Loading ...Is Sony Trying To Lose The Next Gen Console Wars?
As I write this I am amazed at the hubris that Sony continually displays. If you read this blog then you obviously know that I am a PlayStation 3 fan but if Sony is not careful they could end up on the outside looking in. I think that from a technical standpoint that Sony has the superior console but as was proved the last time around the technologically superior console does not always win. The key to winning the console wars is market saturation, you need to have your console in more homes than the other guys.
Will gamer’s start to say no to Sony if they don’t make a price cut on the PS3?
I thought that Sony understood this, but as the Wii started out at a very low price and Microsoft has recently dropped the price of the XBOX 360 it would seem that Sony would get the picture. Sony’s unwillingness to lower the price of the PS3 console is the biggest mistake that they could make at this point. It has been a few years since the consoles hit the market and there is yet to be a clear winner, what does this mean?
This means that gamers aren’t sold on any console yet. People like the Wii but they have two major problems, they can’t seem to make enough of them to meet demand which is costing them so much money and its not a hardcore gamer’s console. The XBOX 360 has some great exclusives such as Halo and Gears of War series however it has some unusually high failure rates. That leaves you with the PS3, which has the horsepower to do just about anything, is relatively stable, and has a huge following from the PS2. The problem with the PS3 now though is that it doesn’t have nearly as many worthwhile exclusives and its about $200 more than the other guys. The part about the exclusives can be work around but the price point difference is unacceptable, especially in this economy. When it comes down to Christmas and a parent has to decide between a PS3 console at $399 and a XBOX 360 at $199, no matter what the kid really want this is an easy choice.
Which one do you prefer?
As the maker of a non-essential item in a weak economy, Sony needs to wake up and smell what’s cooking like Microsoft and Nintendo have. The name of this game is solidifying yourself as the console of choice and if Sony is not careful they will lose this round and if they do it will be no one’s fault but theirs. The bottom line to this post is that Sony needs to get it together and match Microsoft price for price on the PS3 or risk conceding the next gen console war to Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony’s current price point is a prohibitive factor right now and needs to be corrected. Get it together Sony or risk going the way of the dinosaur.
[polldaddy poll=1092933]
7 Comments
As of right now if we don’t see a price drop I will have to say “No Sony”
I agree that at this point there is no clear winner. In owning all 3 consoles, I will honestly say that the PS3 is the one that I use the most. I wouldn’t say that it’s all gaming either. I use it for the Blu-Ray/DVD capabilities just as much as gaming so for me, the PS3 is the clear winner in my household.
For straight gaming, it’s pretty much a tie between the PS3 and the360 for me. There are some really great exclusives for both and it’s obvious that if you want to enjoy all of them, you’ll need both systems anyway.
The Wii has been getting dusty for quite some time now. I really haven’t spent that much time on it since Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Kart. Both are awesome games but there really hasn’t been anything attracting me back to the system since.
Oh yeah, some last notes… online play is free for the PS3, it has built in blue tooth and wireless capabilities, you can use any 2.5″ laptop HDD to upgrade the space and lastly, you can share your downloaded games to 4 other PS3s. If you have 4 friends with PS3′s, that could mean a lot of cheap downloadable games/content if everyone could agree on splitting costs
Wipeout HD for roughly $4 and Burnout Paradise for around $8 after dividing costs = awesomeness!
Thanks Gil, for a nice logical well expressed argument. It’s tough to get people to talk about this topic with any semblance of objectivity, always love good discussion.
You made a lot of good points, a lot of them I mentioned in a post almost a year ago when I talked about the reasons to buy each console, anyone can check that out here.
http://zoknowsgaming.com/2007/12/31/ps3360wiiwhichtobuy/
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Great post! I just started today reading your blog… I just got an 80G PS3 so Im new to this PS3 blogs, and I found yours interesting and objective. I have to say that in the last paragraph you kind of confused me a bit with "The bottom line to this post is that Sony needs to get it together and match Microsoft price for price on the PS3 or risk conceding the next gen console war to Sony and Nintendo." I guessed you meant MS and Nintendo in the last 3 words… anyway great post. On the other hand, I have finished COD WAW and havent got that Bluray issue you have mentioned on other posts, could it be random? or maybe in some systems…? The thing is, Im not risking my piece of hardware over a software that I already have finished, if you know what I mean…
Colombian Gamer, PS3 owner. COD WAW veteran!
Thanks for the comments. Glad you found our blog and we hope that you will come back often and tell all you friends about us
. Thanks for catching the typo, you had it exactly right that's what we meant to write. The COD blu-ray issue is an odd one, but as you can probably tell from the comments no matter whether everyone gets it or not, its definitely a real issue. Yeah, after I got a new PS3 I finished WAW without an issue, don't know what causes it besides what the guy told me and what I wrote in the story but its weird. Will it stop us from playing MW2, probably not but if it happens again there are going to be issues 
. Anyway glad to have you Juan, hope you join the site and the forums and become a big part of our community. Thanks.