| --OkeyDokey-- said: Microsoft will never match Sony's past achievements in this industry. But right now they're about equal in the console market. Their first party still sucks though. |
Past achievements aren't the most important factor to brand power though, which is essentially what this thread is actually about. There are multiple facets of "brand power" that people are continually bringing up, 1st party support, sales, etc. In the end though, the only really important thing is recognition. People who are new to gaming don't know and don't give a shit about how much the PS2 sold. Just like most of them haven't even heard of Sega, when in the past it was mostly about Sega vs. Nintendo. Anything can happen, and if Sony makes another big mistake and loses more money with a PS4, there likely won't be a PS5 and Sony will go the path of Sega.
In America, MS has FAR more recognition. This is mostly shown in the sales numbers. Yes, Sony has Blu-ray/superior hardware, that's nice, but if it's not selling more than the Xbox 360, it doesn't matter (it's not in case you didn't know). MS has more of a name here (in America) and that = brand power.
Still, overall, I think Sony has a slight lead. I emphasize slight because I believe it could change within this year. Natal + WM7 could essentially catapult MS far ahead of Sony. Here I emphasize could because Move could put Sony out of reach. Only time will give that answer.
MS will most likely never penetrate the Japanese market unless Sony goes bankrupt. Also, to hold that against MS in terms of brand power is almost unfair, since Japanese have continually shown strong nationalist tendencies with the products they purchase. Essentially, if they have a choice been a good Japanese product, and a cheaper, equally or almost as good non-Japanese product, they will still probably choose the Japanese product. If I had mroe time, I'd try to find some of the articles I've read on this subject.
