Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[KDR_11k]

Another thing that the "PS3 is gonna win in 2008" crowd doesn't realize is that even IF games like MGS4 and FFXIIIIIIIII prove the powah of Cell... so what? It's not like all of a sudden everything from that point on is going to look that good. Games of that caliber take forever to make, and the PS3 doesn't appear to have many (any?) more exclusives of that nature lined up for it at the moment. At least not from 3rd parties.

That and "power of the cell" doesn't sell a console. Everyone can see that the 360 and PS3 do graphics better than the Wii yet they still buy the Wii. Doesn't look like powerful processors are what people care about.

[Ceric]

So does the gaming world love the PS3 now? Sony is not going to go bankrupt as we had hoped?

The gaming world doesn't know where it stands on the PS3.

[Chozo Ghost]

Their victory in the format wars is all but certain at this point. HD-DVD looks like its days are numbered. Obviously Sony is delighted, but isn't this a bad thing for MS and Nintendo? Now that they've wrapped up that format thing they can now focus more heavily on the PS3, and that's scary... Will we be looking at another Playstation with a majority market-share AGAIN?

[ReverendNoahWhateley]

I dunno.  The masses really don't seem to care about HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, and they probably won't for a while yet; it still feels kinda of niche.  Personally, I refuse to enter the HD dimension until movies of higher quality than Spider-man 3 become available for it.  It still seems like a bit of a stretch for the console wars to come down to which plays the *superior* version of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

[Chozo Ghost]

You're right that those two formats are niche now, but a large reason for that is because of the format war. Now that Blu-ray is winning consumers know which one to invest in and you can expect the market to grow rapidly in the next year. But this is going to be a serious problem for Nintendo and Microsoft, because now people are going to be buying PS3s. Look at January and how the PS3 was in second place, and the Wii didn't even surpass it by that much.

February might be the same, and March will probably be a month where the Wii will do well because of Smash Bros. But what about the months after that? We can see the warning signs now. By the end of the year the PS3 may very well be on top....

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I'll have to set my plan in motion to promote high-quality downloads over disc-based media.

[KDR_11k]

Their victory in the format wars is all but certain at this point. HD-DVD looks like its days are numbered. Obviously Sony is delighted, but isn't this a bad thing for MS and Nintendo? Now that they've wrapped up that format thing they can now focus more heavily on the PS3, and that's scary... Will we be looking at another Playstation with a majority market-share AGAIN?

Do you really think they can still save the PS3? Publishers have written the system off and are focussing their efforts on other consoles, in order to take the lead Sony would need a massive sustained sales boost and unless that happens I don't think anyone would go back to them because it doesn't look like they'll offer a good market anytime soon.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Indeed.  It's only proper for the Bla-Ray to become the next UMD.

The big difference is UMD failed the portable disc market without competition.

[Ceric]

Japanese Developers will develop for the PS3 because it has a lead over the 360 in Japan and its from Japan.  Will they do so more than the Wii probably not.  Though I can almost guarantee they will over the 360.

Here in the States, and probably Europe, it should be quiet the opposite.

[MaryJane]

The HighDef format war is going to affect the console war.

Publishers look at numbers, and this will be the year we're going to see many new IP's released for the Wii. Why? Because it's selling so hot. Putting it in perspective however, most sales are going to people who won't buy too many games beyond WiiSports/WiiPlay/WiiFit. Yet, those people are helping out people like us who will look into games like Deadly Creatures, and Baroque. We even have the advantage of getting good casual games like Zack and Wiki, and Boom Blox.

For the PS3, the drive of the updateable Blu-Ray player will push sales, and get companies who were thinking of moving their PS3 games to the 360 to reconsider and launch for both consoles, or exclusively for PS3, because the more consoles out there, means more possible people to buy your game no matter what their initial purpose for buying the console was.

Although, for the PS3 this is a little more difficult since it's a cross from movies to gaming, where in the case of the Wii, it's crossing casual gaming to hardcore gaming, which a lot of companies are blending together rather nicely (Madden, Resident Evil, etc.), the success of the PS3 due to it's Blu-Ray player will have a greater negative effect on the Xbox360 than on the Wii, so I personally am not too concerned, but make no mistake about it, this (and the price cuts despite $70 for a game) will be the rebound the PS3 needed to compete in the market, only time can tell if it will be a complete turn around or just an annoying itch on MS's and Nintendo's respective backs.

[ReverendNoahWhateley]

I can't help but think it's odd that a month of good sales for the PS3 is enough to make a lot of analysts think the era of PS3 domination has begun.  Keep the dream alive!

[KDR_11k]

Japanese Developers will develop for the PS3 because it has a lead over the 360 in Japan and its from Japan.  Will they do so more than the Wii probably not.  Though I can almost guarantee they will over the 360.

Here in the States, and probably Europe, it should be quiet the opposite.

Strangely enough japanese developers are going for the 360 too. Guess the other three-fourths of the international gaming market are just too good to pass up. Or maybe they're annoyed by SCEA's rejection policies.

Also I think this whole talk about Wii buyers who "will only buy Wii X" is a fallacy, the only reason they buy only that is because noone else made them a compelling offer. These people have moved past the biggest hurdle, the 200$ (+ accessories) hardware cost, now you only need to make them be interested 50$ worth in your game instead fo 250$ worth. That is a market you can tap, it's not unreachable per-se.

[Chozo Ghost]

On the other hand, a spurt in PS3 sales may not matter all that much if software for it fails to sell. We could very easily have a situation where the PS3 hardware sells (probably for Blu-ray or Linux capability), but the software doesn't. It all depends on who is buying it and why. But from Sony's perspective it may not really matter, because even if it is only used as a blu-ray player that's still money in their pocket; but from Nintendo and MS's perspective it would be a good thing because game developers would focus on them instead.

Just like the PSP, the multimedia capabilities may be a double-edged sword where people will buy it but not use it for video games as they should. That's also remember than $60 games is more than your average casual gamer is willing to pay. They're more likely to go for the $30 Spider Man 3 BRD movie instead...

[Kairon]

Japanese Developers will develop for the PS3 because it has a lead over the 360 in Japan and its from Japan.  Will they do so more than the Wii probably not.  Though I can almost guarantee they will over the 360.

Here in the States, and probably Europe, it should be quiet the opposite.

Strangely enough japanese developers are going for the 360 too. Guess the other three-fourths of the international gaming market are just too good to pass up. Or maybe they're annoyed by SCEA's rejection policies.

I'll have to agree with Ceric here. The PS3 is resurgent in Europe and it's the only HD solution in Japan. Japanese developers will support the XBox 360 for its American strength in traditional hardcore games, but the PS3 is growing into a very viable worldwide HD solution. Europe basically saved Sony this gen.

[BranDonk Kong]

Even if Blu Ray never gets as big as DVD, now that HD DVD is dead, you'll be able to get every movie on Blu Ray for many years to come. I hate to say it, but now that there's no HD DVD, unless M$ makes a BluRay add-on for the 360, I might get a PS3, just for the movies.

[KDR_11k]

Meh, why buy a 400€ movie player for a format that makes no difference except that it costs more?

[BlackNMild2k1]

rumor has it that MS has a Blu-ray add-on for 360 ready to go and GameStop is gonna stop taking HD-DVD add ons as a trade in item very soon.
not sure if that was posted yet, but I don't feel like skimming backwards to see what I've missed over the last 12 so days.

[Mikintosh]

Microsoft manufacturing an add-on to play the discs for its competitor's proprietary format...odd.

But no, people who buy PS3s solely as Blu-Ray Players are probably not gonna pick up any games...that's ridiculous. Not only are they $60 each, but they wouldn't have any idea how to play most of them (there aren't a lot of Wii Sports-like games for the PS3). Sony's trying to keep the "everybody's got a Playstation" concept from the 90s and earlier in the decade alive, but they've got the price tag and the shilling-out for Blu-Ray weighing it down; neither of those are bothers to Nintendo and the Wii at all.

[that Baby guy]

They'd buy a "Scene-It" style game.  If board game, DVD game, and general game makers got the marketing down, the PS3 could be home to several trivia/board games.  So could the other systems, but if any of them wanted to use a higher format, then the PS3 would be the way to go.

Now then, we've had a "Scene-It" game for the 360, and to be honest, there's not too much there that couldn't be done on other platforms, especially the Wii, but once again, I stress that a high volume of HD content would only work on the PS3.  If Sony could establish the PS3 in this space, that would be another helpful thing for them.

[MaryJane]

Look at the trend in technology, did Apple, Vudu, and Alienware make Blu-Ray players? Or did they make boxes to play digital downloads? The future is disc-less. I haven't bought a CD in 10 years, why should I when I can be more selective about the tracks I want to hear, and have so much available to me just about anywhere? (at least in today day) Now verizon has home speeds up to 50dl/20ul, the saturation of this technology hasn't reached a point where we can start calling for the death of physical media, but it's yet another step in that direction.

I will be extremely surprised if MS doesn't at least offer the possibility of dling all it's games for the next Xbox, perhaps even with an incentive of getting it early due to the need to wait for the download. Which again won't be much of problem with fiber optic systems.

[vudu]

Look at the trend in technology, did Apple, Vudu, and Alienware make Blu-Ray players? Or did they make boxes to play digital downloads?

I hate the fact that a stupid company stole my handle.  I couldn't figure out what the Hell you were talking about at first.

[BranDonk Kong]

Well M$ has said for a while that the internet will be the medium for it's next console, AKA no more discs. On one had it's a great idea, because you can purchase a game at 4:17 AM, wearing just a pair of socks and a cowboy hat (don't judge me), but on the other hand, Best Buy is literally a 1/4 mile down the road from me, so buying a disc would be a little faster than downloading a game...unless they're all like Steam-based games, where you can start playing when you're at like 5 or 10% or something.

[Ian Sane]

Well Microsoft has said for a while that the internet will be the medium for it's next console, AKA no more discs.

Not to sound like a kooky conspiracy nut but you know all those sci-fi stories where some big corporation is the de facto government and rules in a typically evil manner?  Stuff like this would probably be the start of that if it's accepted by consumers.  We're already in an era where companies like MS try to promote the idea that we don't own the software we buy.  We merely buy a licence and thus really are just renting everything.  Obviously a big corporation would push such an idea because it grabs the consumer by the balls.  If we own nothing we buy from them then they can take their products away from us at any time and make us buy them again or buy something else.  It's gives them power over us which for now they probably just want to use for financial gain but could use for worse purposes.

Physical media is a big monkeywrench in all of this.  I don't care what they say.  I bought the CDs and DVDs and videogames I own.  I own those copies and provided I can maintain some sort of player for them no one can take them away from me without physically coming to my house to do so.  And there are books which don't even require a tool to read.  They can go batsh!t with copyright laws all they want but I still own those copies.

Downloads don't really belong to you.  Hell I'm still a fair bit concerned about the status of VC games.  Will Nintendo support those indefinitely?  If I lack the space to store all of my VC games on the Wii itself and Nintendo decides to put the kibosh on the downloading service I'm f*cked out of games I paid for.  I can't download them again if they don't let me.  Now a whole console like that?  That's scary.  The only reason I can play Goldeneye right now is because I own an old cartridge.  Nintendo doesn't sell the game anymore and the rights are such that it isn't being re-released.  Imagine a whole console library like that that relies on the companies involved to re-release those games?  Games are going to disappear.  And if you want to play your old games you have to buy them all over again at whatever price they decide.  And with no used sale options those prices don't have to be low.

I'll never buy a download-only ANYTHING.  It's like having a TV or radio with no ability to record broadcasts in any way and no way to purchase a home copy of anything.  They decide the show is cancelled you're out of luck.

And that's not even taking into account the frightening idea of all news media being distributed online with no physical copies.  The Ministry of Truth in reality.  No old newspapers or recorded broadcasts lying around to provide proof of revised history?  That's scary.

[Ceric]

The PS3 is positioned as such that if download movies became the de-facto standard it can easily be retooled for it.

I'm sort of with Ian on this one.  I prefer having physical copies of things I paid for.  Thats why I won't pay full book price for an e-Book even though I prefer real e-Books, PDFs are a terrible format for that.  Also why I won't touch iTunes.

[MaryJane]

Try to be somewhat realistic. Why would Nintendo stop supporting the VC and piss off every person who bought a (or multiple) game(s)? Not to mention stockholders, and people who just be pissed at that sort of screw you tactic? Why would any video game company start pulling back things you purchased or "rented" from them.

The whole position on rent versus own is that if I own something I'm free to do with it what I choose, I can give it to millions of people free of charge if I want because I own it. However, if I am merely indefinitely renting it for a one time purchase price, I do not have the right to distribute the media as I see fit. Companies have no intention of taking back what we "rent" from then.

And if you're going to tell me that physical media is more secure, tell that to all early adopters of HD-DVD, had those all been digital downloads and Windows Media Player decided to stop supporting their codec a video conversion tool would solve that problem nice and easy for you. Now if I own HD-DVD's and they get scratched or my player breaks what do I do? With digital downloading attached to a username your purchase becomes infinite. The files get corrupted, your computer blows up, whatever happens you can through some means redownload your media. Although I suppose things like using a new computer would require you to contact the company and give them an explanation and proof of why you need to redownload your entire library to a different computer.

Don't get me wrong I totally understad the appeal of owning physical things, I realized earlier I lied in my earlier post when I said I haven't bought a CD in 10 years because I have purchased every TOOL album, the art inside the albums makes only using the disc once well worth it IMO. Also TOOL refuses to sell their music online, which I can understand, although I don't agree with it. But things like that can be purchased seperately, I've always wanted like a big book of Alex Grey art (the guy who does a lot of TOOL's artwork especially for 10,000 days, Adam Jones (guitarist) did a lot of early art work and I'd also like a book of his work, these things could become more likely without the outlet of an album to showcase their work. (on a side not Alex Grey does have a gallery in NYC and if you can get to it I would recommend a visit it's really amazing work, also try to go on one of the days he's give's a tour, he's a funny and cool guy, I was wearing one of my tool shirts, and he saw it, stopped mid sentence and was like, "oh, I like your shirt" chuckled and continued like nothing happened)