Topic: Sony getting hit Hard lately

[KDR_11k]

Edit:  you just as I hit "post," it dawned on me that the guy in the commercial didn't want his girlfried/wife to know he was hooking up a game machine.  Almost as if he were ASHAMED of video games.  Is this what Sony thinks of their customers?  Who greenlit this ad?

It gets funnier if you pursue that further: A system without wife approval factor isn't going to be attached to the main TV for any gamers with a wife in the house (whether the gamer's wife or the gamer's dad's wife) and HDTV adoption rates consider only if ANY TV in the house is HD. Usually the family TV is the most expensive one in the home while the secondaries are former main TVs so a family upgrading to HDTV would still have SDTVs as their secondaries and with a wife in the house the HD consoles are going to be relegated to the secondary TVs. The alternative is to declare the PS3 as a bluray player but then the system is unavailable for gaming when the family wants to watch TV, that's going to impact game sales in households like that.

[Kairon]

Yeah, that commercial has stumbled upon a twisted web of console identity issues. *scared*

[BeautifulShy]

Sony compares the three system

I seem to recall them doing this at launch.I guess they never learn.

[NWR_Lindy]

I have no idea why they didn't do this type of comparison at launch, when it actually meant something.  Until they lower the price of their console these comparisons are meaningless, because that $400 price tag trumps everything.

[Kairon]

I have no idea why they didn't do this type of comparison at launch, when it actually meant something.  Until they lower the price of their console these comparisons are meaningless, because that $400 price tag trumps everything.

What are you talking about Lindy? Sony DID do this at launch!

[NWR_Lindy]

Yeah, but in their marketing.  They never really mentioned how much of a value proposition they were at the time.  They just never spelled it out for people.  Instead, they went with idiotically abstract "PLAY B3YOND" commercials that said nothing.  Sony's marketing has been terrible since the Crash Bandicoot days.

[nickmitch]

Well, it would've been hard for them to push BluRay players if they were saying, "HEY! Wanna cheap, future-proof BluRay player that also plays games!?!" the whole time.

[Kairon]

Actually, maybe you're right Lindy. Sony might be being too high-minded in their advertising. They just need an ad that bashes it into peoples brains all the things a PS3 does. And I mean bashes. Like, not even be cute about it, explicitly state, straight-forward and almost infomercial like, all the things it can do. DVD Player, Bluray player, web browser, movie watcher, and end with game player, as if that's the culminating achievement?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Actually, maybe you're right Lindy. Sony might be being too high-minded in their advertising. They just need an ad that bashes it into peoples brains all the things a PS3 does. And I mean bashes. Like, not even be cute about it, explicitly state, straight-forward and almost infomercial like, all the things it can do. DVD Player, Bluray player, web browser, movie watcher, and end with game player, as if that's the culminating achievement?

I'll tell you what Sony should have done, is advertise it as game console. I know that is a novel idea, but believe it or not it works! Just ask MS and Nintendo.

[Kairon]

My younger brother just reminded me about something. Usually when you rattle off features, you need to include REVERSI at the end. But I didn't. Why? THE PS3 HAS NO REVERSI! *SHOCK* The true reason behind its difficulties emerge!

[KDR_11k]

I'm sure store clerks already rattled down that list for everyone who asked, the bigger problem I see is that while the PS3 had a lot of "vacuum" value it had little value to the potential customers.

[Deguello]

Yeah, but in their marketing.  They never really mentioned how much of a value proposition they were at the time.  They just never spelled it out for people.  Instead, they went with idiotically abstract "PLAY B3YOND" commercials that said nothing.  Sony's marketing has been terrible since the Crash Bandicoot days.

IF anything this proves that advertising has little, if anything to do with market performance, with Sony's advertising being the same during their high successes and low points.

I also think price cuts won't yield the magical results that people think.  Even if Sony could lower the price without taking on massive losses in a current economic struggle, it's not like the PS3 would suddenly sell 30 million units in order to give it an advantage over the competition.  There aren't many good options here.

[NWR_Lindy]

I think Sony's advertising was much better during the PSOne days.  I remember watching those Crash Bandicoot ads and laughing out loud at them.  They didn't rush out and buy a PSOne because of them, but they sure as heck made me aware of their product.

Sony should have been doing "PC vs. Mac"-type ads right out of the gate.

[Mikintosh]

I think Sony's advertising was much better during the PSOne days.  I remember watching those Crash Bandicoot ads and laughing out loud at them.  They didn't rush out and buy a PSOne because of them, but they sure as heck made me aware of their product.

Sony should have been doing "PC vs. Mac"-type ads right out of the gate.

The problem is that they're the PC this generation, what with the clunky expensive machine that is more focused on "media" in general than video games. Still, they could remedy that with some clever marketing that focuses on their core audience (and put out more enticing exclusive games IMO), but they can't or won't. Their loss.

[NWR_Lindy]

Sony has the best games you'll never hear about.  Stuff like Resistance 2, SOCOM: Confrontation, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet are all high-quality titles (they really are), but their problem is that they don't speak to anybody beyond the Sony faithful and/or their specific cult audiences.  The PS3 has no Halo 3, no Wii Sports, nothing that breaks through to the mainstream and gets everyday people talking.  Their virtually non-existent marketing doesn't help get the word out either.  To this day people that buy a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player don't even know what games are available for the system.

[Kairon]

Sony has the best games you'll never hear about.  Stuff like Resistance 2, SOCOM: Confrontation, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet are all high-quality titles (they really are), but their problem is that they don't speak to anybody beyond the Sony faithful and/or their specific cult audiences.  The PS3 has no Halo 3, no Wii Sports, nothing that breaks through to the mainstream and gets everyday people talking.  Their virtually non-existent marketing doesn't help get the word out either.  To this day people that buy a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player don't even know what games are available for the system.

I agree with you that the PS3 has some great games, but I think it's an even bigger pity that so many, including you, don't acknowledge Sony's inroads into the mainstream market. Well, it's not unexpected, for some reason Sony THEMSELVES haven't acknowledged established hit franchises like Singstar or Buzz. If Sony wants to break out of the mold that everyone's putting them in, I'd think that those two series would lead the charge, but I think it took forever for these games to get here from Europe.

Little Big Planet is really the most mainstream friendly thing I've seen Sony get behind. Why can't they embrace Singstar and Buzz like they embrace that game?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Sony has no intention to associate/promote casual entertainment with its sophisticated multi-billion-dollar non-casual console.

[Kairon]

Sony has no intention to associate/promote casual entertainment with its sophisticated multi-billion-dollar non-casual console.

So instead they promote casual movie watching?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nothing casual about high-end, high-priced HD home theater entertainment.

[Kairon]

Nothing casual about high-end, high-priced HD home theater entertainment.

Except that the game is playing itself.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Sony has the best games you'll never hear about.  Stuff like Resistance 2, SOCOM: Confrontation, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet are all high-quality titles (they really are), but their problem is that they don't speak to anybody beyond the Sony faithful and/or their specific cult audiences.  The PS3 has no Halo 3, no Wii Sports, nothing that breaks through to the mainstream and gets everyday people talking.  Their virtually non-existent marketing doesn't help get the word out either.  To this day people that buy a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player don't even know what games are available for the system.

Yeah rehashed clones of other big games sure are some of the best games around. Maybe just MAYBE the reason why they don't speak to anyone beyond the Sony faithful is they can find those experiences elsewhere in another (usually better) form? Also when did MGS become a Sony franchise? The only unique game in that list is LBP. What is funny even the "Sony faithful" aren't even buying games like Resistance 2!

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Nothing casual about high-end, high-priced HD home theater entertainment.

Except that the game is playing itself.

You almost got me there, almost, but the standard price of entry for even the smallest of those components ($60 games) is still higher than the true casual competitors.

[Kairon]

What is funny even the "Sony faithful" aren't even buying games like Resistance 2!

Yeah, at least we can count on Nintendo fans to keep buying and rebuying the same schlock over and over again.

*hugs copy of Animal Crossing Wii, but also stares in disbelief at Mario Party series*

[NWR_Lindy]

So if somebody do

Yeah rehashed clones of other big games sure are some of the best games around. Maybe just MAYBE the reason why they don't speak to anyone beyond the Sony faithful is they can find those experiences elsewhere in another (usually better) form? Also when did MGS become a Sony franchise? The only unique game in that list is LBP. What is funny even the "Sony faithful" aren't even buying games like Resistance 2!

Blah blah blah you hate Resistance 2...congratulations.  Maybe you're rather play Animal Crossing: City Folk, or Mario Super Sluggers, or the GameCube games that literally being re-released on the Wii, since they aren't rehashes whatsoever.

I guess that by default anybody that owns an HDTV - even people that don't play video games - are automatically hardcore and could never be casual.  Because HD anything is automatically hardcore.  Just making sure I know The Rules.

[KDR_11k]

Sony's "casual" efforts come off as one trick ponies, they lucked out and got a design that people liked and because they are in birdman mode (they treat the market as a black box and only see what inputs led to good outputs so they replicate those inputs while Nintendo learned the inner workings of the box and uses those to determine which inputs are likely to see favourable outputs) they just endlessly sequelize it by releasing tons of different data sets for these games. What's worse is that their current hardware policy goes into the completely opposite direction with better graphics, online play, computer-like stuff, etc. The PS3's hardware does nothing to improve these games, they don't need more hardware than the PS2 offered and they're "party" games (i.e. not really for people who play alone in their room) so online play isn't a major addition. The 100€ PS2 and the 400€ PS3 are competing with basically the same performance for these markets.

Lindy, one difference is that Nintendo rehashes from their earlier consoles, while the same experience is available elsewhere that elsewhere is in the past. What I think GP accused R2, SOCOM, MS: PF and DF: U of is that they're too similar to experiences one can get on a current system with different games.