[wco81]

Some stock analyst type was saying Nintento will primarily be a software company in 5 years, whether they realize it or not.

Better question to ask about the next gen is if they will move as many HW and SW units as this generation.

Back before this generation launched, publishers were crowing about how they were going to raise the price of games from $50 to $60.

Wonder if they will be pushing for price increases now.

[ERP]

I don't know about price increases, but if you just count PS3/360 software sales now they are higher than at any point during the PS2/Xbox era.
Most of the recent sales decline is in the mobile space mostly DS.
It's hard to even speculate on who'll win when you don't even know how they will position the consoles.
If they are both pure game machines, the first 12 months software lineup will have a big effect, I think Sony has an edge there.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

Or ignore it completely and become a success in South America and Asia. The developing nations may end up being where next gen is won, which is where a cheap Android player or something might come out on top.

Lots of variables!

I'd almost go with this one but not necessarily for the reasons stated here. But looking at it from the outside (and reading European news sites), it appears that many countries in Europe are teetering on economic collapse as they attempt to find ways to pay for government programs that can no longer be sustained.

If those economies do completely collapse there could be a potentially damaging domino effect throughout the EU due to all the money that has been lent to those countries. That in turn could trigger a recession that makes the collapse in 2008 appear like a mere bump in the road.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily make it easier for the Asian countries as they not only depend greatly on the US buying their products or contracting for manufacturing but on Europe as well.

Either way, Sony may have a hard time of it with some of the Sony bastions in Europe having a rough time of it. Spain and Portugal, for example. France has a lot of money tied up in Spain and Italy so how they do will determine how France goes. Britain is relatively stable but tied to a fragile Ireland with a lot of money lent there. So there's a potential there for MS to take a hit as well. Germany is still in great shape and it remains to be seen just how much they will commit to propping up the rest of Europe.

Either way Sony has far more to lose than Microsoft if things were to go downhill for the EU. Japan's markets are being continuously rocked this year due to concerns over EU member states.

But then is South America really where there will be potential for a lot of growth? That's a hard one. Most countries there are still teetering between being a second world or third world country. China has the most potential, but with so much of their fortunes being tied to the performance of the western economic powers, it's hard to determine just how they will weather the storm.

The one big thing that China has going for it, unlike say Japan, is that their government hasn't commited itself to expensive and unsustainable social policies and is still very much business friendly rather than being antagonistic to business. Even with all the potential governmental controls, which can be sidestepped with a well placed bribe.

Regards,
SB

[joker454]

Originally Posted by BoardBonobo

I've been thinking about this and I've come to the decision that al I want from my next console purchase is a gaming console. One that plays games and just games.

I think I've changed somewhat, if the new Xbox console just played games and only played custom games locked to that platform then I may just pass on next gen entirely. I want to be able to buy a game from the Microsoft app store and have it work on my pc, laptop, tablet, and console, and on the occaisional case phone when possible for smaller games. I'm tired of buying apps that only work here, other apps that only work there, that just seems so old school. They've already got what I need to where apps will work on my pc, laptop and upcoming tablet I'll be buying so that's cool, they just need to add console to that mix and phone when possible. If they do that then I'll buy an Xbox 720. If not then I may just pass. The reality for me is there is already so much gaming entertainment on pc/laptop/tablet that I can't catch up to, pc gaming will always look better, and that I can play my same games on the go on my future tablet is just such a plus to me, all the same apps, achivements, etc, to where I don't think adding a console that lives on an isolated island makes sense to me anymore. I'll have to see what Microsoft does, if they go x86 on their next console that would make getting the same app working across everything certainly possible.

[liolio]

I wonder about why some voted as they did. I'm not ready to take that leap of faith, too much doubt.
Still I would safely discard Nintendo this time around.

Between Sony and MSFT, my take is that MSFT has now won North America and it's not a little win.
So when it comes to next-gen both actors won't be in the situation they were in 2005/2006.

In North America, Sony will no longer have some mind share advantage.
Actually in Europe MSFT started from even lower than in NA, there has been the RroD incident, still they won the UK and it seems that overall they are close to a tie.
Sony won't have the BRD advantage or any advantage in the feature sets of the machine.
Actually depending on MSFT policies about Kinect (stad or not) and what kind of OS they provide for their system, it will be the contrary.
Sony is not in a financial situation to subsidize as much as MSFT if the later is in a situation id it needs to.

Overall, I've a tough time seeing how Sony is to come on top on that one without making some tough arbitration.

To me it comes down to provide a cheap core system and hope that MSFT is somehow stuck in his multiple interests: if kinect2 is standard, if they want some form of win8rt on the system, they want leading gaming poerformances because of their multiple agenda it will comes at a price.
MSFT can subsidize heavily but there is a limit to that. After a 8 years generation, the system could prove too costly (at launch) for quiet some people.

That's imo could be the salvation for Sony IF they comes with cheap core system. In any case I think that Sony should be aiming lower than MSFT and aim at an affordable price for release.
They are likely to be at features disadvantage, a mind share disadvantage in US, barely above parity in EU. Low price and free PSN could gain them a healthy user base pretty quickly.

I expect them them to go head to head with MSFT and to be left with anothe, close to deadly, hole into the wallet...

I'll vote when I see the price of the systems in presence. For now my inclination is toward MSFT.

[LXFBN]

PS4, MS will pay for abandoning the core gamer.

[liolio]

Originally Posted by LXFBN

PS4, MS will pay for abandoning the core gamer.

How do you know sony or msft decision on the matter?
And what are core gamers? Real hardcore gamers for anything but a hand few of exclusives aside might have moved to Pc a while ago.
I would say a the real core are the few that bought the systems early at full price.

Edit posted quickly at job from a phone that post turned out dreadful. Awful grammar, words omissions, and more.

[Rangers]

Playstation making a comeback, now almost caught up to Xbox.

[Rangers]

Originally Posted by LXFBN

PS4, MS will pay for abandoning the core gamer.

By who? Unless Valve actually gets a console box out for 400 or less, they have nowhere to go.

Besides, Sony and MS haven't abandoned anybody imo. Merely trying to broaden their market.

Certainly, they could do things to drastically piss me off in service of pursuing non-core gamers (mostly, weaksauce hardware), but they havent yet.

At the end of the day I see core gaming increasingly a third party affair. Sony and MS could both end first party altogether and I dont think it would have much affect. I'd still buy core consoles for EA, Ubisoft, Activision, etc,. So MS, Sony make the boxes, go after the broader market with entertainment, Kinect, etc third parties service the core. Not saying it would be ideal but as a theoretical I think it illustrates the point.

[AlphaWolf]

I think he was saying the ps4 will win the next gen because MS is abandoning core gamers.

However, the act of including casuals to their gaming platform has in no way abandoned core gamers. Xbox360 still appears to be the 'goto platform' for games like COD.

[liolio]

Originally Posted by AlphaWolf

I think he was saying the ps4 will win the next gen because MS is abandoning core gamers.

However, the act of including casuals to their gaming platform has in no way abandoned core gamers. Xbox360 still appears to be the 'goto platform' for games like COD.

I think both Ranger and I got that.
Point is we don't know the ps4 and next Xbox specs just now, we have no reason to assume that MSFT is not going to focus strongly on "core console gamers". It's super speculative.
I would not assume that MSFT is going to let Sony any significant advantage on the hard pov if any at all (and it's not about a marginal difference in FLOPS).

Imo somehow both MSFT and Sony "hardcore console' gamers by having such a long life cycle for their products.