Simply put, $399 is alot better to swallow than $599. To spend that kind of money at even $399 on something that has a even slight chance of not turning out to be anything is a big put off. Knowing that this has happened to other systems in the past, "DREAMCAST" & "NeoGeo" come to mind. You spend all that money and it blunders for what ever reason at the time. It Just does not look good enough for me to make that sort of "investment" if you will. Mind you investing in "FUN type activities" you do look for the biggest bang for your buck, the PS3 has to much buck and not enough bang, been that way since it's release. And no I don't like the wii either!, the graphics are not there for me.
The U.S. price of 80GB PS3 = $499 today, 40GB model on Nov. 2 = $399
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Simply put, $399 is alot better to swallow than $599. To spend that kind of money at even $399 on something that has a even slight chance of not turning out to be anything is a big put off. Knowing that this has happened to other systems in the past, "DREAMCAST" & "NeoGeo" come to mind. You spend all that money and it blunders for what ever reason at the time. It Just does not look good enough for me to make that sort of "investment" if you will. Mind you investing in "FUN type activities" you do look for the biggest bang for your buck, the PS3 has to much buck and not enough bang, been that way since it's release. And no I don't like the wii either!, the graphics are not there for me.
Depends how big delays are and how often each console is getting its games. If both consoles get the same games at an average every 2 months, both consoles will have the same increase in their library even if the PS3's 2 month period starts and ends later. (if it starts right after the 360's period ends then this should be a problem. If it's in the middle it wont be that hurting)
It is also misleading to use software sales as an indication of how well a title sells on each console. 360 had a year head start, Sony came later and at a high price. Obviously Madden is bound to sell more on 360 rather on PS3. It is impossible for any multiplatform game to sell more on PS3.
I dont even know if Madden is the right game to use as an example. Madden is famous in the US. Not in Europe and Japan. Demographics dont care about it outside the US.
Indeed the announcment of some originally exclusive PS (I wouldnt put GTA in there) titles for 360 does have an impact, but simultaneously there are games that were originally 360 exclusive coming towards the PS3 too. But of course it cant have the same impact because the PS3 is lost in the mistakes Sony did.
If PS3 sold greatly at the beginning, the same delays or imperfect ports would have been less severe today in people's minds, I wouldnt have found it strange even if they were ignored.
Good question. I dont know.
Probably the release of certain key titles and ensure their exclusivity on the console.
I see features like Home and LBP as very great moves from Sony, but in order to keep eyes open on them, they first have to pull people's interest through some special titles that people are familiar with and want to get for sure. If they make the first steps of a noticeable improvement through these games people will start to notice the other features, and sales may be boosted further.
Correction. Majority of highly rated games released since the PS3 launch.
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So just GeoW, Halo3, Bioshock, PGR4, Forza2. That's more than enough to compel many to buy a system right there.
Subjective.
The PS2 was one of the worst dvd players ever made (at least at release) but the fact is that it released at a time when DVD was just coming into its own but the players were still expensive in comparison. Selling people on Blu-ray from DVD is much more difficult than it was selling people on upgrading from VHS to DVD, because the quality upgrade is nowhere near as staggering. All the other features are not really interesting to most buyers, they aren't going to sell a system(to most people), they are just something to play with once you've got it.
I'm sure you could find out if you wanted to search back, but the fact is that they are 2 of the biggest selling games of all time (7 and 11 million) and there's no doubt they helped push the ps2 to where it ended up, ps3 has nothing close to that going for it right now and the only things with even that kind of potential are still 6 months away.
of course its subjective. All entertainment is subjective. Thats the damn point. Having a larger quantity of quality titles is a huge advantage which the ps3 lacks.
But EA cares. Especially when a new console passes the old console market leader in first month sales.
And consumers care because if 4 out of 5 of their friends have the 360 Madden then they are more likely to get the 360 version to play online with their friends.
As for delays, those are pretty relevant because of a number of factors. The first being that the largest percentage of games are sold in their first 60 days. Second is advertising: as a publisher, if I spend 10M on advertising around the games release, the delayed release on the PS3 gets impacted two fold: one by the fact the product release misses out on the prime advertising period, and second because multi-console users already picked it up on the other platform if they wanted it in most cases.
Taking the subjective part out of the equation, over the time span those games were released consumers did buy more 360s than PS3s. Now price is a factor in such and overall library, but it would seem based on some of the sales spikes (notably Madden & Bioschock in August with the price drop, Halo 3 in September, Gears of War in 2006) that those games are having some impact on consumer appeal.
There is no denying that the software is a major factor, especially with the high attach rate.
Well. You are the one that said that certain games (3 shoot em ups and 2 racers) alone are more than enough to make people buy a 360. Where's the subjectivity in that?
You and me may see these as a must have and would get these on their 360's for sure (if I had one). But there are millions of casuals who are attracted more to games such as Drift, Need for Speed, Pro Evo, CoD, GRAW, Rainbow Six, RAW vs SMACKDOWN etc. And buy a 360 for these and because 360 is a cheaper alternative to the PS3 to play them.
The games you mention may be games for casuals that are bought later not reasons for buying the console in the first place.
In fact I know many that bought a 360 primarily for Pro Evo or other multiplatform games with the exclusive games following afterwards since they had the console already.
What MS does well is sell a cheaper product bundled with a top notch game such as Gears or Halo 3. Hardcore gamers will rush to get it for the specific game, casuals will go for the console and play it even if they werent planning to get the game initially. Suddenly casuals and non-casuals play a top notch game and share the experience. The game grows its popularity which in result pulls other 360 owners into buying that game.
It is a very positive result of a good start.
This doesnt work if the console didnt start well from the beginning and is sold at a high price.
If Sony went sooner with a cheaper retail price and with a bundled game (motorstorm or resistance) it would have done much better.
But damn it's been more than 7 months after it launched,and had no games at all, it was expensive even for people that wanted it, while 360 was sold cheaper bundled with games. How could PS3 compete?
Sony did now what they should have done before. But it is too late
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True. But in US only.
Didnt think of it this way. You are right on this one
I dont think we are saying anything different there. See post above
They are, just like MGS2 and and GTA3 sold ps2s.
So casuals buy graw and cod, but have no interest in their more popular counterparts such as bioshock, geow and halo? I really doubt that happens very often.
Sorry but you're argument is bunk, suggesting that people buy the hardware for the more average (good but not great) content and just pick up the great content because its there? Do you realize how silly that sounds?
In any event I doubt casual gamers are defining 360 and ps3 sales at this time.
And I know many people that bought a 360 for gears, and many more who bought one for halo3, I even have NPD figures to back me up. Anecdotal evidence is unlikely to win you this round.
Gears and Halo3 have never been bundled here in Canada, or in the US. In fact the only bundles I know of for the 360 was a kameo bundle a forza2 bundle and the upcoming 2 game bundle. Individual retailers have had a variety of their own bundles, but those aren't really anything done by MS.
PS3 launched more than 11 months ago, considering this is a US pricing thread.
Madden for the EU is called Fifa, and coincidentaly it's an EA game as well. I don't know how its sales are divided between the various platforms, though.
Yeah. But there was another problem during that time. I think PS3 didnt get a Fifa at all until recently I think. Or is it still unreleased? I saw a Fifa 2008 demo in Store. But I never saw Fifa 2007 on PS3 ever
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Both are just as important. It is impossible for PS3 to have a multiplatform game that in absolutes does better than 360 anyways. That doesnt mean PS3 support should stop. If that was the case developers would have always chosen the best selling console only to develop for leaving the other one to die.
Both are just as important. One shows how much revenue they are getting in absolutes from each. The other provides information about the consumer and shows the trend on both consoles. It measures general interest on both and it is around the same, It shows that gamers probably do not prefer one version over the other although the PS3 may be a bit worse.
It also shows that sports fan gamers move almost proportionately from one console to the other. Both may be having the same percentages of sports fans.
An increase of PS3 hardware sales may benefit EA at the end so they might still support it.
On the other hand we dont know if that percentage of these type of gamers might decrease or increase in case more join the PS3.
EA has pretty much gone on record as saying they'd prefer a single platform, although I don't think they'd go so far as to attempt to make that happen, would they?
The issue for the PS3 isn't really going to be keeping the mainstream titles on the platform, but the lesser ones. While madden may be an indicator of those its safe in itself as the sales are high enough to warrant a port. However when it comes to NHL 2008 or a basketball or baseball title which sells 1/3rd as many copies as a madden title its starting to get down to where support is more questionable.
Halo3 and Gears probably yes. The others you dont know. And 2 games alone dont do the difference. MGS2 and GTA3 alone didnt sell the PS2. It was a total of certain games exclusives and they were too many.
Did I say they have no interest? That interest grew after they bought the console. Oh and believe me there are multiplatform games they consider more popular than certain exclusives.
Ofcourse it sounds silly but it is pretty much the truth. You think I pull that out of my pocket? You will be suprised by the amount of people that buy a console for just one game that isnt Halo, Gears, Bioshock or PGR.
Just because you, me and a ton of other people in beyond3d view games from a more detailed/creative perspective, doesnt mean the million of gamers out there do the same.
Or maybe Europe is much different than the US
I might know even more that bought 360 for Pro Evo, Smackdown vs Raw, Need for Speed, Drift etc games that in numbers are much more than the 2 shooters you mentioned. The ones that happened to buy Gears or PGR or something else bought it later. Or bought it as a bundle, again not primarily for that game
Seems Europe only was getting its huge share of official bundles.
I was pointing towards the period of launch until the first price drop which was this Summer.
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Is there a platform that EA DON'T support?
This is true - which is why SONY has invested heavily on building it's internal dev studios (WWS). They cover a wide range of genres, including some unique 2nd party games (LBP, Everyday Shooter). I just hope they do it right, and push out more AAA titles than not (like most big dev houses do!).
As PS3 user base grows, the absolute numbers will change. All developers can do now is to observe Sony's growth strategy. if Sony can garner its own separate/dedicated user base (with some overlaps), it will be worthwhile to continue supporting PS3.
The potential sources are:
* Previous PS2 owners (coming in because of new lower price and increasing titles)
* Exclusive PS3 games (This may overlap with above to a large degree, but some XB 360 guys may buy a second console)
* Casuals from social gaming (spearheaded by Playstation Home + LBP) and Blu-ray movie viewing (The price drop will pull more movie buffs in, not sure how many yet). Some early numbers indicated that 10-20% of PS3 owners are Blu-ray movie fans.
* Xbox 360 owners getting frustrated by RROD or unwilling to pay for XBL.
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Depends on the title. EA will do the math, if there's enough money to be had they will make the port, if not they won't. However its pretty obvious that a single platform is a big win for a developer like EA all of those developers who are working on ports can be refocused into making more other titles or just fire them.
