PS3 Strategy/Confidence Retrospective

Okay, if we look at the flip side of that argument, R:FoM isn't driving large sales, and it's not a 90% AAA title, right? And Motorstorm isn't driving sales - it's not a AAA title. And Lair and HS were rated quite low, so they're not driving sales. But that reasoning, if it takes 90+% titles to sell consoles, what's selling PS3? Why are any being bought when it hasn't got any 90+% AAA titles? Furthermore PS3 is selling in the same region as XB360. We don't have accurate figures, but it's not like the US where XB360 sells 2:1 PS3. There are even reports of PS3 outselling XB360 here. XB360 has several of 90 MAS AAA titles. Why aren't Europeans buying up XB360's en masse at a lower price to play Halo3 and Bioshock instead? And why are people buying Wii? To play Wii Sports. What did Wii sports get? Is that a 95% AAA title? Nope, it's a 76% MAS at Metacritic. What is making Carl's friend consider getting a PS3? Is it the 93% rated Oblivion AAA title? Or the new 95% COD4 AAA++ title? Or the 75% Eye of Judgement?

You don't need high scores to have a game that'll attract owners. You don't need 'Triple AAA', whatever that is. XB360 has shed loads higher scoring games than Wii, but that doesn't stop the Wii selling shed loads more units. The games have to be good and to appeal to a large enough market to be noteworthy, sure. But they don't have to be what game reviews consider top-draw. The games rating system isn't the measure by which all titles market appeal can be gauged, or by which all system-selling titles can be identified.

 

Yes, but I doubt that betan was using a "marketing" application to obtain the size of COD4. That is why I focused in the "user level" interpretation of GB.

They had to budget how to use the available space without knowing the final size of the contents and pushing it to the limit could cause problems. I remember Itagaki saying that the had a lot of problems fitting DOA4 in a DVD because they didn't plan well in advance but that wasn't a problem anymore because now they do.

 

Infinity Ward made cod2 for the 360, this isn't their first crack at the platform. This dvd space argument has been done to death in a number of other threads.

 

In this case I consider the 8GB PC version the "limiting factor" content wise. I would prefer games being 2 DVDs just to make sure that the developers include in the game everything that they want/can, I don't understand why multy-disc has become a "stigma" for games.

Personally, I don't think that the Blu-ray will benefit the PS3 as game console at all but I understand that Sony needed to push the format.

 

Well, it doesn't really sell that well, so one could argue that games aren't the primary reason to get one...

 

Regarding Bluray, Toshiba's HD DVD player has just sold about 90.000 units over the weekend:
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6498141.html

And these aren't game consoles so people who buy them do this for the movies...

 

Some report estimated that about 10-20% of PS3 owners use it mainly for Blu-ray. So most of the owners are still gamers. This should not be surprising.

 

Well with the A2 being cleared at $200 that is hardly surprising. In any case, HD DVD software is still being outsold...

 

Amazing what $99 or in some cases $197 dollars will do

Now regarding BluRay, how this will hold up against the PS3 sales is the interesting part, if Toshiba keeps the price this low for a long time it could finally but the momentum back in the HD-DVD camp.

The 399,- PS3 carries a heavy burden.

 

You mean, it has been outsold so far, but now there's about a hundred thousand new customers on the market. I'd not be surprised to see HD DVD outselling Bluray for the next month or so.

As for PS3 owners, the total amount of BR movies sold altogether is about 2.5 million AFAIK. The 10% ratio sounds realistic.

 

10% more HD-DVD players should help push the 2:1 ratio towards 1:1 ?

Unless they count the free 5 HD-DVD titles i doubt we will see 100k new owners go out and buy their 6th disc.

 

Funai's supposedly inexpensive Blu-ray player has been shown in trade show recently, but probably not $99 cheap. It is said that Toshiba is just clearing inventory at that price (and also because Warner was re-evaluating whether to continue dual format support during that week) but we shall see.

 

5 million people bought it to sit under the TV looking elegant? Because according to the rationale of some on this forum, people aren't buying PS3 to watch BluRay movies either! It hasn't got AAA titles. It has an HD media format no-one really wants. It has cost $200 more than the closest rival. By this reckoning they shouldn't have sold a single unit!

Witticisms aside, people have bought PS3 on the strength of what is has offered, which isn't AAA titles (by Scooby's metric anyway. People who like EoJ seem to be rating it AAA). Could it possibly be that people don't care as much about whether a game hits 90% on Metacritic than some would think? Could it be that, like Wii-Sports appear to demonstrates, even a lowly 78% game, or an 80% EyeToy Play, or an 82% SingStar, can shift units? Or will no-one ever buy a console without 90% scoring 'Triple A' games available?

 

According to Sony, that wouldn't be out of the question.

Seriously, I think there is a rather large fanbase that bought the system on the name alone.

 

I can bet that that "rather large fanbase" are still doing more (&/or more frequently) with the console today than alot of Wii owners are doing with there systems..

(from loco roco to HD porn..)

 

It's the total package: The growing and very interesting game library (Every good game counts and PSN games deserve more attention) + The build quality + Extra Omph (Blu-ray, Cell, or Media Hub... take your pick). The Playstation brand was/is already working overtime to overcome the higher price.

Moving forward, the product should be able to stand on its own (hopefully).

 

A mere fraction of the PS3 userbase needs to buy Blu-rays in order for it to maintain its 2:1 lead. Toshiba was desperate to get rid of those A2's, and to be fair its a good deal even if it doesnt output 1080p. The A3 is coming soon plus the PS3 sales will be comparatively massive over christmas in Europe and US. Thats bound to have a bearing on Warner Brother's view of the format war.

 

People bought the PS3 on the strength of its predecessor and what the brand "Playstation" has meant the last decade. Buying a "Playstation" meant you were getting a console that would give you or eventually give you a top notch and diverse library of games and a experience unrivaled by other consoles. People still believe in that concept with the PS3 and thats why its been able to sell 5 million in the last 10 months.

Do you think that if the PS3 sold by any other name and was made by any other manufacturer (other than Nintendo and MS) with $400-$600 price range that it would sell anywhere near 5+ million in the first 10 months? The PS3 branded under some other name and manufactured by someone other than the big three at $600.00 would have died the day it was launched regardless of features. The "Playstation" brand has sold more consoles than Resistance, Motorstorm, RC, VF5, Warhawk, EoJ, BluRay, Hi Definition, PSN and any other feature of the PS3 combined. Without the brand of the big three behind them, those features and games mean very little in and of themselves.

A game's critical reception may not always coorelate to it's popularity and ability to move units. But more often than not it does coorelate. The top ten list of highest selling games is not muddle with games that scored in the 70s and 80s. A game's ability to sell consoles should coorelate tightly with its ability to sell itself.

 

Strangely, I'm one of those. Well, in other words, I was forced to get one before those 60GB are all gone!

If it weren't for the prospect of all those games that interest me and will eventually come to the PlayStation brand, I wouldn't call myself an exclusive PlayStation consumer...

But seeing now that had to get a PS3, I'm amazed to say I already own 4 games, and the 5th one being just about a week away from purchasing.

 

I am buying with the recent price drop. But I am also getting the White one (importing). Sony really should just release the different colors all over at the same time...