Billy Idol
Legend
I need a new Killzone (target) trailer with Kaz stating it is real time to get hyped...
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DuckThor Evil
Legend
Well I think they can at least reuse the Motorstorm footage unchanged 
NPD: 326k Nov, 281k Dec 2005 for the 360.
Global launch matters because people want the opportunity even if there are shortages. Obviously they'd want to do a better job getting product to consumers than the 360.
What difference does it make if your sales are all one region or worldwide? Would XB360 have done better if those European launch consoles had been saved for NA instead? Worldwide launch costs more and is more hassle, so I understand why it doesn't happen, but it does still pee off the Europeans.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Additionally that gives Microsoft an opportunity to hit the market first in Europe if it wishes to. I think it's going to all come down to how many consoles can be produced by Sony. If they could produce enough you'd think they would want to hit Europe at least as much as the US. Then again this isn't to say that Microsoft can make enough consoles for a worldwide launch by holiday 2013 either.
Basically it's always tougher to launch in Europe. Japan they have to launch there first as it's the home country. The US makes sense as it's the largest single contiguous market in the world at the moment for consoles. China would be under consideration but as far as I'm aware consoles still have to be sold "under the table" there as they aren't government approved.
That kind of leaves Europe as the last market that you'd want to enter for a large scale electronics launch due to the fragmented nature of the market there. On the flip side though, that fragmented nature also makes it easier to launch smaller niche products that can be targeted towards certain countries. And hence Europe gets many products that you can't get in the US.
Regards,
SB
Basically it's always tougher to launch in Europe. Japan they have to launch there first as it's the home country. The US makes sense as it's the largest single contiguous market in the world at the moment for consoles. China would be under consideration but as far as I'm aware consoles still have to be sold "under the table" there as they aren't government approved.
That kind of leaves Europe as the last market that you'd want to enter for a large scale electronics launch due to the fragmented nature of the market there. On the flip side though, that fragmented nature also makes it easier to launch smaller niche products that can be targeted towards certain countries. And hence Europe gets many products that you can't get in the US.
Regards,
SB
Europe gets all the best cheeses and cured meats. Waiting a few extra months for PS4 is the least they can do.
...and better welfare + _real_ food.
There is a million reasons why the Console market is where it is now, maybe it's me. But i i really fail to see where the Mobile Phone games compete with console games. It's like 2 different worlds, Mobile games compete with Facebook games, PSP/VITA/DS except they have incredible shitty controls for anything that isn't developed 100% with touch screen in mind. And that limits the genres.
Add to this old and busted consoles that had to live 4-5 years through a financial crisis while the Wii took the air and a good chunk of sales when everything was "good".
Peter Moore talking about WW launch in 2005.
I can't remember who said that they wouldn't try a WW launch again, but if anyone knows and can link, it'd be a good reference.
I can't remember who said that they wouldn't try a WW launch again, but if anyone knows and can link, it'd be a good reference.
They will pursue this strategy unless they believe it will hurt their sales potential in the region. Should this rumor prove to be true, they clearly don't think it will.
Not always. MS took on the challenge of a WW launch last gen. It'll be interesting to see if they choose to follow that strategy again as it will be an indication of whether they believe the EU market responds positively when an effort is made to give them equivalent service despite the difficulty involved. If not, then they will delay too since it's "too hard".
upnorthsox
Veteran
From that article:
So basicly they tried a JIT distribution at launch which failed badly. Luckily for them they were launching unapposed, a luxury neither will have this time.
A JIT distribution does work though, eventually, so what's needed is a bigger initial launch cache. IMO to feed a WW launch, there'd need to be double the 3 mil MS tried with the 360. With a production capacity of 1 million per month, to build up the requisite cache would be 6+1 months or a production start of May for a November launch. If you wanted to supply each of the 3 regions an additional 1 mil units in 30 days after launch, you'd need an additonal 2 months or a production start of March. That's next month!!
So basicly they tried a JIT distribution at launch which failed badly. Luckily for them they were launching unapposed, a luxury neither will have this time.
A JIT distribution does work though, eventually, so what's needed is a bigger initial launch cache. IMO to feed a WW launch, there'd need to be double the 3 mil MS tried with the 360. With a production capacity of 1 million per month, to build up the requisite cache would be 6+1 months or a production start of May for a November launch. If you wanted to supply each of the 3 regions an additional 1 mil units in 30 days after launch, you'd need an additonal 2 months or a production start of March. That's next month!!
You need to account for two other things if you want to use the 360 numbers as a baseline. First, MS ridiculously over-estimated the demand they were going to be able to create in Japan and ended up shipping a lot of units to Japan that ended up just sitting on shelves. Ideally, you want to balance your shipments in such a way so that if your going to be supply limited, you are supply limited everywhere. And secondly, manufacturing problems caused by the switch to lead-free solder (and the failure of MS's engineers to account for it in their design) probably caused them to miss their production targets, both for the initial run and for the subsequent re-supply runs.
Yeah, it's pretty simple maths. There's a %age demand per unit of population in a region. Let's say it's uniform (which is isn't) and for any territory, there's 1% who'd be happy to buy your console at launch and 0.1% who'll buy per month after. That means 3 million in NA, 3 million in EU, and 1 million Japan for launch day, and 300k a month in NA, EU, and 100k in Japan. To launch worldwide needs 7 million in warehouses and a production amount of 700k pm. If you are making 700k pm, that's 10 months of stockpiling required!
MS and Sony will have looked at the numbers and decided whether the returns are worth the investment in delays or limited stock. I think launching close to a rival means a safe wait-and-see approach from consumers, so missing Christmas for Sony while MS have Durango on shelves in Europe probably won't be a massive loss. There's only a small contingent of peeps who'll be in the market for 'a next-gen console' at Christmas and not care which, and buy whatever's available. I might be completely wrong on that.
There is of course ill feeling, but that rarely affects buying habits. People grumble, whinge, and buy it anyway, no matter what. I don't think people boycott late releasing games and hardware in the EU just because it's late. There's certainly no market force in operation that is making sure the EU gets ahrdware at the same time.
Well, today I have a different opinion than I had in the past. Today I feel we deserve the delay. As long as we fail to offer companies EU-wide regulations to deal with and force companies lots of different requirements per country instead, world-wide launches will always remain an issue.
Yeah, there is that. I do also see the positives of beta-tested devices launching in working order here, so a few months wait isn't always a bad thing. The flip side is we can get some devices like TVs 6+ months after the US, which is stinky. And with the internet, people feel global even if states don't feel that way, so...Bulgarians seeing...Germans getting software and devices they don't is going to pee them off as being unfair, which it is even if justified.
upnorthsox
Veteran
The Japanese market situation for MS is exclusive for them and is thus not a baseline issue. Everyone adjusts their regional distribution to their own expectations for those regions. My point, and my opinion, was that MS initially undersupplied the market as a whole by about half and that in retrospect would be something to avoid doing again.
Not sure manufacturing problems were an issue per se, that article was from before launch and they mentioned no such issues. What they did indicate was the JIT distribution and that they were aware this could cause shortages initially. That said, manufacturing issues could be a problem again as 28nm capacity is limited. That's another good reason to start production early.
The downside to early production is carrying the cost of that inventory that isn't selling. That's something MS could certainly handle better than Sony.
upnorthsox
Veteran
Yeah, it's pretty simple maths. There's a %age demand per unit of population in a region. Let's say it's uniform (which is isn't) and for any territory, there's 1% who'd be happy to buy your console at launch and 0.1% who'll buy per month after. That means 3 million in NA, 3 million in EU, and 1 million Japan for launch day, and 300k a month in NA, EU, and 100k in Japan. To launch worldwide needs 7 million in warehouses and a production amount of 700k pm. If you are making 700k pm, that's 10 months of stockpiling required!
MS and Sony will have looked at the numbers and decided whether the returns are worth the investment in delays or limited stock. I think launching close to a rival means a safe wait-and-see approach from consumers, so missing Christmas for Sony while MS have Durango on shelves in Europe probably won't be a massive loss. There's only a small contingent of peeps who'll be in the market for 'a next-gen console' at Christmas and not care which, and buy whatever's available. I might be completely wrong on that.
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Alot of those first adoptors will be buying both but the second may only be "eventually" and thus their primary system will be determined. If their first choice is unavailable do to shortages then you've forced their hand so to speak.
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