How to sell next-gen consoles, Marketing, Positioning, and Pricing [2020]

[iroboto]

Just to be clear guys; I have very large doubts that there are that many 5700XT and 2070+ owners out there that this PC market is so massive to play Next gen titles on PC. I’m not sure why the assumption is that the market will be large. I think porting you PC opens up the games to streamer services better; which would have an advertising impact but I have a hard time believing it’s going to make major sales on PC.

The majority will be on console. Very few would be interested in paying $1400-$2000 for a new GPU; that amount is how much a console player would spend on hardware for 3 generations or console nearly.

 

[PSman1700]

I think its more likely games will find another life on the pc a year or two after release on the ps5

A hard pill to swallow for some. It’s inevitable, the pc market is big and users dont switch to PS. PlayStation as a platform could mean their own service/store etc.
They tried to move ppl with the Pro i think.
SSDs on pc will already outperform ps5 solution.

The majority will be on console. Very few would be interested in paying $1400-$2000 for a new GPU; that amount is how much a console player would spend on hardware for 3 generations or console nearly.

No one needs a 1400 dollar flagship gpu, and when those aaa exclusives get ported, a 3060/4060 wont be anywhere near that price and probably the most popular gpus by then.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I don't think pc gamers will go backwards to a ps5. PC gamers want powerful hardware to push the limits of resolution and frame rate.

PC gamers might want that but the Steam hardware survey shows that most PC gamers are actually running with far more modest hardware. If 30fps has been most off-putting barrier for people buying a consoles, nextgen consoles are about to take a huge step forward. While mostly eliminating loads times.

 

[BRiT]

Successful new titles do push PC ganers to upgrade. Microsoft Flight Simulator is kicking some to do so. Cyberpunk 2077 will kick more to do so as well. The PC gamers will update but only when they have a reason to. No sense in upgrading when they don't see a reason to.

 

[iroboto]

No one needs a 1400 dollar flagship gpu, and when those aaa exclusives get ported, a 3060/4060 wont be anywhere near that price and probably the most popular gpus by then.

I agree. But even then those are still likely to be more expensive than the consoles. Both consoles will likely launch below the price of a 2070 S and if we’re lucky a 2070.

then you still have the SSD deficit. Shader compilation after every patch, and a general tougher time diagnosing performance crashing or hiccups.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I disagree. In 5 years you should be able to make a system more powerful than the xsx at sub $300 prices but capable of all the newest features. I think the old days of spending time and money shrinking hardware and trying to cost reduce that way is gone. Since they are using pcs they can simply go with a zen 5 with rdna 4 or whatever amd has.

Remember even Xcloud need to get upgrade , so i doubt we will see MS totally stop new consoles. In fact I think xcloud may be the only reason they will still have consoles. They will need to stay at the forefront of tech or competitors will pass them by.

Also even with a great 5 g connection or fast wifi your still not going to have the same experience as you would with a dedicated piece of hardware

So you think budget conscious gamers should have to wait until the XSX hits $300 before they can get a next gen console? We'll have to agree to disagree on that point. I think XSS is perfect for people without high end 4k TVs that want a good CPU, SSD and RT. Especially when you start thinking globally about places like South America or Eastern Europe.

As far as the xCloud gaming experience: Talk to me in 20 years when something way better than 5G is out there. I'm just saying where we're headed. It's still a long road.

 

[PSman1700]

I agree. But even then those are still likely to be more expensive than the consoles. Both consoles will likely launch below the price of a 2070 S and if we’re lucky a 2070.

then you still have the SSD deficit. Shader compilation after every patch, and a general tougher time diagnosing performance crashing or hiccups.

Yes price/value has always been the consoles advantage and so is ease of use still (even if its close now).

Hardware differences and compatibility have been much worse before, and the x86 unity is closer too, ports probably are less costly.
Sony is looking to extend their market to pc as they say, Its a market and theres profits, so why not.
That hzd is just to get pc gamers over (and all other sony games that made it to pc), dont think so, pc gamers are a different market/kind of ppl to console users, extending to that market could be good for sony, sony fans buy PS anyway, pc fans biy pc games.

People against it are only a small fraction of the users anyway, they can be bitter all they want, it wont matter to Sony one bit (remember the hzd outrage where a ps user destroyed his ps4 on video).

Its a trend that started awhile ago, only good for Sony in the end.

Think of it this gen, most ppl have more powerfull hw then ps4’s, with gpus already hitting over 20TF this year, most mid range products are probably over what ps5 does, and thats where most pc gamers sit.
Day one ports dont happen anyway (yet).

 

[iroboto]

Think of it this gen, most ppl have more powerfull hw then ps4’s, with gpus already hitting over 20TF this year, most mid range products are probably over what ps5 does, and thats where most pc gamers sit.
Day one ports dont happen anyway (yet)

Maybe. We are around The Mark that a majority of PC users should have around PS4 power. I’m not confident we are even close to mid gen refresh levels. That would imply a 1070 about which is becoming mainstream now in the PC space I think.
We have 20TF gpus this year?

 

[Adrian Orbis]

What Microsoft needs to do is focus on advertising their other launch games like The Medium, Gears Tactics, The Ascent, etc.

By the way, what third party bundles are we expecting? Because we will probably see Series X bundles with Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin's Creed and PS5 packs with Avengers or NBA.

 

[eastmen]

PC gamers might want that but the Steam hardware survey shows that most PC gamers are actually running with far more modest hardware. If 30fps has been most off-putting barrier for people buying a consoles, nextgen consoles are about to take a huge step forward. While mostly eliminating loads times.

The steam hardware survey is flawed. It comes up on my surface pro 6 but doesn't come up on my desktop.

The other thing to think about when talking about the steam survey is that some people will play the same games for decades. There are still people playing world of warcraft on laptops that are 8 years old. Trust me i know a few of them lol.

But pc is a spectrum. You have people on older hardware and people on newer hardware. The people on the newer hardware are the ones more likely to buy more games. I think the same is true on the consoles. When the ps4 pro came out I am sure those buying that console were buying more than those who got black friday deals on the regular ps4s

 

[iroboto]

The steam hardware survey is flawed. It comes up on my surface pro 6 but doesn't come up on my desktop.

The other thing to think about when talking about the steam survey is that some people will play the same games for decades. There are still people playing world of warcraft on laptops that are 8 years old. Trust me i know a few of them lol.

But pc is a spectrum. You have people on older hardware and people on newer hardware. The people on the newer hardware are the ones more likely to buy more games. I think the same is true on the consoles. When the ps4 pro came out I am sure those buying that console were buying more than those who got black friday deals on the regular ps4s

very large spectrum, and widening at that rate.
There has been a movement towards newer titles now targeting even lower on the spectrum to meet mobile needs than there is to target the higher end.

 

[eastmen]

very large spectrum, and widening at that rate.
There has been a movement towards newer titles now targeting even lower on the spectrum to meet mobile needs than there is to target the higher end.

oh i dunno. The plague we have has made a lot of people realize that having a 8 or 10 year old desktop/ laptop and using their work laptop might not be the best. Little Jimmy and Sue needed computers to go to school. So if they went chrome book they aren't even in the equation but both intel and amd apu's are much better now than ever before. A lot of sub $1000 laptops even came with 1050s or 1660s and the like. We got my sister a hp omen that was about $1000 on sale with a 2060. She will never use it of course but its amazing the tech you can get at a low price

Aside from that currently there are 0 PlayStations that can use an ssd or ray tracing . Nvidia has been selling hardware capable of it for 3 years now. It looks like AMD will also start selling hardware capable of it before Sony gets onto the market. So Sony is already fighting a up hill battle vs install base.

 

[function]

More proof for Series S...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1300556410170859522

Microsoft are so not in control of their messaging.

We have to sit down and work out collectively what they mean over months, based in part on leaks. They continue to obfuscate. There's pushback. Then they fold, and botch telling you the thing you kind of already new anyway.

"No comment" on a Series S even as they sent out promotional material with Series S on it.

"Only cross gen first party games" as if it's a company policy, then when people decry the lack of anything looking next gen (even a patch for a current game) it goes back to "well actually that's the choice of our creators". The first seems heavy handed top down, the second is presented as "we're hands off, we can't do anything about it guys".

Halo Infinite: built from the ground up for Series X, no mention of Series S, looks like an Xbox One game, which it is. People say it doesn't look like it was built ground up for next gen (it isn't) and that it doesn't look ready. MS bluster that it does, and that it's an old build. And then out of no-where they hype up 120fps free multiplayer (no-one asked). Then a week later yeah, it's not ready, it's being punted back to way after launch, no fixed release date.

How do you botch the run up to two major console releases in a row? Not even Sega managed that.

 

[eastmen]

Its all because of the pandemic. They built enough systems and controllers based on projections of what they would sell the rest of the year and then boom plague and everyone is trying to get systems and hardware. So now they are dipping into stock that shouldn't be out till nov

 

[Jay]

How do you botch the run up to two major console releases in a row? Not even Sega managed that.

For a few months i foolishly thought that xbox had sorted out messaging and pr as it's been one of my biggest issues with xbox.

Then it all started to unravel, to the point where people started with, months to go, plenty of shows (20/20), the next one is the one which will show things, this wasn't the one.

Halo is ok, its an old build, oh wait it was couple weeks old, well, still have months before release.
You can't show that and claim it was built from ground up for xsx, yet not run it on dev box, then say that the xsx features will be coming in a later patch.
Gets delayed.
Now bring in people to deal with story and campaign, that just says there's way more problems than we even thought.

I could see the issues with messaging starting with the, we're only doing cross gen, which isn't in itself bad, it was the reasoning and spin to go with it. Which people who believed it are starting to even see was just spin.

Now its, why do people want to see games running on it, it's just going to look like pc anyway.

For months I've been hoping xbox would get back on track with pr, but they just don't seem capable.
Still hoping though, just not blindly.
If they didn't have lockhart I would be even more worried, although will they fluff the marketing on it?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But pc is a spectrum. You have people on older hardware and people on newer hardware. The people on the newer hardware are the ones more likely to buy more games. I think the same is true on the consoles. When the ps4 pro came out I am sure those buying that console were buying more than those who got black friday deals on the regular ps4s

This is exactly my point. Steam is not all inclusive and people can opt out of it. You said "I don't think pc gamers will go backwards to a ps5. PC gamers want powerful hardware to push the limits of resolution and frame rate.". For plenty of PC owners, grabbing a nextgen console - even a Series S - will be a step forward.

PCMR like to talk as though everybody is rocking ten-core i9s, 4Tb SSD, dual-2080Ti and 32Gb of RAM but it's not the case, not even close,

 

[eastmen]

This is exactly my point. Steam is not all inclusive and people can opt out of it. You said "I don't think pc gamers will go backwards to a ps5. PC gamers want powerful hardware to push the limits of resolution and frame rate.". For plenty of PC owners, grabbing a nextgen console - even a Series S - will be a step forward.

PCMR like to talk as though everybody is rocking ten-core i9s, 4Tb SSD, dual-2080Ti and 32Gb of RAM but it's not the case, not even close,

How ? When you buy a laptop you get a machine capable of productivity. Your going backwards.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

How ? When you buy a laptop you get a machine capable of productivity. Your going backwards.

Not everybody buys a PC for productivity, nor needs it regardless of how capable it is.

 

[milk]

More proof for Series S...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1300556410170859522

Tommy McClain

Woah, this is huge.

Gotta be one of the biggest marketing/info fuckups in recent video game history. MS just self-leaked itself. Good lord!

 

[iroboto]

Woah, this is huge.

Gotta be one of the biggest marketing/info fuckups in recent video game history. MS just self-leaked itself. Good lord!

We still have nothing on the device itself. Which in itself is a big win for MS.
In the world of 20-36TF. This 4TF console better be portable or something.