the PS2 launched in October 2000 (March if you go by the Japan dates) and the announcement that production of the Dreamcast was to come to an end was made on January 31, 2001. Now, it could be that the Dreamcast had a great run during those months and SEGA only discontinued it to keep their word, but I think the writing was already on the wall at that point. I also wasn't very clear about my point but indeed the XBox was to be released later (came out a full year later) but I seem to remember hearing details about it even before the PS2 was released. Basically I was commenting on the market from the eyes of the consumer at the time, and really for the Sony fan the PS2 had no competition whatsoever at this point in time because everyone thought the XBox would fail miserably and most people didn't care about the Dreamcast.

I'm not trying to stomp on the Dreamcast's dick or anything, but you have to acknowledge the facts. Despite its superior hardware and excellent games library, SEGA could not/did not market it well enough to make it a financial success. Sure, they're still producing games for die-hard fans, but they are also making Sonic games on Sony and Nintendo's consoles so it's quite a stretch to say the Dreamcast didn't hurt them.

And on the N-Gage I was actually kind of curious at first because I mean seriously, if I could have a good phone and a good games system in one unit I'd be glad to carry it around with me. However, Nokia's offering was designed as if they asked a focus group for advice then proceeded to use the "things I hate" columns from all of the results as the design document. Honestly I think my tastes are too specific to produce a convenient cell phone that also provides the gaming experience I want, but if someone could make a GBA SP or DS Phone I'd give it a whirl even if the phone was of mediocre quality.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

And then it was like $200 or some rediculous price like that (maybe $150?)

It was $300, and I remember reading articles from E3 about how the audience was stunned silent when they saw the price. Also, the taco thing is totally true, and I once saw a site where people would send in images of themselves talking into other unwieldly things, like Xboxes and VCRs. Something like talktoyourtaco.com or somesuch.

Also, I swear that the link to the comic wasn't in Warlord's post when I read it. Oops.

I think the situation at Sony is more akin to the fall of Iraq than anything else. Who was that guy, the minister of information? He kept saying that everything was okay, and that the Republican Guard was going to crush the infidels or some crap. And then we totally stomped them.

Honestly, what is Sony going to do? Say that the PS3 is selling poorly and is getting beaten by two technologically inferior systems, one of which goes completely against their entire strategy? Of course not. They're going to deny, deny, deny. They're going to try and market their way out of this mess they're in, or at the very least pretend like it's not going on until it either gets better or becomes unavoidably disastrous. Sony is going to spew hillarious crap like this for months, maybe even years. I say we should just sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Pineconn]

The best strategy they could have is scrap all the extra hardware, especially the Blu-Ray Player. That would cut the PS3's price in half, I guess (you can clearly tell that I'm writting this with zero research :p ), and people would actually look into it. (Actually, more like cut production prices in half, maybe cut the product's price by $150 or so.)

Blu-Ray was just really dumb.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Blu-ray was a retarded choice, but I guess Sony saw it as a killing stroke against HD-DVD. If they could get blu-ray into a couple million homes before HD-DVD could, they would have an edge when the format war really started. They'd have a consumer base already built, and even if the stand alone players didn't fly off shelves immediately, they could still successfully market blu-ray movies. It would have been a smart move if their console had been more successfully marketed.

[MottZilla]

That's true, that by the time PS2 came out, DC was for all intensive purposes dead. So yes it really didn't have any competition then.

About the PS3, in the short term killing Blu-ray would have been a great idea. But in the long term, I think the system itself will be fine. Once the production costs get cut down and the price for the consumer falls, those Playstation fanboys and the rest will surely buy a PS3. While the Xbox user base certainly is growing, I don't think the Playstation base is going to suddenly get blown away. Not sure really what's going on with Nintendo.

[Thunderbird]

I'm pretty sure Sony wants PS3 games to be able to use Blu-Ray discs, which would make taking the player out impractical. But what do I know.

[Orion]

I refuse to buy into this whole HD-DVD/Blu-ray war for two reasons. First, without an HDTV, my current DVD collection is good enough.

Second, within a few years, I get the feeling downloadable content will be the way things go. See: Apple TV. I'll wait for that day, instead.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

I'm pretty sure Sony wants PS3 games to be able to use Blu-Ray discs, which would make taking the player out impractical. But what do I know.

That's just what we've been saying, though. The PS3 is fine for the current generation of DVD games, but blu-ray disc games will require significantly more RAM, or else they'll suffer from serious performance issues, the least of which will probably be long, long loading times. It just doesn't make sense, the way they've implemented it.

[Warlock]

Yeah, they've already been producing all their games on blu-ray disks. They can't back out now.

[MottZilla]

Yeah, they've already been producing all their games on blu-ray disks. They can't back out now.

We all know that. The point was if they had changed it before they were locked in for it, the PS3 would have been starting out better. But like I said, in the long run it probably won't hurt them badly.