Is the Xbox Brand Simply Weaker Than the Playstation Brand?

[DivinePaladin]

Hiku said

They were able to sell PS3's at a profit in the later years, but it never came close to making up for the losses the console cost them over the course of its life cycle. I forget the exact number, but it was by no means a small sum. Their plan was to take losses from the very beginning. The initial $600 PS3 cost them around $800 to make. So they were already losing up to $200 per unit even from the start. But because of how things panned out, they had to make a decision. Either continue on this path and let the PS3 die. Or sacrifice even more money to make the console affordable as quickly as possible. They were able to cut down on costs a little bit by removing the Emotion Engine chip, and because Blu-Ray players started going down in manufacturing costs over the years. But they continued to sell PS3's at a loss for a number of years. They burned a lot of money, but in doing so they made the PS3 successful, and regained the trust of the consumers. And this was very important for the premise of PS4. It's reasonable to expect that the shareholders want to make some of that money back with the PS4. And I agree with that. But I don't think it's reasonable to hold the potential of PS4 back forever because of it. They certainly see what the success of the PS3 has done for PS4, so they'll likely focus on that as well at some point.

I agree with you about The Order. It didn't live up to the standards we'd come to expect. Though it was one of their only first party exclusives, and as a company you have to put marketing and hype behind it, even if it's taken a direction you may not agree with. At least the money and hype behind Bloodborne seemed warranted. And hopefully they'll make sure that the games they invest in will be worth while from now on. There's also the issue with The Last Guardian, and we haven't seen Gran Turismo yet, etc. Though while first party titles are very important for Sony, it's always been the third party titles that made them strive. And on that regard they seem to have been hitting all the right notes lately.

I'm referring to the PS3 as a whole when I talk about profit margins. The hardware clearly wasn't the profit point, but while my memory is somewhat fuzzy, I'm still recalling that 2008-9 and onward they turned a profit on the PS brand. I could be remembering wrong though. 

 

And I do have to credit them on their third party support. While I don't care about most of the games they've gotten locked up, they are doing a good job. But then, in terms of brand, the Xbox brand is doing pretty well with that too this gen. So that's sort of a trade off to me.