Poll: Sony Pulls Out of the Console Race

[jboking]

There has been a lot of rumors circulating about one of the big three console companies dropping out of the console race next generation. Nintendo has already announced that it will be making the Wii U, and MS has been slowly leaking information about their next console. This leaves sony as the one who is, at this point, most likely to pull out. I could personally see this happening because, as far as lifetime sales go, Sony is in third.

This leaves just Nintendo and Microsoft in the race. Concerning that we all known Nintendo is in a secluded little league of their own, that leaves Microsoft to handle the hardcore video game market next generation.

So...How bad do you think that could turn out? I've heard this sort of thing referred to as the "one console future" before. You may ask, how could this possibly be bad? Its easy, with just Microsoft holding onto the hardcore market, they can begin to charge whatever they want for their products. In this situation, their is no major alternative for console gamers but to pay whatever price Microsoft sets. Essentially, without competition, Microsoft would be able to do whatever they want.

I would like to think that MS wouldn't do something bad with its power once it had the monopoly, but history would tell me otherwise.

Edit: Probably worth saying at this point that I understand it is unlikely that Sony would pull out. think of this as a thought exercise. What would you do if it were to come true?

 

[omicron1]

I would recuse myself to the PC completely.

Microsoft has earned my eternal enmity. Frankly, I don't see this vanishing any time soon. Plus, I know that if they have the "hardcore" console market almost entirely to themselves, they'll rapidly become even more intolerable towards their PC audience. Not something to look forward to, gentlemen. Not at all.

 

[way2sl0w]

I'm somewhat excited if this means uncharted, god of war, etc. will finally come to Xbox but otherwise it'll probably be a bad thing if there's no one competing against Microsoft.

 

[omega 616]

Microsoft seem to love that board game!

Anyway last I heard is sony is just putting a console out later than the next xbox. So in a sense they have taken themselvs out of the race but I don't think they are going to just stop making consoles.

Sony has had quite a run with there consoles, basically 2 every generation. PSX, PS1, PS2, PS2 slim, PS3 and then PS3 slim. So I can't see them just saying "nah, PS3 was our last one".

It will probably be released 2 or 3 years after the xbox. So the console war will be "hahaha we have a more powerful machine than the PS3" ... few years later ... "haha we have a more powerful console than the 720 (I guess)" and then the war will stop 'cos I assume the PS4 would blow the 720 out the water by being released so much later.

It's either a very smart move or a very stupid one. By coming out later they could launch a new generation and make the new xbox look like .5 rather than the next generation.

 

[jboking]

I would recuse myself to the PC completely.

Microsoft has earned my eternal enmity. Frankly, I don't see this vanishing any time soon. Plus, I know that if they have the "hardcore" console market almost entirely to themselves, they'll rapidly become even more intolerable towards their PC audience. Not something to look forward to, gentlemen. Not at all.

You will be turning to a PC...that runs on windows DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN.

Seriously though, I think I'd have to pull out of the console market all together. That is, unless another major company decided to get into the console business (I'm looking at you Valve). Imagine a little Steambox that you connected to your TV.


Now clean yourself up.

 

[jboking]

Microsoft seem to love that board game!

Anyway last I heard is sony is just putting a console out later than the next xbox. So in a sense they have taken themselvs out of the race but I don't think they are going to just stop making consoles.

All that I heard was that Sony had no plans to announce a new console. That doesn't mean they're planning on a later release, or even that they aren't going to release a new console. All it means is that they have no plans as of right now. That could really mean anything.

 

[omicron1]

I would recuse myself to the PC completely.

Microsoft has earned my eternal enmity. Frankly, I don't see this vanishing any time soon. Plus, I know that if they have the "hardcore" console market almost entirely to themselves, they'll rapidly become even more intolerable towards their PC audience. Not something to look forward to, gentlemen. Not at all.

You will be turning to a PC...that runs on windows DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN.

Seriously though, I think I'd have to pull out of the console market all together. That is, unless another major company decided to get into the console business (I'm looking at you Valve). Imagine a little Steambox that you connected to your TV.


Now clean yourself up.

Eeeeeyup. Windows. A Microsoft product. Which they have summarily ignored or directly damaged with every chance they've had since, oh, 2005-ish.

In essence, if you're not paying them their Danegeld for each overpriced game, overpriced hard drive, or overpriced month of Live access you buy, they couldn't care less about you. They will offer developers money (or force them, for internal studios) to make games on Xbox, but not on Windows. (Fez, Fable, Halo Wars, Mass Effect (for a while), Alan Wake, most of the Halo games, Jade Empire (for a while)... From 2008 through 2010 they published literally nothing of note on PC, while their Xbox exclusive library filled with titles. And the only reason they're coming back now? The Facebook/casual crowd - as evinced by the gutting of both of their veteran internal Windows studios' core series) They will kill veteran Windows studios for no other reason then that they're not interested in Windows publishing. (FASA, Ensemble Studios) They ostensibly own both platforms, but they only care about the one. And therefore, I don't care about them.

 

[Conza]

There has been a lot of rumors circulating about one of the big three console companies dropping out of the console race next generation. Nintendo has already announced that it will be making the Wii U, and MS has been slowly leaking information about their next console. This leaves sony as the one who is, at this point, most likely to pull out. I could personally see this happening because, as far as lifetime sales go, Sony is in third.

This leaves just Nintendo and Microsoft in the race. Concerning that we all known Nintendo is in a secluded little league of their own, that leaves Microsoft to handle the hardcore video game market next generation.

So...How bad do you think that could turn out? I've heard this sort of thing referred to as the "one console future" before. You may ask, how could this possibly be bad? Its easy, with just Microsoft holding onto the hardcore market, they can begin to charge whatever they want for their products. In this situation, their is no major alternative for console gamers but to pay whatever price Microsoft sets. Essentially, without competition, Microsoft would be able to do whatever they want.

I would like to think that MS wouldn't do something bad with its power once it had the monopoly, but history would tell me otherwise.

I would too, like to 'think' MS wouldn't do something bad with its power, but then it wouldn't be Microsoft, or any other rational business in that situation.

Who remembers, when MS Office wasn't the only product? And it was released for peanuts to drive all the other products out of the market, so everyone bought it, and the likes of Word Perfect and Lotus were history. Then look what happened, a monopoly on the market, it drove the prices up to great heights, and since it was the only one left - we had no choice but to keep buying it, or edit our documents in 'WordPad'.

Anyone, in a monopoly scenario, will be absolutely corrupted by absolute power, but Microsoft would be the worst, followed by Nintendo, then Sony, so in a sense Sony is third - third least evil (but still evil).

Third huh? PS1+PS2+PS3=319 million sales (or near abouts), but let's be fair, and remove the PS1, since Microsoft wasn't in the market then, to give us 216 million sales.

Stack that against Xbox+X360= 90 million sales, I don't see Sony below Microsoft on that count.

Nintendo? 33+22+95=150 million (64+GC+Wii), or 117 million the last 2 generations, Playstation's 319 million beat it more than two to one, its 216 million is nearly double as well... did you research this based on the current console generation only?

Ah yes, your link says "If you want lifetime numbers, Nintendo still wins, with 95 million Wiis sold, beating 66 million Xbox 360s and 62 million PS3s" - The title is a bit of a grab, it's not genuinely true, its a snippet of truth, over a very small period of time, then taken out of context to imply something, which is not the case.

And also, consoles wouldn't be able to do 'whatever they want' there's still gaming PCs to consider, and in a one console scenario, they would likely be priced, higher than now yes, but to compete with people the gaming PC market, so we're talking in the low 4 figures mark, probably coming out at $1000-1200, if they really wanted to sell, at the $700-800 mark.

So, let's be thankful that we will be unlikely to have this doomsday scenario that you theorised here, and move on shall we?

 

[LobsterFeng]

I can't see any of them dropping out of the console market, they all seem to have plenty of money to me.

 

[Fusioncode9]

There has been a lot of rumors circulating about one of the big three console companies dropping out of the console race next generation. Nintendo has already announced that it will be making the Wii U, and MS has been slowly leaking information about their next console. This leaves sony as the one who is, at this point, most likely to pull out.

There hasn't been a lot of rumors. One guy in cloud gaming said that one of the console companies will drop out. I don't see how that is credible in the slightest. Plus, now that Kaz Hirai is president, the chance of a Playstation 4 are higher than ever.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Sony's going to stay. The Playstation one and two have been two of the most profitable products in Sony history. PSP sold very well. P3s was the only weak link in terms of sales, but I don't remember Nintendo dropping out after the GC.

Sorry for my rant but I hate how people make up these ridiculous scenarios with no evidence to support their claims. Please use some logic next time.

 

[gyroc1]

Concerning that we all known Nintendo is in a secluded little league of their own, that leaves Microsoft to handle the hardcore video game market next generation.

...You're joking, right? Right?

Second'ed

Seriously, Nintendo may not have a "hardcore" image but that doesn't mean they can't compete against Microsoft. Nintendo has apparently promised to appeal to the hardcore crowd with the Wii U (oxymoron) more and Microsoft might be trying to appeal to the "casual" gamers with the Kinect.

At the end of the day, aren't we all just consumers?

 

[burningdragoon]

The idea of a "one console future" isn't only one company producing consoles, but multiple companies producing the same console. Much like how DVD players work, or even somewhat like how there are many different companies making PCs, but they all run Windows. I look forward to that happening but I think we have at least 1 more console generation before it does.

To the main point, this isn't a process of elimination you know. Just because we haven't heard much about Sony's next console (other than, you know, the Vita) doesn't mean anything either way about what their plan is. Some pretty wild and not well backed up speculation in here.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Concerning that we all known Nintendo is in a secluded little league of their own, that leaves Microsoft to handle the hardcore video game market next generation.

...You're joking, right? Right?

What's the joke? Nintendo has been doing casual games and 2-3 first party titles every year since the Wii launched. The last hardcore game they released was BRAWL, and that was what, 2008?

I respect Nintendo as a company, but let's please not pretend that Nintendo makes games for "our" crowd, ie: hardcore gamers.

 

[Space Spoons]

In all honesty, I hope that it happens. And when it does, I hope MS and Nintendo follow soon after. With this "make half a game, push it out the door as quick as possible, sell the other half to gamers later as DLC" thing getting more and more out of hand, a second Video Game Crash is looking more and more welcome.

 

[viranimus]

Yeah, Not going to happen. Why would any developer want to get rid of something that instantaneously is out of the gate better protected against copy write infringement and where the largest number of sales exist.

 

[Hellz_Barz]

if Sony needs money right know it would be nuts to pull out, therefore it ain't gonna happen.
they'll probablly just wait last to make sure they beat em all hardware-wise(which probably wont matter with this generation) and then take all the sales of being the new thing. Or not, I'm just guessing really.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I would be happy if they just made more PS2 games of the same caliber they used to be. What the PS2 lacks is hardware it still competes in games.

 

[RoBi3.0]

I would love to know where this rumor is coming from, as I have yet to hear it.

PRO fact checking Hint: The crackhead on the subway does not count a reliable source by any stretch of the imagination.


I doubt Sony is going to pull out anytime soon. Even in 3rd place they still pull in a hell of a lot of money.

Being last doesn't automatically make you a loser. It just makes you less successful. It is quite possible to be less successful then the other guys while still managing to run a profitable business.

 

[Miyam2]

I don't believe this will happen, but if any one group is in charge of what amounts to an entire medium, it's terrible.