Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

[HMBR]

it's clear that Sony had no option but to sell the PS4 for a clearly lower price...
watching the mainstream news reports they pretty much only mention Sony = cheaper, used games, MS = kinect + general purpose media player.

the GPU/mem difference looks irrelevant, and MS have better online functionality, so yes... lower price and popular decisions (even if it's to superficial and misleading) like the used games thing, considering that now they lost the advantage of free online gaming, bluray, and exclusive games are weaker now...

 

[Nesh]

exclusive games are weaker now...

What do you mean? You mean "weaker" exclusive line up?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Then of course you admit its a feature rarely to be used regardless

For me it'll get used about 10x as often as disc sharing, so a net plus. Add the convenience of not having to disc swap (hell I can put the disc into storage the day I install ) and it's a decent sized win.

 

[HMBR]

What do you mean? You mean "weaker" exclusive line up?

I think comparing to what they had 7-8 years ago in relation to what MS had, it was a much stronger argument in favor of Sony than what it is now.

 

[Nesh]

For me it'll get used about 10x as often as disc sharing, so a net plus. Add the convenience of not having to disc swap (hell I can put the disc into storage the day I install ) and it's a decent sized win.

Yeah. For you. And also I was talking specifically about the "sharing" feature not about the convenience of getting rid of disk swapping

 

[Nesh]

I think comparing to what they had 7-8 years ago in relation to what MS had, it was a much stronger argument in favor of Sony than what it is now.

I believe its too early too tell but I agree that MS gained a lot of ground and Sony is no longer in the position they used to be during the PS1 and PS2 era

 

[HollovVpo1nt]

You can do something similar already with PS3.
I have 2 PS3's and no matter which PS3 purchases something from PSN, the other can download it too even if its on the other side of the planet as long as it has access to the same account it was purchased on

This shouldn't be seen as a feature, but as an exploit. All this means that if you download a game, you can let another person recover your account on his PlayStation, login to your account and "redownload" that game. Problem is that when you're at someone else's house and geniounly want to recover your game to play, you won't be able to because that game can only be active on 2 PS3's. In the early days of PS3 it was 5 PS3's and people exploited the living shit out of it.

it's clear that Sony had no option but to sell the PS4 for a clearly lower price...
watching the mainstream news reports they pretty much only mention Sony = cheaper, used games, MS = kinect + general purpose media player.

the GPU/mem difference looks irrelevant, and MS have better online functionality, so yes... lower price and popular decisions (even if it's to superficial and misleading) like the used games thing, considering that now they lost the advantage of free online gaming, bluray, and exclusive games are weaker now...

What bothers me is that Microsoft:
- Has room for a pricedrop
- Know they have a disadvantage: public opinion (DRM etc.)
- Know PlayStation brand is huge

And they wouldn't pressure Sony. Michael Pachter told in an interview today that he spoke to a key Sony spokesman and he said that Sony was shitting bricks hoping Microsoft wouldn't price the One at 399, because Sony really couldn't go lower than 399. Microsoft would then have the longterm advantage and shortterm advantage and overall value cause it's bundled with kinect. The bundling with kinect would also even out the difference in power I think.

 

[blakjedi]

And they wouldn't pressure Sony. Michael Pachter told in an interview today that he spoke to a key Sony spokesman and he said that Sony was shitting bricks hoping Microsoft wouldn't price the One at 399, because Sony really couldn't go lower than 399. Microsoft would then have the longterm advantage and shortterm advantage and overall value cause it's bundled with kinect. The bundling with kinect would also even out the difference in power I think.

Again, even last night, that 100 unit currency difference was ther REAL driver. People will get used to DRM in whatever form although I hate the your system wont play games without a 24hr heartbeat thing.

$100 is a megaton and MS missed that boat... MS should reprice rapidly to $425 immediately. That puts them in a situation where you can undercut PS4 plus eyetoy...

 

[DJ12]

This shouldn't be seen as a feature, but as an exploit. All this means that if you download a game, you can let another person recover your account on his PlayStation, login to your account and "redownload" that game. Problem is that when you're at someone else's house and geniounly want to recover your game to play, you won't be able to because that game can only be active on 2 PS3's. In the early days of PS3 it was 5 PS3's and people exploited the living shit out of it.

Not true at all. Log into sen and you can disable all ps3s that your account is logged against.

And it is a feature sony sold it as such.

 

[DrJay24]

For me it'll get used about 10x as often as disc sharing, so a net plus. Add the convenience of not having to disc swap (hell I can put the disc into storage the day I install ) and it's a decent sized win.

You can get those convenience by buying the DD version without giving up the right for everyone else to own their discs. How is a choice a bad thing?

 

[HollovVpo1nt]

Not true at all. Log into sen and you can disable all ps3s that your account is logged against.

And it is a feature sony sold it as such.

I was unaware of that, I guess it changed compared to how it was.

 

[AlphaWolf]

You can get those convenience by buying the DD version without giving up the right for everyone else to own their discs. How is a choice a bad thing?

If someone buys me a copy of a game as a gift I don't want to be burdened with archaic disc based drm.

 

[temesgen]

Earlier today on Gametrailer.com they have a panel which included JASON RUBIN (co-founder, Naughty Dog, ANDY MCNAMARA (Editor-in-Chief, Game Informer) and JEFF GERSTMANN (Giant Bomb) to discuss the conferences. Lots of good points were made and I thought they were fairly objective, they all concluded that Nintendo didn't do well, MS showed good exclusives and Sony had the best overall showing due in large part to the price and DRM reveals.

The discussion was called Bonus Round and if you wish to catch a replay.

 

[blakjedi]

Earlier today on Gametrailer.com they have a panel which included JASON RUBIN (co-founder, Naughty Dog, ANDY MCNAMARA (Editor-in-Chief, Game Informer) and JEFF GERSTMANN (Giant Bomb) to discuss the conferences. Lots of good points were made and I thought they were fairly objective, they all concluded that Nintendo didn't do well, MS showed good exclusives and Sony had the best overall showing due in large part to the price and DRM reveals.

The discussion was called Bonus Round and if you wish to catch a replay.

Sony's showings saving grace was only due to the price and DRM reveal. It was a fairly boring showing with crashes...

 

[XpiderMX]

Microsoft show was really amazing... until the price reveal.

 

[temesgen]

Sony's showings saving grace was only due to the price and DRM reveal. It was a fairly boring showing with crashes...

Many journalist, bloggers and industry experts agree that Sony had the best show and while the DRM and price are key to that interpretation the analysis offered also references games like The Order, InFamous, The Division, Killzone and the indy support. For the record I seem to recall some issues at MS's show too, in either case I don't recall seeing much written about those issues from either show.

 

[Tap In]

Microsoft show was really amazing... until the price reveal.

yea they should have gone $399/$449


Pachter was just on GT and said that Sony was planning $399 and were actually concerned with Pachter's suggestion that MS would launch at $399 also as they wanted that advantage.

Ms miscalculated and he called them arrogant.. BUT he fully expects subsidies are in the works for Ms to make price of entry appear to be less and also as I said earlier that they need to SHOW people over the next 5 months why they are worth the extra $100

 

[HollovVpo1nt]

Earlier today on Gametrailer.com they have a panel which included JASON RUBIN (co-founder, Naughty Dog, ANDY MCNAMARA (Editor-in-Chief, Game Informer) and JEFF GERSTMANN (Giant Bomb) to discuss the conferences. Lots of good points were made and I thought they were fairly objective, they all concluded that Nintendo didn't do well, MS showed good exclusives and Sony had the best overall showing due in large part to the price and DRM reveals.

The discussion was called Bonus Round and if you wish to catch a replay.

Jason Rubin seemed really down to earth about Microsofts policies and in my opinion, that's how gamers should react and should have reacted in stead of dropping f-bombs all over Microsoft. I'm guilty of that myself, but what Microsoft is doing shouldn't be hated as much as it is beeing hated right now.

By the way, amazing coverage of E3 by GameTrailers, props to them.

 

[temesgen]

Jason Rubin seemed really down to earth about Microsofts policies and in my opinion, that's how gamers should react and should have reacted in stead of dropping f-bombs all over Microsoft. I'm guilty of that myself, but what Microsoft is doing shouldn't be hated as much as it is beeing hated right now.

By the way, amazing coverage of E3 by GameTrailers, props to them.

Agreed, he raised really good points and honestly I think a well thought out DRM policy would be good for gamers. If prices were lower and or if used game sales went back to the publishers that would be money that could be invested in new games or content for existing ones.

I shared some ideas a couple ideas a couple days ago about how to do DRM but didn't get any responses.....

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Well, considering how Sony has misguided everyone with the DRM part, I think most of those conclusions are wrong to at least some extent.