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EdHieron on 09 January 2013
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Aielyn said:
EdHieron said:
Because if they don't, there's no reason for fans of the 90 million selling PS3 ( which is the least that it will sell) and its games to pick one up when it's not going to be able to recreate the same jaw dropping effects that games like Uncharted, Beyond:  Two Souls, and the Last of Us created in their time.

Your response confuses me.

PS1 sold over 100 million, and made a profit by the second year. PS2 sold over 150 million, and made a profit by the second year. PS3 will be lucky to make 90 million, and it took five years to have profit for that year, and still isn't even close to breaking even for the whole generation.

So what makes you think that a PS4 that is only mildly more powerful than the Wii U couldn't attract a huge number of fans, like the PS2 (which was weaker than all of its competitors) managed?

More importantly, what makes you think that number of fans is more important than profitability, when Sony is practically nearing bankruptcy?

 

Well, Sony may have lost billions of dollars this gen like you say.  However, the sheer number of consoles sold indicates that at some level Sony has been successful this gen.  90 Million consoles sold would probably put PS3 in the Top 10 Consoles saleswise of all time.  And for the most part those sales have been based upon giving gamers experiences like they've never had before this gen whether that be in their amazing exclusives like Uncharted and Heavy Rain or in the third party games they shared with the 360. 

It's kind of a two edge sword.  They could go the low power route you suggest and really be no better off than if they were to keep the PS3 on the market and keep supporting it heavily for the next five years, but they would lose the new audience they created this gen as they went off to look for consoles that did deliver far superior games to their aging PS3s.

Or they could step up to the plate lose a bit of money though if they played their cards right they could mitigate that by not being as willing to take as much of a loss as usual ie. putting out hardware at the $500 price range that would be far superior to Wii U's tech while using tech that would be reasonably priced for them versus what they lost with PS3 and swing for a new generation of games that would be as impressive for their time as the PS3 was for its time thus keeping the new audience they created on PS3.