TRios_Zen on 16 January 2009
| CGI-Quality said: @ Happy Squirrel No, I think a $599.99 PS4 is suicide, and nobody will take Sony seriously ever again. And you are 100% correct that the brand has been hurt. Fortunately Happy, I don't believe that we'll see another $599.99 Playstation if Sony knows what's best for the brand, which one could argue, that this gen they forgot what's best for "Playstation". @ Dodece Regardless, my belief still stands that this could not have been done by another company. Sure, Sony HAD to drop the price to not tank the brand, but this is a learning experience coupled with bad PR/price/arrogance/much FIERCER competition than Sony ever imagined/AND the tumbling economy. All of those things factor into how the Playstation went from Cloud 9 to the Ocean floor. It's not just about it's price, even though, if the PS3 had remained $599.99 all this time, YES, it would most certainly have been the sinking ship it's now claimed to be. However, I don't think, should Sony start profiting on PS3 in 2009, that it's a sinking ship...ala The Gamecube - 3rd place profiting turns into 1st place goodness with the Fantastic (yes it's fantastic, and I love mine), Nintendo Wii. This is why Sega Saturn/Dreamcast were sinking ships and the N64/Gamecube were not: Profit! |
I'd argue that they tried to take advantage of the Brand to support thier other sales initiatives. And to that end I'd agree with you the Playstation brand name is (to some extent was) a super-powerful brand name and probably one of a very few that could make the mistakes they have and still be in contention to have a modicum of success this generation.
That being said, it's quite a shame we don't know what a blu-ray less 399.99 PS3 and a RROD-less 399.99 XBOX360 would have done this generation. I honestly think those two factors (cost and reliability issues) have hurt the respective platforms the most.
