A New and Unique Trend in Game Development And Publishing

[Final-Fan]

KruzeS said:

Sqrl said:

Ironically I think each company thought they had to because of the other company.  They were so paranoid about "being the most powerfull!!1!!one!!11!!eleven". I think the market was primed for a smart competitor like nintendo to do precisely what they did.

Honestly, I think Sony is the one that blew it. Not to single them out but... However great they may be for gaming, Cell and Bluray have put imense pressure on the price of the console. Coming to market a year later, and on a $200/50% premium over their most expensive competitor doesn't help at all. Then can announce 10 year life-cycle all they want, but that's really not their choice to make.

Microsoft's design is pretty much in line with their business - that thing is an everyday computer in disguise. And from there, they can sell their unified tools for both their platforms - 360 and Windows. The only problem they've run into is reliability. It doesn't make sense that Sony could, even if artificially, lower their price after less than a year, and they couldn't. If it weren't for that, they should already be at $200 for the Core with a memory card, or maybe $250 for a bundle with a card and a game. And that's not really pricing themselves out of the market. It's coming first to the market, at an slightly higher price ("slightly" when compared to Sony), get a good head start in units and games, and then dropping to your other competitor's prices (Nintendo) when they come along. They almost did it in America, but reliability can mess it pretty bad.

Au contraire.  I agree that Sony focused on cutting-edge hardware so much that it shot itself in the foot.  (Cell may be costing them a lot -- I don't know the numbers -- but Blu-ray was a total clusterf*@# for the first few months.)  But Microsoft's sin was much, much greater, and carries more potential for long-range negative impact. 

Sony's console is expensive -- duh.  Sony's console is very expensive -- inarguably.  Sony's console is too expensive -- debatably.  But one thing that even Sony's detractors agree upon is that, once the sticker shock passes, the PS3 is a very solid, and even user-friendly machine.  I've said it before, but the number one thing IMO that Sony absolutely nailed was the standard, easily-swappable laptop hard drive.  Anyone with rudimentary computer hardware knowledge who isn't terrified of tinkering can put in ANY 2.5" hard drive they want to.  (Not like Microsoft's tiny proprietary $100 ripoff, damn them.)  Without voiding warranty.  And then they can put Linux on it. 

But the things Sony got right are nothing compared to what Microsoft got wrong.  You all know what I'm talking about -- RRoD and disc scratching.  We all talk big about Microsoft the Evil Empire, but no one actually holds a grudge until they date-rape you with a faulty product.  Microsoft apologists can talk all day long about how Microsoft is doing everything they can and we should be happy they're deigning to extend the warranty on RRoDs at all, but the simple fact is that the company put severely flawed hardware on the market and pretended that it was fine until they were about to get gang-raped by class-action lawsuits, at which point they did the bare minimum to address only the most serious of the system's flaws.  I think that Microsoft underestimates the amount of permanent damage this episode does to their reputation among gamers.  Sure, we keep playing the 360, but when the next gen rolls around, are you really going to be so quick to buy their system? 

People are reluctant to buy the PS3 because of the price tag, not because they're afraid it will catch fire when they're not looking.  When the price drops, Sony's problems will disappear and be forgotten.  The wounds inflicted by the RRoD will not heal so easily.