Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[Arbok]

Well, to elaborate on my last post, since I haven't seen it mentioned here, pre-ordered systems (i.e., ones that the seller promises to pay for in full on launch day and deliver to the highest bidder) are selling for pitiful prices in the UK.

Take this one for example. Bidding has already ended, and the final price was just £250... compared to the retail price there of £425.

I await with great anticipation to hear the PR piece in motion about how delaying the system in the PAL areas was a "great move" and how they reached their "goal" of "people being able to go into a store and just pick one up at launch due to increased supply".  

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Consider this fantastic alternative:

Sony doesn't lose Final Fantasy, but PS3 sales doom Final Fantasy.  A low userbase, in turn, hurts game sales, and in turn, Square-Enix is hurt in the process.

(just imagine that game's tech budget)

[Jin-X]

Whats the price of the 60GB PS3 in Japan? I know it's cheaper than here, but by how much exactly?

Things aren't going to change for Sony this year because of the price Spak-Spang. They are going to be the most expensive console going up against Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Smash Bros. (err... maybe not), Halo 3 and the other MS exclusives. Oh and GTA 4 is on 360 at the same time. The only big game they have a chance to come out is MGS 4, alongside Ratcher & Clank. They are effed in the A on Saturday. And oh yeah, $599.

Prof. 666 has a very good point. I can't imagine how Square-Enix must be feeling looking at the PS3s sales. The budget for that game must be huge.

[Blue Plant]

They can always charge $100 for FF on PS3. :3

[Kairon]

Dear Square... quick and dirty downport to the Wii for FFXIII please! We've already all forgiven Ubisoft, we'll forgive you too!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Dear Square... quick and dirty downport to the Wii for FFXIII please! We've already all forgiven Ubisoft, we'll forgive you too!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

I haven't forgiven Ubisoft for their crappy ports.

[Kairon]

I am fanboi. Hear me roar:

FFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR CCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[capamerica]

Quote
Australian PS3 launch underwhelming
Today is tomorrow in Australia. Not just is it tomorrow, but it's coming on noon. According to The Sydney Morning Herald the PlayStation 3 launched last night with "officials, media and security outnumbering customers." The 500 retailers on the continent opened their doors for a midnight launch and despite the estimated 20,000 pre-orders "most stores were virtually deserted."

The Herald says even the official launch event at Myer's Pitt Street store had only 40 people in line at midnight "causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem." The gentlemen who ended up being first in line showed up at 9 PM. Adding insult to injury, television producers "unashamedly" had the crowd fake cheer for the cameras. A local radio station even had their on-air talent create "bogus cheers" to convince listeners that a major event was going on. Looks like the hype accompanying the U.S. launch has all but vanished. We'll get a better picture of the PS3 PAL release later this evening when reports of the European launch trickle in. Maybe the land down under is just full of Xbox and Nintendo fanboys?

[Kairon]

I remember reading somewhere of the two lonely people who had lined up for the U.K. PS3 launch at one point... hopefully more people came after the blog left.

Edit: Found it.

And this report of UK PS3s flopping @ EBay thrown in for good measure.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[nitsu niflheim]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
Consider this fantastic alternative:

Sony doesn't lose Final Fantasy, but PS3 sales doom Final Fantasy.  A low userbase, in turn, hurts game sales, and in turn, Square-Enix is hurt in the process.

(just imagine that game's tech budget)

Just what exactly I meant about two pages ahead, in my own twisted logic.

Quote
Originally posted by: nitsu niflheim
yes, but by the time those games are out, it might be too late.

[wandering]

Quote
Originally posted by: capamerica

Quote
Australian PS3 launch underwhelming
Today is tomorrow in Australia. Not just is it tomorrow, but it's coming on noon. According to The Sydney Morning Herald the PlayStation 3 launched last night with "officials, media and security outnumbering customers." The 500 retailers on the continent opened their doors for a midnight launch and despite the estimated 20,000 pre-orders "most stores were virtually deserted."

The Herald says even the official launch event at Myer's Pitt Street store had only 40 people in line at midnight "causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem." The gentlemen who ended up being first in line showed up at 9 PM. Adding insult to injury, television producers "unashamedly" had the crowd fake cheer for the cameras. A local radio station even had their on-air talent create "bogus cheers" to convince listeners that a major event was going on. Looks like the hype accompanying the U.S. launch has all but vanished. We'll get a better picture of the PS3 PAL release later this evening when reports of the European launch trickle in. Maybe the land down under is just full of Xbox and Nintendo fanboys?

Quote
Nintendo Wii's quiet Aussie launch
Largest midnight launch location attracts 200-plus fans; units still available for walk-in customers.
By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU
Posted Dec 6, 2006 4:10 pm PT

The Nintendo Wii landed in Australia last night with more of a restrained cheer than a bang, with only a few hundred Australian gamers lining up at midnight launches held in retail stores across the country.

The largest group of Nintendo fans was the 200-strong crowd that gathered at EB Games at Chadstone, Melbourne, Victoria. In Sydney, New South Wales, the largest turnout was at EB Games in Chatswood, where more than 60 gamers attended the store's midnight launch.

The Wii's sedate launch was in stark contrast to the Xbox 360's Australian launch in March this year. Microsoft organised a massive street party for its next-generation console, with Sydney's main shopping mall closed to all but the thousands of customers who came to get their hands on the 360.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Just finished catching up on the PS3 over seas disaster that is in AUS & EUR, I was reading about this at work, and as much as I wanted to see Sony fail, I never expected it to be this bad.

One store had 650 consoles yet only 200 people show up.
Paris has a boat turned into floating store, with over 1000 systems ready for sale.....
there where more journalist and security people there than the few dozen people that showed up (30-40?). The event supposedly only lasted around 30-35 minutes. and Microsoft even crashed the party*now thats embarrassing*

poor, poor, Sony.

can't wait to see the news stories tomorrow, its gonna be bad.... real real bad.  

[Arbok]

Quote
From today, Sony will launch into its $6 million marketing campaign, which it hopes will convince the public that the PS3 is not just a games machine but an all-in-one home entertainment system.

Source

Yeah... they still just don't get it.

[Kairon]

That $6 million would be better spent subsidizing the PS3 price.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[blackfootsteps]

Quote
Originally posted by: wandering

Quote
Nintendo Wii's quiet Aussie launch
Largest midnight launch location attracts 200-plus fans; units still available for walk-in customers.
By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU
Posted Dec 6, 2006 4:10 pm PT

The Nintendo Wii landed in Australia last night with more of a restrained cheer than a bang, with only a few hundred Australian gamers lining up at midnight launches held in retail stores across the country.

The largest group of Nintendo fans was the 200-strong crowd that gathered at EB Games at Chadstone, Melbourne, Victoria. In Sydney, New South Wales, the largest turnout was at EB Games in Chatswood, where more than 60 gamers attended the store's midnight launch.

The Wii's sedate launch was in stark contrast to the Xbox 360's Australian launch in March this year. Microsoft organised a massive street party for its next-generation console, with Sydney's main shopping mall closed to all but the thousands of customers who came to get their hands on the 360.

That's incorrect. I live in Adelaide, the 4th largest city in Oz and at Eb's city store there were over 400 people (going by ticket numbers) in line. Additionally my brother went to Eb the next day to swap a game and they said they had no more Wii units available. This situation lasted until just before Christmas when one or two units would pop up.  

[BlackNMild2k1]

This is how you up the value of the PS3 and make the PS3 worth the price of admission

Quote
At the London launch everyone who bought a PS3 also received a free 46-inch HD television and a taxi home.

In total, the giveaway amounted to £250,000 worth of televisons to more than 100 gamers.

At the head of the queue, 17-year-old Ritatsu Thomas said the giveaway and PS3 had been worth the 36-hour wait.

He said: "I feel fantastic. I'm delighted that everyone here also gets a television."

Mr Maguire said the TV giveaway in the UK was a reward for gamers' patience.

source - BBC

I would definately buy a PS3 at launch..... obviously just for the T.V.  

edit: I just tought about this, and...... wouldn't it have been cheaper to just give away the PS3 for free to those 100+ gamers? Maybe then they coulda spent some money on the games instead.  

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: blackfootsteps

Quote
Originally posted by: wandering

Quote
Nintendo Wii's quiet Aussie launch
Largest midnight launch location attracts 200-plus fans; units still available for walk-in customers.
By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU
Posted Dec 6, 2006 4:10 pm PT

The Nintendo Wii landed in Australia last night with more of a restrained cheer than a bang, with only a few hundred Australian gamers lining up at midnight launches held in retail stores across the country.

The largest group of Nintendo fans was the 200-strong crowd that gathered at EB Games at Chadstone, Melbourne, Victoria. In Sydney, New South Wales, the largest turnout was at EB Games in Chatswood, where more than 60 gamers attended the store's midnight launch.

The Wii's sedate launch was in stark contrast to the Xbox 360's Australian launch in March this year. Microsoft organised a massive street party for its next-generation console, with Sydney's main shopping mall closed to all but the thousands of customers who came to get their hands on the 360.

That's incorrect. I live in Adelaide, the 4th largest city in Oz and at Eb's city store there were over 400 people (going by ticket numbers) in line. Additionally my brother went to Eb the next day to swap a game and they said they had no more Wii units available. This situation lasted until just before Christmas when one or two units would pop up.

I think Wandering was just trying to show how stupid gamespot's article was on  the Wii. It looks to be a propaganda piece wrapped in "news" because from what you've said and going by general sales data the Wii has anything BUT a quiet launch.

[IceCold]

Yeah, the Wii broke launch records in Australia..

[Shorty McNostril]

So did the ps3 i imagine.  

[KDR_11k]

Jack Tretton owes me 36000$ (in other words, the biggest electronics retailer in town had a pile of 30 PS3s with noone caring).

The funniest thing is that Nintendo and Microsoft went into battle mode to welcome the PS3. The Wii stand was manned (pretty rare, I don't think that happens normally on a Friday) and the XBox 360 Premium was on sale for 300€ (though it didn't include any games whereas the 400€ ones often come with PGR3 and a Rare game). Actually makes me think about buying a 360 now.

Sony fanboys have no excuses here, a Wii and an XBox 360 together cost less than a PS3. No "if you take the premium PS3 and core 360" explaination or such.

[Ghisy]

The PS3 launch in Paris was also a disaster.
On the Champs-Elysees, where hundreds (thousands?) of people gathered for the Wii launch back in December, there were only 4 people waiting in line for the PS3 like an hour and half away from midnight.
And there was also a special floating PS store set up on the Seine but apparently only 40 to 50 consoles were sold (their stock was a 1000+ systems waiting on the shelves).
All of this news made me giggle, laugh and point at $ony.

[Ceric]

Simple amazing what a flop.  Don't they know that Pal countries read the Internet as well.  Go launch in China where you can control the Media.  Oh wait... No one can afford it for the most part their.

Seriously though, from what I read that seems very disappointing.  I'm a little surprised it went that bad.  I'm sure the Backward compatibility had a big role to play with that.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It's simply not a mass-market product.

[Sessha]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ceric
Simple amazing what a flop.  Don't they know that Pal countries read the Internet as well.  Go launch in China where you can control the Media.  Oh wait... No one can afford it for the most part their.

Seriously though, from what I read that seems very disappointing.  I'm a little surprised it went that bad.  I'm sure the Backward compatibility had a big role to play with that.

I think that talking about China is in bad taste.  Making a jab about a country is one thing but then generalizing the people of China is not so nice.  And "their" in an ownership sense as in- there are 2 people who bought a PS3 on launch day.   But their expectations were much too high.  

[Jin-X]

1up now doing the spinning for Sony for the Feb NPD #s

Come watch as journalistic integrity goes down the drain, with comments like:

Quote
With suffocating supply constraints during the November launch period, Sony's PlayStation 3 still outsold the Xbox 360 during the same four-month launch window with 1.06M consoles sold through February 2007.

If by suffocating you mean suffocating retailer's inventories because they were just there collecting dust, then yeah I agree.

Quote
Briefly ignoring just how supply constrained the 360 was during that four month period, the fact that the PlayStation 3 has outsold the Xbox 360 over the same period in its life span despite costing $200 more per unit isn't a something that should get lost amidst the cries of doom and gloom for Sony's platform. How much more would the Xbox 360 have sold had supply not been so constrained in the first four months after launch?

Now if I remember correctly, the 360 REALLY was supply constraint as even with those low sale #s you couldn't find it in stores; as opposed to the PS3 which anybody can walk in and buy. The PS3 isn't supply constrained and hasn't been since around a month after launch, the PS3 just isn't selling.