It's not lost money, it's just money that won't be spent til next year now. But it goes to show that SCEE seemed to be completely in the dark about this until very recently. Gotta feel sorry for them, since they seemed to be embracing the Nov release perhaps more enthusiastically than the other regions.
No European PS3 launch until March
- Thread starter MrWibble
- Start date
It's not lost money, it's just money that won't be spent til next year now. But it goes to show that SCEE seemed to be completely in the dark about this until very recently. Gotta feel sorry for them, since they seemed to be embracing the Nov release perhaps more enthusiastically than the other regions.
Mmm i was saying the opposite.
Because Sony sees the PS3 firstly as their way to make LOADS of money out of something they've already sold over and over again (movies) and secondly as a games machine, Bluray is the main issue here and Sony will make sure that PS3 gets the bulk of diodes straight away.
Think about it, which one would you put priority over:
1) Investing millions for each game made, spend money on marketing of each game, and spend money on the discs, mastering the discs and packaging and hope it sells well enough to make some profit. High cost, not guaranteed revenue: risky investment.
2) Burn lots of movies which you have already paid for years ago and already made huge profits at the box office, VHS, DVD and even bloody UMD, at a relatively small cost (just the cost of the discs, the mastering, plus packaging), all at an obviously inflated price. Very low cost, not guaranteed revenue, but it's all money they'd make out of a product (the movie itself) they have already sold and made a profit from over and over again: risky but at least you're spending less!
Really, if Sony weren't focussing all they have in making sure that Bluray succeeds through PS3, i'd be surprised. Think about it, why would they have merged with (cough*bought*cough) BMG and MGM? They own half of the movie industry! And that industry is bigger than the videogames market.
Sony is trying to do what MS is trying to do. They just come from different backgrounds and want different things (Sony wants control from the movie industry and MS wants total control from the PC industry), but the way to get there is the same: sell as many little shiny boxes (troyan horses) as possible to make sure that while you play those videogames things, you enjoy the companies' other products - Windows and PC media stuff on the Xbox360 and HD movies and all sorts of other stuff on the PS3.
Remember, these two consoles weren't made by gamers for gamers. One was made by a really big and really old electronics-turned-hollywood-owner company, and the other was made by a Software company.
Wow i'm getting good at this.
Of course. It's just that I wasn't aware of the size of the budget.
Sure looks like that.
Are you sure?
I begin to believe Sony should take a step back and look at what they are doing instead of continually "fixing" their original plan from 1 year ago. 500k Consoles at launch? Japan+US combined???
Until production will roll up nicely it will be way past 2007.
I`d really hope the later production (now shifted ~1 year for serious volume production from their original plan ) would allow them to fit an additionally 256MB in there. And then brag about how textures are better than other systems, even in Multiplatform titles...
But I guess Im just reaching for anything that could be taken as good news for Sony
Until production will roll up nicely it will be way past 2007.
I`d really hope the later production (now shifted ~1 year for serious volume production from their original plan ) would allow them to fit an additionally 256MB in there. And then brag about how textures are better than other systems, even in Multiplatform titles...
But I guess Im just reaching for anything that could be taken as good news for Sony
Last time i checked, the videogame industry was very quickly approaching, but it wasn't there yet. It's close, mind you. I think the rate of growth has slowed down, due to many factors really...
Video game industry counts console and accessories sales, game sales, rentals. You could argue that hardware should not be included.
Movie industry counts box office income. It does not include DVD, VHS and other formats' sales, licence fees for TV, rentals, and merchandising (just think how much Lucas made on tickets, and on toys/posters/clothing/toilet paper).
So it really depends on what you count... but if you include everything, Hollywood is waaay bigger.
Movie industry counts box office income. It does not include DVD, VHS and other formats' sales, licence fees for TV, rentals, and merchandising (just think how much Lucas made on tickets, and on toys/posters/clothing/toilet paper).
So it really depends on what you count... but if you include everything, Hollywood is waaay bigger.
Yep thats obviously whats going to happen
Oh and Scooby some people dont feel like they can afford a 360 AND a PS3.
And also not everyone cares about 360 games.
Seen how Sony IS making money out of all the bolded part, you can begin to understand why i think that the movie industry is more important to them (especially now that they have MGM) than the videogames industry.
Heck, they could even stop making movies for a while, spend NO money at all in productions, and start selling the thousands of movies they own on Bluray. If the format takes off the way they want it to, that is all pure profit!
With games, they don't have that luxury.
I'm not saying that they don't care about the videogames market, of course they do, however i just think that today (and a lot has happened since they released the PS1 and PS2, where it seemed that Sony's focus was tilting towards videogames) their main focus is the movie market.
If that were their original intention, why would Sony blow so much money on game development? Apparently $30 million has gone down on just L.A.Noire. Consider all the studio buy-ups and the commisions/publishing deals for exclusivity...there's big investment on the game side too, and I don't think it's an extra thought. I really think there's a mutual desire to cover all the entertainments and be the entertainment company, rather than just make lots of money from a sector. I think Sony know without the games, they won't make it as just a BluRay player.
It always makes me laugh with these comments from the games industry about it rivalling the movie industry. Nothing like! Some people need to get a realistic perspective.
I'd say most people!
Yep. I hate myself for loving japanese games so much, and loving certain franchises that are only on Playstation. Seriously, it would be so much easier if MS got off their asses, learnt some Japanese and convinced Square and Konami (among lots of others developers) to release their biggest games for 360!! Even then i'd lose some of the best games i've enjoyed on PS2 the last generation which are first-party...
As i said in my last post, I don't mean to say that Sony doesn't care about videogames, they obviously do, but i think that today the movie market is on a higher priority.
Think about it, they are trying to make a profit almost the same way MS has been making a profit in the last 20 years: software. Only this time it's all movies sold on Bluray. Same thing really. Spend very little on packaging for software (movies) you have only produced once but keep selling at a high price, on different formats. Logical huh...
So now we have two boxes to choose from, and at the back of our minds we will always have the thought that these shiny boxes full of fun stuff are actually in our living rooms because those two evil corporations are trying to get to our wallets and buy their software (windows or movies).
It's like giving kids sweets with LSD inside to get them hooked and eventually make money out of them off real LSD dealing! SAME THING! SONY AND MS ARE DRUG DEALERS!!!!111
I don't think it has got a higher priority. Well, it might amongst some of the ranks. But I think there's an ideology thing here, more than just a 'make the most money' thing. Sony could sit on BRDs and milk it for $wads (they'd still make lots of money selling all their software/movies on HDDVD too...), but then they're just a company selling stuff. I think they want to be associated with entertainment, in the same way Apple is with portable music players or Sony once-upon-a-time were with portable tape players. Ideally they want everyone to think 'I want to have some fun. That'll be watch a movie, play a game, chat with friends, catch some TV... I'll use a Sony!' At the moment Sony are just one of many companies to choose from, and even being the most profitable one of those isn't much of a consolation. I mean, look at MS who owns the OS world and makes stupid amounts of money. They're not happy to sit there. They want to be the numero uno content gateway controllers, and for people to have a MS powered home. Little companies want to be big companies, and big companies want to own the world. Just making lots of money isn't enough, and the planning and scheming goes beyond 'how to make more money', IMHO.
Bad news for sony european fans.
Anyway I guess that that 500k unit at launch is a very very bad news.
Actually, i understand Sony, they can't deliver, non choice for them with so few units.
But, Europe is a strong market for Sony, they open the door for MS this chrismass ok...
Anyway i think a very cheap Ps2 will do fine, for the WII i'm still waiting some real news..
there is still a very bad point the i'm sure that when the ps3 will launch in Europe MS will do its first price drop, the console will have been out for an year and a half after all.
More at this time there will be a lot of cheap good classic games for xbox360, with some very good game too come or launching forza etc... and more the hype for halo launch will start.
Tought for Sony if europe switch for ms...even if it 's still not done the probability grows...
Anyway I can't blame Sony for that, it's clear that they have no choice.
Something else I've read in a lot of forum that 6 millions PS3 units should be shipped not in march but between march and november 2007...What do you think about these rumors.
Anyway I guess that that 500k unit at launch is a very very bad news.
Actually, i understand Sony, they can't deliver, non choice for them with so few units.
But, Europe is a strong market for Sony, they open the door for MS this chrismass ok...
Anyway i think a very cheap Ps2 will do fine, for the WII i'm still waiting some real news..
there is still a very bad point the i'm sure that when the ps3 will launch in Europe MS will do its first price drop, the console will have been out for an year and a half after all.
More at this time there will be a lot of cheap good classic games for xbox360, with some very good game too come or launching forza etc... and more the hype for halo launch will start.
Tought for Sony if europe switch for ms...even if it 's still not done the probability grows...
Anyway I can't blame Sony for that, it's clear that they have no choice.
Something else I've read in a lot of forum that 6 millions PS3 units should be shipped not in march but between march and november 2007...What do you think about these rumors.
London-boy 1 - Rest of B3D 0
I think its a dangerous game for Sony to use their console market share as currency for a ticket to owning the home movie industry. HD optical media in general is by no means a sure thing and digital distribution becomes more viable with each passing day.
If there is going to be a blue diode shortage for a prolonged amount of time thats a huge blow for Sony and BR in general because it would seem that if both camps get equal allocations, the scarcity would prevent BR from taking an installed base lead.
For example, lets say theres 1million blue diodes available over the next 6 months and theyre split up between HD-DVD and BR. HD-DVD is fine with that because maybe they only figured on selling 500K players in that time span but BR was counting on selling Millions of PS3s in that same time frame. Thats a big blow for the whole BR camp as it neutralizes what they thought would be a lynchpin for however long this shortage lasts.
This is really bad news for Sony and i'm sure Nintendo and MS are pow-wowing as we speak to discuss ways to capitalize on this.
L-b i agree with gubbi, 50 million PS3s is a drop in the bucket, especially when a relevant % of those units will not generate the software consumption of what a stand alone player would.
I wonder if we'll get any indication on where the shortages are, at this point Sony would almost prefer it be cell yields because at least that doesnt hurt their overall strategy as much as the diodes would.
If there is going to be a blue diode shortage for a prolonged amount of time thats a huge blow for Sony and BR in general because it would seem that if both camps get equal allocations, the scarcity would prevent BR from taking an installed base lead.
For example, lets say theres 1million blue diodes available over the next 6 months and theyre split up between HD-DVD and BR. HD-DVD is fine with that because maybe they only figured on selling 500K players in that time span but BR was counting on selling Millions of PS3s in that same time frame. Thats a big blow for the whole BR camp as it neutralizes what they thought would be a lynchpin for however long this shortage lasts.
This is really bad news for Sony and i'm sure Nintendo and MS are pow-wowing as we speak to discuss ways to capitalize on this.
L-b i agree with gubbi, 50 million PS3s is a drop in the bucket, especially when a relevant % of those units will not generate the software consumption of what a stand alone player would.
I wonder if we'll get any indication on where the shortages are, at this point Sony would almost prefer it be cell yields because at least that doesnt hurt their overall strategy as much as the diodes would.
Oninotsume
Newcomer
You know it's a dissapointment, but if you think about it it'll pass.
They'll be good games all around on the 360, PS3, and Wii and you'll just whatever one has the games that interest you. It just feels upsetting now.
If you look on the bright side, they'll probably be a healthy selection of launch titles come next March, and you'll already know which ones to choose from. In the meantime you can play 360 or Wii.
But let me tell you despite what's come out beforehand once you see the PS3, I'm thinking anyone who likes games is gonna want one.
They'll be good games all around on the 360, PS3, and Wii and you'll just whatever one has the games that interest you. It just feels upsetting now.
If you look on the bright side, they'll probably be a healthy selection of launch titles come next March, and you'll already know which ones to choose from. In the meantime you can play 360 or Wii.
But let me tell you despite what's come out beforehand once you see the PS3, I'm thinking anyone who likes games is gonna want one.
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