So is "get a second job for a PS3" gaming's biggest misquote?

[EricHiggin]

twintail said:

EricHiggin said:

Wanting people to work more to get the console so they feel like it's a worthwhile reward has some logic to it, but assuming people can make that extra money, or are willing to, is another thing. Mind you, when PS3 was getting ready to launch, the worldwide economy was booming before the collapse that happended not much later.

There are some jobs where putting in some OT whenever you want is doable, but many do not. What I find most of the time, is it's either all in, or all out, with the availability of some minor OT here and there as a bonus. For most people at that time, some minor OT would mean having to wait years and years before having saved enough for a PS3, and people do not like to wait.

At the time of the PS3, in my group of friends and acquaintances, a few of us were working like mad men, do to our jobs and the companies were worked for, and we had lots of money to buy a PS3, but very very little time to utilize it. The rest of them, weren't working much, do to their jobs and companies, and didn't have the money to buy a PS3 (not for a long time into the gen anyway) in which case, many of them just said screw it and stuck with PS2, or jumped into the 360 ecosystem. The sad thing about this situation, is the people like me, were quite casual when it came to gaming, yet I could jump into next gen no problem, yet my friends that lived for gaming, were stuck in last gen for a long time, watching my PS3 sit around and collect dust. That makes no sense. This is another reason why the PS4 took off like it did, because everyone could get into next gen early on due to the affordability of the console.

What Ken said makes sense if you assume the world is perfect and everything always goes up, when in reality, the world is like the weather and the stock market. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down. Not taking that into account is what led to "get a second job". People twisted what Ken said because what he said, whether it was all his idea or a general consensus amoung PS, wasn't based strongly on reality, but a slight fantasy that things were always going to get better and that PS could do what they want and get away with it because they were so great. It didn't work out for them like how it didn't work out for Hillary. When people get to full of themselves, the world has a way of bringing them back down to earth, and most of the time, it's for the good of everyone.

I get what you are saying but I think you are taking the quote way too literally. He was talking about creating a desire for the PS3 so strong that it would be equivalent to ppl thiknking that they would work more hours just to get it. Not that ppl must or should actually do that. Its just a feeling, just like any other which marketting creates. 

I'm pointing out the fact that, in reality, if PS wanted another 100M+ sales for PS3 like prior gens, they needed to make sure that the people who buy their platform, or new people who want to enter (who are mostly young and "poor"), need to be able to afford it. Going out of your way to make it hard to get your hands on it, most of the time, will lead to lesser sales.

Just look at the iPhone. If PS3 was aiming to be the high end platform that sold less but made higher margins, then sure, but the fact that PS4 was not a $800 console at launch, tells me that PS wasn't going for that high end position, or changed their minds and decided "more work" was a bad idea (which it is, because the more you are working, the less you can be gaming).

Considering marketshare most certainly matters to a companies future success when it comes to consoles (just look at the weaker gamecube to Wii explosion, then the weaker Wii U to Switch explosion, and the weaker PS3 to PS4 explosion), I would have to assume that everything that led to the high price of the PS3 was a mistake, considering what they've done with the PS4 ecosystem. Allowing the cheaper XB360 to steal away as many existing and potential customers was risky. If PS4 ended up another PS3, PS could have found themselves in the same kind of position NiN has been in for quite some time. This is why I think XB is going the direction they seem to be. XB1 didn't pan out as they expected, so XB is going to try the iPhone route. Have the most expensive hardware, have upgrades more often, and have BC a few gens back. XB becomes Apple, PS becomes Samsung, and NiN is Blackberry.

Kens 'we want you to work for it' was justly taken out of context, because what he said was mostly a fantasy based on the business they are in, and how that sector has always operated. He may have meant what he said, but it wasn't a smart idea in practice.