Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

[Arwin]

We've had this discussion many times before in the past. The audience you can reach increases over time when your price goes down. With two competing products, if they are generally considered of equal value, then the one that has the lower price will reach a larger audience sooner as well as have a competitive advantage.

But of course companies like Apple show that given the right featureset, customers are willing to buy products at a premium price, so it's not a law set in stone. The Xbox got its strong position in the U.S. not just because of the success of the 360, but also because they started being successful already with the original Xbox in the U.S. (that one also sold 2x as well in the US as it did in Europe). They won't lose this advantage overnight.

 

[Bagel seed]

Sonys instructional video on used games also reached the number 1 spot on youtube. Thats a lot of hits

That video has almost 8 mil views already. Damn.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

My guess is that with almost 80 million units out there for PS3/X360 the demand for launch PS4 and XB1 has to be at least 4 million units, even at $499. I doubt that Sony and MS can even get 4 million units into the channel in 2013. MS can lower the price after that if they need to.

IMO Sony was crazy to launch at $399. Plays well at E3 and with hardcore gamers, but they're bleeding money badly enough as it is. Furthermore, they have to convince all these cheap-ass gamers that wouldn't pay for Live that multiplayer being behind a paywall is ok now.

I have a feeling that all the cheering masses might wake up to find that the girl they ended up with from the party last night doesn't look so hot the next morning... No standard motion controls, multiplayer paywall, disc-based DRM instead of online DRM etc...

 

[blakjedi]

My guess is that with almost 80 million units out there for PS3/X360 the demand for launch PS4 and XB1 has to be at least 4 million units, even at $499. I doubt that Sony and MS can even get 4 million units into the channel in 2013. MS can lower the price after that if they need to.

IMO Sony was crazy to launch at $399. Plays well at E3 and with hardcore gamers, but they're bleeding money badly enough as it is. Furthermore, they have to convince all these cheap-ass gamers that wouldn't pay for Live that multiplayer being behind a paywall is ok now.

I have a feeling that all the cheering masses might wake up to find that the girl they ended up with from the party last night doesn't look so hot the next morning... No standard motion controls, multiplayer paywall, disc-based DRM instead of online DRM etc...

There is definitely as sense of aftermath to this E3. Sony twisted the only real knife they had and it played well in the arena and in the digerati tech sites which tend to be harsher and more critical of anything produced by MS. That said, BUILD is coming, which is another event this month that focuses on MS oriented developers. I am sure that that will be the third salvo in this war for the living room and I hope more "tech" is revealed and more demos showing off the system's capabilities.

All of that said, as much as I think that MS was correct in its assertion that Kinect is the tech of the future with respect to human-computer interaction, MS should have tried harder to build a 2TF box. Parity with Sony goes a long way in this industry.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

That video has almost 8 mil views already. Damn.

And it is quite possibly a lie. Double damn

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Listen, I wish the Xbox One was $599 with 2TF performance, but in practice it's going to be 80% as powerful as PS4 IMO and 95% for most multiplatform titles. That's good enough and the feature set is huge and should push a lot of units out to the masses.

When I show my extended family the new Kinect capabilities like facial recognition, 6-people tracking, force tracking, wrist tracking, voice command integration with TV etc... they'll all be on board when it drops to $399.

The Xbox One has a really rich feature set.

PS: I can hear it now. "You mean I don't even have to swap discs, the games are just on it? SOLD"

 

[babybumb]

One thing is for sure:

If the PS4 is 50% more powerful than Xbox One, E3 is not demonstrating that AT ALL.

The reality of game development is that outside of a few key Sony exclusives, the graphical difference between the systems isn't going to be noticed much IMO, and likely not until long after both systems have traction in the marketplace.

You have to analyze the exact same software running on the platforms. Most games are multiplatform and how those perform is a much bigger deal than some handful of exclusive titles that can be really compared only subjectively - 50% is not that much.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And it is quite possibly a lie. Double damn

How so? I'm not following any of the details closely. AFAIK Sony doesn't tie DRM to games, but of course publishers can. But in principle you hand over the disc for PS4 and that shares the game. I don't see that as lying.

 

[eastmen]

You have to analyze the exact same software running on the platforms. Most games are multiplatform and how those perform is a much bigger deal than some handful of exclusive titles that can be really compared only subjectively - 50% is not that much.

didn't seem that way this gen. the ps3 and xbox 360 are amlost tied in market share dispite the vast majority of 3rd party games running better on the 360 sometimes much better.

 

[Nesh]

I don't know but I'm seeing Xbox One games more impressive than PS4 games, take a look to Knack for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL-Acg65Qzk

You chose the worst example but anyways I share the same view that E3 didnt showcase any performance advantage of the PS4 over the XBone

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Announcing 1080p 60fps Xbox exclusives is not exactly discouraging though. The ESRAM may be enough to compensate for the lack of theoretical performance.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

But in principle you hand over the disc for PS4 and that shares the game. I don't see that as lying.

I still believe that publishers will put a stop to that. What we see now from EA is damage control after Sony's PR stunt.

And in the end it will all move to digital only. Just take a look at the Last of Us thread, most people talk about preloading there...

 

[blakjedi]

I still believe that publishers will put a stop to that. What we see now from EA is damage control after Sony's PR stunt.

And in the end it will all move to digital only. Just take a look at the Last of Us thread, most people talk about preloading there...

What happened with EA? I missed it.

 

[Bagel seed]

And it is quite possibly a lie. Double damn

Lie? Whatever the case, its creating an echo chamber effect which is good PR for Sony.. by capitalizing on the confusion of MS policies.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Honestly, E3 completely redeemed MS as far as I'm concerned. When they said they were bringing games I thought it would be 50% Kinect stuff to showcase their overall strategy, but they basically came with 90% hardcore games that looked great. To think that they haven't even really delved into the Kinect and APP/OS possibilities yet is mind blowing. It all depends on the quality of everything going forward, but they've definitely put together the complete package IMO.

 

[eastmen]

Honestly, E3 completely redeemed MS as far as I'm concerned. When they said they were bringing games I thought it would be 50% Kinect stuff to showcase their overall strategy, but they basically came with 90% hardcore games that looked great. To think that they haven't even really delved into the Kinect and APP/OS possibilities yet is mind blowing. It all depends on the quality of everything going forward, but they've definitely put together the complete package IMO.

all windows 8 apps should be able to work on xbox one . If my surface pro with its 1.6ghz i5 ulv and intel hd 4000 can run the apps and games on it just fine with a 4gig ram supply. So Ms could go into this with a lot of content at launch perhaps far greater than sony

 

[TrungGap]

Well, overall...I'm glad Sony didn't follow MS regarding the DRM and pricing...not because I think think Sony decision is completely better. I like digital sharing of game...and not having to put the disc in the drive. Yes that's silly...but it the little nice touches like that make the system feels like a premium system. Fast switching between my games and Skype and TV.

However, on the other hand, the PS4 is priced to sell! And a serious gaming machine...I'm not sure what will be better. I truly hope the market is large enough for both (hmmm, maybe 3...Nin deserves another chance). Because at the end of the day, us consumers win...competition is good.

Btw am I the only one thinks both consoles look good? I really dig the design..flat, simple, clean and stackable. I hate that I can't stack stuff on my ps3.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Both systems look great. I'm pretty sure that neither Sony nor MS is going to run away from the other this generation. The worst case scenario for either is 50 million units sold IMO.

Still, the question in my mind is: Can Sony make money this time around? I'm sure they'll sell lots of consoles at $399 and below, but will they sell enough games and PSN+ to put them in the black?

There's an old saying in business: "Live by price, die by price..." IMO they should have demonstrated enough value to justify a $499 price tag, instead of losing $400 million on the first 4 million units....

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Well, overall...I'm glad Sony didn't follow MS regarding the DRM and pricing...not because I think think Sony decision is completely better. I like digital sharing of game...and not having to put the disc in the drive. Yes that's silly...but it the little nice touches like that make the system feels like a premium system. Fast switching between my games and Skype and TV.

However, on the other hand, the PS4 is priced to sell! And a serious gaming machine...I'm not sure what will be better. I truly hope the market is large enough for both (hmmm, maybe 3...Nin deserves another chance). Because at the end of the day, us consumers win...competition is good.

Pretty much my thoughts as well, although I'm still stuck on the "What can the PS4 do that the One can't?" and we have already seen example after example of functionality provided by the One that can't be replicated on the PS4. The question is if those features are worth $100 premium, or if there will be clearly visual differences in third party games between the two systems.

After watching all four conferences, I feel the same way I did after watching the initial two. MS went into depth in their demos and showed a ton of stuff, while Sony pretty much "Won the Internetz" with GDDR5, No DRM and $399 price point. Outside of those announcements, both PS4 press conferences were rather horrific, IMO.

Sony certainly knows their audience. The only question is how large is that dedicated Sony audience? Is it 5 million or 50 million? It's going to be hard to move 100 million units if this console is designed solely for 5 million people who probably would have bought it any way.

 

[Arwin]

Obviously they have far lower investment costs than last time, so that's a huge benefit right there. And why do you think they are losing money on this? I'm not sure if they lose money even day one. Certainly that too is something I think they lost way more money on last time. So if they can have even similar sales now as for PS3, they look to have a very healthy profit in return.