Golden Jew: So what might seem an atrocious lost for them, if they can maximize their media sales, they more than make up for it. That’s something that Nintendo can’t do because Nintendo doesn’t have a motion picture or music division. And it’s something Microsoft can only do on the software side of things.
Christian: But games has been Sony’s biggest money maker, one of their only ones. The other divisions have floundered a bit. The whole company has been split, and no one agrees on what they should do.
Dan: Exactly, movies and music especially haven’t been going well at all.
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Every time you download a song off the new Soul Asylum album, you’re hurting Sony and Jesus. |
Golden Jew: Well, that’s indicative of the market as a whole, though. The movie industry sucks. Music sucks BUT that’s because they’re getting disrupted by the internet. But, at the end of the day are we going to stop having movies or music? No. In the next five to ten years, both those industries will right the ship. The question is if Sony has a play to cash in on a new economic model. iTunes for your PS3? Downloadable movies/music onto your hard drive for a monthly subscription fee? Something Nintendo can never dream of? Just food for thought.
Christian: Good point.
Dan: But that is like buying a computer to play video games only. Why not just buy the computer?
Christian: I don’t know if it was mentioned, but no one should believe that Sony is going to provide a comprehensive online structure for free.
Jay: Golden Jew, you’re basically arguing they’ll be ok because they have a lot of experts crunching numbers. Every company in the world has this and yet most fail, and the big successful ones sometimes come crashing down.
Golden Jew: No, I’m arguing that they play by different rules than Nintendo and MS, Jay. They are a better platform position as a company than Nintendo for sure, and MS for a lesser degree.
Stefan: I’m not sure they’ll be okay because of it, but if they crash, it won’t be for lack of testing. Or even for a single product’s failure. Sony has had more products fail than either of the other two companies. They can potentially afford to risk one if it will make a market for others.
Jay: But that’s my point, they’re risking the PS3 in hopes of making it huge with the Blu Ray.
Golden Jew: Right, but to a certain degree, they did it once in PS2.
Jay: The DVD is not the Blu Ray.
Golden Jew: No, but they make a TON on DVD sales. It was very much in Sony’s interest to sell another 10 million DVD players. It’s 5x more in their interest to sell 10 million of their proprietary format.
Christian: I’ve been reading a lot of hi-fi/techie forums. A lot observations of stores like Best Buy not even hooking up HD-DVD players while promoting the shit out of Blu-Ray. And when these techies as for both players hooked up side by side, they refuse.
Jay: My brother experienced that. They told him he didn’t want HD DVD because it wasn’t “true” hi def and then tried to sell him the Blu Ray player.
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Livin’ la Vista loca. |
Dan: I don’t know why we are talking about Sony so much when MS is easily one of the most profitable companies in the world, and has tons of products it can tie into the 360, ones that don’t cost 1000 per unit yet still turn a profit.
Golden Jew: Yeah but Microsoft, for all its profit, is a dumb company. They lost to AOL when all they had to do was copy them. They had the money to make AOL #2. They’re not really an innovator… they’re a monopoly. As I said, tying GAMES to an OS is proof of this.
Dan: And Sony is an innovator?
Christian: MS has made some dumb mistakes that stem back from their failure to control the Internet. But one could argue that one of MS’ biggest triumphs in recent years is… that’s right, Direct X. On the gaming side they haven’t really performed in the same fashion as their software division.
Jay: There are many instances of dumb choices by Sony.
Golden Jew: But Sony has more vested in success, they can’t just sit on the OS market.
Jay: So Sony will beat Nintendo because they are bigger and will beat MS because they are smaller?
Golden Jew: Not even saying “beat” Jay, it’s different stakes I think. Sony is making the next gen a platform play… Nintendo is going hard gaming.
Jay: I think it may be a bad move to try to replace the PC. Their main product is games, no matter how much they deny it.
Christian: I think it’s bad that they don’t seem to have a clear direction for the console. It’s a media center, it’s a PC, it’ll be upgraded, it won’t. What the hell?
Golden Jew: I don’t think games are their main product… I think the concept is a computer media platform hooked up to your TV.
Jay: They have Kutaragi saying it’s not a game system, it’s a computer, Harrison saying that it will replace PCs and then a Europe boss saying games are the most important. They have PR people saying everything.
Golden Jew: Well duh, also it’ll do taxes. And even if Nintendo isn’t #1, doesn’t mean they won’t make a ton of money. And I bet they will (until the wrist lawsuits).
Dan: At least Nintendo is all about games.
Jay: I’d like to give my numbers.
Golden Jew: Well, I suppose we can let you do that since you’re editor and all.
Jay: Thank you. I say stateside: Sony, MS, Nintendo. Worldwide: Sony, Nintendo, MS.
Golden Jew: Oooh, mirroring me? Truly, you are a wise leader.
Jay: If I had it my way: Nintendo, MS, Sony enslaved by aliens whose PS3s overheated.
Wow. I would have agreed that the Wii might have come out on top as well but I noticed something. Most people that are saying I will buy a Wii along with system X , are the same people who have a GC sitting at home next to previous gen system X. All my frients also have GC to compliment thier systems. This made me think really hard about what might happen. Here is my prediction: PS3/Wii/360 and by an extremely close margin. I am mirroring Jay but I believe this will probably hold true for america as well. I laugh when I hear about the best buys situations. I hear it happening in other major retailers as well. I had once mention before on this site that blu ray stands a greater chance of succeding. It is because of the huge and powerful companies behind it that want to make a profit. This is a type of dirty business technique that has been done before. Look at the larger consequences of this turn of events. Saavy people like us will notice this blatant product endorsement that is going on but the average consumer won’t. I don’t blame best buy or thier employees either, chances are this means more money for them. I had a feeling this was going to happen and that is why my strongest opinion is that blu ray is going to win. I don’t like how it might be done but I support blu ray anyway.Sony is an innovator. Alot of thier products have failed but lets not forget the ideas, the technology and the quality that goes behind thier electronics. You can knock em for trying to be proprietary but who could blame them. Imagine if you created something that is of a frivilous use (entertainmentwise) and you spent alot of money to invent it then mass produce it. Wouldn’t you want to reap most of the profits that come in off of that device?By literal definition the PS3 is a PC. It will have upgradable parts. I think that Sony was using this PC ploy to get tax breaks but I do not think this is an all out attack on PC’s. I see it as Sony saying that thier PS3 can replace media centers. It is laughable to think they are trying to go against that hardcore PC market (something that really doesn’t exist in japan) or even to the casual PC user. The casual PC user knows, windows, email and instant messaging. Thier promotion, if it seriously aimed at casual pc users, would only work in a very few select places in the world.
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