Mandalore76 said:
I love video games in general. I don't only own one specific system and despise another for no particular reason. When all of the consoles were reasonably priced, I simulataneously owned multiple consoles. I had an N64 and a Sony Playstation and enjoyed games on both. I owned a Gamecube, Play Station 2, and an XBox and enjoyed games on all of them. However, when Sony lost sight of their "gaming audience" and priced their PS3 at $600 and started referring to it as a "multimedia device" instead of a gaming console, they lost me for the generation. I wasn't about to buy a $399 XBox 360, followed by a $250 Wii, followed by a $699 PS3. That's $1,300 just in hardware! So, PS3 was the logic choice to skip this generation. Especially considering the fact that in terms of Hardcore games, the XBox 360 is just as good. Halo's, Gears of War's, multiplatform Call of Duty's... And, I've played Fallout 3 on both my XBox 360 and my brother's PS3, and I saw no difference that would make me want to own a 3rd console this generation. By the time PS3's price came down, for me, it just seemed an unnecessary purchase. Judging by the fact that close to 90 million fewer people bought a PS3 than there were PS2 owners, while Xbox 360 owners increased from XBox by over 42 million, and Wii owners increased over Gamecube by over 74 million; it's safe to assume that video gamers value playing video games on a reasonably priced console over purchasing a ridiculously priced console just because it plays movies on Blue Ray. I'm not out and out knocking PS3 as a system as much as I am saying Sony took a severe misstep this generation considering they are the exact same company by pricing Sega and the Dreamcast out of business by simply walking to the podium and announcing the PS2 would retail at $299 moments after Sega unveiled Dreamcast as $399. It has nothing to do with being loyal to one company or another. It has to do with a company knowing their consumer. The fact that they went from 1st place last generation to last place this entire generation tells me that they lost sight of who their consumer was, and subsequent price cuts never got a majority of them back. To this day, I still enjoy playing my PS2, but in so far as this generation goes, they lost my business. Maybe next generation will be different. Who knows? But, if they build a phone into the PS4's remote and start calling it a "communication's device" instead of a video game console and price it at $899, then you can be sure I will pass again and stick to reasonably priced systems that provide the same level of entertainment for those of us who are primarily interested in playing video games on our video game consoles. |
I agree with the spirit of your wall of unbroken text, but I do want to point out that the Sega Dreamcast launched at $199.99 on 9/9/99. I know because I drove three hours to stand in line for my Dreamcast. The PS2 was the more expensive system. Those few years with the Dreamcast at its prime were truly great. It's too bad so many "gamers" decided to skip the stellar Dreamcast in favor of waiting for the PS2. They really missed out and now we all miss out on all the experimental games Sega used to developer on their systems because it cost them almost nothing. Sometimes it was great, other times it was just interesting, but it was always good for the industry.
