Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald believes Sony's PS3 offers a better value proposition for consumers and that Sony now has a leg up vs. the Xbox 360.
by James Brightman on Monday, July 21, 2008
Following last week's E3, which Signal Hill called "underwhelming," analyst Todd Greenwald has weighed in on the big three console makers and he's clearly bearish on the prospects for Microsoft, particularly the company's pricing strategy for the Xbox 360. Here's how he sums it up:
Xbox 360 needs a real price cut. We remain very skeptical of Microsoft's pricing strategy and competitive positioning vs. the PlayStation 3. At $349, with a 60GB hard drive, we just don't think it is a compelling product compared with the PS3 at $399 with an 80GB HDD (along with more processing horsepower, Blu-ray, Wifi, HDMI, and going forward, more exclusive content). We'd also note that the Xbox 360 has just been surpassed by the Wii in the US, despite Microsoft's 1-year head start over Nintendo. We do think that the Netflix announcement is a significant addition for Xbox users, though its far more of a positive for Netflix than it is for Microsoft, in our opinion.
Sony – well-positioned for first time since launch. Sony's biggest announcement was a strong counter-punch to Microsoft's $50 price cut on the 360. Sony lowered the price on its 80GB PS3 from $499 to $399, and got rid of the 40GB model. As noted above, we think this should give Sony a leg up vs. the 360, along with several exclusive titles like the just-released Metal Gear Solid, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3, etc. Beyond Gears of War 2, Microsoft doesn't seem to have the same library of exclusive, must-have titles. According to NPD, the PS3 sold 406k units in June, vs. just 220k units for the 360 (helped by the release of MGS4).
Nintendo – no big title announcement, leaving more growth on table for 2009. Many were disappointed by the lack of a big headline title for the 2nd half, i.e. Zelda, Mario, Punch-Out, etc, instead getting Animal Crossing and Wii Music. However, Nintendo's titles have such long shelf lives, that it is likely satisfied selling another large batch of Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit this holiday. Additionally, while Nintendo has acknowledged that DS hardware sales have peaked in Japan (its first market), sales are still growing significantly in Europe and the U.S. We think as soon as sales peak here, Nintendo will be ready to announce a new DS model, likely with several new features like an accelerometer, camera, larger screens, etc. Finally, Nintendo's new WiiMotion controller add-on makes the Wiimote far more accurate and precise, and should lead to much better quality of games, especially for sports titles and first-person shooters.
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/xbox-360-needs-a-real-price-cut-not-a-compelling-product-vs-ps3-ndash-signal-hill/?biz=1
Vaio - "Bury me at Milanello" R.I.P AC Milan
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
If laughing is the best medicine and marijuana makes you laugh
Is marijuana the best medicine?
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
“If any creator has not played Mario, then they’re probably not a good creator. That’s something I can say with 100 percent confidence. Mario is, for game creators, the development bible.
