Did Sony really have to release the PS3 to compete with the 360?

O

OutOfGum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2003
Messages
182
Did Sony have to (try to) copy MS and release a new console when they did?

It seems like Sony could have waited another year to release the PS3. That would allow devs more time to develop games, drive down the cost of blu-ray, and prevent the blue diode / cell shortages.

In the last 11 of the last 12 months, the PS2 has outsold the 360. Sony sells each PS2 at a profit, and with the huge install base, games released are very profitable. Additionally, some of the best looking games are coming out now (notably FFXII), and are doing very well.

The PS3 is coming pretty soon after the 360, I think too soon. A simultaneous launch would have been good for Sony (bad for MS) because of brand loyalty, but one year later is a bad time to do it. The 360 is still considered next gen, and many 360 owners don't feel the need to get a new system. But if PS3 launched 2 years after 360 that should be enough time to generate interest from everyone.

Perhaps Sony should have focused on pushing the PS2, not hyped the PS3, and released a lot of really good games for the PS2. They would have no (less) debt now, could use their 100 million+ installed base really effectively, and spent more time getting their new console right.

This came to my mind when I read month after month that the PS3 was beating the 360 in sales (zomg, wtf?). So do they really need the PS3 now?? I realize that at some point it would bite them in the ass. But not yet. Microsoft NEEDED to launch a new console. PS2 was absolutely kicking its ass, and MS has some strange fixation on getting into the Japanese market, which would never happen with the original xbox (and still won't happen with the 360). With the PS2 doing so well, they didn't need to rush.
 
yes Sony needed to release it this year as opposed to the same time next year. By this time next year the Wii and 360 will probably easily have sold 15 million + consoles each, perhaps closer to 20 million each. That would pose an insurmountable lead.

They probably should have waited for the spring 2007 though before doing the launch.
 
Another 6 months and you'd have probably seen HD-DVD taking blu-ray to the cleaners in sales. (It was already pretty handily ahead). Sony really couldn't afford for that to happen.
 
sony fucked this one up big time. They sold over 100 million PS2 consoles, yet how many PS3s did they have at launch???

~140,000 or around there???
 
Psychotext said:
Another 6 months and you'd have probably seen HD-DVD taking blu-ray to the cleaners in sales. (It was already pretty handily ahead). Sony really couldn't afford for that to happen.
Click to expand...

QFT.
 
Yes I think Sony had to come out with it now. It would have been hell for Sony to have both their competitors roll out a new system and they wait until 2007/2008 to launch their new one. People would have moved on I think.
 
After seeing this Yellowdog Linux for PS3(loooots of capabilites) just coming out, and seeing how it just came out compared to the 360 which has been out for a while now, I believe PS3 is going to sell the most in the long run.

They are selling like furby's still... cmon. They have no shelf life what so ever!

Just to add, I even want a PS3 now! I would of never thought I would be interested when it came out.
 
Psychotext said:
Another 6 months and you'd have probably seen HD-DVD taking blu-ray to the cleaners in sales. (It was already pretty handily ahead). Sony really couldn't afford for that to happen.
Click to expand...

And to add to that, the technology in the Playstation 3 is already a year old as it is. Microsoft is entering their second-generation with games like Gears of War and Viva Pinata. They're going to have a hard enough time convincing people to believe that the PS3 is more impressive in reality; with this hypothetical, they would never be able to do it.
 
Luxor said:
After seeing this Yellowdog Linux for PS3(loooots of capabilites) just coming out, and seeing how it just came out compared to the 360 which has been out for a while now, I believe PS3 is going to sell the most in the long run.

They are selling like furby's still... cmon. They have no shelf life what so ever!

Just to add, I even want a PS3 now! I would of never thought I would be interested when it came out.
Click to expand...

why buy a $600 console to run Linux on? If the only selling point the PS3 has is that it can run Linux it will loose out. They need good software to move the PS3. I think in the end it will be a close race between them all. Look how long it took for the PS2 to really start ramping up in the games department. And the reason they have no shelf life is because of the lack of units being produced. I mean sure even if they had more being shipped they would sell but it would be much easier to be able to get one if there were more being shipped. And when you get right down to it people who are saying that Sony is going to burn with PS3 is just assinine seeing as how the console has not even been out for a month yet. Come back a year after the launch date and see what it is doing.
 
It's possible that the Linux support might hurt them in the long run. People have already managed to dump Blu-Ray disks to the HDD; it's just a matter of time before they get an app that will load them.
 
WaterIsTasty said:
are you retarded or something?
Click to expand...

:confused:

I am mearly noting about how many consoles that Nintendo sold than Sony. Nintendo makes a profit off of their Wii while Sony does not. And don't call ppl names it's rude and against the TSA! :rolleyes:
 
WaterIsTasty said:
are you retarded or something?
Click to expand...

That was rather harsh. His post wasn't that clear and I did ask him to clarify, but you really didn't need to be calling people names or anything.
 
WaterIsTasty said:
are you retarded or something?
Click to expand...

Are you? You misunderstood his point. Nintendo has sold 4 times as many units as Sony, which means they have made 16x as much money (Nintendo makes ~200 per console, Sony loses ~200 per console)
 
Er, if Nintendo makes $200 profit per console that means it costs $50 to manufacture. That certainly doesn't seem correct.
 
finalgt said:
Er, if Nintendo makes $200 profit per console that means it costs $50 to manufacture. That certainly doesn't seem correct.
Click to expand...

While I agree $200 per console seems high, you do have to look at the fact that it is simply a little more powerful GC in a different shell. The costs to manufacture the internal components is next to nothing for them. Plus when you look at the fact that MS is already turning a profit on the 360 of something like $50-$80 it is not out of the realm of possibility that Nintendo is making even more than that with the Wii.
 
Luxor said:
After seeing this Yellowdog Linux for PS3(loooots of capabilites) just coming out, and seeing how it just came out compared to the 360 which has been out for a while now, I believe PS3 is going to sell the most in the long run.
Click to expand...

Congrats, you're one of the minute percentage of PS3 owners who will run Linux on their box.

It's hardly even a selling point in the larger picture of things.
 
Blauman said:
While I agree $200 per console seems high, you do have to look at the fact that it is simply a little more powerful GC in a different shell. The costs to manufacture the internal components is next to nothing for them. Plus when you look at the fact that MS is already turning a profit on the 360 of something like $50-$80 it is not out of the realm of possibility that Nintendo is making even more than that with the Wii.
Click to expand...
Even if the specs and capabilites put it at "Gamecube 1.5" the components are still different (i.e. Broadway/Hollywood vs. Gekko/Flipper) and I'm sure ATi isnt giving those away.

There is no way the console is costing them only $50 to produce.

I'd expect it more to be $50 profit per console perhaps, but that's still a nice position to be in comparitively to the other two at their launch.
 
Blauman said:
While I agree $200 per console seems high, you do have to look at the fact that it is simply a little more powerful GC in a different shell. The costs to manufacture the internal components is next to nothing for them. Plus when you look at the fact that MS is already turning a profit on the 360 of something like $50-$80 it is not out of the realm of possibility that Nintendo is making even more than that with the Wii.
Click to expand...

None of the consoles are especially expensive to produce, except the PS3. The money goes into recovering development costs.
 
pcfan10110 said:
Check http://nexgenwars.com/ and look at both the PS3 and the Wii. LMAO! :p
Click to expand...

It's going to be like that for a while. Last gen, the PS2 had a year head start and it stomped on the competition. The 360 had the same lead and it's a solid system at a good price. The Wii and PS3 are more specialty items at this point.
 
blazingrig said:
Who buys consoles to use linux more than playing games?? I mean if you don't have a PC then the email/chat applets might be usefull. But in this day and age who doesn't have a PC? Sony is just trying to cater to PC/Linux users more. The majority of people are going to be playing games, not using Linux on their PS3.
Click to expand...

Who in thier right mind would want to cater to the linux crowd? Those people are a bunch of foaming at the mouth MS haters who do nothing but drive people away. I wouldn't use linux just because I don't want to be associated with them.
 
pr0pensity said:
It's going to be like that for a while. Last gen, the Dreamcast had a year head start and it stomped on the competition...
Click to expand...

fixed it for you.
love the irony.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
fixed it for you.
love the irony.
Click to expand...

the hype machine definitly killed the dreamcast, it actually was a pretty decent system.
 
sculelos said:
the hype machine definitly killed the dreamcast, it actually was a pretty decent system.
Click to expand...

Oh I totally agree, I used to love SegaNet.

PS2 came out, SegaNet closed, and Dreamcast died a slow death.
No fucking reason for that shit. Gaming wise the Dreamcast did in one year, what the PS2 took 5 to do.

Oh, lets not forgot EA fucking Sega. They simply would not develop for Dreamcast. With a Madden launch for Sony, Dumbass fan boys killed the Dreamcast.

Daytona USA
Quake 3
Phantasy Star Onine
NFL2K1
.....

You could not touch SegaNet in 2000.
... I'm going to stop now, lest my hatred for Sony boils to explosion.
 
Yeah, and remember how PS2 was supposed to be "2x" faster than Dreamcast? LOL, Dreamcast has double the video memory of the PS2! And tons of Dreamcast games had Anti-Aliasing, where Anti-Aliasing in a PS2 game is somewhat rare. What a piece of crap...
 
LeviathanZERO said:
Oh I totally agree, I used to love SegaNet.

PS2 came out, SegaNet closed, and Dreamcast died a slow death.
No fucking reason for that shit. Gaming wise the Dreamcast did in one year, what the PS2 took 5 to do.

Oh, lets not forgot EA fucking Sega. They simply would not develop for Dreamcast. With a Madden launch for Sony, Dumbass fan boys killed the Dreamcast.

Daytona USA
Quake 3
Phantasy Star Onine
NFL2K1
.....

You could not touch SegaNet in 2000.
... I'm going to stop now, lest my hatred for Sony boils to explosion.
Click to expand...


you're making me cry, stop please. ty.
 
No, the PS3 definitely had to come out now.

With the 360 at such a huge lead, limited quantity and the format wars it pretty much was now or never.
I still the PS3 will do just fine. It is so incredibly early to try and judge how things will turn out. I do think the 360 will take larger piece of the market than expected though and I still think the Wii will take less than expected in the long run.

We will see though. We can all dream that it is a 33-33-33 split.

The numbers on that nextgen site are a little deceiving only because both the Wii and PS3 are sold out pretty much everywhere. So it is not necessarily that the Wii is selling better, it just has more to sell. But hey, that may not be true.
 
Who gives a shit? Neither one of the 3 will die off. We all know this. If you want a PS3/360/Wii go buy one if its available.
 
CodeX said:
Are you? You misunderstood his point. Nintendo has sold 4 times as many units as Sony, which means they have made 16x as much money (Nintendo makes ~200 per console, Sony loses ~200 per console)
Click to expand...

LOL

Nintendo is actually currently losing a little bit of money on each Wii sold.

"In contrast, Harrison said, the Wii's sale price is only a little higher than its manufacturing cost, and that by next year, Nintendo will make a profit on every unit sold."
source : http://www.boston.com/business/pers...6/11/17/with_wii_nintendo_woos_casual_gamers/

While that quote does say the 249.99 price tag is slightly higher than manufacturing cost keep in mind, shipping, the fact that retailers take a $12.50 cut out of each Wii sold and you can see how N is losing a small amount on each Wii.
 
I think his point was that they're losing like $20 maybe, as opposed to $300+ per system.
 
Sony could have waited another 6 months or a year before having to release the PS3 because the PS2 is still wicked successful and it's still pushing new titles. One reason why I Sony released the PS3 could have been to push development on the PS3 in order to be more compeditive at an earlier date to push the X360 out of the market.
 
Sorry, if the Wii only ran Nintendo $50 a peice, it would be much closer to the $100 price point they were shooting for.
 
Erasmus354 said:
LOL

Nintendo is actually currently losing a little bit of money on each Wii sold.

"In contrast, Harrison said, the Wii's sale price is only a little higher than its manufacturing cost, and that by next year, Nintendo will make a profit on every unit sold."
source : http://www.boston.com/business/pers...6/11/17/with_wii_nintendo_woos_casual_gamers/

While that quote does say the 249.99 price tag is slightly higher than manufacturing cost keep in mind, shipping, the fact that retailers take a $12.50 cut out of each Wii sold and you can see how N is losing a small amount on each Wii.
Click to expand...

Nintendo is already making massive profits on the Wii... Did you forget the acessories... the controllers etc get huge mark up for Nintendo. Not to mention the games etc.
 
nullzero said:
Nintendo is already making massive profits on the Wii... Did you forget the acessories... the controllers etc get huge mark up for Nintendo. Not to mention the games etc.
Click to expand...
Same deal with the 360, you really think the wireless 360 controller costs $50 to make? I would top that thing at $5. The wiimotes are likely more expensive than it, actually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top