Fortune Magazine: How Nintendo is beating Sony and Microsoft

[LightPhoenix]

Well, it would seem Sony is starting to get the hint:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/archives/100-ps3-price-drop-starts-july-12.php

Only $100, but that's still a lot.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Well, it would seem Sony is starting to get the hint:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/archives/100-ps3-price-drop-starts-july-12.php

Only $100, but that's still a lot.

It was definitely only a matter of time.

Question is if $100 is really enough, but I guess we'll see. Doesn't solve their game problem, though.

Course, it means its even cheaper to get a Blu-Ray player now if it comes down to that.

 

[John Crichton]

Yeah, just read that myself. But considering it's yet to be confirmed I'm rating the 360's three year warranty extension as a bigger deal for the time being.

This is a good thing for early adopters as the rate of failing 360's is alarming. A piece of $400 hardware shouldn't crap out that easily. I'm just waiting for mine to die fully. Too bad it doesn't have the rock-solid build of the PS3. That thing really feels like a next-gen machine ... that at the moment is serving mostly as a BR player. Doh!

This is also why I firmly believe that the console races haven't really started yet. The Wii is a different beast altogether, the 360's hardware (for whatever reason) is faulty and Microsoft feels the need to keep upgrading it and the PS3 is just begging for a few quality titles to flex its muscles. Things should even out a bit as the 360 will still have trouble in Japan, the PS3 lost some critical exclusives and the Wii continues to not meet consumer demand.

 

[John Crichton]

Somehow, I missed this post before...

Just as PCs didn't break out until the industry explained why ordinary people needed them -- Quicken, the Internet, etc. -- consoles need to explain why they're a must-have for someone other than unmarried dudes. Sony simply hasn't done that.

And as a PS2 owner, it amuses me how many games are still coming out for it, and how many great games are available for it, compared to the PS3. My wife and I would have upgraded to the PS3 if there was any compelling reason for us to do so, but between the problematic backwards compatibility and no new games of the franchises we're interested in -- not even the latest installment of the horrible things they've done to the Spyro franchise -- they simply didn't bother to upsell us at all.

And that's Sony's fault, and no one else's.

I agree to a point. They really don't have much to sell right now. Is it their fault their in-house devs didn't get the games out earlier? Yes, and the blame stops right there.

For a gamer who doesn't really dig on the HD stuff, there is no reason at all to get a PS3 yet. Which is one of the reasons the price doesn't matter. It's the people like myself who are early adopters or just want all the HD machinery (or Sony fans) they can get their hands on that are buying it. So it's fine for their to be a premium price.

When they have some must-have games (late '07/early '08?) is when they are going to need to start weening PS2 owners to the new console. Which is the opposite strategy MS took. They dropped Xbox development and support altogether not to mention the legacy support was terrible. Not that I'm saying what they did was a bad move but it would have been nice to be able to play all my Xbox games on the new box, upgrades or not.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Yeah, just read that myself. But considering it's yet to be confirmed I'm rating the 360's three year warranty extension as a bigger deal for the time being.

This is a good thing for early adopters as the rate of failing 360's is alarming. A piece of $400 hardware shouldn't crap out that easily.

This is completely anecdotal, but my friend has had five 360's die on him... he has two, so that's still (on average) two and three times he's had each console fail. That's still a lot, IMO. It reminds me of the hard drive problems the original XBox had.

I know you and I are on rather opposite ends of the next-gen thought process, but I will give you one thing - Sony does generally make products that last.

 

[ohGr]

Well, it would seem Sony is starting to get the hint:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/archives/100-ps3-price-drop-starts-july-12.php

Only $100, but that's still a lot.

This says otherwise.

So, it's either 1. "We have no plans to drop the price on the PS3 at the moment (although we really do, we're just waiting until E3 to announce it);" or, 2. Circuit City is just trying to dump some of its PS3 stock with a sale.

Normally, i'd say 1 is the most likely proposition, but with the way the PS3 is selling...

 

[Vigilance]

Yeah, just read that myself. But considering it's yet to be confirmed I'm rating the 360's three year warranty extension as a bigger deal for the time being.

This is a good thing for early adopters as the rate of failing 360's is alarming. A piece of $400 hardware shouldn't crap out that easily. I'm just waiting for mine to die fully. Too bad it doesn't have the rock-solid build of the PS3. That thing really feels like a next-gen machine ... that at the moment is serving mostly as a BR player. Doh!

This is also why I firmly believe that the console races haven't really started yet. The Wii is a different beast altogether, the 360's hardware (for whatever reason) is faulty and Microsoft feels the need to keep upgrading it and the PS3 is just begging for a few quality titles to flex its muscles. Things should even out a bit as the 360 will still have trouble in Japan, the PS3 lost some critical exclusives and the Wii continues to not meet consumer demand.

I actually agree with all this. I know, I was shocked too

One thing I'd add is that the Wii really needs a firmware update so I can run games off SD cards, or a hardware update with a larger HD. With all the great VC games, and new games coming next year, that HD is filling up crazy quick.

 

[John Crichton]

This is completely anecdotal, but my friend has had five 360's die on him... he has two, so that's still (on average) two and three times he's had each console fail. That's still a lot, IMO. It reminds me of the hard drive problems the original XBox had.

Yikes! And this is not the first time I've read horror stories of multiple 360's dying on a single owner. Luckily, I was able to self-fix the cooling problem on mine.

I know you and I are on rather opposite ends of the next-gen thought process, but I will give you one thing - Sony does generally make products that last.

With the exception of the original Playstation. That thing was a POS. Still more reliable than the 360, tho...

 

[Vigilance]

Price Drop Confirmed

Looks like the whole "it's not the price" debate has been settled.

For Sony to be offering a major price drop this early in the game is a huge admission that the original price was too high.

They're also offering a PS3 with a larger HD and a game bundled in at the original $599 price.

IMO, these are both excellent moves and should help the console get some traction.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173806.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Looks like the whole "it's not the price" debate has been settled.

For Sony to be offering a major price drop this early in the game is a huge admission that the original price was too high.

They're also offering a PS3 with a larger HD and a game bundled in at the original $599 price.

IMO, these are both excellent moves and should help the console get some traction.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173806.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Its not settled yet. Part of it might be the price, but if they lower the price and it STILL doesn't sell, well...its more than just the price. Or maybe the price wasn't the real problem before.

Still too early to really make a call until we see what happens because of this.

It just means Sony is trying something...but note that they're ONLY doing this price drop in North America, not everywhere.