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theprof00 on 09 August 2010
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senortaco said:
theprof00 said:
Squilliam said:
theprof00 said:

MS is using a bottom-up "disruptive" product. It is very low end and is very limited. However, MS doesn't seem to understand that a disruptive product also requires a low price, so I don't understand their strategy right now. A bottom-up disruptive product is often identified by its low margin low quality that established brands are afraid of promoting. For example, Nintendo makes a lot of money on peripherals. Kinect is peripheral free. Nintendo wants to keep this kind of tech from becoming popular because it reduces their profit margin.


Price always depends on the perspective. Arguably the Kinect console at $300 is the same price the Wii launched at considering the thing which sold the Wii early on was 2-4 player Wii Sports. They are using a 5 year old amortised console (Xbox 360) rebranding it and using it as the basis for their technology. Since they tore the Kinect accessory down in order to lower its overall cost I would have to argue that its coming in on the low end of the price spectrum. Their use of accessories to justify cost does indicate where they are coming from. The Xbox 360 Kinect is supposed to replicate one Wii console two Wiimotes balance board for $300.

I didn't want to talk about Kinect in this thread, but I felt I had to since you were making so many interesting points...

I agree, I think it makes a lot of sense, they just have to make sure the consumer is aware of how "value-added" it is compared to a wii and balance board.

 

But anyways, good thread. I think a lot of the points you made are just very slightly innaccurate as to what the motivations are, but there is some soun reasoning behind it. However, I believe that the market Sony is targeting is not just their core market, it is an ignored market.

@ Bold: Good point. But how big would the market be for comsumers who want motion controls, but prefer high end graphics that will expand the market? I Still believe that Move is designed more to KEEP the PS3 owners it has from wanting to own a Wii, versus expanding the audience on the PS3.

IMO, both Sony & Microsoft are making a mistake on hopeing(sp?) that 3rd parties can help them provide that expanded audience experience. Since this thread is Sony centric, focusing on the launch lineup RIGHT NOW, that Sony is offering, it's sits squarely at non-expansion.

how big that demand is really is the big question. However, considering how many people play wii, there are at least some people there who would like the combination, as well as people on the HD consoles who have played with wii and enjoy its functionality but desire more developed games.

Now, along with top-down strategy is the continuation of brand, which is what makes top down successful. For example, when Fed-ex took the overnight market at a higher price, that brand traveled down stream with them. Overnight shipping credited Fed-ex as being business related, fast, and reliable. With that, they were able to enter the regular market because of the brand image of being those things. People went with fedex even if they weren't professionals because they had the idea that Fedex was faster and more reliable than USPS and UPS.

As you can see, Sony SEEMS to be taking that course. They are sticking with what they are and extending it to motion control. Later, people will credit their motion control with high development value and precision and apply it to whatever market they go to. Given a Nintendo game and a PS3 game that are exactly the same, people will credit the Nintendo version as being innovative, and others (or the same) will credit the ps3 version as being better developed or higher quality, regardless if the two games are exactly the same. Additionally, you can see how this strategy directly applies to the future of the motion controller environment. Things that were once wii-only be necessity will now be capable of performing on the ps3. The wii version of call-of-duty? Perfectly able to run on the ps3 with the same funtionality. This is good for devs who like to make games on the wii because it expands their target audience to more than one console.