This thread contains all sorts of good Nintendo bashing. It's pretty interesting. A few key points though:
As long as they don't win the Super Bowl, it's a good year for everyone else. Good analogy though.
2/ Sony will at best, recover ALL the money invested in the PS3 (3 billions$ ?)
but they will not really make money.
3/ they will not win but they will not lose either.
4/ of course, they will lose their supreme domination in the console world.
Ninty is back and MS will still be present.
5/ they will succeedly created and IMPOSED the BR, more cash for them.
I think this is the best answer (so far). I believe that Sony, who believing their game console will sell no matter what, wanted to start pushing other products to make more money. This might have been their intention since the PlayStation days. Use gaming consoles as a way to push other products. They've never been as profitable in their gaming section as they have been in other areas, and Nintendo in the last quarter has made almost more money than Sony has in their gaming section in the last 6 or 7 years, so it seems like a likely scenario. There's a good amount of money in blu-ray royalties, so being able to use their console to push blu-ray adoption (even at the sacrifice of their console), is the most important thing. As long as they break even on the PS3, which I believe they will, that's a huge win.
I hardly doubt sony is interested in beating user base of each console. A business cares more about making money. They set themselves up for the future to make more money. I think it's a win for them.
/ignore
The only problem is that Sony's gaming section is not making any more... at the moment. Also, like I said above, Nintendo has made more money than Sony (course, Nintendo relies on gaming, whereas Sony does not) over the last 6 or 7 years, when Sony domination was at it's highest. Also, Sony's money making ability comes from selling loads of software to make up for the hardware losses. And since it's believed the PS3 is at roughly $400 bucks, they might still be selling the PS3 for a loss, because I heard the PS3 is actually less than $400 in Japan, and the weak dollar might hurt them as well. So without a rather large userbase, it's hard to push software, and thus, hard to make money. And Sony does care about making money, so they probably do care about beating the user base of at least the top console.
I dont think M$ will pull out of console making if they finish third, they have a huge grasp on America that itd be ridiculous to just let it go.
Unless they start constantly making money, and making enough to ever have a shot at making up the losses from the Xbox days, the investors will force them out. Though, like Sony in a way, I believe Microsoft is using gaming as a way to push other products, such as the whole "living room media center" thing. Or, if anything, keeping Sony from acquiring that market. Depending on how much money Microsoft thinks is in that market will depend on how much money they are willing to lose for it.
Nintendo Wii2
Sony Playstation Wii
Xbox Wii
Wii is ruining gaming? Try Sony and Microsoft are using gaming as a way to reach other, more profitable, markets. They could case less if gaming died, it's just a means to another end. Nintendo is the only one that cares about gaming, since their whole business depends on it. It really shows with their game quality too. Not that Sony and Microsoft and 3rd parties don't have quality (except for EA of course), it's just that Nintendo pushes quality at the expense of releasing a game on time.
Why don't we just count every console ever made then? Sony would still come out on top, but at least Atari would have a 5% marketshare still. Should we add Atari and Sega to the front page with about 5-10% marketshare each? Last generation's only effect on this generation is how many people are left over to 'convert' to current gen.
Whatever makes you sleep at night. Thank you Leo-j for being reasonable, though I think both consoles have advantages besides the price issue.
It's a strange thing. I can imagine every single sony fanboy making a post of orgasmic glee when the PS3 total sales exceed the 360 sales. And yet if you had said 3 years ago, that the ps3 would be battling with the 360 for second place fanboys would have thrown a hissy fit.
I think really this generation will be considered a pretty hefty 'loss' for Sony. If the PS3 sold 60million and the 360 sold 35million I would consider that a pretty impressive success for MS and a pretty massive failure for Sony. I mean the PS2 had 115million? 120million? and the xbox had 24million. If sony lose 60million console sales, well that's certainly not good.
I mean it would be extremely hard for Sony to maintain a 100million+ userbase but I don't think it was unreasonable for them to get 90million or so. So yea I would call the PS3 a massive mistake. Should have made it cheaper, easier to develop for etc.
I think Sony will end up being second this generation but Nintendo and MS are definetly going to make far more progress.
I do wonder sometimes though if MS had managed to avoid the 3red lights fiasco if they could have really pushed the PS3 into 3rd place. That was definetly a huge screw up by MS.
Oh and I hate people that claim the PS3 is in the HD market so will win it's market and the wii doesn't count. People that buy Wii's are less likely to buy another console. It would be like claiming the N64 won it's generation as it was competing in the cartridge based games market.
This is also a very good answer. I love the last paragraph.
As for my answer, I'd have to say as long they turn a profit, in Sony's eyes, they'll be happy. With the way the PS3 started, that's all they can really hope for right. Before the generation started, just turning a profit wouldn't be considering a "win" for them, but it's too late to change what's been done. If they would have known they would have struggled this much up to late last year, perhaps they would have rethought their strategy so that they could win in the sense that they would have more consoles sold than everyone else combined. But it's too late for that now. Profit is what they should be aiming for, and if they reach it, then it's a win.
