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Forums - Sony Discussion - Tretton Talks PS4: “We’ve Never Been First, Never Been Cheapest”

d21lewis on 06 June 2012
ZaneWane said:
pretty sure playstation 1 was the cheapest


Saturn launch (1995) $399

Playstation launch (1995) $299

N64 launch (1996) $249

and while were at it,

Dreamcast launch (1999) $199

Playstation 2 launch (2000) $299

Xbox launch (2001) $299

Gamecube launch (2001) $199



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NintendoPie on 06 June 2012

He really did a great job with that interview.



Pjams on 06 June 2012
Gilgamesh said:

I never realized how expensive the PS2 was, even though it had the worst graphics of the gen it was the most expensive along with Xbox at launch, even $100 more then Gamecube. According to wikipedia the PS2 was actually 500 euros!? at launch, both Xbox and gamecube was at around 200 euros. Thats crazy!!

I guess that was probably why Sony was so cocky with the PS3.


and what you don't realize either was that during that time Sony was basically the equivalent of Google+Apple; they were incredibly powerful and influential



 

Jay520 on 06 June 2012

Lets just hope this doesn't mean the PS4 will be hundreds of dollars more expensive than competitors while only being slightly more powerful.



outlawauron on 06 June 2012
Roma said:
TheFallen said:
Roma said:
Cobretti2 said:
spurgeonryan said:
I watched this on G4 I think. Most of what he Said was actually true. They do make quality devices.


Quality?

is that why I have had 4 PS2s and 2 PS3s? (one which was dead on arrival lol)

I guess Ryen is like Tretton they both know nothing about Sony

 

Ignorance is a bliss

Yeah because 1 Person's experience equals to everyone.....  Electronics fail, The more complicated they become the more things can go wrong. I bought an HP laptop last month which I have had to return THREE times already (Wrong letter on one of the keys, left click didn't work another time and the most recent the fans stopped working. This must mean all HP laptops(Products even) are unreliable right? LOL! 

Ignorance is a bliss



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mike_intellivision on 06 June 2012
spurgeonryan said:
I watched this on G4 I think. Most of what he Said was actually true. They do make quality devices.


Video game store clerks who were going through a PSX display (not demo) unit a month while the Saturn display unit kept on working without problems would disagree.

I also disagree as my DVD in my combo player has to be cleaned after every use to play a movie.  (I have several Sony VCRs and each one is of lower quality than its predecessor).

 

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Sal.Paradise on 06 June 2012
Kantor said:
d21lewis said:
Fusioncode said:
I'm pretty sure the Playstation was cheaper than the Saturn or N64. Anyways, Sony needs to make sure PS4 is a home run or else their gaming department is in danger. Here's a few pointers.

1. Keep it affordable, they don't need to be cheapest but nothing over 300$.

2. Massive marketing campaign, PS2 had an awful launch lineup and was a fairly expensive console for the time. Yet it still had a huge launch thanks to a great marketing campaign. Sony didn't even bother marketing the Vita which is one of the biggest reasons for it's low success.

3.Backwards compatibility, Sony pioneered BC and made it a huge selling point for the PS2. Ideally the PS4 should be BC with every Sony home console. Realistically, just PlayStation 3 would be fine.

Nah.  N64 launched at about $250 and the PS1 was $299 at the time.  Plus PS and Saturn launched for about $400 in the US (I think).  Nintendo was actually kicking all kinds of ass until they started hitting software droughts.  Months would pass without a decent game to play.  The two were so close in sales that Nintendo and Sony both claimed to be the best selling console.  In the end, PS1 pulled away and never looked back, though.

I thought that, at E3 1995 or so, Sega came up on stage, and announced the Saturn for $399, and then Sony walked on, said "$299" and walked off? That's probably just an urban legend, but I think the PS1 launched at $299.

Not an urban legend! Here's the video.

Go to 7:50. 



Adinnieken on 06 June 2012
sales2099 said:
I dont understand. By making the best they killed their PS2 marketshare and Vita isnt doing good at all against 3DS.

Hardware doesnt sell a system, games do. So make *affordable and competitive* hardware and let your games do the talking.

Because by making the best your driving up costs, giving your competition an edge, and alienating a big chunk of the potential market.

In my opinion, Sony (more so than Nintendo judged the market wrongly.  I firmly believe that had Sony put all their eggs into the Xperia Play basket, they would have transformed hand-held and mobile gaming.  instead they double-downed and put the less powerful technology into the Xperia Play, nor did they make or encourage developers to design games for it, and so now the product that could have transformed the hh/mg market is all but dead.



dahuman on 06 June 2012
Ajescent said:
dahuman said:
Ajescent said:
dahuman said:
Ajescent said:
dahuman said:

.............Tretton, you say the dumbest shit as usual, not that I'm surprised, not one bit....

Why is this "dumb"?


Because those are hollow words served as an excuse to not make SONY look bad to the press. Not being first was the reason the 360 prevailed, never being cheapest is the reason so many people don't pick up their products at the start. It's happening again with the 3DS where they are getting totally raped due to both reasons! AGAIN!

 

PS: The best machine they've built during an era was the PS1 era, the rest were questionable, but obviously the PS3 is a better and more powerful hardware than Wii, but not totally so vs the 360 when talking about ease of dev/cost/power ratio when things were more expensive.

But no part of it was a lie, it's what they've done since day one and it worked for the PS1 and 2 and depending on what angle you look at it, the psp...so again I asked "dumb"?


current result with Sony speaks for itself, you needn't even question me on it when the numbers are clear.

My complaint with your comment is the suggestion that the strategy has never worked.

My complaint is they didn't formulate a better strategy over the years but always came up with stupid PR lines instead of actually improving on their strategy, don't get me wrong, I love most SONY 1st party games and I really like my SONY products, but when I read something like that, it's like ???????? I fully expected the PS2 momentum to continue and rape the competition but I couldn't even justify buying a PS3 at launch because it was the price of a decent computer at the time, I mean jebus, I'd rather have just upgraded my video card, which I did btw.

Anyways, yes, I think it's dumb, but that does not reflect on how I feel about the Playstation family of products as they call it, well, other than me not able to once again justify buying a Vita at the current time, sigh..... Whatev, I just need my TLoU and BTS then I'd be happy, need to stay away from the threads where they say dumb things.



Darth Tigris on 06 June 2012

So is there anyone, considering their competitors (including tablets) and financial realities, that genuinely believes this strategy will be successfully executed by Sony for the next generation?