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Forums - Gaming Discussion - How the heck did Sony manage to retake the console market again?

Dante9 on 30 March 2017

It's funny how people are trying to take everything away from Sony regarding this thing. Listen, the Playstation has been kicking ass since the mid nineties and hasn't let up to this day. They managed to establish themselves as a global brand, and that brand has significant power. They stumbled a bit with the PS3, but eventually all that amounted to was that they lost more of the market to MS than they would have liked. Still, at the end of the generation they pulled up next to the Xbox and even surpassed it. It was not like anything could happen with the current generation. The brand and the consumer trust was there all the time, and once people saw that the course was right for the PS4 from the get go, they went back to their trusted platform of many years. That's it. Sure, the blunders by MS and Nintendo helped, too, not denying that. But it's simply untrue to say that "the others fucked up so badly that people had no choice but to go Sony".



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loy310 on 30 March 2017
Carl2291 said:

E3 2013

"PS4 wont impose any new restrictions on the use of used games. We believe in the model that people embrace today. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc, they have the rights to use that copy of the game. They can trade in the copy, sell it to a friend or keep it forever. No online connection required, no authentication required."

"$399"

When you combine the two it seems ordinary. It seems like what you'd expect from your videogame console. After watching what Microsoft tried to pull with the Xbox One reveal and E3 show, it made the PS4 into the gaming communities darling. Don't underestimate what word of mouth is capable of in the age of social media. When hundreds of thousands of people are simultaneously pushing your platform while trashing the other, that shit will make waves in the industry. They had pro-consumer policies behind a more powerful console for a cheaper pricepoint, all that to go along with the goodwill built up through the PS3's later years and Sony's own first party support.

Perfect reveal, perfect build up, perfect launch. The rest is history.

Yup



S.T.A.G.E. on 30 March 2017
LudicrousSpeed said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxR0sUT3egc

I don't need a random YouTube link from some random YouTuber, I have knowledge of decades reading and watching the talk of the industry plus a Sony exec. If you scour Papa Phil's twitter account you'll also see him saying games like Dance Central Spotlight and Ninja Gaiden 2 were 2nd party, both of which are even weaker examples of 2nd party games than Sunset, because they were both already established IPs :)

Or maybe we need to take YouTuber #615 at his word over Phil Spencer and whatever Yoshida? Look, I tried to throw you a lifeboat but you seem intent on drowning here so have fun. 

"--I see. Major's Japan that is, it is that almost all second party covered in Asia.

Kawauchi said: has been increasing in Japan as well as Asia. For example, or "Call of Duty: Black Ops III" is the second party in Japan. When I was in Tokyo, I made a thing called second-party deal. It has also created a contract, we have your explanation also is that what each Ya I second party. There you will know I'm No. 1 in the inside."

The link to the actual page Dual Shockers was talking about (translated to English). I read it here from Kawauchi saying that the game was contracted and therefore was second party. As I stipulated, second party games are contracted (Which was not stated in the Dualshockers article which is why I kept arguing my point) and thus Sony acted as a publisher which means the same goes for Microsoft. In this you're correct that Black Ops 3 is second party for both Sony and Microsoft in Japan. If the company was not contracted to make said game, it cannot be second party; therefore, Sunset is not a second party for Microsoft. The first party must pursue and contract the third party. In Sunset Overdrive, in order to secure independence and control their IP they pursued Microsoft to publish the game for them. 

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview/734289.html



markodeniro on 30 March 2017

Because sheep.

User is moderated for this post - Aura7541



LivingMetal on 30 March 2017
Imaginedvl said:
LivingMetal said:

I'm right on topic.  You mentioned that the price of the Xbox One was the factor.  I expounded upon it, and you can disagree all you want.  That's your opinions as well.  But if you are too scared to answer a question that requires critical thinking, then you are in denial of the fuller picture of why the pricing was an issue.  Because either Microsoft promoted a product that the consumer wanted at a reasonable price or they pushed an agenda that served them more than the consumer.  So let's see which is it.

Looking back, the two groups of consumers who would have wanted an Xbox One at launch were rabid Microsoft/Xbox fanboys or those who wanted something specifically from the Xbox such as Halo, Gears, Kinect, etc.  Because who else in there right mind would pay $500 for a item when you have another option that costed $400 and did those same things better?  So why was the Xbox One $100 more than the PS4?  Maybe it was Kinect because a camera wasn't bundled with the PS4.  But did the consumer wanted it?  Apparently not since Microsoft had to debundle it from the Xbox unit a year later due to poor sales, and they charged $150 for Kinect standalone.  So if you were to buy a standalone Xbox One for $400 and later bought Kinect for $150, why in the hell would you since a the original bundle costed $500?  Obviously, most of us didn't want an overpriced, underpowered console with "junk" hardware.  The Xbox One itself isn't a bad console.  But the reality I live in has the option of the PS4, and the One looked prety pathetic when compared to what Sony had to offer.  So it wasn't just about price.  The One just wasn't worth it because Microsoft bundling Kinect with every Xbox One is just as bad if not worse than Gamestop bundling hardware people didn't want with a console.  And why pay more for less?  Microsoft thought people were stupid enough to buy into their bullshit.  This is why Sony took the market.

No you are not on topic at all with your questions. The topic is why or how Sony retake the market.

My answer (base on my personnal oppinion) was very simple: Price, their console was 100$ less expensive and both were able to play the same games and seen as a new generation console to the general consumer. I never talked about why it was more or less, the final point is, one was cheaper, end of story. Only fanboys and nerds are really caring about the CPU, GPU, more pixels here and there, more FPS and other stuff like that in the console which is probably a very little portion of the marketshare. To the general consumers, COD runs and plays the same on both console, one is 100$ less tho... Choice is simple.

Your point is about how "fair" the price of the Xbox One was and how evil Microsoft are and how such bullshit it was and blah blah blah blah. The point is:  it was 100$ more than the Play Station Four for the SAME capabilities to the general consumer. Simple as that. I'm not scared to "answer" your question as it is not even important and what I think is obviously different than you and as the 28.7M Xbox One sold to date prove, the Xbox One offers a lot of value, obviously not to YOU tho. And looking at your rent on Microsoft, the Xbox One, how powerfull and mighty the Play Station Four is and how Kinect was "forced" to you like Microsoft had any magical way to force you to spend your money on their offering (really people saying that are just hiloarious...)... It is pretty clear that you are not here to debate but just hammer your oppinion about Microsoft offering which I respectfully disagree and do not care about...

Microsoft isn't evil. In fact, I like them more than ever as of recent. It's pretty clear that you are in denial that 56 million PS4 sold provided better value than the Xbox One since you're taking that route. And the only reason why Xbox One units eventually sold as much as they did is because they had to compensate for their initial screw up. The compensation in and of itself is a good thing, but that does not discount the fact that they originally tried to force their commercial agenda on the consumer which led some (apparently many) to the PS4.  And why couldn't Microsoft priced the Xbox One intially at $400 like the PS4 for the "SAME capabilities to the general consumer?"



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Avro1958 on 30 March 2017

I don't know if Sony's turnaround happened soley because of the PS4, I think it started to turn around 2 years prior.  There was a pretty big sales gap between the 360 and PS3 and that's when Sony started to close the gap and eventrually take the lead in overall sales.

 

Sony took this time to build up it's first party IP since they were bleeding 3rd party exclusives this really set the stage for success. The turnaround happend around Uncharted 3, could have been sooner but for me this time feels about right, maybe it feels that way because this is when I had a bunch of former Xbox friends migrate over to the PS3 and have stayed with the platmorm since. So I think things were trending that way and then Microsofts mishandling of the XB1 launch really snowballed it. 

With MS's somewhat failure this gen, I don't see them doing what Sony did and shore up it's 1st party lineup. MS is very weak in this area. You have Forza, Gears and Halo as it's heavy hitters and then a HUGE drop off.  There are some good games in there but nothing that really has system seller numbers.  Now the new IP that is on its way can be had on the PC with no need for a Live membership or a console...  I am sure some will say how Sony plans to bring PS4 game support to PSNow, but those are not going to be new games, buy the time they hit the service they would have already made there money.

 

 

 

 

 



S.T.A.G.E. on 30 March 2017
Avro1958 said:

I don't know if Sony's turnaround happened soley because of the PS4, I think it started to turn around 2 years prior.  There was a pretty big sales gap between the 360 and PS3 and that's when Sony started to close the gap and eventrually take the lead in overall sales.

 

Sony took this time to build up it's first party IP since they were bleeding 3rd party exclusives this really set the stage for success. The turnaround happend around Uncharted 3, could have been sooner but for me this time feels about right, maybe it feels that way because this is when I had a bunch of former Xbox friends migrate over to the PS3 and have stayed with the platmorm since. So I think things were trending that way and then Microsofts mishandling of the XB1 launch really snowballed it. 

With MS's somewhat failure this gen, I don't see them doing what Sony did and shore up it's 1st party lineup. MS is very weak in this area. You have Forza, Gears and Halo as it's heavy hitters and then a HUGE drop off.  There are some good games in there but nothing that really has system seller numbers.  Now the new IP that is on its way can be had on the PC with no need for a Live membership or a console...  I am sure some will say how Sony plans to bring PS4 game support to PSNow, but those are not going to be new games, buy the time they hit the service they would have already made there money.

 

 

 

 

 

The turnaround happened in 2008-2009. Analysts were projecting due to Sonys noted wider mass appeal that the PS3 would overtake the XBox 360 by 2011 if prices were dropped and gamers were delivered as usual.  Microsoft naturally cannot deliver what Sony does.



method114 on 30 March 2017
KLXVER said:
A combination of learning from their mistakes and the other two fucking up.

This. Honestly you could tell somewhere in the PS3's life cycle that Sony was turning thigns around. The amount of games they had coming out their were new IP's was infuriating for somene like me who was an abox 360 owner and I was getting the 4th install of GOW that no one asked for. That was the begining of me knowing I would not be going X1 next gen.



exdeath on 30 March 2017
method114 said:
KLXVER said:
A combination of learning from their mistakes and the other two fucking up.

This. Honestly you could tell somewhere in the PS3's life cycle that Sony was turning thigns around. The amount of games they had coming out their were new IP's was infuriating for somene like me who was an abox 360 owner and I was getting the 4th install of GOW that no one asked for. That was the begining of me knowing I would not be going X1 next gen.

Uncharted 3, The Last of Us, Ni no Kuni, Tales of Xillia, Kingdom Hearts, etc

 

Or

 

Gears of Call of Halo 19 1/2

 

Tough choice.



GOWTLOZ on 30 March 2017

Sony handled the PS3 very well starting 2009 with the launch of PS3 slim which was cheap and high quality. Also they released an incredible number of amazing exclusives in 2009 with Demon's Souls, Killzone 2, Infamous, Uncharted 2 and God of War Collection and also amazing multiplatform games that enhanced the library of PS3 with Assassin's Creed 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and COD MW2.

In the next year they had their largest launch ever for a PS3 exclusive in USA early in the year with God of War 3 which was a huge success and the best selling game in the series. That year also saw the release of a hit new IP with Heavy Rain that brought in a new audience and Gran Turismo finally released on the system. They also had amazing multiplatform games with Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, NFS Hot Pursuit and COD Black Ops that bolstered the library of PS3.

The next year in PS3's lifecycle was like a continuation of 2009 with several of 2009's biggest hits getting a sequel this year both exclsusive and multiplatform and the system had more! Demon's Souls got a multiplatform sequel with Dark Souls, Killzone 3, Infamous 2, Uncharted 3 and God of War Collection Volume 2 were sequels to 2009 exclsuives and all I would say were better than their predecessors which were already awesome games, yes even the collection was better. Then there was Resistance 3 and LBP 2 which was sequels to 2008 best exclusives on PS3 and were also improved sequels to awesome games. They had Batman Arkham City, COD Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 which were awesome sequels to amazing games. This is where a certain thing became clear, Sony was publishing amazing exclusives after another throughout the year for three years and third parties were also understanding PS3's hardware well and Sony did this till 2013 and that five years of work by Sony culminated into the success of PS4.