| tuscaniman99 said: I just want to share a little even that just happened with one of my friends. Myself and him are 32 years of age and he has a son who is 7. We texted back and forth and this is the gist of our conversation. Me: The new Xbox is going to be $499 Him: Is it supposed to be good? Me: Yeah, a lot of new games announced. Him: Does it play 360 games? Me. No Him: That's bullshit! It better have Halo. Me: They announced Halo and it is coming out Fall of 2014. Him: That sucks. I'll probably get one around Christmas. Me: It comes with Kinect so your son would probably like that. Him: Yep. I'll get one at Christmas. He basically introduced me to Halo. I had a PS2 and he had the original Xbox back in the day and myself, him and two other friends would play hours of split screen Halo. He is probably what you consider a casual gamer because he only plays Halo and sports titles. He doesn't play COD or any modern shooters. He has never had a Playstation system and he doesn't want one. He has no idea about the now defunct DRM policy. The thing is he isn't the only one like this. There are a lot of people who will go to the store when the system is out and see a new Xbox and buy it because it is new. They won't know about the shitstorm that was taking place in the past. It is impossible to pick a winner of a console generation already. I know everyone likes to talk sales but we won't know who will win until many years from now. The voices online are a minority. It's a casual market out there. |
Oh, I'm with you on that. Soccer moms and people who don't frequent video game forums will go "oh, it's the new one, okay" and buy it. You'll also have some that just by default buy the one that's cheaper, the consumer that's swayed by the store employee, and you absolutely have people who have no idea that Call of Duty is on PlayStation too.
LOL, it's actually frustrating as a hardcore gamer being in a store and hearing employee BS and just shaking your head. I've actually chimed in before, but that's typically frowned upon by the store employee.
Back on topic...having name recognition actually helps XBox immensly, you're right. In pop culture for the longest time, the uninformed said "playing Nintendo" referring to playing any video game. Then it was "playing PlayStation", now it's "playing XBox" (in the US). I'm not saying that overnight the casual, uninformed consumer is going to jump camp to XBox. What I am saying is...(opinions, not necessarily fact unless cited)
- PS4's memory is faster (fact) and their overall hardware design is more geared towards gaming (my opinion based on facts)
- PS4 will be the console of choice for third parties and [in time] this will result in better multiplats on PS4
- PS4's first party exclusive games will be better than XBox One's in both variety and quality.
- The PlayStation brand currently owns outside of the United States and will continue to do so
- The PlayStation brand will gain ground in the United States
- The PS3 has sold more than the XBox 360 worldwide despite launching a year later (fact) and it's in Sony's favor that both consoles are launching at the same time this time around
- The Dualshock 4 may not become the favorite controller, but will be seen more favorably than the Dualshock 3
- PSN's offerings will continue to improve.
Some of these are vague, others pure opinion, but the bottom line is that I don't currently see a market will the XBox will gain ground, but I see areas where PlayStation will. It may be gradual and you always have uninformed consumers, but I see the uninformed saying "playing PlayStation" again in a few years.
