Final-Fan said:
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. |
Of course the problem is that "when the price drops" part. I agree with you about Microsoft, but I think the price is a much bigger problem than people think. When the price drops? So far we haven't even seen one price drop, just a clearance sale on the 60GB. People can say "oh well the 80GB will obviously be dropped to that price" all they want, but so far Sony has said nothing even slightly suggesting they intend to do this (not that the would). What price level will be reasonable? With an arguably much better library of games before the RRoD issues were known the 360 was still selling pretty badly at $399. Do you expect the PS3 sales to double when they get that low? $299? How long will it take them to get down that far? Will the 360 and Wii just constantly match those price drops stealing away most of their possible positive effects?
The other major problem for the PS3 is it's game library. It is almost completely out of 3rd party exclusive games, and most of the good games it has are dual platform with the 360. IF reports of RRoD are gone after these new heatsyncs are installed, you can suddenly play a much larger library of exclusives AND multiplatform games on the 360 for much cheaper than on the PS3. Honestly I think Sony has positioned themselves so badly with that initial price that they have very little chance of anything but 3rd place.
