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

ehh ;)
I wouldn't say TF are entirely marketing gimmicky like bits were.
Were bits ever a marketing gimmick? Anybody who thinks so should try to write an Elite clone using nothing more than 8-bit registers. Hell, try Tetris. When the biggest number you can manage in a cycle is 255 integer it makes you think about every number you need to manipulate and store. :yep2:
 
Were bits ever a marketing gimmick? Anybody who thinks so should try to write an Elite clone using nothing more than 8-bit registers. Hell, try Tetris. When the biggest number you can manage in a cycle is 255 integer it makes you think about every number you need to manipulate and store. :yep2:

There was the infamous Atari marketing of the Jaguar as a 64-bit machine.
 
At a certain points, bits, like TF, having more really made a difference.

Just like MHz, there came a certain point in time where it lost its value and usually that’s where I would call it a marketing gimmick.
 
I believe Scarlet will have a Base model of 12 TF 16gig ram ($399) along with a 15 TF 32 gig ram monster ($549) for the enthusiasts.

Im not seeing that happen, just 3TF more and the base model being targetted mostly, it wont be enough of a difference.

Not that I think Anthem is anything mind blowing tho

I think it looks amazing, more so then Sony AAA exclusives, linear games dont give me the same impression.

I'm pretty sure native coded next gen titles would easily smoke it graphically.

So will many other games releasing after 2020/21.

And how this generation's shitty CPU's have been worked around.

Worked around by limiting FPS to 30 or even dips below that?
 
I wouldn't say TF are entirely marketing gimmicky like bits were. At least TF is a measure of calculation power.
TF is probably closer to the MHz run

I was coming from more of a sensibility standpoint. Is average consumer going to notice a difference (let alone, care) between 10TF and 12TF? Looking from a purely historical perspective, probably not. Both are going to run the same games with minor differences, if any. Atari Jaguar games didn't look all that much better than Snes and Genesis games for example. Other outliers that kinda came between generations like the N64 and Dreamcast didn't set the world on fire despite having superior graphics capability to the older competition. Hardware has traditionally always been a distant partner to the software running on the system and a vast majority of consumers (and all software publishers) view the hardware as barriers to entry in order to play those games. That's why I feel TF, Bits, _HZ, etc just doesn't matter in the end because publishers want as many people to buy their software as possible and end users just want to pay enough to access that software.
 
I was coming from more of a sensibility standpoint. Is average consumer going to notice a difference (let alone, care) between 10TF and 12TF? Looking from a purely historical perspective, probably not. Both are going to run the same games with minor differences, if any. Atari Jaguar games didn't look all that much better than Snes and Genesis games for example. Other outliers that kinda came between generations like the N64 and Dreamcast didn't set the world on fire despite having superior graphics capability to the older competition. Hardware has traditionally always been a distant partner to the software running on the system and a vast majority of consumers (and all software publishers) view the hardware as barriers to entry in order to play those games. That's why I feel TF, Bits, _HZ, etc just doesn't matter in the end because publishers want as many people to buy their software as possible and end users just want to pay enough to access that software.

The average consumer gets the leftovers from what the hardcore demand. Do you think the average consumer cared about MS’s DRM policies, the power gap, or forced bundled Kinect? It was the enthusiasts that raised a stink and caused the reactions we saw.
 
ehh ;)
I wouldn't say TF are entirely marketing gimmicky like bits were. At least TF is a measure of calculation power.
TF is probably closer to the MHz run
Bit wars mattered up to the 32 bit era. The n64 may have been a lot stronger than Saturn/PlayStation but it wasn't because of 64 bits.

It's funny that Xbox had a 32 bit cpu :p
 
Yeah I have a hard time envisaging either Sony or MS launching at >$399, both bear the scars from prior attempts to shift the bubble (remember the 'so good you'll get a second job' comments? good times Sony, good times). I think we need to remember that the mass market doesn't know, or frankly care, what is possible, whatever gets launched will be the "new thing" and if the new thing is 50% more expensive than the time they bought the old thing they will stay away in droves. I've spent far too much of my life reading about economics not to understand that $399 today is worth a lot less than $399 6-8 years ago but most folks (quite reasonably) don't give a flying one and will simply tell little Johnny no (or tell themselves no with a sigh because they know Johnny is starting football next week and goddam how are kits for a 10 year old so expensive? etc etc).

I can't think of a feature that $200 more than the competition will enable that can blow away the $399 vs $599 argument. We're not dealing with a lot of money here and while the folks on this board can and will call out half res buffers, 2 x mip mapping, etc none of those are the kind of things that lend themselves to a 30 second tv spot or YT pre-roll (especially YT, god that video IQ is muck). The only thing that maybe qualifies is a nice bit of NVMe but it's hard to make a compelling ad from "wait 20s less per load" compared to "$399 vs $599", I can see a lot of folks deciding that their time isn't that valuable and those who do will simply fired an SSD in after the fact as they do today

Last time there was a $399 vs $599 gap between competing consoles, the manufacturer of the premium priced console lost billions to create price parity.

And a bunch of marketing was thrown our way telling us how 25-50 GB discs would allow for things a 7 GB disc couldn’t. Even Kojima and MGS got involved.
 
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Im not seeing that happen, just 3TF more and the base model being targetted mostly, it wont be enough of a difference.



I think it looks amazing, more so then Sony AAA exclusives, linear games dont give me the same impression.



So will many other games releasing after 2020/21.



Worked around by limiting FPS to 30 or even dips below that?
Er, some of the most amazing looking AAA Sony exclusives are in face open world games (Horizon ZD, In famous SS, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman, hell even Days Gone looks nuts)
And MS would do it if not simply for the bragging marketing right of having the most powerful console moniker, Phil is pretty well set on that direction. Sony might surprise us too but most likely will focus on other things tho.
 
Yes. We had the 16 bit Megadrive with 16 bits plastered across the top.

I took "marketing gimmick" to mean marketing was overselling the actual technical benefits. Otherwise, it's less a 'gimmick' and just marketing. :yep2:
 
Er, some of the most amazing looking AAA Sony exclusives are in face open world games (Horizon ZD, In famous SS, Ghost of Tsushima, Spiderman, hell even Days Gone looks nuts)
And MS would do it if not simply for the bragging marketing right of having the most powerful console moniker, Phil is pretty well set on that direction. Sony might surprise us too but most likely will focus on other things tho.

Was going to say this, I mean, Anthem looks great but not significantly better than your examples which are on significantly less powerful hardware.
 
Little Johnny asks Mum,

“hey Mum can you buy me the new playstation 5 for Xmas?”
“Don’t you already own a PlayStation? Which is still only a few years old” Replies Mum.
“Yes but this is the updated one, see the pics, new graphics”. He pleads.
Mum looks at the pics and says “l can’t tell the difference, what else does it do?”
“Ummmmmmmmm.......” was Johnny’s stumped reply.

Edit....This one is for shifty
 
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This is why marketing is so important, you want someone to buy something you gotta justify the price you’re asking..
Sales 101.

Edit auto spelling
 
Little Johnny asks Mum,

“hey Mum can you buy me the new playstation 5 for Xmas?”
“Don’t you already own a PlayStation? Which is still only a few years old” Replies Mum.
“Yes but this is the updated one, see the pics, new graphics”. He pleads.
Mum looks at the pics and says “l can’t tell the difference, what else does it do?”
“Ummmmmmmmm.......” was Johnny’s stumped reply.

Edit....This one is for shifty
I think that' s an irrelevant narrative. Firstly, if the consoles don't look any different, they won't sell. Duh. So obviously they'll look better. If the console companies can't make a console that's better enough, they'll just wait.

Secondly, it's the next iteration and so better. People are used to that, very much so in the console space and regards their phones etc. iPhone 6 was marginally better than iPhone 5 than iPhone 4 than iPhone 3. Did the same things. Didn't stop them selling because people thought they were already covered with their existing phone.

Third, Mum doesn't care what the pictures look like, probably never could tell the difference between generations anyway, doesn't care what else it can do (MS tried to get "Mums" involved with XB1 by marketing it on its non-gaming promises of TV and fitness, to zero success), and will buy Johnny's presents based on what he's asked for rather than an objective consideration of the functional value of the gift - hence so much pointless crap is sold to kids despite not doing anything. Marketing in that regard is about convincing Johnny that he wants the thing, and then Johnny goes on to convince his folks to buy it.

Fourth, I don't understand what argument this is in relation to. :???:
 
I think that' s an irrelevant narrative. Firstly, if the consoles don't look any different, they won't sell. Duh. So obviously they'll look better. If the console companies can't make a console that's better enough, they'll just wait.

Secondly, it's the next iteration and so better. People are used to that, very much so in the console space and regards their phones etc. iPhone 6 was marginally better than iPhone 5 than iPhone 4 than iPhone 3. Did the same things. Didn't stop them selling because people thought they were already covered with their existing phone.

Third, Mum doesn't care what the pictures look like, probably never could tell the difference between generations anyway, doesn't care what else it can do (MS tried to get "Mums" involved with XB1 by marketing it on its non-gaming promises of TV and fitness, to zero success), and will buy Johnny's presents based on what he's asked for rather than an objective consideration of the functional value of the gift - hence so much pointless crap is sold to kids despite not doing anything. Marketing in that regard is about convincing Johnny that he wants the thing, and then Johnny goes on to convince his folks to buy it.

Fourth, I don't understand what argument this is in relation to. :???:

Shifty it was more tongue and cheek.....
Your points taken on the phones but that’s a different market, - which is marketed differently.
 
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