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

Gaming is not the same as TV. I'm not a fan of the Netflix correllations. If anything the Netflix model would need to be adjusted in the same way Audible does.

Gaming in a Netflix way does not work for me at all.

They'd be best to adapt in a way that works for gaming rather than trying to get a square peg in a circular hole.
 
Adjusted how? You buy service, you download game, you play game. When done goto beginning & start routine again on a different game. Other than the "buy service" it's not much different, just replace with "buy game".

Tommy McClain
 
AzBat said:
Adjusted how? You buy service, you download game, you play game. When done goto beginning & start routine again on a different game. Other than the "buy service" it's not much different, just replace with "buy game".

Tommy McClain
Click to expand...

The Audible system doesn't give access to all audiobooks, you pay a monthly fee and choose *any* audiobook you want. And you can keep it after you drop the subscription.

You'd get less games, but you'd have the ones you actually want rather than those mandated to you. ;)

I personally would prefer a service like that.
 
London-boy said:
"PS5 shipments may reach at least 120 million units in next 5 years"
That's quite optimistic from Sony's side.
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This does seem kind of nuts given PS4 is around 110m after almost seven years. What do Sony know/think that we don't that could explain this confidence? Perhaps PS5 will cost reduce better and faster? Perhaps they're already planning for 5nm, cheaper solid state and GDDR6. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
DSoup said:
This does seem kind of nuts given PS4 is around 110m after almost seven years. What do Sony know/think that we don't that could explain this confidence? Perhaps PS5 will cost reduce better and faster? Perhaps they're already planning for 5nm, cheaper solid state and GDDR6. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...

If true it has to be price. I can't imagine anything else that would make them feel so bullish about it.

Maybe because it doesn't have a mechanical HDD they feel that price is going to drop much more and they will cost reduce much better?
 
chris1515 said:
Very logic for the moment Gamepass is not a moneymaker.
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This does not come as any kind of surprise to me. The analyst hubris about this being ok because Microsoft have reserves of cash is a bit mad, that's not how publicly traded companies work because individual business units are expected to be profitable and you don't burn cash just to be popular without a plan to turn your fortunes around. Look at Sony's dark times where they ruthlessly canned long-established but unprofitable businesses like Vaio.

I'm not saying Microsoft will can Xbox, I'm saying they have a plan to turn it around. We'll have to wait and see what that is.
 
DSoup said:
This does seem kind of nuts given PS4 is around 110m after almost seven years. What do Sony know/think that we don't that could explain this confidence? Perhaps PS5 will cost reduce better and faster? Perhaps they're already planning for 5nm, cheaper solid state and GDDR6. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...

Confirmed PS5 launches at £299 + bag of chips and a Fanta included. Pre-order reinstated!!!!!!
 
DSoup said:
This does not come as any kind of surprise to me. The analyst hubris about this being ok because Microsoft have reserves of cash is a bit mad, that's not how publicly traded companies work because individual business units are expected to be profitable and you don't burn cash just to be popular without a plan to turn your fortunes around. Look at Sony's dark times where they ruthlessly canned long-established but unprofitable businesses like Vaio.

I'm not saying Microsoft will can Xbox, I'm saying they have a plan to turn it around. We'll have to wait and see what that is.
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So 1) The interview doesn't say anything about MS loosing money on the project only that they are investing in it now.

2) The long term plan is for the service to grow to be as large in subscribers as xbox live gold .

MS has a plan to increase profits. Its more subscribers by making the service available on more devices. That starts later this year with xcloud. the more content / value / platforms the more money MS will make.

The other day we listened to a presentation about how Microsoft's cloud services started as a little rogue project called red cloud which made no money in 2008

Three Months Ended June 30, 2020
Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP) Constant Currency Impact Percentage Change Y/Y Constant Currency
Office Commercial products and cloud services 5% 2% 7%
Office 365 Commercial 19% 3% 22%
Office Consumer products and cloud services 6% 1% 7%
LinkedIn 10% 1% 11%
Dynamics products and cloud services 13% 2% 15%
Dynamics 365 38% 2% 40%
Server products and cloud services 19% 2% 21%
Azure 47% 3% 50%
Enterprise Services 0% 2% 2%
Windows OEM 7% 0% 7%
Windows Commercial products and cloud services 9% 2% 11%
Xbox content and services 65% 3% 68%
Surface 28% 2% 30%
Search advertising excluding traffic acquisition costs (18)% 1% (17)%
Click to expand...

Now look at how big cloud is for MS .

Sometimes it takes an investment to make huge profits down the line
 
London-boy said:
"PS5 shipments may reach at least 120 million units in next 5 years"

https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20200727PD211.html

That's quite optimistic from Sony's side.
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The article says the estimate is 120 to 170 million in 5 years. It's 24M to 34M per year which is insane. PS4 was like 18M/year on average?

It's not exactly from Sony it's a leak from the "supply side". So a supplier got long a term contracts allowing them to guess the ps5 production, but it could also include cloud nodes I suppose.

Hey, maybe it's 60 to 85 million in 5 years because the supplier in question is samsung and sony just went with 32GB without telling anyone because why not.
 
Heh, maybe they plan a 1.65 sku a year or two later, and that would skew the number of chips ordered over 5 years.

But that would be just higher capacity chips, so that doesn't really add up either.
 
MrFox said:
Heh, maybe they plan a 1.65 sku a year or two later, and that would skew the number of chips ordered over 5 years.

But that would be just higher capacity chips, so that doesn't really add up either.
Click to expand...

Makes sense if Sony is going to be selling additional drives at launch to match the speed they need.
 
eastmen said:
So 1) The interview doesn't say anything about MS loosing money on the project only that they are investing in it now.
Click to expand...

The interview doesn't say they are making money either! It doesn't say a lot but heavily implies money is a bit of problem. The following is an actual quote by Xbox marketing exec, Aaron Greenberg, who talks like Xbox is on life-support but stable.

Aaron Greenberg said:
"Microsoft is going to be alright. We're gonna make it--I think we're gonna be OK."
Click to expand...

:oops:

MrFox said:
The article says the estimate is 120 to 170 million in 5 years. It's 24M to 34M per year which is insane. PS4 was like 18M/year on average?
Click to expand...
Somebody needs to check the carbon monoxide detector in Sony's offices. I don't think they're getting enough oxygen. :nope:
 
MrFox said:
They're not, it's a standard M2 slot.
Click to expand...

The physical form of it does not prevent Sony from making their own branded or cobranded expansion drives, especially if they want some to meet potential market demand, and I have not seen a definitive statement from Sony saying they wont make or comake expansion storage.
 
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