Is Sony Messing Up?
Having watched the Sony press conference and thinking about things a little bit more, I think I actually do have to agree that Sony is just following what everyone else is doing. Granted, it has always been a company that has taken innovative ideas (generally from other companies) and brought them to the mainstream audience.
Today, however, all I see is a console that is filled to the brim with so much new technology in the hopes that some of it will stick. Not only that, but it now appears that Sony is backpedaling on some of its initial system specs and removing the HDMI, 802.11 and memory card slots from the lower SKU model ($500) and only including them in the higher-priced version ($600). For the price they are asking, that is just plain crazy and maybe a sign of them becoming far too complacent in the #1 spot.
To make matters worse, the company is even including some new features at the cost of some older, but well-established ones:
"Pursuant to the introduction of this new six-axis sensing system, the vibration
feature that is currently available on DUALSHOCK® and DUALSHOCK®2 controllers for PlayStation and PlayStation®2, will be removed from the new PS3 controller as vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor."
Is the electronics giant really stumbling over its own mistakes? One poster put it like this:
Behold the PS3: the worst decisions made by industry hardware providers in the past 15 years conveniently amalgamated in a single console:
1. The price of the 3DO
2. The size of the Xbox 1
3. The waggle of the Wii
4. The retard pack pricing model of the 360 SKUs
5. The overpriced proprietary media of the N64
He might not be completely right in his analysis, but he does bring up a good point. Sony managed to lead this indusry by being able to predict what people wanted and throwing just enough innovation into the hardware. That skill seems to have virtually disappeared and left a company who just watches and copies.
I'm a big Sony fan, but even I am starting to have major doubts about some of the recent decisions it has been making.... the biggest of which is the price. Who is going to pay $500 for a console that doesn't do that much more than a $400 Xbox 360? It's going to take some serious convincing before the mainstream audience latch onto the PS3. Its only real selling point is technology that most people can probably live without... so why should they pay a premium for it?
I'm going to let today's press conference sink in a little more and provide some more opinions over the next few days. There are still Nintendo's and Microsoft's events to check out... so we'll see how that influences people's new opinions about the Cell-powererd console.
Today, however, all I see is a console that is filled to the brim with so much new technology in the hopes that some of it will stick. Not only that, but it now appears that Sony is backpedaling on some of its initial system specs and removing the HDMI, 802.11 and memory card slots from the lower SKU model ($500) and only including them in the higher-priced version ($600). For the price they are asking, that is just plain crazy and maybe a sign of them becoming far too complacent in the #1 spot.
To make matters worse, the company is even including some new features at the cost of some older, but well-established ones:
"Pursuant to the introduction of this new six-axis sensing system, the vibration
feature that is currently available on DUALSHOCK® and DUALSHOCK®2 controllers for PlayStation and PlayStation®2, will be removed from the new PS3 controller as vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor."
Is the electronics giant really stumbling over its own mistakes? One poster put it like this:
Behold the PS3: the worst decisions made by industry hardware providers in the past 15 years conveniently amalgamated in a single console:
1. The price of the 3DO
2. The size of the Xbox 1
3. The waggle of the Wii
4. The retard pack pricing model of the 360 SKUs
5. The overpriced proprietary media of the N64
He might not be completely right in his analysis, but he does bring up a good point. Sony managed to lead this indusry by being able to predict what people wanted and throwing just enough innovation into the hardware. That skill seems to have virtually disappeared and left a company who just watches and copies.
I'm a big Sony fan, but even I am starting to have major doubts about some of the recent decisions it has been making.... the biggest of which is the price. Who is going to pay $500 for a console that doesn't do that much more than a $400 Xbox 360? It's going to take some serious convincing before the mainstream audience latch onto the PS3. Its only real selling point is technology that most people can probably live without... so why should they pay a premium for it?
I'm going to let today's press conference sink in a little more and provide some more opinions over the next few days. There are still Nintendo's and Microsoft's events to check out... so we'll see how that influences people's new opinions about the Cell-powererd console.
posted by Frosty @ 8:21 PM
3 Comments:
At 4:53 AM,
Anonymous said…
you can get a 360 for $400!? where!?
The only thing I would really be critical of,is the decision to remove dual shock/rumble.I get that its because of that lawsuit,but shit,couldnt they add rumble some otherway? I'll wait for the madcatz controllers that include it.
as for the price thing,I mean really,a friend of mine got his 360 for about 500 and he was excited as hell,he was convinced he got a great deal.I bet 360's are still going for about 800 on ebay.
damn,who would pay that much for a 360?
PS3 has a lock on major franchises except for HAlO,all they really need is comparable graphics to the 360 to be succesful IMO,the price just isnt that big a deal to me.Yes it will hurt my pockets but,after all the xbox360 price gouging,the schock is gone.
I think you can look at the ps3 and find at least some way where it 1ups each competitor,wether it be graphics alone on the Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee or matchin the Inovative features on the 360 + franchise power.
I tip my hat off to sony,I never expected them to ditch the boomerang completely,and I never saw the tilt action controllers coming.But to people claiming it was a last minute thing,Dosent it make sense that the boomerang would have been well suited for that kind of tilt action thing? I think theres the innovation you thought sony was lacking,but they were swayed by public opinion,now Im disappointed that we wont see that boomerang controller,no?
At 5:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well, Steve, kudos to you for actually seeing through your professed Sony bias and calling it like it is. This whole console fanboy thing annoys the hell out of me - we're in it for the games, right, and the entertainment? - so it's good to see that you agree with most of the rest of the industry's impartial observers. Sony has become complacent, no doubt about it, and arrogant. That's what happens when you've had the kind of success they have. They've seriously underestimated Microsoft (as you did) and, while they'll undoubtedly score big market share and great sales, riding on the back of PS2 penetration, industry domination is almost certainly over for them. And what a good thing for gamers that is.
At 1:20 PM,
Frosty said…
Well, I wouldn't say that Sony's industry dominance is over, but they appear to be losing some ground. The one other thing that Sony has going for it is the necessity and reliance on the success of the PS3. Every major division of the company is placing high bets on the console and because of that, I think they will do whatever it takes in order to make it a success. This drive is even greater than Microsoft as only a small portion of that company has any sort of positive boost from sales of the 360. So, I reckon that Sony will lower prices, secure more exclusives, etc. in order to make sure the PS3 dominates. There is simply too much riding on the Blu-ray and Cell CPU for it to be allowed to fail. I could easily imagine a massive price drop for the console if sales slow to prematurely. Also, I don't even think the price matters until around 18 months or so after the console's launch when the more-casual gamers start to show up. At that point, the high cost becomes a concern and Sony will have to make some hard decisions. Until that point, I predict every single unit will be sold.
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