What Sony needs to learn from Microsoft

[migo]

Something I've found frustrating with the PS3 is the lack of good bundles. There was the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle, that was a limited time affair and it's the only good one to come out. Other than that it was the crappy Spider Man Blu Ray bundle, and the not very interesting Uncharted and Motorstorm bundles. When Little Big Planet launched there wasn't an LBP bundle (at least not in North America), there's no Final Fantasy XIII bundle - pretty much nothing. The Xbox 360 always has several bundles running concurrently, with sometimes 2-4 games included with a system purchase. They've hit both games that are in high demand like Final Fantasy XIII as well as the less interesting ones like Tomb Raider and Viva Piñata, but nonetheless there's some variety there to choose from.

Microsoft also sells controllers with games, either the black pack with Lumines Live, Bomberman Live, Geometry Wars and Ms Pac Man or the white pack with Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts and Viva Piñata. Again, not necessarily the best titles out there, but at least it's something that gets you playing, and probably contributes to the attach rate.

Sony really should have several concurrent bundles with games in different genres throughout the year, and go as high as 4 or 5 titles with some of them as well, particularly during the holiday season, and do a solid mix of older titles that are going to have sequels and new highly hyped titles. Selling a system with Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, inFamous and Killzone 2 would be a pretty solid set up for LBP2, GT5, inFamous 2 and Killzone 3 coming out in the next year. Alternatively, when Killzone 3, LBP2 or GT5 come out they should sell special edition bundles like the MGS4 one.

 

[Meggiepants]

They did a really nice God of War Bundle when 3 came out, but there can never be too many bundles in my book.

I hope they do an Ico/Shadow/Guardian bundle when Last Guardian eventually comes out.

 

[migo]

Right, I forgot about the GoW3 one. That's another bundle in MGS4 territory. Xbox 360 has been getting a lot more of those, and Sony could also do with bundling games with controllers and accessories (like the headset with Socom).

 

[Vek]

Bundles will be come more prevalent as the manufacturing price of the PS3 drops to parity with the retail price. SOny's still losing $38 bucks on every console, remember, and won't hit true parity until later this summer.

At launch Sony was bleeding billions of dollars on the console; the 20GB version alone was losing $306.85 US every time one sold. The 60GB, $242. Microsoft had a year lead time on development, release, and had an advantage in using cheaper, off the shelf components (for all the good and RRODs it did them), so they dropped in price much quicker.

 

[SoulChaserJ]

How about cleaning up PSN and making it worth something...you know, demos, screenshots, general information about the things they have there.. I absolutely will not buy a game based on name/box art. It's an extreme pain to look up every title that doesn't have a demo or real info online just to figure out I want nothing to do with it.

 

[migo]

In the beginning Sony obviously had hardly any titles period, so bundling them would clearly shrink what little software library they had to begin with. That's more of a factor than price. If they're bleeding money on each piece of hardware sold they're still better off sweetening the deal with a couple games.

I've found the PSN to be quite servicable as far as demos and videos go, in fact they had some pretty well developed demos that had a lot of replay value, so they're doing alright.

 

[migo]

I guess Sony's ahead of me here. In two separate stores I saw 4 different controller + greatest hits bundles (Ratchet & Clank, not sure which one, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, inFamous). Regular controller price is $55 and these were selling for $60. Now as long as they keep it up rather than relying on retailers to offer game bundles.