Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

[Nesh]

Why do I feel that game announcements on the next gen consoles are somewhat slow compared to the pre-launch period of previous generations?
Also the hardware were much more exciting back in the day. Companies would announce things devs could do that previously couldnt. This gen is an obvious case of diminishing returns. The new hardware is mostly about doing the same things better than doing stuff we didnt see before

 

[AlphaWolf]

Why do I feel that game announcements on the next gen consoles are somewhat slow compared to the pre-launch period of previous generations?

Poor memory? MS has announced about 3x as many titles as they did for the 360. Sony showed lots of stuff for the ps3, but they weren't announced launch titles...

 

[Nesh]

Poor memory? MS has announced about 3x as many titles as they did for the 360. Sony showed lots of stuff for the ps3, but they weren't announced launch titles...

3 as many exclusives? 3 as many launch titles? 3 as many overall? What do you mean?
Sony's list of announcements has a lot of indie games or free to play. A huge selection of games on both platforms arent just multiplatform. They are cross generational games. Diablo, Assasin's Creed, Battlefield 4 and others are also current gen games with enhanced visuals. It doesnt feel like a strong and exciting transition when exclusives, new franchises and unique to the next generation titles are extremely few.
I also feel that we were getting more news about games last time. PS3 in particular had a ton.

 

[Gubbi]

I also feel that we were getting more news about games last time. PS3 in particular had a ton.

Japan, US or European launch ?

What titles other than Resistance:FOM and Ridge Racer 7 were there that weren't multiplatform ?

The 360 was similarly weak. I remember buying Kameo, PDZ and Condemned with the console, - that was basically it. A lot of games were released during spring 2006, including Oblivion.

The software lineup seems stronger this time around, IMO.

Cheers

 

[Arwin]

Japan, US or European launch ?

What titles other than Resistance:FOM and Ridge Racer 7 were there that weren't multiplatform ?

The 360 was similarly weak. I remember buying Kameo, PDZ and Condemned with the console, - that was basically it. A lot of games were released during spring 2006, including Oblivion.

The software lineup seems stronger this time around, IMO.

Cheers

Not just seems. It's far stronger this time. That's not to say that all gamers will be equally happy with the launch line-up, but there's clearly far more available than last time(s).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A convincing rumour that XB1 launches on November 8th. That'll give MS a week's headstart - the article even suggests MS were waiting on Sony's announced dates so they could pick the week earlier, which sounds unrealistic to me. I suppose a couple of weeks here or there won't make much difference as it'll be all about the supply chain.

That's going to be a busy month or two in NA for the console industry. Marketing campaigns will probably be pretty intense. It'll be interesting to see how much is spent on marketing in Europe.

 

[hesido]

There's an interview with War Thunder developers. They mention that Sony allows simultaneous updates on PC and PS4, without certification!
http://www.edge-online.com/news/gaijin-games-on-why-war-thunder-isnt-coming-to-xbox-one/

That's quite big news, this probably got mentioned here and there but in case it didn't, it's worth mentioning. This is done through an special agreement between the the devs and Sony, probably the devs would have to agree to cover any losses by a major bug, but if the rules have been set properly and the games run in an abstracted environment, you'd not worry about a game ruining the file-sytem or corrupting data on the harddisk, would you? Basically, there has to be limits to what a game can do with the OS before ruining it for others.

 

[Arwin]

A convincing rumour that XB1 launches on November 8th. That'll give MS a week's headstart - the article even suggests MS were waiting on Sony's announced dates so they could pick the week earlier, which sounds unrealistic to me. I suppose a couple of weeks here or there won't make much difference as it'll be all about the supply chain.

It's not impossible. They may have decided that it was in their best interest to drop the number of countries at launch in order to have enough stock to effectively combat Sony in the major territories.

That's going to be a busy month or two in NA for the console industry. Marketing campaigns will probably be pretty intense. It'll be interesting to see how much is spent on marketing in Europe.

Yes, it's going to be quite special. It will also be interesting to see if this increases interest - two big competitors launching at the same time, tends to give both of them a lot of extra press?

 

[Rangers]

A convincing rumour that XB1 launches on November 8th. That'll give MS a week's headstart - the article even suggests MS were waiting on Sony's announced dates so they could pick the week earlier, which sounds unrealistic to me. I suppose a couple of weeks here or there won't make much difference as it'll be all about the supply chain.

That's going to be a busy month or two in NA for the console industry. Marketing campaigns will probably be pretty intense. It'll be interesting to see how much is spent on marketing in Europe.

At gamescom Phil Harrison said they haven't announced the date for marketing reasons. Seemed to go pretty unnoticed.

I'm not really sure what that means, but it basically says they had a date already at Gamescom, they just are waiting til a particular time to announce it.

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...phil-harrison-on-xbox-ones-core-games-charge/

Isn't it a little overdue? Surely we're on the cusp of a release date announcement?

We will make an announcement in due course. There are a certain number of marketing reasons why we still haven't announced a launch date, but we continue to say November.

It's not impossible. They may have decided that it was in their best interest to drop the number of countries at launch in order to have enough stock to effectively combat Sony in the major territories.

Except that the territories they axed likely amount to 5% or something as many units as the "tier 1" countries. They were all very small countries, and Russia, where there is not a big console market.

 

[dumbo11]

There's an interview with War Thunder developers. They mention that Sony allows simultaneous updates on PC and PS4, without certification!
http://www.edge-online.com/news/gaijin-games-on-why-war-thunder-isnt-coming-to-xbox-one/

I thought the same thing originally, but that's a slight mis-reading:

AY: They need to stop talking and start basically doing something. Because right now you need to certify your servers with Microsoft, you need to make… it’s not yet clear if there will be updates. If you can’t make updates without Microsoft [approval] they ruin the idea of online gaming, basically. They’ve said there’ll be some kind of opportunity [for that] but haven’t yet said quite exactly how it’ll be working.

i.e. if you want an existing online game to work on XB1 then you need to 'certify' your existing servers with Microsoft... something I doubt MMO companies will be in a rush to do.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The "console wars" will be won or lost in the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany. It makes sense for MS to concentrate their efforts on those territories if they have limited supply.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The "console wars" will be won or lost in the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany.

Though probably true, the console business has sod-all to do with the internet's juvenile console wars. The best return on investment and most successful business will be whichever company can extract the most money from their userbase after offset by costs, either by a very large userbase or a userbase very willing to give over their money, or some combination of them both. Securing a high income market like the US early on is important, but releasing to only five countries would mean far less profitability from MS's investment in XB1's RnD than if they sell worldwide.

It makes sense for MS to concentrate their efforts on those territories if they have limited supply.

That's fair, although that then assumes MS has less stock to work with than Sony, or Sony are going to be spread too thin. We'll need launch numbers before we can interpret MS's choices as a stronger 'home' launch or a lack of stock availability and a more defensive launch push.

We'd also need a reliable figure on a number of early adopters who'll be swayed on which console they'll buy based on availability. If the number of gamers who'll drop one console for the other because they have to wait a month or two is large, it's important to serve them, but if it's small (as is my guess) then it really doesn't matter so long as they aren't kept waiting for too long. Opinions differ here, with some believing Christmas will abound with parents looking to buy 'that new games console thingy' with little regard for which model, and if they're right, whoever has the best supply wins.

 

[3dilettante]

I thought the same thing originally, but that's a slight mis-reading:


i.e. if you want an existing online game to work on XB1 then you need to 'certify' your existing servers with Microsoft... something I doubt MMO companies will be in a rush to do.

I made note of this possibility after Microsoft disclosed their cloud plans. It's a necessary step to take when the bulk of developers and publishers have not proven themselves with cloud functionality (or worse), and spare resources may not be sufficient at this point to handle bad implementations without impacting things globaly. The platform can't hide whether it is being asked to run bad code, no matter how robust the cloud is.

 

[dumbo11]

I made note of this possibility after Microsoft disclosed their cloud plans. It's a necessary step to take when the bulk of developers and publishers have not proven themselves with cloud functionality (or worse), and spare resources may not be sufficient at this point to handle bad implementations without impacting things globaly. The platform can't hide whether it is being asked to run bad code, no matter how robust the cloud is.

I think there's 2 different ways to read that comment:
- the service needs to be certified to run on the azure cloud, to prevent exceeding resources.
- any external server (hardware+software) needs to be certified to connect to an XB1, to prevent hacks/customer detail leaks/payments from which MS doesn't get a cut.

He's probably not supposed to talk about it, so I doubt there will be a clarification .

 

[Arwin]

Except that the territories they axed likely amount to 5% or something as many units as the "tier 1" countries. They were all very small countries, and Russia, where there is not a big console market.

Just the Benelux and Scandinavia together are close to the size of the UK market ( from the top of my head 9,5 + 16,5 + 4,5 + 5 + 8 + 5 makes 48,5 vs 67 for UK? ) and these are fairly rich countries (probably better off than the UK). So all together not as insignificant as you make it sound.

 

[Tchock]

If they have more disposable income can't they buy it later

 

[Bigduo209]

3 as many exclusives? 3 as many launch titles? 3 as many overall? What do you mean?
Sony's list of announcements has a lot of indie games or free to play. A huge selection of games on both platforms arent just multiplatform. They are cross generational games. Diablo, Assasin's Creed, Battlefield 4 and others are also current gen games with enhanced visuals. It doesnt feel like a strong and exciting transition when exclusives, new franchises and unique to the next generation titles are extremely few.
I also feel that we were getting more news about games last time. PS3 in particular had a ton.

I wouldn't quite discard Indie titles from the lineup...
Let's Ditch the Indie-Blockbuster Divide
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-great-divide


Previous console launches had their own issues as well.

Even then, why be upset by the current selection? Just because something is cross generational doesn't mean it is a bad thing, I'm sure those games running on current-gen hardware will be more limited than those on next-gen systems (not just by visuals), so what's the fuss?

You want more exclusives, new franchises, and other games exclusively tied to the next generation of hardware? Just wait, it'll happen when it happens. It will cost tremendous amounts of time and money, and with AAA games you can see devs wanting to do it mostly right the first time.

 

[hesido]

I think there's 2 different ways to read that comment:
- the service needs to be certified to run on the azure cloud, to prevent exceeding resources.
- any external server (hardware+software) needs to be certified to connect to an XB1, to prevent hacks/customer detail leaks/payments from which MS doesn't get a cut.

He's probably not supposed to talk about it, so I doubt there will be a clarification .

I understand the need for certifying servers, that said, the game will have cross-platform play so I think client certification would be very much streamlined, if Sony does require certification for minor updates, otherwise they probably wouldn't bother for cross-platform play.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Just been perusing ShopTo.net. FIFA14 is the second most preorderd game for PS4, and it costs £47. So MS's offer pushes the price differential to near £30 for footy fans, which is barely anything. There's also a shocking discrepancy between recorded interest in the two consoles. PS4 has 1700 user reviews (yes, people reviewing a product that's not released and they've never even used ) whereas XB1 has <150 reviews total.

 

[Bigduo209]

PS4 boss Andrew House: Xbox One policies surprised us
www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/aug/21/playstation4-gamescom-andrew-house-interview