PS3 in the US press...

[Platon]

Excuse me ? Here i remeber perfeclty that no one buyed the xbox at the ridicolous proce of 475 euros it fisrt came out....they had to reduce to 300 euros for making people buy the thing...now please tell me again price is not an issue becasue this is completly laugable...


And also i am not used for hi prices....the ps1 costed 150 euros with games begin 45 euros,
the ps2 costed 300 euros with games begin 55 euros, making the new cost standard fro console of 300 euros...the xbox camed out at 475 euros and no one buyed it so it was lowered to 300 euros and the it started to sell well...the xbox360 cost 399 but it is very cool and you can justify the 100 more euros for the premium version...but...600 friggin euros are out of the quesion because it double again the standard price...and like i said....the people always het the same monet from work...

The Ps2 when it arrived here in Sweden I think it had a price of around 450-500€ and it sold extremely well for a long time. That the xbox didn't sell at te same price well, had more to do with it being a totaly new player in the console field and none really knew it very well so putting that much money on something unknown was something only very few did, I should know I was one of them, while the 300€ price tag is of course even generaly speaking more affordable, but amostly the "risk" is not high then.

But we will see about the price, there for sure is a "big" market in that price range, the playstation has huge fanbase, so we will see how far that will take them. No doubt they will not sell 40 million PS3s at that price and I am not suggesting that either. It will depend a lot on how much the can lower the price and how fast...

 

[rabidrabbit]

I think the problem some people have with the system is that it's too laden with features. I hate these car analogies, but it's like going out and buying a car. All you want is to get from A-B (play games) and when you get to the dealership, you find that the only one they'll sell you is the top range model with all the extras. What good is CD Multichanger, or Sat-nav, or alloys, or screens in the headrests when you're driving alone and just need to get to work each day? There are plenty of people out there who love Sony franchises, and $300 may have been acceptable to them at the launch of the PS2 so they could get the latest Tekken. $500 could well be too much for these people if they're never planning to watch a movie, or download stuff, or browse the web, or view photos on there. Regardless of whether $500 is a good deal for what you're getting, it may not be a good deal for what you want and if all you want is to play MGS4 or GT5, then you're not getting a good deal at all.

Well, then the PS3 and xbox360 really do not compete for the same market, and shouldn't be compared just like a console shouldn't be compared with a PC even though you can play nice games on both of them.

 

[rabidrabbit]

I think some things need to be put in perspective. We have people saying that 200$ difference in entry level models doesn't make a difference, and at the same time people saying that the need to swap discs every 15hours is making a difference...

Low price may not create demand, but it surely drives it if any demand exists in the first place.

I agree on the demand - drive thing, but am a bit lost with the disc swapping thing
Both make a difference, but why the difference in features should be swept under the carpet, assuming the consumer doesn't care, or even that he even isn't aware of the difference?

Disc swapping isn't surely on top of the list of negative features that would keep one from buying a console, but that's not the only feature. Besides, the arguing about multi disc games in that thread is mainly because MS had said "DVD capacity is enough" while evidently it should have been "multiple DVDs are enough"

 

[Arwin]

supervegeta, you are wrong on so many things, I can only hope you're still pretty young.

The most important one probably is that the HDMI port is included on the 20gb version. This was first announced at TGS 2006.

Secondly, you really know pathetically little about your own country. But I will gladly take that to another thread if you like and prove that to you.

 

[Paul_G]

But they do compete for the same market. The market hasn't suddenly changed, and right now, MS is a lot closer to what we consider to be the games console market than Sony is, and i personally think it's going to hurt them

 

[Nesh]

Regardless of whether $500 is a good deal for what you're getting, it may not be a good deal for what you want and if all you want is to play MGS4 or GT5, then you're not getting a good deal at all.

Well personally certain PS3 games make me indifferent between choosing a 360 and a PS3 despite the price

It was a similar case between PS2 and a GC. GC was cheaper, was more powerful, it's major emphasis was the games but I ended up paying more than 200 worth of Euros for a PS2. It simply had the game franchises I wanted and could play DVDs

 

[Platon]

I see people debating the value of the PS3. There is nothing to debate, the value is great, I mean you are paying less than what it costs, so no doubt the value is great, as it is or the 360, that does not mean that it is not expensive. I mean I think a lot of the new flat screen TV have great value as well, but sne I don't have the 1500-2000€ euros they cost I can't get them...

 

[rabidrabbit]

But they do compete for the same market. The market hasn't suddenly changed, and right now, MS is a lot closer to what we consider to be the games console market than Sony is, and i personally think it's going to hurt them

They do share a common market, but I think the PS3 branches heavily to a different market too with the Blu-ray drive and media center capabilities.
The bias might currently be on the common market ground, but it's possible it could shift towards the expanded market the PS3 creates, and the xbox360 with the current SKU's doesn't look favorable there when the features are compared.

 

[Platon]

They do share a common market, but I think the PS3 branches heavily to a different market too with the Blu-ray drive and media center capabilities.

Why is PS3 concidered a media center kind of thing and not the 360? The one capability that the PS3 has over the 360 is BR playback, but you can if you want make the xbox360 an HD playback machine as well, by getting an HDDVD add on, heck now with downloaded movies and everything you don't even need that. On the contrary, with the 360 you can stream media from the PC, something you can't do with the PS3, that if anything, concidering how many people have most of their media on the PC, must be the ultimate media capability. Maybe I just don't know what a media center is...

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I agree on the demand - drive thing, but am a bit lost with the disc swapping thing
Both make a difference, but why the difference in features should be swept under the carpet, assuming the consumer doesn't care, or even that he even isn't aware of the difference?

Disc swapping isn't surely on top of the list of negative features that would keep one from buying a console, but that's not the only feature. Besides, the arguing about multi disc games in that thread is mainly because MS had said "DVD capacity is enough" while evidently it should have been "multiple DVDs are enough"

I don't want to swept the advantages of Blu-Ray under the carpet, I just think that the main advantage there are the movies and not the capacity for games as that can be worked around with multiple discs, but you can't watch Blu-Ray movies on X360. You can however watch HD DVD-movies if that's what you desire. The disc swapping is just something that I can't see as an issue, or atleast it's such a small issue that it's not worth mentioning. MS definately has it's own shares of issues though, the high failure rate of units being the major problem.

I don't remember whether MS meant that one DVD is enough, but it doesn't really matter as DVD is adequate in a way that multiple discs can be used.

The price and value thing naturally has everything to do with the proposed use of the machine. If one want's to mess around with Linux or watch Blu-Ray movies then the value is exceptional, but if it's only meant to play games then the value is questionable compared to X360. Of course it can still be good value, if the favourite franchises are there, but things certainly appear in a very different light depending on the purpose of the machine.

 

[Paul_G]

I suppose it's all going to come down to what the market does. I won't deny as Platon says; the PS3, for what it offers, is great value but value can only be measured by what you get from it. Lots of things in life, houses, cars, holidays, are great value is it still value when those extras doesn't matter to you?

Ultimately i think the direction the PS3 is going in, as a sort of all in one PC/Gaming device is the wrong way to go. I don't want to surf the net on my TV, i don't want to use Linux and i don't want Hi-Def movies, until i can buy a high definition TV for under £300 it will remain irrelevant to me. My gut feeling is there are plenty more people out there wanting to play videogames than there are people wanting, and are able, to watch HD movies. Until those people are the same, they aren't going to see that value in the system.

 

[rabidrabbit]

I disagree with you Paul_G about there being more people who like to just play videogames than watch HD media.
I think the videogames are facing a decline, but that's not based on any factual data, just a feeling.

 

[Paul_G]

I disagree with you Paul_G about there being more people who like to just play videogames than watch HD media.
I think the videogames are facing a decline, but that's not based on any factual data, just a feeling.

I think the growth in HD is a lot higher, and it may well not be very long before there are more people that watch HD content than play games. Just to qualify a bit more what i was saying, i meant that there are more people who like just gaming than people who like both. If someone was just interested in watching HD content then they're unlikely to purchase a PS3 if they don't play games (by the time PS3 becomes readily available, i expect stand-alone players to at least match it in price, negating the value PS3 currently has over blu-ray players). Similarly someone who likes games, but has no interest in HD might want to purchase a 'stand-alone games device'...except if they like the Playstation series, they can't. I suppose all i'm saying here is Sony seem like they're looking at those people who are interested in both games and HD, because they see the value in PS3. The much larger market, in my opinion, are those who just like games, and for those people, HD, at the moment at least, is wasted on them.

As far as the gaming market being in decline, i'm a little rusty on the sames figures, but hasn't Sony sold more PS2s (within the lifetime of the console as it's flagship device) than they did PS1? I don't know how Saturn/N64 fared vs Gamecube/Xbox (maybe the total number of sales in a generation has gone down?) but it certainly feels like gaming is as big as it ever has been.

 

[rabidrabbit]

After a hump becomes the depression.

 

[Paul_G]

But you only spot a hump after the depression. Even if things were declining, don't they naturally decline as the generation winds down? New consoles are too expensive for most people, and those same people already have the last generation machine. If things still seem to be in a slump by mid 08, i'd have to agree with you

 

[supervegeta]

supervegeta, you are wrong on so many things, I can only hope you're still pretty young.

The only point i am making is that the price for my friends here matter and they said it is too high for a console, and thats not the result of the infaction, cuz the 300 euro price tag have always been the limit all my friend were willing to spend for a console.

I am glad if you tell me about how i am wrong on this.

The most important one probably is that the HDMI port is included on the 20gb version. This was first announced at TGS 2006.

Ok this is new to me...i am glad sony did that.

Secondly, you really know pathetically little about your own country. But I will gladly take that to another thread if you like and prove that to you.

Lol you wanna tell at ya whats the reality here ? that is somethig really funny...bub yer talk from someone who have never lived here is pretty silly...but you are welcome if you want to discuss with me on this on another tread cuz we better keep this one clean...

 

[Arwin]

The most important one probably is that the HDMI port is included on the 20gb version. This was first announced at TGS 2006.
[\quote]

can you quote me where i said this ? because i never said such a thing...what i said is that you can't ungrade the 499 to the 599 model because you cant add the hdmi port...thats all what i said.

Doh! Both the 499 and the 599 model have the HDMI port! So there's no upgrade needed!

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Yeah... that was one of my main problems with Sony's "two sku" idea at the start, was that you couldn't upgrade the bottom sku to the top sku. So it was completely different than MS's version where the Premium was just a Core Bundle.

But Sony realized the error of their ways prior to production and added the HDMI port on both models, so that the less expensive version can be upgraded to the same feature set as their more expensive version.

It was the correct move for them, and anybody who still believes that the lower priced PS3 can't be upgraded to the same exact feature set as the more expensive PS3, hasn't been paying attention.

 

[patsu]

Next they should do the comparison between 360 and Wii.

It's a PS3 launch. If they were to do a review, it would be about Xbox 360 VoD service. The problems PS3 face in these reviews are:

* The product components are impressive but together they are not mature/polished enough, including very basic flaws like too tedious registration process. In addition, some of the promised features missed the launch (because engineering is probably spread too thin and marketing+management failed to rein them in ?). The users can't get to the meat yet.

* Even so, Sony marketing seems to have given up (or not enough time) to build a communication package around PS3.

Ignoring the ******-ish stance in some of these reviews... they are all excellent feedback for Sony management. Historically, very few companies survivie a direct MS assault like this. It will be interesting to see whether and how Sony counter.

I'd say it's probably too late to turn the ship in the short term. They will have to stay focused and deliver (or many say 'execute') with more marketing direction/guidance. There should be at least 1 unique and useful features about PS3 the next time they have a major firmware upgrade. Hopefully Sony is the kind of company/people who excel in times of crisis. This is it ! The living-room war you have been looking forward to... prove yourself ;-)

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Two years of Xbox Live already make up for the difference

The difference is that there's no online multiplayer part to the PS3 at all, so please don't add Live's costs to the bill yet...