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BengaBenga on 05 July 2008
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MikeB said:

@ BengaBenga

Seriously, Sony doesn't have a clue what it's doing. At the very least GT5 and God of War 3 should have been ready for this holiday. They have some momentum going, but I think the weak holiday line-up will kill the momentum.


I can see a strategy.

The PS3 wasn't designed to do PS2 numbers right out of the gate, it was designed for a long term future (IMO this is obvious considering costly hardware specs). I agree that long term everything could turn out well for Sony, but Sony DID expect a lot from PS3, otherwise they wouldn't have put so much money in it. Besides the recent complaints from Sony towards SCE prove that you're wrong here.

IMO short term goals:

1) Push HD DVD out of the market. (accomplished) Yep, very important for Sony, probably the reason why Sony hasn't been overly harsh on SCE's management
2) Provide people a good reason for upgrading towards HDTV. The PS3 already had a very positive effect on the HDTV market according to market research. Sony expects to become market leader by 2011 in unit sales, they are already very close to the current market leader in terms of revenue.
3) Outsell the 360 to not allow Microsoft to take much advantage of cheaper pricing. (going well so far) wow, coming from complete domination of Microsoft to playing catch-up is NOT a good thing from Sony's perspective
4) Keep the PS2 attractive and in mass production, penetrate economically less wealthy markets. Good point, although PS2 is seriously decreasing in sales
5) Get consoles online.

IMO long term goals:

1) Mature the PS3 software library and operating system. Reduce the PS3 costs and adapt the hardware to suit the mass market the upcoming years.
2) The PS3 will make the transition towards a PS4 more seamless, take Playstation Home with you to your next console, easier to implement backwards compatibility, game engine modernization making it also easier to get the most out of follow-up consoles.
3) Long lifecycle, eventually the most interesting multi-featured console on the market and of course to better PS2 sales when the time is right. It remains to be seen, losing consoles have in the past never been able to extend their lifecycle very long. It is risky to extend the PS3 when the new 360 arrives.

IMO most of this couldn't be achieved with a PS2.5.

You make good points, however I think you're being too positive. The main mistake you're making is to think that Sony didn't expect to deliver the new PS2, they did. Their pressure for profitability might lose them the American market.

Also I'm really curious about what will happen when Microsoft launches its new console not one but say 3 year ahead of PS4. It might work totally counterproductive for Sony if games like GTA complete change ship because of that.