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

[dobwal]

Anecdotal in nature but...

My son asked me if I heard of "Grounded" this weekend. I answered I had heard of the title and it was a good game. He said he was playing it with his friends so I inquired about Game Pass since it being heavily discussed here. He told me while he doesn't go around surveying his friends about Game Pass (LOL), he knew a lot of Xbox friends who have the service. He couldn't give me an exact count but his "top five" who regularly groups together to play are all subscribers and search for and play Game Pass titles together all the time.

He told me most of his top five had the service before we got it and that most of his friends subscribed because other friends encouraged them to get the service because of all the titles and the ability to play them together as a group.

So in my son's case, Game Pass is spreading through his friends' list by mostly word of mouth.

 

[eastmen]

Anecdotal in nature but...

My son asked me if I heard of "Grounded" this weekend. I answered I had heard of the title and it was a good game. He said he was playing it with his friends so I inquired about Game Pass since it being heavily discussed here. He told me while he doesn't go around surveying his friends about Game Pass (LOL), he knew a lot of Xbox friends who have the service. He couldn't give me an exact count but his "top five" who regularly groups together to play are all subscribers and search for and play Game Pass titles together all the time.

He told me most of his top five had the service before we got it and that most of his friends subscribed because other friends encouraged them to get the service because of all the titles and the ability to play them together as a group.

So in my son's case, Game Pass is spreading through his friends' list by mostly word of mouth.

this is what's been going on with my nephew and my cousins kids. I got my cousin's kid the subscription for his birthday and then my nephew wanted it. Now all the kids are playing on it. Its a low price for the kids to have a constant stream of diffrent titles to play

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The same thing happened with my younger son (23) and his friends. After GTA left the service they all bought it as well. I'm deep into Witcher 3 right now as until COVID-19 I was probably only gaming about an hour a week and never got around to it until now. If I don't finish it before it leaves the service I'll for sure buy it to finish it.

 

[PSman1700]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...7FojHyPH-NlN1tDV_tRVE8I2cL2fJ0vrv3uls7zUn3wGw

''Microsoft details Xbox's "faster, safer and easier" store redesign''

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yeah the problem with new controller "features" at this point is getting developers to support it. I blame Nintendo somewhat, they take everything to extreme and it ends up being seen as a gimmick. Motion controls in a limited form are not gimmicky and can improve the experience...ie gyro aiming.

Gyro-aiming is the best A few games also did gyro flight controls well. We have four DS4 controllers, three we use with the PS4 and one exclusively with the PC) so I guess we're bundling two of those when we sell the PS4 Pro.

Half of me isn't thrilled at DS4 not being supported for PS5 games but the other half knows that unless developers can rely on DualSense control features being 100% standard for PS5, the chances of enhanced controller features being utilised drops massively. Plenty of third party devs barely use DS4's touchpad, you feel euphoric if pressing it does anything at all. Ubisoft are one of the few publishers who do make an effort.

 

[London Geezer]

The fake outrage over the DS4/DualSense thing is, as always, mostly in its own little Twitter/forums bubble and mostly from people who don't even care to buy a PS5.

It's a new controller, with new features, for new games, on a new console. The end.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1290605400644034568

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Not next-gen but shows how strong Sony still is.

Sony is reporting that PS Plus subscription numbers have risen to 45 million, while the increase in PS Now users is also "significant." 45 million is a big increase from the 41.5 million figure reported in May, which suggests that a lot of players stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic are playing online (or taking advantage of free games).

PS4 sales previously stood at 110.4 million, meaning that the PS4 has now sold 112.3 million units. Looking at the all-time console sales charts, the system stands a good chance of overtaking the Game Boy/Game Boy Color (118.69 million) to become the third-best-selling console of all time.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-tops-112-million-units-sold-ps-plus-subs-and-d/1100-6480512/

1.9 million PS4's sold in two months. Impressive for so late in the consoles life.

 

[PSman1700]

Today i noticed the first appearance of 'PS5 marketing' in my area (non internet), in a local supermarket, theres a contest where there will be given away 10 playstation 5's. You have to buy a certain product and enter on their website.

 

[Frenetic Pony]

PS5 currently expected to outsell Series X by 30%+ at launch, currently projected by firm to outsell it two to one or higher over several years: https://wccftech.com/ps5-expected-to-significantly-outperform-xbox-series-x-says-dfc-intelligence/

Microsoft's current strategy of "Gee, what if we gave our console a name confusingly similar to our old console, gave it no exclusives whatsoever for years, and then held several high profile conferences where we show a sum total of 1 underwhelming game actually being played for 8 minutes" sure is paying off.

 

[PSman1700]

PS5 currently expected to outsell Series X by 30%+ at launch, currently projected by firm to outsell it two to one or higher over several years: https://wccftech.com/ps5-expected-to-significantly-outperform-xbox-series-x-says-dfc-intelligence/

Microsoft's current strategy of "Gee, what if we gave our console a name confusingly similar to our old console, gave it no exclusives whatsoever for years, and then held several high profile conferences where we show a sum total of 1 underwhelming game actually being played for 8 minutes" sure is paying off.

Seems conservative, in sweden and probably the rest of EU it will be much more then 30%, more like 85% according to surveys awhile ago.
To extend on my previous post here, according to the contest, the PS5 is here in the autumn, while i thought it would be the holidays?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

PS5 currently expected to outsell Series X by 30%+ at launch, currently projected by firm to outsell it two to one or higher over several years: https://wccftech.com/ps5-expected-to-significantly-outperform-xbox-series-x-says-dfc-intelligence/

Things can change quickly. I feel like we've not really seen Microsoft's actual launch marketing campaign yet and we won't until Lockhart is announced and all the the pieces fit into place.

That said, they do have to be careful with their PR. Pushing Series X's performance advantage over PS5 could undermine the appeal of Lockhart. And while xCloud can skirt that - if you're in one of the 22 launch countries - promising the power of the cloud a second time as a solution of lack of teraflops could open an awkward déjà vu conversation.

I think we'll see better market from Microsoft and Sony once prices and launch dates are known.

 

[Jay]

Things can change quickly. I feel like we've not really seen Microsoft's actual launch marketing campaign yet and we won't until Lockhart is announced and all the the pieces fit into place.

That said, they do have to be careful with their PR. Pushing Series X's performance advantage over PS5 could undermine the appeal of Lockhart. And while xCloud can skirt that - if you're in one of the 22 launch countries - promising the power of the cloud a second time as a solution of lack of teraflops could open an awkward déjà vu conversation.

I think we'll see better market from Microsoft and Sony once prices and launch dates are known.

The only way pushing xsx power narrative would undermine their marketing strategy is if they aren't able to demonstrate it. Which they haven't been able to.

Their marketing push has started, may not include Lockhart so it may not include every aspect, but it has started and is in full flow.

Like most equipment it's the halo product that gets the most pr push.
It will be like the 1X and 1S, you hardly saw any marketing for 1S, it was just tacked onto the end of the 1X.

In the last few months they've bungled it enough to allow Sony to get decent momentum over them in both the corners of the internet and mainstream.

Not saying things can't change.

 

[PSman1700]

Marketing is one of the most important things, i'm only seeing Playstation 5 everywhere basically. MS should do like with the OG xbox in 2001, it was Xbox everywhere back then, and they showed off the extra hardware power too with Halo, panzer, DOA3 etc.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I really have not been reading any gaming sites or anything of the like for the last 2 months. The buzz around both of these boxes to the rest of the world at this moment in time is nothing. To suggest there is a lead in marketing at this point in time is basically meaningless.

When they start actually advertising a price and release date the rest of the population might start to care.

 

[iroboto]

The only way pushing xsx power narrative would undermine their marketing strategy is if they aren't able to demonstrate it. Which they haven't been able to.

This is more about multi platforms pushing that narrative for them. They have no known items in the pipe that can showcase its power today.

 

[Jay]

I really have not been reading any gaming sites or anything of the like for the last 2 months. The buzz around both of these boxes to the rest of the world at this moment in time is nothing. To suggest there is a lead in marketing at this point in time is basically meaningless.

When they start actually advertising a price and release date the rest of the population might start to care.

I don't need to read gaming sites, I watch the general news where even they are reporting it. For example BBC in UK.
So I'm taking even more mainstream than gaming sites.
You would really have to be ignoring any kind of news outlet to not at least to have got the impression that PS5 had grabbed an early lead in mindset.

That's not including the social media that I may not follow, but know its the same there also.

This is more about multi platforms pushing that narrative for them. They have no known items in the pipe that can showcase its power today.

They put themselves in that situation.
But regardless of that, it will be interesting if 3P shows any real difference or not.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

This is more about multi platforms pushing that narrative for them. They have no known items in the pipe that can showcase its power today.

They may to be able to rely on third parties like Assassin's Creed running better on Series X.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I don't need to read gaming sites, I watch the general news where even they are reporting it. For example BBC in UK.
So I'm taking even more mainstream than gaming sites.
You would really have to be ignoring any kind of news outlet to not at least to have got the impression that PS5 had grabbed an early lead in mindset.

That's not including the social media that I may not follow, but know its the same there also.
They put themselves in that situation.
But regardless of that, it will be interesting if 3P shows any real difference or not.

I watch and read a ton of news. I'm not seeing anything in gaming consoles penetrating mainstream news coverage right now. Even tech specific news is all pandemic focused right now

 

[Jay]

I watch and read a ton of news. I'm not seeing anything in gaming consoles penetrating mainstream news coverage right now. Even tech specific news is all pandemic focused right now

Like I said I've heard it on mainstream news at least twice i believe it was in the last couple weeks.

Even without that, the social media talk is also heavily in favor of PS5 at the moment. And that's a lot more important than it used to be.
It's just everywhere to be honest.

I'm not saying this can't change though, but it's an undeniable fact that PS5 is having a stronger showing at the moment. Even if you yourself haven't seen it personally.

It's going to be tall order to build up the momentum against PS5, but far from impossible. I don't hold out much hope for xbox marketing/pr but hope that they come through.

Another question would be when marketing, would people be more interested in possibly better looking game (if visable) or exclusive content?
I think it will be easier to market exclusivity.

Regarding social media this is where Lockhart will come into play, the indirect marketing and word of mouth.