Augen on 03 December 2013
| Shadow1980 said: Actually, specs have never been all that important for home consoles, either. The most powerful system has never been the best selling system. The Master System, Neo Geo, N64, Xbox, and PS3 were the most powerful systems of their respective generations but weren't sales leaders. The NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, and Wii were, despite being weaker than their aforementioned counterparts. Clearly, being technologically superior doesn't guarantee much. That's not to say tech is completely irrelevant. Formats have a big effect: Nintendo's refusal to switch to CDs for the N64 cost them a lot of third-party support and the GameCube using a proprietary miniDVD format (which had one-third the space of a regular DVD) didn't win them anybody back. With the Wii, the fact that it was weaker than the PS3 & 360 kept third parties from developing any of their big franchises for the system. However, Nintendo showed that they didn't necessarily need third parties this time, as their new but risky strategy — make a weak but affordable system that offers new ways to play games — paid off and gamers flocked to the Wii in droves. They tried the same strategy again with the Wii U, but without sufficient first-party software to drive sales, the system dropped off a cliff after the start of 2013 despite having a very solid launch. Nintendo's loss is Sony and MS's gain, and the PS4 and XBO will soak up all of Nintendo's lost market share. The PS4 is set to be the market leader this time due largely to the brand's strength globally, whereas the XBO will do most of its business in America, and it may struggle to best the PS4 even on its home turf. So, the PS4 will likely be the first time the most powerful system was also the best selling system, but it won't have obtained that spot solely on the merits of its tech specs. It will have won for the same reasons every other sales leader won its generation: price, marketing, games, regional trends, and other more tangible things. Few gamers care about specs, and are mostly just for bragging rights. The average game buying consumer just looks for what to them provides the best value for their money. The Wii U has the price advantage, but it has been lacking the games that people buy Nintendo systems to play, plus marketing was almost nonexistent up until a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile, the PS4 and XBO offer very similar experiences, but the PS4 costs $100 less, not to mention that Europe is PlayStation Country and Japan couldn't give less of a damn about Xbox. |
Very well said.
There is a value in graphics as I don't think even if you made a system $20 day one system people would settle for an N64 level graphics anymore. You have to find the sweet spot with power and price. I think Sony failed with the PS3 over shooting the mark and did much much better with the PS4. The X1 is an odd one because th einclusion of a significant peripheral (Kinect) does bring something new to valuation and grpahics equation.
