Sony saved by success of Wii

[Citizen G'kar]

Originally Posted by hdinred

PS3 has been "saved" by Sony continually pricing the system below cost and taking on huge losses.

To think that Wii stopped some huge Xbox momentum that "would become embedded as the system of choice" is rewriting history. Microsoft was hardly concerned about the casual gamer until they saw what Nintendo was doing and the success they were having.

360 has been "saved" by Microsoft's deep coffers which helped it deal with huge initial losses and RROD.

See how the truth has more than one side.

The article is true in that the Wii deftly carved a niche that included the price-conscious console-consumer. This cut into the 360's market more than the PS3's.

The article also implies that the Wii will be largely hindered by the fact that it is basically a gamecube with a Wiimote and thus always had a much shorter lifespan than the other consoles.

Truth be told in terms of worldwide sales, the PS3 and 360 are basically the same. 30 million versus 24 million is not a big difference, and certainly not a big enough one to ensure exclusivity of anything without Microsoft paying big bucks. The PS2 got a ton of exclusive simply because it was so dominant. The 360 never got into that position and thus, it's allowing the system with features more appropriate for a long lifespan to "win" whatever that means.

I think its pretty clear that the PS3 will be around for a long time and that it may be even longer than 6 years for the PS4 to come out given a longer cycle.

I'm not sure the same can be said about the 360 if a lot of Microsoft's rolled out services don't work out, mainly their streaming services and natal.

Given those assumptions Sony may actually "win" by the end of this generation, long after anyone on this board really cares and when all the fanboys are screaming about how wii 1.1 is better than xbox 720 and the severely delayed PS4.

[hdinred]

Originally Posted by Citizen G'kar

Truth be told in terms of worldwide sales, the PS3 and 360 are basically the same. 30 million versus 24 million is not a big difference, and certainly not a big enough one to ensure exclusivity of anything without Microsoft paying big bucks. The PS2 got a ton of exclusive simply because it was so dominant. The 360 never got into that position and thus, it's allowing the system with features more appropriate for a long lifespan to "win" whatever that means.

Which is a huge Microsoft victory this generation. They managed to take away a huge 3rd party advantage from PlayStation.

Funny how some are now acting as if this was Xbox's generation to win and PS3 was always the underdog.

[Nighthawk]

Originally Posted by hdinred

Which is a huge Microsoft victory this generation. They managed to take away a huge 3rd party advantage from PlayStation.

Funny how some are now acting as if this was Xbox's generation to win and PS3 was always the underdog.

With a starting price of $599, the PS3 was never the favorite in this generation from the beginning.

[Pyrochaos]

This is the worst thread I have ever read. And I've read a thread titled "This is the worst thread you will ever read."

[hdinred]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

With a starting price of $599, the PS3 was never the favorite in this generation from the beginning.

Sony had 10 years of dominating the market under their belt, along with priority support from retail and developers (that they rightfully earned). There were quite a few, Sony included, who thought the $599 was a minor speed bump.

[GizmoDVD]

I thought the Wii took away the 'casual' gamers who owned PS2s and would have bought PS3s instead?

[RedRedSuit]

Originally Posted by vinnie97

When avid PS3 fans are calling out your ridiculous bias, it might be time to re-assess your plastic/silicon-worshiping position.

Stop reading posts made by people you're ignoring! Come on.

[Onslaught X]

Originally Posted by hdinred

Sony had 10 years of dominating the market under their belt, along with priority support from retail and developers (that they rightfully earned). There were quite a few, Sony included, who thought the $599 was a minor speed bump.

The day the $599 bombshell was dropped, I think a lot of people realized right then that Sony was going to take a hit. Did we still expect them to lose? No, not really, but I don't think we expected it to be total rear entry domination. The gaming community was literally on fire. Gamefaqs and NeoGAF were a total mess. Hundreds of topics saying "MASSIVE DAMAGE" or "599 US DOLLARS" were plastered all over the boards. Minor speed bump? Judging by the instant hatred of the PS3 by the community that fateful night in May, it seemed like a major one. Didn't help that everybody thought the Sixaxis was a total joke, and to this day, E3 2006 for Sony is considered one of the worst (if not the worst) conference of all time at E3.

Seems like more than just a minor speed bump. And to MS' credit, since 2004, with the release of Halo 2, the Xbox had gained a significant amount of momentum in establishing themselves, and with a year headstart, I think it was to be expected that the Xbox 360 would gain plenty of marketshare. And with marketshare, came lots of former third party exclusives. Didn't help that cost of development jumped significantly from the last generation to this one. So while it's an MS victory all right, there was still plenty of reason to believe that they were going to gain a lot of what they have anyway in the first place. Just not quite to the degree of what has happened.

[TheAnalogKid]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

I thought the Wii took away the 'casual' gamers who owned PS2s and would have bought PS3s instead?

Sounds plausible to me. There were huge, huge numbers of casual gamers who had a PS2. Those people either ended up migrating to the WII or just dropped 'gaming' altogether. Tons of people had a PS2 just because it played dvd's and cd's.

[BladeofTheImmortal]

God of War 3 is going to be the bee's knees.

[Averry]

When I bought an Xbox, I though this is great, but it's gonna be a bummer when Sony kicks Microsofts ass again.

That never happened, and I started to become surprised.

[Peace Pulpit]

Sony rushing in a $600 system in 2006 was not an attempt at dominating the game industry. It was meant to stymie growth of competitors, introduce cell based CPUs, and wield a dominant Blu-ray. Of all places this very website should understand the importance of the last point, since it basically played out in almost hilarious detail in this very subforum.

A competitively priced, non Blu-ray, spec for spec upgrade over the 360 was not an option for Sony. Unlike Microsoft, Sony's console is not a me-too.

Although Nintendo has always been successful, even with the "last place" gamecube. The Wii was the biggest short term payoff in gaming history that I can think of. It sure has damaged them in many regards but the total gigantic payoff for hardware is unmatched.

Microsoft's attempt at managing mediocrity for profitability is their full hand. The problem is that they are being assaulted on a quadruple front. If Natal doesn't explode and challenge the Wii then it's a blown load from Microsoft. Microsoft has almost completely ceded to PS3 in terms of the "core" gamer now. Their one initiative to control all of game development is flustering around (XNA) and was matched brilliantly by Sony (subsidized development cost).

The surprising thing about 2010 is that it looks completely ugly for Microsoft. The back-logged development of PS3 titles and money-hats are culminating for 2010 to be truly, actually, the year of the PS3.

Microsoft's silver lining is in their pavlov dog-esque fanbase who will pony up for less creativity and more streamlined graphics. They can wield a sizable force of foam at the mouth gamers but they can't expand like Nintendo or have the potential of Sony. They are being stared down by Apple, have looming pressure from mutual sources (linux, wikipedia) and are generally being outplayed by most non mega corporations.

Natal is indeed the last stand for Microsoft. Either they make people a believer or they become increasingly irrelevant.

[Godstar]

Originally Posted by miDnIghtEr

confirmed. Macd is back. possible HUS3.

I don't think macd was that literate, at least not able to string together so many sentences correctly without loss of capitalization and punctuation.

[GizmoDVD]

2010 is the year of PS3? Phew.

[Peace Pulpit]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

2010 is the year of PS3? Phew.

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