What are some things to know if a console is about to fail??

[quigontcb]

Tetsuya said:

HappySqurriel said:

Failure of a console is largely a subjective term ...

If you mean whether a console will have a disasterous end (say like the Dreamcast) the signs would be that the console manufacturer is losing a lot of money, third party support is fleeing the platform, and sales are amazingly low (probably under 15 Million world wide after 2 years). The canary in the mine would be the Madden Franchise ... We really don't know what the criteria is but EA is under contractual obligation to release Madden to every living platform (this is one of the requirements to getting the NFL licence exclusively); if a console didn't have a Madden game in the year that would imply that it was dead.

Beyond that, if you mean failure as in the late years of the N64 and Gamecube the signs would be slow sales in the begining that lead to third party support being (almost) entirely multiplatform games; this in turn will lead to slower sales and multiplatform games will begin to leave the platform.

ok i understand a little...but ur missing my question...say for example there were no sources for gaming sales...and u had no knowledge of how many units have been sold...what would be ur indication of a console that is not selling well???

like i posted above if i didnt have any knowledge of gaming sales..i would say a price cut is a indication of a console which is not selling well....arent i true?? does anyone agree with my statement??

 

Well, that can be a sign of a failing console, but not necessarily. I believe it was in early 2002 that Sony dropped the price of the PS2. The X Box and Cube were nowhere close to it sales-wise, but it was pretty obvious that a price-drop was coming from someone. Sony just did a pre-emptive price-drop to beat MS/Nintendo to the punch.

 It was really a brilliant move. It put the PS2 into the "sweetspot" price range, they got the initial press for dropping first, and it made MS and Nintendo look like they were following Sony's lead with their prices(which is kind of true).