PS Business Briefing 2006 March official info

[expletive]

If anyone needed a reason to know why this is such a big event, notice how the Playstation is in the minds of the casual fan and media. This is from an ESPN article on the WBC--totally unrelated to the market or yesterdays new:


http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/columns/story?columnist=neel_eric&id=2370525

I remember when Atari, and Nintendo after it, were equivalent to video games. "You wanna play some Nintendo?" We currently live in the PS era. Doesn't mean you need to be a fan of PS franchises or like the PS itself or that that status quo will never change, but coming to grips with the reality that Sony is the most important company in the console industry as of today is something people need to accept. (Mainly directed at the gent who was wondering why this thread went the way it did... chlorine + ammonia = ...)

When it comes to ESPN youre talking all PS becuase, as of now, playstation is pretty much "The Offical Console of Madden 2xxx". But yeah i agree with you on the pop-culture references. I think 'xbox' is making some traction in NA in this regard but the playstation brand is still the defacto standard. Now that Sony is starting to come out of its shell i think people will be reminded of that.

Incidentally, i think this was part of the reason why MS launched first and before last holiday season. Not only to have 6 months of sales to themselves but to have 6 months of 'mindshare' and buzz. Holiday buzz and news stories are the kinds of things that start to get the brand entrenched into society.

 

[GB123]

He must be old-school, from the nintendo days.

Man..I remember leaving Adventure Island on for weeks when I was a kid...

LOL yea its unwise to do so with the 360, unless you want to come back to burnt down home ..

Xbdestroya your name says it all, you may not see it as lies because you are overly optimistic in regards to anything sony say or do, almost all the post i see from you are optimistic towards Sony and pestimistic towards Microsoft. (the more you defend the PS3 the more transparent you become)

 

[Carl B]

No doubt that MS launched a year earlier due to the mindshare advantages they would enjoy by doing such, to say nothing of the increased installed base etc etc... But truly I think XBox's inroads into the American psyche are even being under stated here almost. Certainly I would expect someone to say these days "Let's play some XBox" as often - or perhaps more often - than they would say "let's play some Playstation." Plus I do believe it's managed to work itself into the minds of parents as being the iPod equivalent in the gaming world - the 'cool' system to have - so even beyond it's actual growth in the minds of American purchasers, you have this sort of 'meta' growth building around it where news outlets and such are more prone to refer to Microsoft and the XBox as *the* console should one need to be mentioned. Anchors will refer to their children and XBox, that sort of thing.

But Sony has made a mindshare comeback of late I feel, and it's almost like in the US the 360 drought has had some 'remembering' the PS2 as some of it's better, end of gen games start coming out. And obviously, the signs are in the air that PS3 will explode into people's minds later this year.

But Microsoft no doubt has done very well for itself on the brand recognition stage. I mean, anyone see that front page article I grabbed from the Post's website yesterday on that Pinata game? I don't know how strong MS' brand is in the rest of the world though. I guess 'so so' in Europe and 'whatever' in Japan. Personal regional insights required I suppose.

 

[Nick Laslett]

It's strange to see all the Sony 'fans' on the net absolutely elated and all the news sources basically painting the picture of *delay*. It's rare to see this sort of a disconnect in the way the story is perceived across the media and the readers.

I just wanted to add my intepretation.

Here in the UK the PS3 delay announcement made the primetime 6pm & 9pm BBC 1* and Radio 1 news bulletins.

*I heard the 6pm Radio news bulletin myself, I only have secondhand accounts for TV.

The Radio news report went something like this... "because of the highly sophisticated, technically advanced nature of the technology in the PS3, we have had to delay the launch of the console, whilst we ensure all this power is harnessed."

Sony's message being that the PS3 is so powerful and advanced compared to what is out there that it is taking them longer to get it ready than they thought. They could go with a less powerful solution but who wants that.

The report even ended by saying that the competing MS Xbox360 launched last Christmas.

For me they were directly positioning the PS3 as a more powerful device and that was the reason for the delay.

I'm sure future PR will build on this theme. When the Xbox launched MS gave retailers a little card with a comparision of the Processor speeds and polygon thru put of the 3 consoles to have on display. I'm sure Sony will be repaying the favour this Christmas.

That was how I read the news in the UK.

 

[Carl B]

LOL yea its unwise to do so with the 360, unless you want to come back to burnt down home ..

Xbdestroya your name says it all, you may not see it as lies because you are overly optimistic in regards to anything sony say or do, almost all the post i see from you are optimistic towards Sony and pestimistic towards Microsoft. (the more you defend the PS3 the more transparent you become)

Uh huh.

Listen I think a lot of people are going to disagree with you on that frankly. And I'd like for you to point out a post of mine you disagree with based on the points made. As far as I know, you and I haven't even had a conversation with each other, so I find your randomly bringing up my name to be something of a... provocative move?

PS - Since I don't recall posting any 'pessimistic' posts with regard to Microsoft of late, but several positive ones, I'd like you to focus on my MS 'negativity' in particular if/when you respond.

 

[Nick Laslett]

I'd like to know how that high-res PS2 gaming works. There's some old games that could do with looking better.

The Blaze VGA Adaptor device which includes a piece of software and a VGA connector for the PS2 AV Multi Out, can forces +60% of PS2 games to run in prog scan.

This is not a perfect solution, but it does indicate that it is not beyond the realms of probability that the PS3 will be able to do this.

I don't think Blaze had any special knowledge to achieve this.

Games like MGS3, MGS2, ZOE2, Silent Hill 3, Timesplitters 2 & 3, NBA Street v3 all use the full height frame buffer.

I know that 480p is not high res, but it is an improvement on 480i.

 

[Titanio]

I have a hard time believing $399 w/o a HDD. I am thinking more along
the lines of $549 w/ a HDD.

Ding ding. $549 with the HDD is my own guess also. I see lots of people on a couple of different boards stretching to $449 or even $399 WITH the HDD, and it's just crazy. I'm personally putting aside €600 for the hardware, just in case.

In a nutshell, by not launching in early 2006, at least in Japan, production wise I have a hard time seeing Sony passing MS in 2007. This means more MS support. This ain't good for Sony (who will end up being the market leader at the end of this generation).

Yeah, the delay does..delay..the crossover point when Sony overtakes - it'll prob happen early/mid 2008. But that isn't really end of the generation, it's barely mid cycle, as I imagine Sony will define this generation as one extending perhaps to 2011/2012, even.

The Radio news report went something like this... "because of the highly sophisticated, technically advanced nature of the technology in the PS3, we have had to delay the launch of the console, whilst we ensure all this power is harnessed."

Ha, it was almost the exact same in a local Irish news bulletin here. I can't remember the last time the Irish media reported on something like this, but as this one went, they talked about the delay being required to "perfect" the state-of-the-art technology going into the system. But then, Ireland is ridiculously Playstation-centric.

 

[wco81]

Would people wait another year if it meant a newer GPU, more refined components like the Blu-Ray drive and overall system better suited to 1080p output?

Yes Sony can't afford to wait, especially to launch Blu-Ray.

 

[GB123]

Uh huh.

Listen I think a lot of people are going to disagree with you on that frankly. And I'd like for you to point out a post of mine you disagree with based on the points made. As far as I know, you and I haven't even had a conversation with each other, so I find your randomly bringing up my name to be something of a... provocative move?

PS - Since I don't recall posting any 'pessimistic' posts with regard to Microsoft of late, but several positive ones, I'd like you to focus on my MS 'negativity' in particular if/when you respond.

Regardless of whether we have had a conversation or not changes little, I have seen you post on this forum and i have seen a pattern in what you say.

I was simply pointing out that you crusify others for believing in something that you don't feel the same about.

If someone wants to believe that Sony is lying to its consumers then that is their choice i don't think it's for you to defend Sony on that.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Ha, it was almost the exact same in a local Irish news bulletin here.

It made it into Newsround, the kids news program on BBC, too. They didn't give reasons; just mentioned PS3 was delayed until November.

In contrast I remember the weekend of XB360's release in the UK an XB360 was being given away as a prixe for a Saturday morning programme, just called a Games Console with no to-do.

The PS brand really does command the mindshare at the moment, and at a time when gaming is becoming 'more mainstream' with louder media coverage, it's becoming harder for anyone to usurp IMO. I think it'd take a screw up by Sony (or rather several) to lose out. I don't think anyone can outcompete them the way things are. Though I rate Revolution something of a dark horse as it's very unknown what the response to that will be.

 

[Carl B]

Regardless of whether we have had a conversation or not changes little, I have seen you post on this forum and i have seen a pattern in what you say.

I was simply pointing out that you crusify others for believing in something that you don't feel the same about.

If someone wants to believe that Sony is lying to its consumers then that is their choice i don't think it's for you to defend Sony on that.

GB123 you'll notice I only say something about the 'lying' topic, for example, when it's like the third time the same people (each!) have said the same thing in the same thread *and* in addition it's totally tangental to the topic at hand. Do you think I care if someone thinks that Kutaragi lies? No. I do not. But I do care when every third post in the thread is someone saying:

"How can anyone believe this crap that comes out of Sony's mouth!"

...when there is a perfectly legitimate conversation going on in spite of those comments at the time. Those posts are not in response to anything, they are not even looking for a response. At their root, they are trolling, but hey I think everyone's entitled to an opinion. But to keep posting and posting them, simply to make sure people 'get it,' I mean yes... I have a problem with that.

 

[ROG27]

Regardless of whether we have had a conversation or not changes little, I have seen you post on this forum and i have seen a pattern in what you say.

I was simply pointing out that you crusify others for believing in something that you don't feel the same about.

If someone wants to believe that Sony is lying to its consumers then that is their choice i don't think it's for you to defend Sony on that.

xbdestroya is very moderate, well-thought-out poster...but when people cry bloody murder over a console...I can't see why pointing out the hyperbole there (because, quite frankly, all the whining is annoying) is a bad thing. I personally don't care for MS's business practices but i try to stray away from ragging on them for all the 'supposed' wrongs they've done. You need to make the distinction between motives and what a company does to protect itself. All companies hedge their own claims through PR...that is one of the main functions of PR...to make the company and it's products appear attractive as possible and to deal with bumps in the road as they may come along.

 

[Edge]

A side effect of this (one I already think took hold) is more cross platform titles. Lets assume MS hits their 10-12M units in their time frame and Sony likewise avoids all production issues and hits 6M by the end of fiscal 2006. Unless Sony can really crank up the 1M a month (I would think it would crank up after the 65nm chips came online in late 2007) we can guess about 15M PS3 units come the end of 2007 if everything goes really well. The 360, again relying on the company estimates, should have a few more than that.

I strongly disagree with your estimates. Microsoft sales in Japan are NIL, and PS3 will sell like hot cakes in that market. That's a significant difference right there.

Europe is Sony land, and that not's going to change.

If 360's February sales are any indication, after feeding the initial hardcore, sales are softening.

Remember MS sales estimates where based on reasonable sales in Japan, and not the pathetic number they are getting now. I doubt they will meet their June estimates, especially if February numbers continue for North America.

 

[scooby_dooby]

I strongly disagree with your estimates. Microsoft sales in Japan are NIL, and PS3 will sell like hot cakes in that market. That's a significant difference right there.

Europe is Sony land, and that not's going to change.

If 360's February sales are any indication, after feeding the initial hardcore, sales are softening.

Remember MS sales estimates where based on reasonable sales in Japan, and not the pathetic number they are getting now. I doubt they will meet their June estimates, especially if February numbers continue for North America.

In Acert's estimation Sony is supply limted at 1million/month for the entire year! So whether japan take 6million, or europe is 'sony land' is irrelevent, he's saying they sell every single console they can make.

And taking February's #'s as a sign of declining DEMAND? wow.... Do you really think demand in the US is drying up with <1million consoles sold there? What it is, is a sign of MS's continued inability to meet demand, not that demand is declining.

They remain on track for 4.5-5.5 million for june, meaning 170k/month in the US can not be representative of sales over the next few months. "We’re still well on track to have between 4.5 and 5.5 million Xbox 360s out there by June and we’ll be in full supply very, very shortly." - Shane Kim as of yesterday

 

[Edge]

I was simply pointing out that you crusify others for believing in something that you don't feel the same about.

If someone wants to believe that Sony is lying to its consumers then that is their choice i don't think it's for you to defend Sony on that.

You must be talking about a different person. xbdestroya is one of the most reasonable level headed people around here.

 

[Edge]

And taking February's #'s as a sign of declining DEMAND? wow.... Do you really think demand in the US is drying up with <1million consoles sold there? What it is is a sign of MS's continued inability to meet demand, not that demand is declining.

Cannot meet demand? Xbox 360's are plentiful here.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Cannot meet demand? Xbox 360's are plentiful here.

What world are you living in? Most ebgames and gamestops STILL have preorders from last year...

 

[GB123]

Europe is Sony land, and that not's going to change.

I don't paticularly agree with that, i do agree Sony has a larger share of europe but things can change.

You are correct about Japan but i can't help but feel that Sony have sold their Japanese consumers out a little, PS3 shortages in Japan will make US 360 shortages look like nothing in comparison.

My prediction for the cost would be $400 w/o HDD and $500 with.

If anything has told me about PS launches is the launch software is generally bad, I think the best thing to look forward to is Tekken 5.5/6.

If Warhawk and I-8 - resistance can make launch it may seem like a different story, I doubt i will get a PS3 until MGS4 or FF13 show up on the system.

 

[drpepper]

Cannot meet demand? Xbox 360's are plentiful here.

That's true, FutureShop here has a couple of Cores lying around (although not plentifull at least they're available, Futureshop online also has consoles available). I think it has come to a point where you can walk in a major retailer and expect 1 or 2 systems available. Haven't checked Walmart, I dont shop there for other reasons...

 

[Titanio]

What world are you living in? Most ebgames and gamestops STILL have preorders from last year...

Possibly Europe. I've seen 360s available for purchase on shelves locally for a couple of months now. Though that wouldn't make the response very relevant to commentary on the US, as I know see