Sony: Price Doesn't Make or Break a Platform

[mjc0961]

He raises an interesting point. While of course his position as PR guy means that obviously he's going to spin things for the company, I don't think he's entirely wrong. As another posted stated, look at Apple. People happily pay twice as much or more than equivalent PCs/laptops because they trust the quality of the brand.

There's another problem for Sony: they don't have that same level of trust in the quality of their brand. At least not from some people. If there's anything I've learned from having a busted launch PS2 that Sony never fixed despite us sending it for repairs multiple times, a launch PS2 slim with a power brick recall (because it just might catch fire and burn your house down), and a launch PS3 that had the blu-ray laser in the disc drive fail and then it gained new features as a space heater and a noise maker 5 minutes after turning the damn thing on, it's that I sure as hell don't trust the quality of the Playstation brand enough to buy any more Playstation products at launch for a premium price. Now I'm more of a "Wait for it to be out for a while and see what problems others have, and hopefully by the time I feel that it's safe to invest, the price has gone down some."
(Same thing for Microsoft though, before someone starts whining about how RRoD is much worse than anything I mentioned above.)

Now Nintendo, those guys have some trust in the quality of their brand. The phrase "made of Nintendium" exists for a reason.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

He raises an interesting point. While of course his position as PR guy means that obviously he's going to spin things for the company, I don't think he's entirely wrong. As another posted stated, look at Apple. People happily pay twice as much or more than equivalent PCs/laptops because they trust the quality of the brand.

There's another problem for Sony: they don't have that same level of trust in the quality of their brand. At least not from some people. If there's anything I've learned from having a busted launch PS2 that Sony never fixed despite us sending it for repairs multiple times, a launch PS2 slim with a power brick recall (because it just might catch fire and burn your house down), and a launch PS3 that had the blu-ray laser in the disc drive fail and then it gained new features as a space heater and a noise maker 5 minutes after turning the damn thing on, it's that I sure as hell don't trust the quality of the Playstation brand enough to buy any more Playstation products at launch for a premium price. Now I'm more of a "Wait for it to be out for a while and see what problems others have, and hopefully by the time I feel that it's safe to invest, the price has gone down some."
(Same thing for Microsoft though, before someone starts whining about how RRoD is much worse than anything I mentioned above.)

Now Nintendo, those guys have some trust in the quality of their brand. The phrase "made of Nintendium" exists for a reason.

We didn't get our PS2 or PS3 at launch, so that may be part of it. There is almost always a curve with new hardware, especially since even the most extensive testing can't find everything. (And regardless of the industry, Murphy's Law makes it pretty easy to release a product you think works fine, then have it blow up 3 days after it comes out.)

I also absolutely agree that Nintendo is incredible. Our Wii has broken twice (2nd time was my fault for accidentally ejecting a game while it was still playing), the first time, they extended our warranty (it ran out a couple months before it broke) so we could get it fixed for free. Second time wasn't covered, but they took good care us, and it's the only time I've ever had issues with one of their products.

 

[viranimus]

Didnt they say something similar before the launch of the PS3 indicating gamers would support buying PS3s at 600$.

This is a bonehead move on a guy who is supposed to be endearing the company to the public, not pissing them off by saying something that is only going to yield infuriation.

I tried to give you a 3rd chance Sony... your really dissapointing me again. I doubt I am the only one.

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

You know, this practically screams "It's going to be a lot of money, so get ready."

I seriously think for the NGP, price could genuinely make or break the thing. If they aim for the iPad level of expensive, then I think they will price them selves out of doing well. I can see a initial price point of about 300 dollars being a reasonable mid ground.

But good luck to them. Let's just hope GameStop's preorder price of $999 is waaaay off.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Price may not be as important as quality, but a too high price puts your product out of reach of a lot of people (especially with the economy the way it is), thus making quality irrelvent. Your machine could be the most advanced piece of hardware on the market, but if no one can afford it, then you just wasted a lot of time, money and resources on something you will not be able to easily get a return on.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well he's right, price alone won't make or break a platform. It's about value for dollar (or whatever currency you use). If you product's price it too high for what consumer's are getting, they sure as hell ain't going to pay it, and I think Sony seriously overestimates the value of it's products.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I suppose I could agree that price by itself doesn't necessarily break a platform... but Sony has to remember that it's the customer who determines the value of a product, and it's up to the customers whether the cost/benefit ratio of a product is in their own, personal favour. Too much of what Sony was pitching in the PS3 was simply not of interest to the average console-seeking family, and a feature you won't use is not a draw.

-- Steve

 

[Gaming King]

Keep on dreamin', Sony.

 

[Zom-B]

Even though I own a PS3 and a PSP 3000 and would like to buy the NGP, I won't if it's too expensive. We waited for the price to come down a bit to get our PS3 and eventually got the MGS4 bundle for what we thought was a good price and after I accidentally trashed the screen on my PSP 1000 I did buy a brand new one at full retail, but I won't spend $400 or even $300 on the NGP. I'll wait for the price to hit $250 before I even consider it.

Unfortunately, it totally feels like, from this article, that Sony is setting us up for a four or five hundred dollar device. Sure, it might be an amazing piece of hardware, but it's not an iPad and if Sony thinks the NGP will sell well at iPad prices, they are being seriously optimistic. Handheld gaming consoles still have a stigma, even if portable and handheld gaming does not, and if Sony doesn't realize that the tablet PCs and smartphones it wants to compete against are on a different playing field than dedicated gaming portables it's going to be PSPGo all over again.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

They've obviously never paid attention to any past consoles

 

[Baldr]

It probably has over $500 worth of components, so unless Sony willing to take a huge loss, the least it could be is $400. Even $250-$300 is a bit high when you can pick up a smart-phone for $100-150 and the game in the next year are going get a lot better with the new publishing platforms.

 

[Rect Pola]

Price does not. VALUE is the sticky wicket and PS3 couldn't sell it for far too long. It honestly had the hardest time figuring out what it was doing compared to say, Wii or DS who had a hard time getting developers to pay attention to at first.

 

[Max Cool]

When the PS3 came it it was a piece of shit because there were no games. They gave up their market domination to Microsoft and then Nintendo.

My impression is they don't have a clue what they're doing. So now they can make excuses that it wasn't price. No, it wasn't, it was releasing a product that was both OVERpriced and for which there was no real demand.

 

[Grond Strong]

I'm not made of money. Price is immensely important to me. Sure, I care about quality, but it's a mute point when I can't even afford it. Better to have something with fewer features for less than it is to have nothing at all.

 

[NeoGuardian86]

lol. i must disagree with Sony.


price can totally make or break a platform.

It's not the sole factor, but it's a major factor.

 

[tkioz]

What a load of bollocks.

When I was choosing my latest console, my choices were the 360, PS3, and Wii I made my choice based on four criteria:

1) Selection of Games. That alone narrowed it down to the 360 and PS3 for the most part. There were some Wii only games that were interesting, but the 360 and the PS3 both supported games I wanted that you couldn't get on the Wii, neither had exclusives that were very compelling though.

2) Online support, PSN and XBL were running neck and neck, both fairly even, XBLA had somethings I liked better, PSN had other things, but it balanced out, the Wii's offering were pathetic at the time.

3) The PS3 was the winner here, but I honestly didn't and don't care enough about Blu-Ray to factor that in, but the 360s graphics were far from poor. The Wii game off poorly, I find motion controllers obnoxious and annoying, and the graphics looked like something out of the 90s.

4) Price. The Wii was the clear winner here, but between point 1, 2, and 3 it was already out of the running, so it came down to two consoles that were about neck and neck. The 360 with a 60GB hard drive, Gears of War (didn't care about that, honestly only played the first level) and a second controller was $399AU, the PS3 basic with no games and only one controller was $599AU at the time. That's $200 or better known as a weeks rent, or in this case 5 games that I picked up with the 360.

So yeah, Sony is talking our there ass here, I don't know anyone who would consider price to be a non-factor unless you were desperate to play one of the handful of exclusives that are on the PS3 (I wouldn't mind playing Uncharted 2 TBH, but it's not worth buying an entire console for), desperately want a Blu-Ray console, or are a die hard Sony Fanboy.

 

[EonEire]

Yeah my PSP and PSP GO! proved its price AND lack of support from Sony that make or break it. And that statement is stupid Sony, if nobody can afford to buy the bloody thing without a big consideration on the price then how do you expect sales to happen in a steady stream? And in what will game sales look like when people don't have the bloody console?

 

[teknoarcanist]

"Something lousy and inexpensive won't be successful"

Gee I wonder how Nintendo's doing these days . . .

 

[WanderingFool]

Just a thought, when they release the NGP, will they drop the PS3 price? I only ask because I dont want to spend $300 on one still...

I know, Im a greedy bastard, arent I?

 

[Zenn3k]

I can tell you for a fact the price of the PS3 kept me from buying it, have a 360 instead.

Even when the price dropped, I couldn't justify replacing my 360 with it by that point.

I'll likely never own a PS3. This coming from a avid PS1 and PS2 gamer in days past.