Written by: JayWood2010 in case you didn't notice from all the grammar mistakes or typos :P
I'm going to touch up on rumors, prices, mistakes, etc. Basically about an hour long conversation with one of my friends but I just want to point a few things about the industry and the future of gaming as well as some things in the past. I will also be doing Microsoft and Nintendo later. And if you are expecting me to worship these consoles then do NOT read any of these because I will be pointing out mistakes from each of the big 3. This is how they need to improve so I will be pointing out mistakes and speculation on possible mistakes or mistakes based on rumors.
Seeing as PS4 may possibly get announced on February 20th (16 days from now) I'll start out with it first.
It isn't any secret that PS3 has had a rough generation with the PS3 and this is not just because of playstation but as a whole in the company. We don't measure success in a company from how many consoles they sell or how many T.Vs they have sold since the company started. We judge them on how much money they make or in this case how much money they have lost Sony has always been known as a technology giant so when you see them struggle the way they have then it is worrysome to the industry across the world. Sony has pushed for both 3D and Bluray this generation and while Bluray has really started to take off was it really worth driving the price of the PS3 up as much as it did? It lost ground to the X360 and the wii and on top of that lost a ton of money early on, but hey they won't make the same mistake twice right? Well I'm not so sure looking at the Vita and the rumor of having the PS4 doing 4K resolution. Now when we say 4K we are not talking about games being in 4K, but technology that allows movies to be in 4K. Kind of like DVD/Bluray but more powerful. This is not a new strategy for Sony as we have seen it for the past two generations from them. PS2 with DVD and then PS3 with Bluray and later on 3D. But the problem is, we don't know what kind of technology is needed to do 4K and if it will drive the price up or not. maybe it will, or maybe it won't but with the competition more fierce than ever I feel like it would be a bad time to drive your price up for a feature that will only cater towards a very low percentage of people who will be buying your hardware. 4K will probably not take off for years due to pricing just like HD T.V. took a while to take off. people are just not willing to throw thousands of dollars at a T.V. Just ask 3D. They know all about this. So here is the questions.
1. Will it make it cost more money?
2. 4K T.V just like 3D will probably be too expensive for years to come for most people to buy, creating little to no traction across the gaming industry.
Now with that said of course they are not talking about 4K with games, but 4K with movies/Shows.
Now disregarding that, if adding 4K makes it cost more as we do NOT know what kind of technology is needed to make this happen, wouldnt that make it another $600 console? I mean what makes 4K t.v's expensive? The tehcnology inside, so wouldnt that be the same with PS4. We have also recently learned that Sony still has not learned from Price points with the Vita. The Vita is basically $300 for a handheld. Something you think they would have learned with the PS3 launch, is not to launch at a siginificently higher price than the competition. Of course at the time the 3DS was also $250 but I think that $250 was the plan the entire time due to they were probably making this near the same time as the 3DS was being made. on top of that it also repeated the mistake that they made with the PS3 which is having very little support for it on it's first year in the market giving it a bad reputation. Now they have to fight back to make it successful themselves.
So with all that said, if PS4 ends up having 4K in it, expect it to be expensive. Now I do want to bring up Microsoft for a moment because I think they are currently changing how consoles will be sold. It will be very likely that MSFT has a powerful system and then sell it like a cell phone plan. $99-199 up front and then pay through XBL monthly after that. The interest rate will surely put it up to $500-600 over a lifetime but people sure as hell does not like to pay that much money up front. I think this will be huuuuuge if MSFT does in deed do this as even I will opt out paying monthly for it. Why do I bring this up you ask? Because what if, rememember I say what if because this is very doubtful, but what if sony does the same thing. powerful console and pay monthly. This will allow them to make a powerful console and keep it cheap in the eyes of customers. Of course it isnt cheap in reality but Paying $200 up front sure as hell does look better than paying $600 up front.
I also want to point out that naming the PS4 omni or orbis will be detrimental to the PS4. Why? Because this creates confusion and the lack of knowledge among a product. Something that the DS, 3DS has had issues with and now the WIi, WiiU. People think they are the same thing but they are not. People can identify sequeled numbers but when it comes to name changing then it becomes confusing. This is also something that XBOX has to watch out for. XBOX 8, XBOX 720, and XBOX Next will work but if they name it just XBOX like some rumors point out, get ready for confusion. Naming your product effectively is very important.
Now what I believe needs to happen for Sony is actually very simple. Keep bringing hardcore titles as you have been taking the name as "The Gamers Console" for the last few years now and have earned respect from many gamers now. The big issue with a lot of their first party titles though is that they don't sell an insane ammount like the competitions games. Yes we can bring up Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted but I am going to point out that both of these games has been massively bundled to reach the numbers that they have. Not that that is a bad thing because it isn't. Bundles are a strategy that allows people to enter a franchise so they learn about the game and may possibly buy past or future installments. It also helps sell consoles. But as I was saying they both have certainly had help getting where they have gotten while games like Halo, Mario, Gears, Call of Duty, Zelda, and pokemon all have potential of selling 5 million per console and in some cases 10m! This is all done without much bundling either. Gran Turismo is the big title that is able to do this for Sony but they have for some reason not been able to create another franchise that is capable of doing this regardless of them being in the gaming industry for 18 going on 19 years. So why can't PS3 exclusives sell as well as some of the games mentioned above? Three reasons.
1. They are not hitting the mass audience. Halo, Gears, and Call of Duty does this with addicting multiplayer, while pokemon, Mario, and Zelda primarily hits the every gamer type. Parents will play nintendo titles and raise their kids on them as well. It is why nintendo sells so well during the holidays. I mean if you had kids what are you going to want your kids to grow up on? Of course mario.
2. Advertising. Sony is just completely horrible at advertising anymore. Not that they don't advertise, it's just that what they do advertise is a complete mess and confuses people. Think about the Infamous demonic baby commercial that was used to launch the PS3. That was just a sign that they had no clue how to advertise. They did bring Kevin Butler that helped sell the PS3 with the PS3 price cut though. The problem is though that they kept using him but focused on him while ignoring the games that he was trying to sell. I'm pointing at commercials like Resistance 3 where it barely even shows the game but has him talking the entire time. He has been a hit and miss with most of his commercials. Not that he is doing bad as he is loved from gamers, but for advertising Sony must hold blame again. They have strayed away from Kevin Butler now and as of late has been doing CGI type commercials like Playstation allstars and now God of War Ascension. Why do this? Show gameplay in commercials because most people will not know what you are advertising if you don't but that is ok.
3. They make a lot of niche title. Not necessarily a bad thing because they still sell well most of the time and in cases like Heavy Rain are even helping shape the industry. I just feel it is time for them to try and hit the mainsteam audience again like they tried with Haze, Resistance, and Killzone with some success but all of these games was not finely tuned enough to break the surface.
This isn't bad though as their is plenty of 3rd party games that seems to sell well on the PS3 and can hit 5m plus but at the same time Sony seems to have lost a lot of 3rd party support this generation and in some cases has been heavily criticized by publishers and developers including Valve and Activision in previous years. Why? Because they brought in the complicated Cell for the PS3. They entered the generation wth complete arragogance. Coming out to the stage and basically say "Here you guys go, have our $600 console that we will not release anything for for about one year and on top of that we put a Cell in so all of you programmers out there can have a difficult time developing for us. Have fun." The cell wasn't a horrible thing as people who can learn how to use it correctly can do a good job but for third party developers the Cell was basically a nightmare. This is something Sony can not do again. They need to make life easy on third party developers and why do I say that? Because your third party developers has been selling more than your first party developers. Look at Call of duty, skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin's Creed. All of these games sell well and in most cases better than your first party developers. No they do not get a lot of respect in forums but this is not because they are bad games, it is actually the complete opposite but I won't get into that.
With all that said it is very simple what Sony must do to be successful.
1. Make a console that people can afford.
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2. Don't be arrogant.
3. Support your console out of the gate
4. Do not name it anything other than the PS4
5. Make it easier on developers
