| cura said: hm, Sony discontinuing the PS3 in early 2009? sounds a little extreme to me. In fact, it sounds outlandish and absurd to be honest, especially when considering that many PS3 exlusives are already well into development. In all seriousness though, unless you understand the internal workings of Sony and the SCE division and their current financial situation then anything you say is pretty much uninformed and therefore likely to be off the mark (or in this case downright crazy). What is it about the PS3 that makes people so inclined to write threads like these? Is it because a journalist in the Washington Times that doesn't think the PS3 brand is doing too well? He/she likely knows as much about the internal workings and current financial situation of Sony as the next person - i.e. squat all. Is it about the 'lower than expected sales?' Just because the PS3 is selling just under/over half the 360 sales does that automatically entail that the PS3 is doomed? So doomed in fact that they will have to terminate the PS3? Again, inferring that the PS3 is doomed because of its low sales is a slight exaggeration don't you think? Anyway, for the record Sony have already said that they are content to let the PS3 sell as it is and adopt a more aggressive sales strategy later on. |
Except that a more agressive sales strategy later on is unlikely to change much ...
Whether or not people accept it, articles like this are a very bad sign for a console because they help shape uninformed consumers' opinions of products. Heading into Christmas 2008, a lot of people will see articles like this on Google News or another news aggregator and start thinking "There is no way I'm going to spend $400 on a system that is struggling and may be discontinued in 12 months."
The result of that kind of thinking is that the system struggles through the holiday season, gets destroyed in sales, and news stories about holiday sales restate the same opinions about how poor the system's future is and re-enforce people's opinions about the system. After years of this, it doesn't matter whether the system is $99 and it has the 100+ best games available for it because people will "Know" that the system is overpriced, unpopular, and will soon be discontinued.
When it comes to consoles, if you can't sell your system today you won't be able to sell it tomorow.
