Sony CEO sees ‘stalemate’ in disc fight (1 Viewer)

[Averry]

If Wii stopped selling tomorrow, and the PS3 continued selling at 2 million per year, it would still take 2 or 3 years to cath the Wii.



They both launched at the same time.


Gameplay IS one thing. I think it's important to note, that although we all agree that the PS3 is a good machine for the price, obvious MOST people don't see the added value. People just dont' care.

Playstation used to mean video games. Sony may have tried to broaden themselves out to much, too early.

 

[Norman Matthews]

Even with the headstart in the market and all those consoles already in the wild, the 360 is still outselling the PS3 month-to-month.

 

[PerryD]

Even as a PS3 owner, I can't help but think that the PS3 will ultimately finish 3rd this generation (against the Wii and 360). From what I know, in most cases, the development of multiplatform titles are originating on the 360 and then the titles are ported to the PS3, so in all cases, the PS3 version will be at best the same, but more often inferior to the 360 version (e.g. lower frame rate). Most gamers know this and will gravitate towards the better performing platform.

Last generation, the PS2 had this advantage, even though the 360 was considered more powerful, it was never realized in the games since they were ports from the PS2.

There are a couple reasons why I don't own a 360 yet. They haven't dropped the price fast enough (2 years and only a $20 and $50 price drop?), and the reliability of the machine. But when I do get one, I will be buying the multiplatform titles for that machine.

 

[Averry]

You won't buy it because they haven't dropped the price enough times?


What? You know the Playstation 2 didn't drop in price untill the Xbox started getting aggressive.


Prices droped amazingly fast last generation because of the forces of 3 competing consoles.

The number 1 selling console wont' drop in price untill the momentum is taken away from it.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Fie on the forum software. When I'm responding to two different people, I'd rather do it in two separate posts. The discussion is less confusing that way.

Can I help it if I'm a fast typer?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I was referring to the software headstart -- the X360 will likely continue to outsell the PS3 until the PS3 has had more time to build up a solid software library.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

That seems to be changing -- while games almost always looked better on the X360 before, some of the newer cross-platform titles actually look better on the PS3.

On the other hand, from what I hear, most developers really prefer the X360 since it's much easier to program than the PS3.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I think the idea is not so much that he's counting the number of price drops as it is that the console hasn't yet reached the price level that he wants to pay for it.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

First of all for all who think the PS3 has disadvantages compared to the 360 in reference to frame ates and overall quality ought to take a look at the recently released Call of Duty 4 on the PS3. It renders beautifully in all its 1080P glory at 60 fps. The 360 cannot even begin to compare n the overall experience one gets on the PS3 with this game. I am sure as we go forward you will see more and more game developers using the PS3s superior technology to bring a really compelling gaming experience. Starting this month you will see a regular stream of games that will really show off the PS3. Gran Tourismo 4 is another title you will have to see to believe the quality of graphics that can be reached on the PS3.

One more thing, I fail to understand one thing, why is it that if the PS3 does come in at 3rd place, not that I think it will, it should be considered a failure. As long as it turns in a reasonable profit for Sony in the long run it would be a success. Maybe not the same as the high standard of success set by the PS2 but nevertheless it would still be a success.

 

[Averry]

Madden 08 looks terrible on the PS3 compared to the Xbox360


Everyone knows it too.




It just depends on the developer, but I"m not sure how you knw what Call of Duty 4 looks on the 360. My assumption would be that it looks the same. The Xbox 360 puts out in full 1080p just as well.


I don't know how it looks on either system. But, yeah.

 

[Romier S]

We will no doubt see developers make large gains in how they use the power of the Playstation 3. Without question and I'm utterly and completely DYING to see what the likes of Team Ico, Polyphony Digital and other top tier studios do with the PS3 tech. However, that "superior technology" has yet to be proven and whether its superior or not remains a wash. In many cases it has proven to be more trouble than it's worth to the development community, especially when it comes to ports which have suffered greatly in thier transition to the Playstation 3 (outside of certain exceptions like Oblivion, Call of Duty, Ghost Recon 2 etc.).

The Playstation 3 is notoriously difficult to program for and Sony out of the gate did not do a great job in providing its third parties with the level of tools and support that Microsoft has with its 360. That's a problem and thankfully Sony's recent work with Epic in optimizing thier Unreal engine on the platform along with a renewed intiative to provide better support for thier development partners will help.

Having said all of that, from a purely technical standpoint both systems have thier pluses and minuses. The Xbox 360's unified memory core is a shining example of an area where the 360 shows a distinct advantage over the Playstation 3's split 256mb/256mb memory architecture. My point is I wouldn't get to worked up in touting the Playstation 3 as having such superior technology as both platforms are quite comparable.

 

[Richard Kim]

Considering that Sony is losing a ton of money due to PS3's production costs, I highly doubt that the PS3 will making a profit anytime soon.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Sure, but that wasn't one of the newer titles I was referring to.

This just in from the Spanish Inquisition Dept.: The PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan last week.

Zounds!!!

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

How can you be so sure that they are still losing tons fo money on the PS3? Considering that they have already sold over 6 million PS3s don't you think the production costs must have come down substantially by now? The $399 - 40GB PS3 has several things removed to further reduce the manufacturing cost. You are free to believe what you want but information I have regarding the status as of now, is that Sony is already breaking even on the 80-GB PS3 and only marginally losing money on the 40GB version. One thing most people have overlooked on this forum is that almost 60% of the PS3s sold so far have been outside the US where Sony has all along been selling the PS3 for a much higher price. Another figure that is not commonly known around here is that, while PS3 buyers in the US have so far bought less than 3 games each, their overseas counterparts have bought over 6 games per PS3 sold. Looks like Sony is making a nice profit outside the US where for obvious format war reasons Sony has had to be more price ompetitive.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

The PS3 was not only the top selling console in Japan last week, it was also the top selling console in the rest of the world minus the US. In Japan it outsold the Wii by a margin of 2:1 while the X360 was outsold by the PS3 with a margin of 10:1.
In the US, post 40GB PS3 launch the PS3 sales went up 2.5 times the first week and the following week the sales have almost trebled.

Worldwide sales other than the US, for the week ending November 10, 2007:
PS3: 135,642
WII: 117,156
360: 60,937

Worldwide Sales including the US, for the week ending November 10, 2007:
WII: 309,638
360: 234,832
PS3: 199,430
Looks like that gap is narrowing.

For a supposedly failed product, the PS3 seems to be be moving quite a few units and that too in all the markets where it is priced quite well from Sony's stand point. By the way, it is only in the US & Japan that the PS3 has been selling for a year. In Europe and a few Asian countries it's been only 7-8 months since the PS3 was launched. As for the rest of the world, the PS3 has only been out 3-4 months at most. Sony in it's latest estimates expects to sell 11 million PS3s worldwide by March 2008.

PS: I wonder what these figures say about the difference between the US and the rest of the world market. After all these figures are inspite of the fact that the PS3 has all along been sold for substantially higher price outside the US. Does it suggest that the US consumer is far more price conscious than their overseas counterpart? Or does it suggest that this whole format war has also effected the PS3 sales in the US due to people not sure about what is going to happen to the whole Blu-Ray / HD-DVD issue?

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

I just read an interesting article relating to the graphics abilities of the PS3.

 

[Averry]

This isn't a shot in any direction, just an observation.


Last generation, the PS2's graphical capabilities were in dead last compared to the Cube and the Xbox. It still dominated because of content.


Two generations in a row, power hasn't been the determining factor. It's timing and content.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

You forgot gameplay, but I know you meant to include it. Part of the gameplay equation is controllers, and the PS2 had the best controllers hands down, with XBox's being the worst (like trying to play a videogame using half a jumbo bagel as a controller).

This round, Wii definitely has the coolest controllers and the most ergonomically friendly. PS3's and XBox360's are just subtle revisions of their previously existing controllers (although to MS's credit, the 360 controllers are much easier to handle than the first gen XBox controllers).

Can anyone fill me in on what features have been removed on the 40 GB PS3 to reduce the price?

 

[Averry]

I guess by content I was meaning gameplay and such, right on.


Xbox 360 controllers are definately my favorite. I like that the left thumbstick is on top. I've never liked the playstations sticks.

The Wii uses a remote. Very ingenious to use the one thing that EVERYONE knows how to use. After all, they were aiming for a broad audience. Plus the added motion capibilites based in classic gaming with the classic controller, and nunchuck add on.

I think that the PS3's bluetooth capibility is right on. The ability to use your cellphone headset for the PS3 is neat. Same with keyboards, the use of a mouse.



The PS3 40 gig had a few ports yanked out, like the USB ports, and no longer is backwards compatible.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

That's really going to piss off the gamer who buys one, thinking it will play his 4-week old Guitar Hero III.