MikeB on 07 July 2008
@ BengaBenga
we discussed thi earlier, it's not true. Sony wouldn't spend over 3 billion if they didn't think it would be a massive success.
That's your conclusion. I think there's a fine balance between how much they are willing to invest, how much they want to outsell the 360 and how much they expect from returns such as from software sales and other gaming division projects.
From a design and financial perspective (very high spec) and pricing (relative low consumer pricing) IMO it was obvious Sony could not afford to have PS2 like sales early on.
However the hardware will be cost reduced and the current install base can be expected to buy on average about 4.5-5 full price games a year per user (next to extras including Blu-Ray movies, controllers, Bravias, etc) . So it will become more and more interesting for Sony to sell at PS2 like levels.
Most importantly for Microsoft: it's next console can benefit a lot from the gains it has made with 360 in regard to 3rd party games.
A lot can happen during this generation of consoles. Multi-platform games developers will of course stay multi-platform unless there's clear market dominance from one console they can expect to make the bulk of their profits on.
If 360 sales stall like I expect them to next year (like already the case for Europe and Japan), piracy becomes a bigger factor on the 360 and multi-platform console owners prefer a PS3 version due to trophies, Home, 360 RRoD / disc scratch issues, better graphics/audio, additional content on Blu-Ray disc, etc, etc. This all could well effect the long term outlook for both platforms.
