By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why is there no such thing as luxury gaming?

Mandalore76 said:
vivster said:
Because console makers don't want you to have premium experiences. So that only leaves the option to stay with the shit PC has to offer where money spending opportunities are limitless.

List of times "Premium Experiences" were rejected by the consumer due to prohibitively high price points:

NEO GEO:                      $649.99 (equivalent to $1,162 today) = 980,000 lifetime sales
3DO:                               $699      (equivalent to $1,180 today) = 2 million lifetime sales (low enough that it's company exited the hardware market)
Pioneer Laser Active:  $970      (equivalent to $1,635 today) = 10,000 lifetime sales

These were stand alone products. I gaurentee you that no compnay could ever succeed with an overpriced stand alone product. However, if you have a luxary option, that is part of a larger ecosystem, then that changes the equation. Sony could sell a $1,500 PS4, that cost them $1,100 to manufacture, and make a huge profit per unit sold, since it is a premium product. That makes the 500,000 to 1,000,000 units of this luxary option very profitable and lucrative.



Stop hate, let others live the life they were given. Everyone has their problems, and no one should have to feel ashamed for the way they were born. Be proud of who you are, encourage others to be proud of themselves. Learn, research, absorb everything around you. Nothing is meaningless, a purpose is placed on everything no matter how you perceive it. Discover how to love, and share that love with everything that you encounter. Help make existence a beautiful thing.

Kevyn B Grams
10/03/2010 

KBG29 on PSN&XBL

Around the Network
KBG29 said:
potato_hamster said:

Still advocating this nonsense, huh?

Let me ask you this: 1 in 5 PS4s sold are PS4 Pros That's far more than you could ever expect a $1500 PS4 to sell for, obviously. The PS4 Pro is rarely being supported by third-party developers beyond the bare minimum required of them, because it doesn't actually scale the way you pretend it does. Very few are putting in any effort to take advantage of the extra power in any meaningful way. Why in the fuck would you expect developers to put in more of an effort into a PS4 Money to Burn Edition?

They wouldn't. You keep living in lala Land and refusing to listen to reason, despite being informed repeatedly how nonsensical this all is.

P.S. Citation needed that Ken kutagari wanted to make Playstation hardware scalable.

I would not expect a $1,500 PS4 to sell amazing. Nor do I expect a $3,000 Wlakman or a $10,000 75" Z9D. That does not mean they shouldn't exsist, and it definitly doesn't mean they can't make a lot of money from them. As for development, they don't encode audio or video to take special advantage of these devices, I don't expect them to do anything, but let the extra horsepower do it's thing in games. I am perfectly fine with $1,500 getting me the exact same thing, only with higher frame rate and resolution. That is what a luxary expereince is in computing.

Of course it is nonsensical. All luxary things are nonsensical. 

Below are just a couple of examples of where Ken wanted to take PlayStation, Sony, and Home electronics in the future. There are countless other sources with interviews, and quotes from him talking about the subject of scaling PlayStation Hardware, and having every device in the house connected.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-s--micro-cell--to-power-mobile-devices

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sonys-post-ps3-vision-for-the-cell/1100-6152738/

https://www.engadget.com/2006/12/20/ken-kutaragi-sez-i-promise-an-av-centric-ps3/

But... that's the part you still don't understand. The PS4 Pro doesn't automatically play PS4 games better. It automatically plays them exactly the same as the regular PS4. The "extra horsepower" doesn't actually just "do it's thing". The games don't actually automatically scale with a couple of adjustments. Developers have to put in extra effort to support things such as higher frame rates, longer draw distances, or higher resolutions.. They would have to do the same with the PS4 Money to Burn edition. Except for an even smaller audience. That aren't going to buy any more copies of the games than they would have if they just had a regular PS4.

Tell me, do CD manufacturers have to put in extra effort to support that $3000 Walkman? Do television and movie producers have to do more to support that $10000 TV? No? Well it's not the same thing at all is it? Why do you keep acting like it is?

So you took Sony using the CELL processor they developed at a ludicrously expensive cost for multiple uses, including servers, supercomputing, and the PS3, and leveraging the technology that was in a handful of industrial electronic devices, as an example of Kutagari "want[ing] PlayStations hardware to be scaleable so that it could be used in all of Sony's products to help streamline the expereince and connectivity between all Sony devices."

You are completely out to lunch trying to draw that conclusion from your sources you provided.



KBG29 said:
Mandalore76 said:

List of times "Premium Experiences" were rejected by the consumer due to prohibitively high price points:

NEO GEO:                      $649.99 (equivalent to $1,162 today) = 980,000 lifetime sales
3DO:                               $699      (equivalent to $1,180 today) = 2 million lifetime sales (low enough that it's company exited the hardware market)
Pioneer Laser Active:  $970      (equivalent to $1,635 today) = 10,000 lifetime sales

These were stand alone products. I gaurentee you that no compnay could ever succeed with an overpriced stand alone product. However, if you have a luxary option, that is part of a larger ecosystem, then that changes the equation. Sony could sell a $1,500 PS4, that cost them $1,100 to manufacture, and make a huge profit per unit sold, since it is a premium product. That makes the 500,000 to 1,000,000 units of this luxary option very profitable and lucrative.

Note the higher the price directly relates to the lower the lifetime sales.  Look at what happened to XBox One.  I understand that price wasn't their only misstep in XBox One's launch.  However, it was obvious that launching at $499 was a severe handicap to the point that the Kinnect was removed from the system entirely to get the price down to a more palatable $399.  A $1,500 PS4 isn't going to sell a million units, and therefore wouldn't be worth Sony's time to develop, manufacture, advertise, and release it.  Sony already saw how unpalatable releasing a $599 console was to the public, and that was while riding all the good will of the PS2.  Sony lost over $3 billion it's first 2 years on the market.  A system 3x more expensive, even targeting a niche group isn't going to be worth Sony's time.  Also, OP was asking for a $5,000-$10,000 console, not $1,500.  So yeah, even more miniscule market, and even less worth the time and resources. 

70-90 million cars are sold globally per year.  So there is room in that market for 2 million sales of a luxury car.  Annual PC sales average 300 million per year, so again, there is room for that niche market.  Compare that to the PS4 selling 17 million in it's best year.  Now, imagine how small that niche market is going to be.  Sony isn't going to waste time and resources on a market that might net them a couple of thousand sales per year if that.



Uhm, a 3 34 inch 21:9 curved monitor setup with 4 Titan XP's an Extreme Intel i7 6950x, 256gb DDR4 PC setup would probably disagree with you.



There's only 2 races: White and 'Political Agenda'
2 Genders: Male and 'Political Agenda'
2 Hairstyles for female characters: Long and 'Political Agenda'
2 Sexualities: Straight and 'Political Agenda'

not interested in luxury hardware but SSS ultra high quality software would be nice.



Around the Network

I might be missing the point but: Why? What would the benefit be and to whom?

You make a PS4 with an incredible processor and chrome wheels. Does it make the games more fun? Does it make you a better player? Maybe you can see textures that nobody else gets to see?

So who adds this extra content? What "artist" wants to create a painting that can only be viewed by the rich? Or offer an unfair performance improvement for those who can afford it?



RolStoppable said:
Since nobody has said it yet, I'll be the first one.

Most video games are about escapism from the world. Rich people don't need a video game that is set in, say, Venice. They'll simply book a trip to go there in real life.

Rich people do not need escapism because they are successful in real life. The ones who aren't happy turn to expensive drugs, alcohol or prostitutes.

Meh Notch and Kim Dotcom play a lot of games. It is more like human nature to play,



d21lewis said:
I might be missing the point but: Why? What would the benefit be and to whom?

You make a PS4 with an incredible processor and chrome wheels. Does it make the games more fun? Does it make you a better player? Maybe you can see textures that nobody else gets to see?

So who adds this extra content? What "artist" wants to create a painting that can only be viewed by the rich? Or offer an unfair performance improvement for those who can afford it?

This would be for the people that have $20K or more home theaters. The art is already created for much higher resolutions and textures than even the best PC can handle. 

Just like any high end electronic, it would just be for the people willing to pay unreasonable prices for the absolute best quality experience possible on current technology. It is a small market, but it is the most profitable segment in electronics.



Stop hate, let others live the life they were given. Everyone has their problems, and no one should have to feel ashamed for the way they were born. Be proud of who you are, encourage others to be proud of themselves. Learn, research, absorb everything around you. Nothing is meaningless, a purpose is placed on everything no matter how you perceive it. Discover how to love, and share that love with everything that you encounter. Help make existence a beautiful thing.

Kevyn B Grams
10/03/2010 

KBG29 on PSN&XBL

KBG29 said:
d21lewis said:
I might be missing the point but: Why? What would the benefit be and to whom?

You make a PS4 with an incredible processor and chrome wheels. Does it make the games more fun? Does it make you a better player? Maybe you can see textures that nobody else gets to see?

So who adds this extra content? What "artist" wants to create a painting that can only be viewed by the rich? Or offer an unfair performance improvement for those who can afford it?

This would be for the people that have $20K or more home theaters. The art is already created for much higher resolutions and textures than even the best PC can handle. 

Just like any high end electronic, it would just be for the people willing to pay unreasonable prices for the absolute best quality experience possible on current technology. It is a small market, but it is the most profitable segment in electronics.

How? It'd be enormously expensive to make games on the exteme end, with a much more limited market.



VGPolyglot said:
KBG29 said:

This would be for the people that have $20K or more home theaters. The art is already created for much higher resolutions and textures than even the best PC can handle. 

Just like any high end electronic, it would just be for the people willing to pay unreasonable prices for the absolute best quality experience possible on current technology. It is a small market, but it is the most profitable segment in electronics.

How? It'd be enormously expensive to make games on the exteme end, with a much more limited market.

There would be very little additional cost in game development. The games would be identical to the base model consoles, but they would be able to run at higher resolution and higher frame rates, with better post processing effects.

Games are built with much higher quality assets and effects than we see in the end game. The develolers spend a lot of time tuning back effects to meet performance requirements. With a luxury level console, it would have the brute force to produce results much closer to the reference material, and perform much higher levels of post.

On the Hardware side, they can sell at a massive profit per unit, just like we see with other premium devices. With everything being built on standard hardware, the R&D cost would be extreamly low. It is basically just a beefier version of whaf is already available, just at lower yeilds, which drives up the cost. 



Stop hate, let others live the life they were given. Everyone has their problems, and no one should have to feel ashamed for the way they were born. Be proud of who you are, encourage others to be proud of themselves. Learn, research, absorb everything around you. Nothing is meaningless, a purpose is placed on everything no matter how you perceive it. Discover how to love, and share that love with everything that you encounter. Help make existence a beautiful thing.

Kevyn B Grams
10/03/2010 

KBG29 on PSN&XBL