SpokenTruth said:
theprof00 said:
Not sure what this thread is supposed to be about.
I would hope nobody actually thought that sony is 'beating ms' because of playstation.
I'm curious to know who actually would've said that to be honest. |
Not so much beating MS but many people believe that the company as a whole is financially sound just because the PS4 is selling well. And on the other side many people think that Nintendo is either near bankrupt or going to be forced to merge/go 3rd party just because the Wii U isn't selling well.
The point is that the true health of either of those companies cannot be judged solely on the success of failure of their current products but a lot of people do just that. You have to assess their solvency. How much liability and debt they carry against how much cash and assets they hold.
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During the ps3 days you might have had a point.
Perhaps you haven't been here a long time, but the financial results they've been posting have been greatly strengthened by ps4 sales.
Ps4 is indeed a pretty big factor in the equation.
In all truth, it really comes down to how much they've trimmed off the losses from their failing departments like tvs and phones which is what has gotten them here. Having a best selling console with record software sales has helped in that regard.
Rather, what I think is happening is that you don't understand the points being made in some threads (of which I have no information), and are looking at them from your own point of view.
For instance, someone can say "sony is doing really well thanks to the ps4". From one point of view, that is actually true, but can be false from another point of view.
Similarly, I can say, "nintendo could be forced to go third party if nx doesn't do well", and from two points of view it can be both true and false.
It's true from the perspective that a company that has released several failing consoles loses "mindshare"...which then compounds the sales the "winner" accrues, which in the spiral of things, makes it that much harder for competition to emerge independently. (like a new console)
But from the point of view that this is about money, no, they wouldn't have to go third party because of money.
Please look at it from this point of view.
The ps4 is doing increasingly well. Some devs have tried the money hat thing from rival console makers, some have tried new ideas, and others have gone sony exclusive. When the dust settles, you'll find that the overall library of the ps4 is going to be nearly uncontestable by any current console. Furthermore, new entrants, unless bolstered by a unique playstyle or advantage will have a hard time competing because of this library advantage.
Generally, advantages erode when generations change. This is what makes the NX's entrance year so precarious, because this is going to be a year in which PS4 is likely to see it's greatest sales so far. Thus, NX must have some fundamental advantage, aka, mobile, cross-console, etc etc. This is what made it so hard for ps3 to fight the 360, because taking away backward compatibility completely removed the library advantage.
It's not a zero-sum game though. Success doesn't require the failure of others. But it creates adaptation. This is why the mobile industry got to be as big as it has, and the handheld consoles have been waning.
But yes, in terms of nintendo, an NX failure, might make them look at their balance sheet and wonder if third party is actually viable. I guarantee the question has already come up in board meetings. Mobile is probably the direction they went. Mobile is still seen as uncontested space.
And yeah, MS is probably also looking at a different approach to the market.
Sorry for the long post.
