Rpruett said:
I never said Sony is doomed. I'm saying they are just as susceptible to failure as any other company, including Nintendo. The fact that Sony is a bigger company is irrelevant; they are currently doing poorly in other divisions as well, not just gaming. And no, the Wii was absolutely not a "desperation strategy" lol. That would insinuate that they lost money in order to gain marketshare, something that Sony tried this gen, and failed at.
You're right that ANY company can fail. However, you're wrong that they are equally susceptible. There is an immense amount of resource re-shuffling and re-direction that a larger company, far more diverse company can do to survive. If for some reason Windows got over-taken in the Operating systems market in the same form of dominance that Microsoft now holds, they'd be hurting pretty tremendously since their business isn't incredibly diverse.
The Wii was a desperation strategy (Not for Marketshare), it was the cheapest next gen console they could possibly produce and represented a marginal upgrade (Even marginal by Nintendo standards). It absolutely was a desperation console.
The fact that you separate profit numbers from wide scale success is the very reason your argument fails. Sony could drop the price of the PS3 tomorrow to $49.99 and the Vita to $19.99 and experience unheard of success in systems sold, but they'd go broke. You fail to realize that there is a balance between the two in order to remain successful, somethng that Nintendo has proven to be better at than Sony. "Niche product" or not, Nintendo made a veritable fortune this generation while Sony lost billions (yes, billions) with the PS3. Check out D21Lewis' thread about the PS3's success. Many (including myself) would agree that to us (the gamers) the PS3 was a great console. But to Sony it was a catastrophy because it lost a lot of money, lost a lot of marketshare, and allowed the "Xbox" name to replace the "Playstation" brand here in the states for this generation.
I'm not diminishing profit, what I am saying however is Nintendo doesn't scale well. Even as the far and away dominant generation leader they are currently and have been the worst selling console in 2011. With no real signs of that changing. Sony and Microsoft (But more Sony) live on more of an aggressive marketing model. The PS3 was about as bad of a launch as a system could have, between pricing, timing, software, etc. And it has rebounded to be a probably an 80 million+ in sales console atleast. Nintendo couldn't give away their Gamecube last generation.
I believe Sony will never witness a generation like Nintendo has for their consoles.
Nobody is saying that Sony can't turn things around next gen; of course they could, particularly with blu-ray and the cell widely established now. Just don't pretend that Nintendo has a worse track record than Sony at sustaining their business.
When have I said that Nintendo has a worse track record? I've said numerous times that Nintendo runs their business supremely. What I am saying is that Nintendo has no margin for error or mis-steps. They have nothing beyond gaming. Like I have been saying, I think Handhelds are a dying breed right now. 5 years from now we might not even see them any longer. I would love to see Nintendo's profit from their Handhelds vs Consoles.
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