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

XSS does not have the best value, unless you're talking, purely, "which is cheapest?"

$ to power ratio; it's the most expensive (by far):

XSS = $75/tflop
PS5 = $49
XSX = $41
PS5 DE = $39

XSX is second cheapest as far as I can tell. The same applies to all other metrics that I can see.

If that's what floats your boat, good for you. There's a broad range of what constitutes good value though. As someone that doesn't have a PS4 digital library and isn't that bothered about playing Sony Studios' titles, the DE doesn't constitute good value at all.
 
Well, seems like Sony has an answer for that too. PS Plus appears to have all the best PS4 games available on it.

If you don't care to play them, then sure, the PlayStation will never be for you.
 
The only thing where I can see confusion is Microsoft isn't going to release any next gen only game in the launch window

The Medium is not on Xbox One, but no date other than Q4 2020. I would still consider it "launch window". Hopefully we will get some dates on Scorn & some others. But yeah, what constitutes "launch window"? 2020? Q1 2021?

Tommy McClain
 
Hey, I'm just pointing out that the Series S isn't the amazing value it's made out to be.
 
Wait, is Dollar-to-Tflop a thing? Tflops are literally one of so many factors that make an impact on the hardware, I find it incredibly reductive.
Agreed.

Value for someone that is budget conscious will be about how much games they will be able to play with their investment, how much it's going to cost them in the long term. Will they use it the whole time for the amount paid.

As you go up in the income levels, it becomes a value is about the quality of the experience. That's when we get into talking about resolution, audio, etc.

When someone is debating between PS5, XSX, and a 1000 dollar GPU, it's clear how much gaming is not a value proposition anymore. It's about hitting the games they want at the quality they want. Then you compare it to someone looking at DE, Series S, or the All access payment programs etc.

they are very different markets with different needs and desires.
 
The Medium is not on Xbox One, but no date other than Q4 2020. I would still consider it "launch window". Hopefully we will get some dates on Scorn & some others. But yeah, what constitutes "launch window"? 2020? Q1 2021?

Tommy McClain

I was thinking along the lines of a graphical showcase like Ryse, a game to show why you should get a next gen console.
 
Well, seems like Sony has an answer for that too. PS Plus appears to have all the best PS4 games available on it.

Only 18 of them? Assuming you're talking about the PS+ Collection.

Surely there are far more best PS4 games than that, right?
 
I was thinking along the lines of a graphical showcase like Ryse, a game to show why you should get a next gen console.

You said MS wasn't releasing any next-gen games in the "launch window" & now you've moved the goal post. Why didn't just say that to begin with?

Tommy McClain
 
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I was thinking along the lines of a graphical showcase like Ryse, a game to show why you should get a next gen console.

I'm fairly certain that Flight Simulator 2020 will be releasing on Xbox Series consoles. But you best have a decent internet connection if you plan on flying around to a lot of different areas.
 
Isn't there some game like PS5 Ratchet and Clank which is not possible in current consoles (probably in 2021)?

Why do some people think the interview say 100% SONY games are PS5 exclusive?
I don't know what I don't know.
I know Sony had SEnix pull down the PC portion of the FF16.
We saw a reversal on the messaging around Demon Souls.

Like I said, you can say hey stupid wake up, or that some people got misled. No one expected here HZD and SM:MM to be cross gen. Some of the other titles sure, but not these two.
Now, even with GoW, will it be cross gen as well. It may very well be.

So, I don't think people expected 100% exclusive, but they were sold on the big hitters being that. To drive adoption to the new consoles to sell new experiences etc.

Frankly I don't know, you should ask those people. I will admit that I did actually think these were all going to be PS5 exclusive, and even though to me they looked like improved cross gen games, in the end when you hear enough people use it as a bullet point against xbox, given enough repetition and thoughtful commentary, I'll start to believe it too. No journalists were refuting it, I trust Digital Foundry quite a bit to know what's up. John was hammering the hell out of Xbox for cross gen and Series S and the contrast to PS5 strategy. I trust them because they do a good job at naturally covering the technology side of things. They know stuff too and are privvy to information in which they kept from leaking, aka Series S since March.

There was nothing from the previous shows to indicate otherwise. Everyone was smashing xbox about cross gen, halo was a mess. Honestly the narrative seemed to make sense, I mean, I suspected some of these were just older games being ramped up beyond what PS4 could handle but that isn't the case as it would appear.
 
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I don't know what I don't know.
I know Sony had SEnix pull down the PC portion of the FF16.
We saw a reversal on the messaging around Demon Souls.

Like I said, you can say hey stupid wake up, or that some people got misled. No one expected here HZD and SM:MM to be cross gen. Some of the other titles sure, but not these two.
Now, even with GoW, will it be cross gen as well. It may very well be.

So, I don't think people expected 100% exclusive, but they were sold on the big hitters being that. To drive adoption to the new consoles to sell new experiences etc.

Frankly I don't know, you should ask those people. I will admit that I did actually think these were all going to be PS5 exclusive, and even though to me they looked like improved cross gen games, in the end when you hear enough people use it as a bullet point against xbox, given enough repetition and thoughtful commentary, I'll start to believe it too. No journalists were refuting it, I trust Digital Foundry quite a bit to know what's up. John was hammering the hell out of Xbox for cross gen and Series S and the contrast to PS5 strategy. I trust them because they do a good job at naturally covering the technology side of things. They know stuff too and are privvy to information in which they kept from leaking, aka Series S since March.

There was nothing from the previous shows to indicate otherwise. Everyone was smashing xbox about cross gen, halo was a mess. Honestly the narrative seemed to make sense, I mean, I suspected some of these were just older games being ramped up beyond what PS4 could handle but that isn't the case as it would appear.

To be fair!! The whole “sCaLiNg cAnT be dOnE ePiC fAiL” drama was borne out of that hilarious Halo reveal, and that one is on MS.
 
To be fair!! The whole “sCaLiNg cAnT be dOnE ePiC fAiL” drama was borne out of that hilarious Halo reveal, and that one is on MS.
yea. well yea.

More like, MS was like, we've got crazy insane powah! We can scale this is no problem don't worry we've been doing this for years on PC.

and then.. Halo which arguably looked like a middle of the pack current gen title.

And you are being fair, I do fully agree on this.

If you took the position that Horizon, SM:MM, and others would be all cross gen with PS4, given all the information we had on it to date (prior to yesterday). And you didn't budge, you'd just go on everyone's ignore list. Because people would be pointing out data point after data point about how all these titles were exclusive to PS5 and they didn't look like Dirt 5, Halo, or any of the not really exciting showcases from any of Xbox's presentations. Holding strong that these titles would all be on PS4 would be a losing position like going all in on a pair of 7s before the flop is shown and luckily winning on the river.
 
You said MS wasn't releasing any next-gen games in the "launch window" & now you've moved the goal post. Why didn't just say that to begin with?

Tommy McClain

I ain't moving no goal posts, Microsoft themselves have said that all there games will be cross gen for the next year.

Anyways I don't really care I was just putting forth reasons why people are making a big deal where there's nothing different really happening from previous launches.

It's bloody video games why must everyone be so defensive.
 
So it's not really fair that in one way, you can't tell these people who are misled to just shut up, because they are rabid fanboys for doing so and they should know what to expect from console transitions. They were told something else.

No they were not.

Jim Ryan said Sony wasn't going to force the dev teams to make games for the Playstation 4, like Microsoft is doing. Sony is not forcing developers to release games on the Playstation 4.
Ratchet and Clank very obviously can't run on a PS4, therefore Jim Ryan did not lie.

Where did anyone from Sony ever said they were going to stop making games for the PS4, and how does that even make sense?

I can't tell people who are misled to shut up, but I can very well tell people they are not being mislead. They're only being mislead by some imaginary senseless promise they somehow believe Sony did to them, or worse: some ambulance chasers convinced them of such.

Honestly, Horizon Forbidden West is the dead last game people should be complaining about. The game is gorgeous and doesn't look like anything we've ever seen this generation.
Complaining that a game doesn't look good is valid (e.g. this latest Sands of Time remake). Complaining that a game that looks great is coming to an inferior platform is the same as complaining about Doom or Witcher on the Switch. It's just senseless gatekeeping.


Because people would be pointing out data point after data point about how all these titles were exclusive to PS5 and they didn't look like Dirt 5, Halo, or any of the not really exciting showcases from any of Xbox's presentations.
I'm pretty sure many people commented that Miles Morales looked just like Spiderman. That one being able to run on the PS4 should have surprised no one IMO.
 
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I ain't moving no goal posts, Microsoft themselves have said that all there games will be cross gen for the next year.

Anyways I don't really care I was just putting forth reasons why people are making a big deal where there's nothing different really happening from previous launches.

It's bloody video games why must everyone be so defensive.

If you're going to be talking about something at least be correct about it. The misrepresentation leads to FUD.

BTW, Microsoft said their first-party games would be cross-gen for the next year. Other studios/devs are free to launch exclusive games. That's a pretty good distinction no?

Tommy McClain
 
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