Erik rants. Today: "The PS3 is not the N64!"

[staticneuron]

Erik Aston said: In this thread, I’m going to rant. Today, I’m going to rant about why… The PS3 is not the N64! One thing I see people say—both Ninty zealots and neutral observers—is that the PS3 is Sony’s N64. Um… I have to disagree… But maybe not for the reasons you think… Sony today and Ninty 10 years ago may have gotten themselves into similar situations. But they did not get to this point in the same way. In fact, it was basically the exact opposite. Nintendo was focusing on out-dated technology—tradition—Sony is focusing on pushing the envelope. The N64 was cheap, and PS3 is expensive. N64 was a “games only” machine, PS3 is a multi-media beast. N64 was a leader in controller innovation, PS3 is a follower. Basically, the whole theory and ideology behind the two consoles are totally different. But even more than that, here’s the key: Nintendo alienated developers, Sony is alienating customers. You don’t have to look past N64 launch sales, or N64’s top games vs. PS1’s top games, to know that customers were still enamored with Nintendo as the generation started. A $200 console with $50-60 games, which would produce well under 1,000 games during its cycle—no one knew that a better cost:value relationship could exist in the home console market, and there were tens of millions who were fine with it. It was developers, led by Square, who said “good riddance” to Nintendo. Nintendo’s policies towards third parties were atrocious, and were halting the growth of the industry. To developers and publishers looking at their bottom lines, this was as obvious and as angering as the PS3’s sticker price is to the public today. Today, by and large, developers don’t want to see Sony fail. They’ve prospered under the rule of PlayStation. Sony has repeatedly helped up-and-coming devs establish themselves (LittleBigWorld’s and flOw’s devs most recently), and invested heavily in tools for devs (most recently EDGE). The bulk of the perceived hate of Sony from devs is really them hoping for more parity in the home console business, not a Sony collapse. It’s the customers who are pissed at Sony, because the cost:value relationship they’ve come to expect is out the window. The days of buying one console for $300, getting games at $50 (without worrying about micro-transactions afterwards) and having a game library of 2,500 which includes “everything but the Nintendo games and Halo” are over. And your average Sony defender today? They're sold on Blu-Ray, or in other words, the new cost:value relationship works for them. The comparisons which do exist—both companies are arrogant, both are likely to shed a ton of marketshare… They’re surface observations which probably could be made between thousands of products. The scary thing for Sony is… They don’t understand what’s going on. A recent blog post by IGN’s Hilary Goldstein (Hil-IGN)… “Tonight, Sony held a meeting of the minds between some popular bloggers and a half-dozen high fallutin' PlayStation folks. For some reason Sony invited me… We sat at a table of about 20 people…On Sony's side were Phil Harrison and a handful of others who cooled themselves under the shade he provided. Everyone was very nice to each other, even when Harrison and the Sony crew were grilled about the negativity slung constantly at PS3. Unlike most interviews or press briefings, Harrison and crew were fairly candid. Though a few bits of marketing speak slipped into the conversation, Sony more or less conceded they have no idea why people are shitting all over them. It was Dylan Jobe, game director for Warhawk, who turned the tables and asked the bloggers (and me, for some reason) why people were so angry with Sony. /rant ~Erik.

I will point out a few things. At the time of the N64's release "NO ONE" considered it cheap. I was there first day. The cost of the games and the add-ons made that baby quite pricey. Second of all, you call them consumers but the majority of these loud and boisterous complainers can be considered anti-sony to begin with or fence sitters who need justification of price. Under the guise of being a concerned consumer their tru intentions start to become more visible the more features and games are announced for the PS3. Home....great but ain't worth $600. Blu ray player....great but ain't worth $600. Virtua fighter 5....great but ain't worth $600. Resistance....great but ain't worth $600. Motorstorm....great but ain't worth $600. Well what about all those things together? The coming of final fantasy, mgs4, dmc4 and many others. This griping over $600 crap is getting old and it is really the only thing people have to complain about. For those who wanted rumble, it is announced as returning. The line up of exclusives is quite large and pretty much all of them look promising. BC is at 50% and climbing for europe , if anyone remembers about the BC issues with the PS2 they will know that sony did not stop until 100% for each region was achieved. here is an interview excerpt, "GamesIndustry.biz: Do you accept that Sony has had a bit of an image problem with PlayStation 3 in recent months? Phil Harrison: No, I don't accept it. I've been doing my best to make sure that the world sees PlayStation 3 for what it is. I can't deny that we've had some challenges, but I think those are all behind us. It's all about software now, it's not about hardware. It's all about services, it's all about the way that the industry is changing and the way that we hope to be taking a leadership position in that change. I think you saw that yesterday and Tuesday night - we're taking some pretty giant steps forward. Following the showing of Home and LittleBigPlanet, do you think this is the tipping point - both in terms of realising the power of the hardware but also changing the public's perception of the machine? It's hard to describe something as a tipping point when you're in the middle of it. It's only something you can do with the benefit of hindsight. But I think the keynote here at GDC was a very significant moment for the evolution of PlayStation 3. It's something that we knew all along was coming, so it's perhaps not so much a surprise for me because I've obviously been working with these products and services for a long time. Also internally, we've been evangelising them, so there's a lot of work that we've been doing amongst ourselves - with some confidence that we're doing the right thing. We thought we knew we were on to something very strong with both of those opportunities, but there's no substitute for sharing it with the world and reading people's unedited reaction. We've been hearing lots of positive things from lots of people, and the response on the blogs and the websites and the forum seems to be almost universally fantastic - so I'm delighted." Pretty much what is happening are attacks and if you really think about it the attacks are malicious because it is aimed to smear image. The PS3 has been under attack (loudly) since before it is launched. The system is out in 2 regions and only for 4 months and everyone is proclaiming its demise. Bloggers and critics alike assume Sony has put all thier cards on the table and half assed what they are bringing to the system. The simple and plain truth is everyone that I know who has owned and enjoyed a PS2 wants to purchase a PS3 but the have not done so yet because of the price but are working towards it. Every friend that I have that is a critic of the PS3 or the average vocal critic on the street admit they are not a fan of the PS2 then proceed with the how "one" item is not worth $600 rant. Misinformation is also the key weapon here. People telling me what the PS3 and PSP cannot do. Or what it doesn't have makes it even more obvious that they have no idea what they are talking about. This console war that it's on the internet and blogs are feuled by personal opinions and fanboyism and has no real basis on what Sony should do in the future.