sc94597 said:
Now if the ps2 didn't have a dvd player it would be the same as any other console. Non gamers would have no motive to buy it, and that means no expanding the market anywhere the level it did. Not only this, but it wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to as good of sales that it got in the early of its lifetime. The other consoles also look more appealing, and more people would have bought them too. Now the ds and wii do the same thing, but instead they use the wiimote and touch screen instead of dvd. It allows for a simpler way for them to play the games. It attracts non gamers because its easier to play and far less complex. The ds and wii do this better, because it leads the non gamer directly to gaming and leaves no option that is unrelated to gaming. So while the ps2 did expand the market, it not all of those sales were that of gamers, or heavy gamers, while nintendo's are all for gamers, and even seem to allow for more games to be bought, and played by the non gamer. So that is why I beleive is point about the ps2 expanding the market is invalid, because the wii and ds are doing the same, and on a larger level. While you may say dvd wasn't really important I say it pretty was. It is what distinguished the ps2 from the other consoles in the beginning, and allowed for the larger userbase( in the begging) and then the games came which attracted more and more people. Eventually there wasn't really a choice. You either buy a cheaper console that doesn't have as much capabilites and games or a slightly more expensive console that had alot more value. Well brand loyalty was another thing that helped the ps2 in the begginning, but it wasn't as strong then. I would say cd did the same for the ps1, but in a different way. It attracted developers. |
Paragraphs, please. It's an eyesore.
Like I said before, casuals are light videogame players, not idiots. They researched their purchase before buying. The PS2 was the most popular system even after the Xbox and Gamecube launched. It had the largest shelf space, which meant that someone walking in to buy Madden would see it on the PS2 before any other console. And the other consoles didn't look appealing at all, and certainly not enough to convince someone to pick it over the PS2, which was so popular and was the console that all their friends had.
As for the DVD player distinguishing the PS2 against the other consoles, that couldn't be farther from the truth. For one thing, the Xbox had a DVD player too (it required a remote instead of a controller, but that made it even more appealing to the average person). Second, as we know, the Gamecube started off strong and tapered off later. This means that a good chunk of the people who bought it were hardcore gamers or were already Nintendo fans. The Playstation line had HUMONGOUS brand name behind it just from the popularity of the Playstation alone.
By the time the Xbox and Gamecube came out in 2001, the Playstation 2 had Grand Theft Auto III (which could practically start its own army of casual fans), Tekken Tag Tournament, Final Fantasy X, and, of course, Madden NFL 2001 and 2002. Do you think it really needed a DVD player to distinguish itself from Halo and Super Smash Bros? Those consoles only had one large game, whereas the PS2 was full of hyped games which attracted the hardcore and casuals alike.
If Nintendo hadn't made the Wii with the Wiimote control scheme and the Blue Ocean strategy in mind, it likely wouldn't be in first place. Do you think the PS2 wouldn't have been in the first place position it's in without a freakin' built-in DVD player which its closest competitor had as well? Besides, it had developers like the PS1, so why did the two systems sell about the same? It you tally up the total consoles sold in each generation, the 6th outsells the 5th by about 20 million or so. That's actually a pretty reasonable amount, albeit small, for growth between generations. Which means that the PS2 basically stole an ever greater amount of customers from Nintendo (and I'm guessing the Xbox fanbase was made up of Sega fans, multi-console owners, and Microsoft fans, with the occasional person who just really liked Halo). Of course, those are generalizations. But the PS1 had nothing to make it exciting, the console even looked like a flat toilet. It couldn't do much at all besides playing games, and it sold almost as much as its successor.
