Sony never to release a PS4?

[Dodece]

Dallinor said:

Dodece said:
This has just the right amount of desperation to be true. I think there is a bit too much denial at play in these forums. The truth is Sony is losing the war. They are in a technological arms race at a time when the company is losing much of the money that it needs to wage that war. They can't simply eat the losses that they did this generation, but they would have to if they are going to meet the challenge presented by Microsoft's new hardware.

I know there is a absurd logic at play that says Sony can scale back the architecture in a new machine. So that they do not need to loss lead in a new generation. The obvious flaw in that logic being that Microsoft has no real incentive to not go over the top. Not only could they afford to do so, but they have proven that they can be very profitable while doing so. The reality whether many on here want to acknowledge it or not is that the power that is under the hood matters. Especially when the price points are the same.

Rest assured that the majority of the market that Microsoft and Sony are sharing would swing to the provider that is competitively priced, but overwhelmingly more powerful. Most on these forums would do exactly the same thing for that matter. I watched this generation as most ardent Sony lovers on these forums quietly slunk off to buy 360s. A quiet acknowledgment that Microsoft could swing the development community to their side.

The point I am getting at is Sony can't replay this generation losing billions in the process, and they can't go the other route either. That would lead to players abandoning the product line in droves. Sony thinking laterally might find some real profit from joining the cloud. It would make a whole lot of sense. The hardware is what is breaking the bank not the software. 

You have a penchant for melodrama.

As for the competition and pricing. In such an event that Sony release a cheaper console and MS decide to push the technological limits, MS would most likely have to sell hardware at a substantial loss to match the price of Sony's less powerful machine. I think you would be mistaken in thinking that in that situation Sony would have no room, or indeed leave no room to manouver.

Furthermore, there may be anti-competitive laws that would prohibite them from simply producing a high end machine and matching it with the price of an entry-to-mid level system from Sony. Especially if there is an aim to force them from the market.

Actually I think Sony has a lot of room to maneuver, but not necessarily within the space they occupied this generation. You don't have to be a high end player to succeed in the console market, and Nintendo proved that out this generation. What you can't do is angle towards the high end market, and not provide a high end product. Sophisticated users will move towards the more sophisticated machine. That doesn't mean there aren't other demographics to tap into.

There aren't any anti-competition laws that would seem to apply. Were that the case Sony would have been litigated to death this generation. They did actually sell a more expensive machine at a bigger loss then Microsoft actually did, and their trojan horse policy was almost underhanded when it came to the format war that was waged early on. So Sony would be the worst offender. Not only did they eat bigger losses, but they did in fact force someone out of a market. Like it or not I don't see the laws as being able to prevent this. Not that Sony would even try doing that in the first place. You don't want to make case law that all your victims can turn around on you.

Besides courts aren't likely to make a distinction between console generations. They would view these consoles as part of a product line, and if Sony is willing to absorb massive losses up front on one product. Then Microsoft would be perfectly justified in responding in the same way with a different product. What do you think Sony's argument would be exactly. Microsoft is getting a unfair advantage by doing what we did to get a unfair advantage. The judge would toss them out on their asses. That all before Microsoft has to fall back on the cell phone market as being a example of their philosophy. The machine after all is just a incentive to get people to use their service.

Hate to break it to you, but Sony wouldn't have a leg to stand on.