| mrduckbear said: 1) Look at the PS3 in Japan, yes it's not so good now, but it has potential to grow it's userbase and compete competitively with the Wii even if it does take a long ass time to get there. It's only 3 million short of Wii's total, while the 360 is nearly 4.5 million short. 2) The PSP proved that it can bounce back and Sony obviously realized that the trick was to re-design it's portable system to bring in customers. I'm pretty sure they know how to bring back the love for Playstation to japanese consumers as well. 3) Whereas Microsoft just doesn't understand that nobody in Japan wants a 360 because they hated the first one and online gaming is not a selling point to them. Those JPRG's, and let's conclude Microsoft has like 5 out for it in Japan compared to 2 of PS3's and yet it still can't sell at least 10k a week. 4) Thus the PS3 has potential to grow and if the japanese dev's would stop believing in Microsoft to taking over the world, their jrpg series won't have to suffer anymore because of it. 5) Look at Europe, with a year head start, the PS3 has managed to sell almost equivalent to the 360 and it is outselling it finally both hardware and software. the PS3 games there actually have legs to boot. Thus, it has potential to expand there now which it is doing.
6) As for the U.S, despite it still being a huge disadvantage and being behind, the PS3 in sales are coming in close to the 360, and with the bad economy, only a cheaper price can fix that along with their big titles like LBP coming out this fall. Now that Microsoft is trying to court third parties with no more good first party titles, they are gonna use their money like crazy to buy out exclusives.
7) Microsoft had their chance to be the next "PS2" but let's face it, its potential to grow has faded and soon America will buy into it again as well. I think Sony was smart not to buy that GTA4 exclusive $50 million DLC cause it didn't sell consoles at all lol. |
1) Potential is a funny word, it implies that there exists a scenario whereby this growth could happen. Which is true of both the PS3 and 360. I would say the PS3 definitely has more potential but I don't think the 360 is completely dead in the water..just close to it (in Japan). And if I'm being honest the PS3 isn't that far away itself right now, another year at this pace and it will be in the same position.
Finally the PS3 is 4 million behind the wii not 3 million:
360 - 611,575
PS3 - 2,121,511
Wii - 6,170,240
2) I'm not entirely convinced by this argument given TheSource's recent explanation of declining console interest in Japan in favor of increased portable interest. It seems to me the revitalization of the PSP was at least in part made possible by the larger interest in portable systems in Japan at the moment. With declining interest in consoles it seems far less likely that they could recreate that turnaround on the PS3, particularly with so much developer support siphoned over to the portables. And what little console support that is left is going primarily to the Wii with only a handful of exceptions. Their best bet for a turnaround would be the launch of FFXIII imo.
3) MS performance in Japan is certainly abysmal, I don't think anyone contends otherwise. But they have made progress with the 360. They're already to almost 50% more consoles this generation than last generation and they are slowly trickling more in each week. Its far from good but it is progress. I think its a bit disingenuous though to look at the situation and say MS has done strictly worse than the PS3 thus far. They've managed to increase their foothold while Sony has fallen tremendously in the console market, in raw totals Sony still holds a decisive lead but to go from completely untouchable to struggling isn't exactly the win conditions Sony set out for themselves in Japan at the start of the generation.
4) Well as you pointed out a lot of those JRPGs, as I understand it at least, were in fact purchased exclusives. The real software problem for the PS3 isn't actually MS grabbing a half-dozen JRPG titles it is actually the major software shift to the portables and the Wii. In Japan the portables are easily getting the lion's share of developer time right now and the Wii is getting the Lion's share of what is left. Former Playstation titles like MH3 and Tenchu jumping platforms is a major obstacle for a turnaround for them, not to mention things like KH, ToS, DQ, etc.. all eating up a large number of spin-off projects and in some cases main series games. The saving grace that they have to look forward to is that FFXIII was in development long before the so-called experts realized how badly they were doing in Japan. If FFXIII development started today I can guarantee you it wouldn't be a console exclusive. It might not even be on a console.
5) Europe and Japan are very very different markets. Not only in consumer preference but in the size of the market, as well as a tons of other factors like localization which can be painstaking with all the languages there are to translate to. There aren't a lot of similarities to be honest.
If you're point is simply that they caught up in Europe so why not Japan? Then I would first point out they are approximately 750,000 units behind which while it may seem insignificant is actually about 30% of the deficit still.
What I mean is that the PS3 launched with approximately a 2.5 million unit deficit to the 360 after launch week (It would only have been 1.3m if Sony had been ready to launch in all regions at once).
6) Well you pointed out a bad economy and then suggest a price cut as a solution. You are correct a price cut would definitely bring more interested customers but with the weaker economy and the weaker dollar you also have less profit already for each unit sold. The obvious problem with a price cut in an economy with a weakening currency is that the weakening of the currency is already cutting into your profits so a price cut cuts even deeper. Its possible they will cut price but not likely right now.
7) I don't really think the 360 ever had much of a chance to be the next PS2. And I absolutely agree that the DLC purchase on their part looks somewhat paltry to what they were expecting at the moment.
I have to say though I think the US market will stay with the 360. Not to the exclusion of other consoles but I just don't see the US support fading for them right now.
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