Golden Jew: Not necessarily — BWMs sell for 60k, are all cars 60k?
Pat: That’s my fear, Jay. Golden Jew, people buying cars have a million options. People buying game systems have ~3 at any given time. And cars are often luxury items, status symbols. You don’t have to sell many rolls to turn profit etc. There is no comparison there.
Stefan: Yeah, and with the difficulty MS has had breaking into the field, I don’t think we’re going to see a lot of new console manufacturers.
Dan: Well, ignoring that fact that Sony selling really well is a really big “if,” I think the PS3 will become another status symbol. Sony keeps saying they are doing us all a service by selling the system at 600. I don’t know exactly what they are trying to do here. Are they hoping tons of people will buy it just because it is the best technology?
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Sony |
Christian: Here’s my problem; it’s hard to compare the PS3 to a gourmet dinner when nothing it offers seems to greatly surpass the 360. Sony’s reasoning for all they’re doing just doesn’t float. They claim we’ll buy it even with no games at launch.
Jay: Sony is full of crap because game designers make systems worth owning or not, not console manufacturers. The PS3 is very similar to the 360, but one pushes a few more polygons. The PS3 is not gourmet, it’s nearly the same thing as the 360 and the games will make or break it.
Stefan: Maybe all the PS2’s in the world have slowly been releasing heroin into gamers over the past several years. And upon PS3 launch, they’ll stop, sending millions into withdrawal unless they go buy the new system. No games needed, they’ll just sit and tilt the controllers back and forth for their fix.
Christian: Does anyone else see disturbing similarities between PS3 era Sony and N64 era Nintendo? They both use a proprietary format that no one has confidence in. Both are claiming that 1st party software will rule the day. Both have “powerful” hardware that doesn’t seem to be offering anything beyond the competition. And an all around cocky attitude about their position in the market, with a firm belief that their ideas, even if the market disagrees, are thoroughly right.
Dan: Where do they even get this cockiness? I don’t even see a huge different (yet) between this generation and the last one.
Jay: They get it from Ken Kutaragi, Phil Harrison, and Kaz Hirai, their talking heads. Ok, enough Sony. What do you think about Microsoft? I’ve read enough good previews that I’m actually starting to want a 360. Barely anything they have out now appeals to me, though.
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Microsoft |
Christian: Agreed, at least not for the price of $60. I’ve played the 360 quite a bit, and I must say it’s a slick little system. It just does a lot of nice things that current hardware doesn’t.
Dan: I played a 360 today. I must say for being the “dullest” system of the bunch, it functions well.
Golden Jew: Call me an elitist; I don’t like MS tying things like Vista to the 360 though. That kind of attitude stifles development. The Shadowrun guys were saying they can’t release till Vista is out. If the game is done, and people want it… power to the people.
Jay: Anyone think Japan will ever accept the system?
Christian: No, sadly, because they could do a lot of good things with it. At this point I’m waiting for Blue Dragon to be ported to PS3. Even games by Sakaguchi and Toriyama look not to be enough to drive the system into the market.
Stefan: Nah, MS isn’t even trying for Japan. They make their money on GTA, Halo, and games endorsed by Tom Clancy.
Pat: No, they will not. They are probably smart not to. It’s possible I haven’t been keeping on top of things as well as I should be (all my time is consumed with DS these days) but I also don’t see much that I want on the 360.
Jay: The PS2 was the best system of the last generation because they appealed both to the Western gamer and the Japanese gamer, and the Japanese loving Western gamer. Would it not be worth it for MS to spend a little of their billions on securing Final Fantasy 13 for the 360? Japan seems to follow Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to any console. I think if the next in the series came out on the C64 they’d all buy one again.
Stefan: Yeah, FF64, with full motion cut scenes in 16 colors. You just have to load 37 tapes each time you walk into a new room.
Christian: Hmm…it’s possible for MS, since FF11 is on the 360 and they have the cash. But like its been said, they don’t seem to be going for that.
Awesome debate! My two cents on this… as of now I can see no clear winner. I am going to get all three systems yet I am worried about the lack of genre’s on the 360, the possible lack of mature games on the Wii, and the impact of the Production of the PS3 games will have on the Devs.
But this case might be cut and dry if this whole issue becomes a repeat of the last generation. It has signs of showing that it might, with the exception of the 360 getting better games. But all in all if the PS3 gets to it’s second generation, which I am sure it will, and then finally delivers, the average joe just might buy into the PS3 if he is given a good enough reason… or a few.
I know alot of casual gamers, talk to them in video game stores, at arcades, in the line at the grocery, i… you get the point right?; after being told the price of the PS3 peoples eyes gloss over but most that I have talked to still say they want to get one. A smaller crowd actually asked why… was satisfied with the answer and continued to speculate about the games. On the internet I see really angry statements and proclomations that joe schmo wont buy the PS3 for the price but in the real world I get different answers. In the real world I see people that purchase 250k cars and spinners that go for 4K each. I have seen purses and dresses that cost between 800 and 1200 hanging off of females that aren’t allowed to vote yet. I see the guys that purchase $200 shades and go to resturants that charge you $120 dollars for “one” shrimp on a slice of lettuce.
I see this stuff every day and yet I come on the internet and see how cost conscientious joe shmoe or the average gamer will be and I laugh. The truth is that alot of people are going to be irked at this pricing but if given enough reason they will either spend the money or Save to get one. Its funny I don’t see a word about “saving” money when the majority of systems I bought in my life I saved to get. It is all about value. For some people all it takes is the sony brand. For people like me… I buy into potential. Then there are those who need concrete proof. And then there are those that either don’t care and/or downright hate. Maybe the PS3 will flop… no biggie to me as long as I can get some enjoyment out of the system, but there is a very good chance that it could become the beast that sony is hoping it to become.
The problem with buying into potential is that every console has potential. Potential is entirely dependant on what developers make. In 1993 developers could’ve made better looking and more complex games on the Jaguar than the SNES but they didn’t. The Jaguar still had the potential, though. Just like this generation the Xbox had the potential to do everything the PS2 did. My point is I’m unwilling to spend money for games that may come out because those games can come out on anything. I am willing to spend money once games I do want have already come out, though, which is going to be a problem when the PS3 puts out enough that I want. The system costs more than a months rent for me. I can save, but that still stings enough to make me resentful.
I agrre with you on the sting of price… but I guess we have different opinions about what potential is. To me its not about what the developers make but it is more along the lines that there “are” developers. That first step has been important to me since I was 12. If you use that frame of thinking, how many systems that had potential were utter failures?
The interesting thing is, Static is right about these average people on the street. Those kind of people he’s talking about probably aren’t all uber rich and well to do. Lots of people spend way out of their income bracket in order to appear more affluent than they are. They’re willing to put down excessive amounts of cash for the “bling”, especially if its mom and dad paying the bill. Hell, even I can confess to falling into the trap. I have a chance to save a great deal of money for senior year of college this summer thanks to my job, and yet I want to get back their with a brand new suit, a DS Lite, a Camera, a new hat… the list goes on. Thankfully I’ll control myself and budget my money, but that urge is hard to shake.
$600 for the PS3? I can imagine quite a few junior high students for which that is no sweat if they complain enough to their folks. Yes, many, many gamers are and will be burned by the PS3 price, but I really have to wonder if for every guy that is, there’s someone else wtih a fistful of cash and an urge to play Tekken.
HAHA! Christian we are alike in spending habits. I make sure all my bills and dues are paid but I find it hard not to burn the extra cash I have lying around.
For the record:
Pat: I’m about ready to drink Nintendo’s Kool Aid. Meteos for the DS is like a drug. I consider myself fairly hardcore and I can’t get enough. Then I take it to people who have never/almost never played anything (sisters, other girls) and they can’t get enough. Some of it is because puzzle games appeal to more people, but it’s also the accessible controls. And the Wii has accessible controls in spades.
Jay: Sony is full of crap because game designers make systems worth owning or not, not console manufacturers. The PS3 is very similar to the 360, but one pushes a few more polygons. The PS3 is not gourmet, it’s nearly the same thing as the 360 and the games will make or break it.
Pachter (2005): “In 2010, Sony’s going to have 55 per cent, Microsoft’s going to have 35 per cent and Nintendo 10 per cent, with all three of those having plus or minus five per cent,”
Piers Harding Rolls (from Screen Digest, in Dec 2007, paraphrased): by 2011, the PlayStation 3 will not only have surpassed the Xbox 360, but will have caught up with the wildly popular Wii’s worldwide install base.
[…] Continued from yesterday’s Part 1. […]
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