J_Allard said:
Errr... Sony's bread and butter is life insurance, has been for years. It's the only thing consistently making them money in recent times. In the gaming market PS3 lost them a ton of money. The Vita is a flop. PS4 is off to a great start, but LOL @ the idea that gaming is Sony's bread and butter given some of their recent trends. As for people doubting your claim about MS being in the gaming market only to slow down Sony, I am not sure why you have such a distorted view of the opinion. You seem to think it's bold insightful, but everyone knows MS got into gaming because of the Playstation's living room presence. MS has said as such themselves. Plenty of insiders have said as such themselves. But you're mistaken if you are claiming that's the only reason they are still in the gaming market. The other guy quoting you is entirely correct. I know you like to think that MS in the gaming world just follows suit with what Sony is doing and bases all their strategies and moves off of them (you post as such all the time), but if their only goal was still to slow Sony's share of the living room down, then it's time to pack it up and head home. Mission accomplished. The Xbox 360 would have been the perfect swan song for that line of thinking. They timed the launch perfectly, they essentially tied the PS3 in sales, AFAIK they beat it where it matters (profit), and they dominated the US market. Maybe they started the gen looking to continue slowing Sony down, but by the end of the gen it was apparent they had a product and a brand that could make them money. And with Sony's financial troubles, maybe they don't need to slow them down anyway? The Xbone reveal is all the proof you need that they had a vision for the gaming market unique and all their own and had no desires of outselling Playstation but instead was focused on profit and Windows. With the price and the UI you could still say they are easily emphasizing those things over outselling Sony. We all know MS has billions and billions in their war chest. If their sole purpose in this industry is to just slow Sony down, the Xbone would be $400 at worst. We'd be seeing a lot more exclusives. We'd be seeing parity in hardware. You can even take the Xbone out of the equation. If MS were here only to pester Sony and stop them from taking over the living room, other products and companies have come along and done that for them, and presented bigger obstacles for MS than Sony ever did. Smart TV's, DVR's, media boxes, tablets, and smartphones have done a good enough job of slowing Sony down all by themselves (both market share wise and profits wise, Sony has lost a ton of money trying to compete in these markets for these devices). |
About Sony gaming: lost money in the past, profitable now, PSV has very disappointin sales numbers,but by now it should be dirt cheap to make, even more with the new cheaper screen, but I agree gaming is not its most profitable business. Anyway, now it can recover part of the previous losses, so it makes sense for Sony to stay in the market, exiting it would make all that money lost forever.
About MS having initially the purpose of stopping Sony, but later remaining in the console market as it became another good business, I agree with you, and given the past losses, recovering money from that investment is for MS another reason as good as it is for Sony.
About the OP: I think we won't ever be able to totally work out what happened inside the three companies, unless they tell us everything, but I suspect that the turnover in MS top management and other key positions contributed to MS being caught off guard. And I give credits to MS for reversing some marketing and PR blunders quite quickly.
All in all I think that both XBOne and Wii U will be able to sell better, at lower prices, with larger game libraries and, particularly needed for Ninty, better marketing, they should learn from MS how important it is to quickly correct mistakes in it.
