Sony Playstation Marketing: a quiet place in days gone?

[dobwal]

I have zero concerns about what Sony are or are not doing right now WRT next gen. There's really nothing for them to gain by making their moves public before they are in a position to profit from the release of that information and there's really no reason to believe their silence either through official or unofficial channels is indicative of a lack of moves or an inadequate or incomplete plan for next generation.

Historically, Sony have been very good at making money selling video games and my default expectation (minus solid evidence to the contrary) is that they will continue to do so.

Normally I would agree but the reality remains that all three companies kind of laid a dud the generation after they released their best hardware to date.

N64 after SNES, Xb1 after 360 and PS3 after PS2 fiascos for myself don’t create the upmost confidence in the ability of these companies to not shoot themselves in the foot.

LOL

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Normally I would agree but the reality remains that all three companies kind of laid a dud the generation after they released their best hardware to date.

PlayStation 2 followed PlayStation which was not a dud. PlayStation 3 was only a dud if you compare its sales to previous PlayStations, but if you compare the sales to its direct competitor, the Xbox 360, which launched earlier and was much cheaper, then all credible sales figures have the sales of those two consoles in the 90m range -/+ 5m - which is as close a draw as two leading consoles ever had.

Also worth remembering that both 'duds', albeit a generation apart, generally were perceived as duds because of technical choices that compromised game's performance (relative to the competing platform) at the literal expense (more costly to buy) for some secondary corporate goal that I'll just call "the fight to own the living room", i.e. be the both that serves as the centre for most people's media, subscriptions and services. And let's not forget Sony turned around PS3 and Microsoft turned around Xbox One.

I do not know who is leading the Xbox 4 design but I doubt they, or their team, are going to repeat past mistakes. None of the decisions made when designing Xbox One S or X suggest that. Likewise, Mark Cerny is again senior system architect of PlayStation 5 and I can't think of a better pair of hands.

A generation with two new consoles where one isn't bloody stupid for some very stupid reason is a very good time to be a gamer!

 

[dobwal]

PlayStation 2 followed PlayStation which was not a dud. PlayStation 3 was only a dud if you compare its sales to previous PlayStations, but if you compare the sales to its direct competitor, the Xbox 360, which launched earlier and was much cheaper, then all credible sales figures have the sales of those two consoles in the 90m range -/+ 5m - which is as close a draw as two leading consoles ever had.

Also worth remembering that both 'duds', albeit a generation apart, generally were perceived as duds because of technical choices that compromised game's performance (relative to the competing platform) at the literal expense (more costly to buy) for some secondary corporate goal that I'll just call "the fight to own the living room", i.e. be the both that serves as the centre for most people's media, subscriptions and services. And let's not forget Sony turned around PS3 and Microsoft turned around Xbox One.

I do not know who is leading the Xbox 4 design but I doubt they, or their team, are going to repeat past mistakes. None of the decisions made when designing Xbox One S or X suggest that. Likewise, Mark Cerny is again senior system architect of PlayStation 5 and I can't think of a better pair of hands.

A generation with two new consoles where one isn't bloody stupid for some very stupid reason is a very good time to be a gamer!

My point was that these platform owners have a prospensity to mess shit up after doing really well the gen before. It’s like their motivation to perform well is replaced by a mindset that they’ve made it and they can coast on the good will that they’ve built up.

Does it happen everytime? No. But it happens enough that I won’t be surprised if Sony stumbles next gen.

Also, “dud” refers to the platform owners’ execution and strategy not really the product themselves. I actually enjoyed owning the n64, PS3 and Xbox 1.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

My point was that these platform owners have a prospensity to mess shit up after doing really well the gen before. It’s like their motivation to perform well is replaced by a mindset that they’ve made it and they can coast on the good will that they’ve built up.

Both of the "stumbles" were the result of each platform holder being optimistic and ambitious regarding the appeal of non-gaming tech in their boxes. Sony never shut up about Cell's ability to decode and stream a dozen simulatenous 1080p streams at once, like that is useful in GTA IV! Similarly, building card reading interfaces for a bunch of popular card standards in case I wanted to look at pictures on my TV. Likewise Microsoft thought the best time to invest heavily in TV input and augmentation was the generation where everybody was streaming over the intent. D'oh!. And also here is this camera that can detect the orientation of your phalanx bones in each hand. Cool tech, yes, usefulness in games: 0.0%.

These were costly lessons for both and while it's not impossible for either to try on something that doesn't pan out (touch pads, glowing controller bars etc), voice activated controls, I doubt either are anywhere near close to ready to invest a proportionately large amount (relative to the cost of the console) in something so risky any time soon. Nintendo will be the next manufacturer to do something stupid, they can't help themselves.