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Forums - Sony Discussion - Is PS4 the first console to sell like this without a fad?

We all know PS1 and PS2 only sold because they played CD/DVD's, and the PS3 proved that without the help of the new hot multimedia format (Blu-Ray was luke warm), PlayStation sales weren't all that hot, yaus? So it's strange to see Sony's gaming centric approach push the PS4 to these levels of success previously only seen on consoles with fads at their forefront (like CD, like DVD, like motion controls, touch screen etc.).

Maybe it's something else not game related selling the PS4? Because after all, no console in the history of ever sold the way PS4 is without some out-of-the-norm novelty compared to it's competition. So either PS1/2 sold for the same reason PS4 is, the library, or PS4 is an unseen anomoly in the gaming industry? Interesting stuff.



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The PS4 is selling like this because of the X1 reveal. IMO.

That reveal was just an absolute disaster, they left the door wide open for Sony in all markets, even their tightly held US. So yeah... the PS4's Gimmick was Smartglass, TV integration, DDR3 memory, empty promises of cloud power (remember that?), always online, no more trading of games, Kinect always kinected (remember that?), moving all games from the console to Games for Windows Live 10, but yeah... for Sony the handy thing is, all those ideas were on the systems main rival.

I bought a PS3 after that reveal, and a PS4 soon after launch, after being a X360 fan all last gen.



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The Wii wasn't a fad. Motion controls are still a thing.



jason1637 said:
The Wii wasn't a fad. Motion controls are still a thing.

Yup and the Switch proves that, especially with how much it has been selling. The motion controls on the Switch are a nice touch.



Ganoncrotch said:

The PS4 is selling like this because of the X1 reveal. IMO.

That reveal was just an absolute disaster, they left the door wide open for Sony in all markets, even their tightly held US. So yeah... the PS4's Gimmick was Smartglass, TV integration, DDR3 memory, empty promises of cloud power (remember that?), always online, no more trading of games, Kinect always kinected (remember that?), moving all games from the console to Games for Windows Live 10, but yeah... for Sony the handy thing is, all those ideas were on the systems main rival.

I bought a PS3 after that reveal, and a PS4 soon after launch, after being a X360 fan all last gen.

The X1 reveal and policies were able to be reversed almost entirely by launch and by May 2014 a $399 Kinectless bundle was released. Yeah the mindshare damage had already been done, but the point is the PS3's launch woes couldn't be reversed that swiftly yet it held it's own all things considered.

But I do agree MS mistakes gave Sony a big upper hand, as in the PS4 may have reached 100 million where as X1 would go on to do 80 mill, as it stands the PS4 is going to blitz 120 million and X1 probably wont do half of that. They substitute eachothers sales since they target the same market. 



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Ryugarr said:
jason1637 said:
The Wii wasn't a fad. Motion controls are still a thing.

Yup and the Switch proves that, especially with how much it has been selling. The motion controls on the Switch are a nice touch.

I'm not saying the Wii itself was a fad, it had some amazing games, better than most dedicated consoles. But motion controls were a fad for the Wii. It was a craze that people who didn't typically own game consoles flocked to like flies to shite. This explains the rapid sales of the Wii in it's early years and it's steep drop off. It's no conspiricy, the data is right there. Amazing console though, taking nothing away from it.



Saturn played CDs. Turbo CD played CDs. Amiga CD played CDs, 3D0 played CDs CDi played CDs. PS1 Didn't sell because of a fad and last I checked many people still use CDs. PS1 ability to play CDs had little to nothing to do with its success. The fact it had CD rom and the hardware was much easier to program for than N64 and Saturn plus good marketing is the biggest reasons PS1 succeeded. SNES didn't have a gimmick outside of more powerful than NES and Genesis.



The CD thing wasn't that helpful as a "fad", by the time the PS1 hit stores almost everybody had a CD player. It helped with the games, getting important titles and some good quality to them. It was an asset of the hardware, and there wasn't a "fad" to it.

There was the DVD fad in the very beginning for the PS2, but it was far from the only reason. Customers made in the PS1 era felt comfortable to upgrade, firstly because it was BC and that was new at the time. Second because there was a lot of hype and the key franchises(like Tekken, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer) were either available at launch or announces. All third parties were on board. That made the consumer very comfortable to upgrade right away.

Very quickly though some important games started showing up and the "fad" aspect of the DVD was no longer a thing. In a few months there was Gran Turismo 3, Tekken Tag T, and a bunch of others. About a year after launch GTA3 hit, and all third parties were launching their games by then. DVD movies weren't as crucial as some people think.

The PS3 was a clusterfuck at first on many levels, but they got their shit together by the end. There wasn't a fad to it either.

The PS4 is consumer trust mostly. People were afraid of the Xbox, and the wanted something they could count on, and Sony had proved with no question they were going to make it worthwhile for the buyers. I'd say the PS4 won by elimination in a way. Nintendo had fucked up(with the OG Wii even, by the end, it wasn't just a bad approach with the WiiU), Microsoft fucked up. And Sony did the expected but they didn'ytt fuck up, so con sumers went to them.

I doubt it's gonna happen next time, I have many reasons to believe this, but there wasn't really a fad so to speak.

The Wii momentum happened because Wii Sports was a fabulous game that captured people's imagination. It wasn't a fad, are you gonna call GTA3 a fad too? Look at how that series is still doing..



LethalP said:
Ganoncrotch said:

The PS4 is selling like this because of the X1 reveal. IMO.

That reveal was just an absolute disaster, they left the door wide open for Sony in all markets, even their tightly held US. So yeah... the PS4's Gimmick was Smartglass, TV integration, DDR3 memory, empty promises of cloud power (remember that?), always online, no more trading of games, Kinect always kinected (remember that?), moving all games from the console to Games for Windows Live 10, but yeah... for Sony the handy thing is, all those ideas were on the systems main rival.

I bought a PS3 after that reveal, and a PS4 soon after launch, after being a X360 fan all last gen.

 

The X1 reveal and policies were able to be reversed almost entirely by launch and by May 2014 a $399 Kinectless bundle was released. Yeah the mindshare damage had already been done, but the point is the PS3's launch woes couldn't be reversed that swiftly yet it held it's own all things considered.

But I do agree MS mistakes gave Sony a big upper hand, as in the PS4 may have reached 100 million where as X1 would go on to do 80 mill, as it stands the PS4 is going to blitz 120 million and X1 probably wont do half of that. They substitute eachothers sales since they target the same market. 

Yes the PS4 and Xbox one target the same market, the PS4 also targets a whole range of audiences like the Japanese/asians where they have different taste in games, and also has a huge variety of games whilst the Xbox has its fair share of games, seems to be western focused- heavily based on shooters. 



LethalP said:
Ganoncrotch said:

The PS4 is selling like this because of the X1 reveal. IMO.

That reveal was just an absolute disaster, they left the door wide open for Sony in all markets, even their tightly held US. So yeah... the PS4's Gimmick was Smartglass, TV integration, DDR3 memory, empty promises of cloud power (remember that?), always online, no more trading of games, Kinect always kinected (remember that?), moving all games from the console to Games for Windows Live 10, but yeah... for Sony the handy thing is, all those ideas were on the systems main rival.

I bought a PS3 after that reveal, and a PS4 soon after launch, after being a X360 fan all last gen.

The X1 reveal and policies were able to be reversed almost entirely by launch and by May 2014 a $399 Kinectless bundle was released. Yeah the mindshare damage had already been done, but the point is the PS3's launch woes couldn't be reversed that swiftly yet it held it's own all things considered.

But I do agree MS mistakes gave Sony a big upper hand, as in the PS4 may have reached 100 million where as X1 would go on to do 80 mill, as it stands the PS4 is going to blitz 120 million and X1 probably wont do half of that. They substitute eachothers sales since they target the same market. 

Even after launch, there still was a big push that the power woes of the system could be revised by raining power from the clouds, they just failed to mention that the power from the clouds was in fact the upclocked S model and the revised X system which would utilize GDDR5 memory like the PS4 has from launch.

https://www.dualshockers.com/xbox-one-microsoft-claims-cloud-computing-can-provide-power-of-3-xbox-ones-32-xbox-360s/

Whatever happened to the clouds raining more X360s into the OG X1? Feels like one of the biggest empty promises of the gen by them, outside of the obvious claims that removal of always online and removal of the kinect from the X1 was something that just wasn't possible for the system because of the OS requiring both things, both of which were changed in a matter of days after the claim was made.

Honestly for myself, MS this generation has shown very little interest in keeping to even their own vision of the product for any length of time, I couldn't get behind a system which the maker of doesn't seem to be, even now I feel no place for it near my TV.



Why not check me out on youtube and help me on the way to 2k subs over at www.youtube.com/stormcloudlive