Why does Sony do the things they do?

[The Rogue Wolf]

In all honesty, spending $400 on a PS3 is much better than shelling out $2000 for a gaming PC.

Why do people keep saying this? I can build a reasonably powerful computer for literally half that much and play the next two generations of games fairly comfortably on it, not to mention do everything else a computer can do.

People need to stop using the Alienware catalogue as a price point, seriously.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Here's the thing. My interest in any platform is based on available games. I want a computer so I can replay WoW (shut up, haters). I got a 360 because of DOA4 and future releases. I want a Wii for Brawl. I see no reason right now to buy a PS3. Once FFXIII comes out, maybe I'll reconsider. Until then, I have no reason to buy a PS3. I will admit, however, that Sony's way of business is not appealing, either.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I will admit, however, that Sony's way of business is not appealing, either.

and microsoft, the convicted felons, do have an appealing business model? honestly the way microsoft does business makes anything sony does look like mother theresa compared to them

microsoft released a "next gen" console that had a 30% failure rate, in manufacturing a 2% failure rate is considered horrible, they didn't have hdmi output on the first few gen console, it doesn't have an adequate storage medium which is limiting game feature, all their "exclusives" come out on the pc 6 months to a year later, they've already released several different versions of the console and several revisions. this isn't even mentioning their software side of things

sony on the other hand has a pricey console due to the blu-ray drive, hardly any console failures (under 1%), their exclusives are on their system only, they've only made one major revision (removing the ps2 chip onboard) and have increased the size of the hard drives but that's about it

so looks like sony has the better model, albeit a bit more pricey but sometimes the price is worth the quality

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I may be wrong, but isn't the 80gig bundle with MGS4 only sold on the kojima website? I'm pretty sure it is.

No that's a special edition one that is more of a hardcore collectors item, the rgular 80 gig bundle will come to stores on the 12th.

In all honesty, spending $400 on a PS3 is much better than shelling out $2000 for a gaming PC.

You clearly have no idea what the hell you could do with 2,000 dollars! Do you have ANY idea? I mean, that is one monster of a PC...like, Alienware Area 51, and your crazy for saying it's not a good deal, that PC would last so long.

I upgraded mine 2 years ago for 450 dollars and that's because I decided to get an 8800 GTS. 50 dollars more than a PS3, would have been 100 dollars less if I went with an 86.

 

[the monopoly guy]

theres method to sony's madness. they know what they're doing. they're getting off to slow start but they're picking up momentum

 

[VRaptorX]

Judging from sales...PS3 will likly just overtake 360 overall in sales at the very end of the gen just like Xbox to GCN. Though Wii is still too far ahead. Something seriously bad at Nintendo's end is all that will cause that to lose 1st place.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

You clearly have no idea what the hell you could do with 2,000 dollars! Do you have ANY idea? I mean, that is one monster of a PC...like, Alienware Area 51, and your crazy for saying it's not a good deal, that PC would last so long.

alienware has cool cases but they're over priced but for $2000 i could easily make a nice monster of a pc tho for a bit more i could make a gaming rig to end all gaming rig, minus the cool alienware case

 

[Jumplion]

I think the "Method" of the 3 companies are like so:

Microsoft: They release a poorer version of their device, then spruce it up in the next version to correct all of their previous mistakes (I.E. Zune --> Zune 2, Xbox --> Xbox360) As one of the richest companies in the world they can afford a few mistakes here and there aslong as it's not that big.

Sony: They have 2 ways.
1.They release (in console perspective) multimedia electronics as an "All-in-one" device and it seems to be working for both the PS2 and PS3 (dvd and blu-ray compatibility).
2.They release devices that can stand in the future. The PS3 was obviously built for lasting a couple of years because of the technology it holds. Even the PS2 is still going strong, the sales may not have been as strong as before but it could go on for a couple of years longer now. Hell, most multi-platform games still come out of the PS2 (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, ect...)

Nintendo: Not exactly sure about their method, but i think it sells to a younger audience and their fans. That's all i can deduct from Nintendo, and it's family friendly form will probably keep going for a while.

That's my two-cents, can't remember exactly what i'm doing right now so lets see how this thread comes out.

 

[iamnotincompliance]

Nintendo are trying the same tactic here in the UK. It's still near impossible to get Wiis some weeks, and games like Mario Kart are like gold dust because they deliberately published small quantities of the game.

To shout at just Sony for this business ploy, to me, isn't very fair.

You're not alone. It's also impossible to find the Wii in the Chicago area as well. Not that I'm in that market for one, but I hear when the tiny white bastards are in stock, they pretty much sell out in a matter of minutes.

Note to Nintendo: When a system has been technically available for a year and a half, it should not still be impossible to find. It should have dropped $50, where you still make a profit, and money should be rolling in more from your games. The fewer systems sold, the fewer games sold. Simple economics.

Note to Sony: I give up. You go through all the trouble of creating a "PS2 chip" only to ditch it and go the software emulation route. Models of PS3 (in and of itself patently unnecessary) are killed off, revived, up and downgraded at random (or so my understanding goes)... I'm not trying to buy a car. I shouldn't need to shop around to find a system with the features I want. A game system should have a standard set of features throughout it's run, not the constant tinkering that's going on now. You want to release a slimmed down version in a couple of years to boost sales and showcase what you've learned, fine. Until then, knock it off.

Note to Microsoft: Look, we all know the 360 is too expensive, but you're losing money on it too. Hell, you lose money on everything but Windows. A few more debacles like Vista you're done for. Making a system that can never make a profit even at a ridiculous price point is not good business.

Here's to the eighth generation of systems getting it right. Or possibly the eighth generation killing off the three players and allowing old players to reemerge and/or new players come into play. That would be a hell of a thing: the eighth generation being Sega, Atari, and, because everything I own of theirs is nearly indestructible (which I like), Pioneer.

Oh yes, I'd like to say now my money was on Blu-ray being the loser of the hi-def format war, due to Sony's past format war performance. Sony created Beta, which badly lost to VHS. Sony created ATRAC, which they stubbornly refuse to let go of even though MP3 annihilated it, and still does (plus, whenever I say it, it sounds suspiciously like 8-track, and why would you want to remind people of that?). A toast to HD-DVD, wherever you are.

 

[x434343]

It's because they're [expletive deleted]

Um, thanks I get the message, sad fact is I like sony they just have a way of driving me nuts. As I assume they have done to you as well.

You LIKE Sony? I also assume you have no soul or, indeed, conciense. Sony has had no fine selling points besides Resistance, which can be beaten by a similar PC counterpart of Crysis (<total lie, I'm just assuming) and MGS4, which will probably be on the 360 within 2 years, Like BioShock defectwed to the PS3 this month. Seriously, all it has is a Blu-Ray drive, which 360 can has by fall, and good graphics, which I can tell is a torrid selling point: Graphics do not a great game make, but only by story and the light of gameplay can a game be excellent (Examples: See Call of Duty, Half-Life, BioShock).

 

[chaostheory]

They most likely phased out the 80 gig once they won the HD format war so as not to confuse the people who were buying PS3's as a Blu-Ray player while at the same time they were building up a backstock of 80 gigs so as to meet the demand of the hard core gamers who would want to buy MGS4 with top of the range gear.

It is simple supply and demand economics, when people who want it as a cheap Blu-Ray player are going to make up a large part of your sales, you want to focus on producing the cheap version of the machine. When it is selling as a high end gaming console to informed gamers who are going to care about things like backward compatibility you want to have a large enough supply to meet their demand.

 

[end_boss]

Except in special circumstances, consoles are never a pre-order item for EB Games. EB Games also doesn't know how many units they will be receiving, except to say that it will be very few for launch, and pre-orders are based on a certain level of promise. Hence, the more customers who pre-order with the expectation of a unit at launch that doesn't deliver, the more angry customers they have and potentially lose. So it's easiest just to not pre-order them.

Also, I believe that the system that you order off the Konami website is the special gunmetal grey console, whereas the units shipped to stores will be the standard black 80gig models.

 

[Terramax]

so looks like sony has the better model, albeit a bit more pricey but sometimes the price is worth the quality

I have to agree with you there, Clever. I bought my Sega Saturn for £500 (that's about $1000) and the games were £60 each (I bought 3).

Expensive, yes, but I enjoyed every moment of the system. There were always games I wanted for the system, the thing took 5 years to break, and only then because I used to continueously puch the thing (I was young, ok guys), and whilst there appeared to be less games released for it, most of them weren't as mediocre as the ones on the PSX or N64. There was variety.

Unlike the cheap Wii where I enjoyed it for 2-3 months then got so bored of the gimmick I gave it to my mum.

And I only owned a 360 for 3 weeks before being fed up because I couldn't think of 1 game I actually wanted. In fact, I didn't even know why I bought it to begin with.

You LIKE Sony? I also assume you have no soul or, indeed, conciense. Sony has had no fine selling points besides Resistance, which can be beaten by a similar PC counterpart of Crysis (<total lie, I'm just assuming) and MGS4, which will probably be on the 360 within 2 years, Like BioShock defectwed to the PS3 this month. Seriously, all it has is a Blu-Ray drive, which 360 can has by fall, and good graphics, which I can tell is a torrid selling point: Graphics do not a great game make, but only by story and the light of gameplay can a game be excellent (Examples: See Call of Duty, Half-Life, BioShock).

To you, Sony have no fine selling points, but that doesn't mean everyone on the earth wants to play virtua Decapitate humans in a gory orgy 3, exclusive to the 360.

I would love that MotorStorm game, and I'm looking forward to Ico Team's next game, Little Big Planet and Gradius 6, and look forward to playing them on a console that won't die on me within less than 2 years. And none of them are about muscleheads with Yankee accents running around blasting everything that breathes.

You could argue that the 360 has more of a games line up, but that doesn't matter much to me either when they're all just samey racers, FPS or GTA clones. Variety doesn't mean much when the games are from terrible Western developers.

 

[Jumplion]

It's because they're [expletive deleted]

Um, thanks I get the message, sad fact is I like sony they just have a way of driving me nuts. As I assume they have done to you as well.

You LIKE Sony? I also assume you have no soul or, indeed, conciense. Sony has had no fine selling points besides Resistance, which can be beaten by a similar PC counterpart of Crysis (<total lie, I'm just assuming) and MGS4, which will probably be on the 360 within 2 years, Like BioShock defectwed to the PS3 this month. Seriously, all it has is a Blu-Ray drive, which 360 can has by fall, and good graphics, which I can tell is a torrid selling point: Graphics do not a great game make, but only by story and the light of gameplay can a game be excellent (Examples: See Call of Duty, Half-Life, BioShock).

Have you even seen any gameplay footage of MGS4? Just by looking at those you can tell that the game is HUGE (not hype sense) and it could never come the the 360.

All those other games that were ported to the Xbox360 or PS3 from the other console were ported because they could easily be ported. That's basically why Xbox got DMC4 and PS3 is going to get Bioshock, both of them have some processing power to spare.

And if the 360 is going to possibly get Blu-Ray capabilities, then why didn't it start out with those features in the first place? That's a weakness to being 1 year ahead of the competition as you would be behind in technological advances.

Not a hater, just pointing out.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I still don't get why Sony couldn't have lowered the price of the PS3 without removing backwards compatibility.

 

[Jumplion]

I still don't get why Sony couldn't have lowered the price of the PS3 without removing backwards compatibility.

I'm trying to think of an answer to that, but i couldn't think of one.

My guess would be that BC is more expensive to produce then we think.

 

[chaostheory]

How can you not love this story? No, I'm asking. On what grounds do people say that Resistance is lacking a story?

I think people say resitance lacks a compelling story centered around characters. While I agree with you that Resistance has a great back-story (which I love and it is one of my favorite games because of) it does not have a good story based on the characters. This lack of characterization makes it hard for some people to connect with the game. It can start to feel more like a lecture on the history of the world rather than a compelling narrative.

 

[Sgt. Gunlock]

cus there Mother Fucken Sony

 

[Jumplion]

How can you not love this story? No, I'm asking. On what grounds do people say that Resistance is lacking a story?

I think people say resitance lacks a compelling story centered around characters. While I agree with you that Resistance has a great back-story (which I love and it is one of my favorite games because of) it does not have a good story based on the characters. This lack of characterization makes it hard for some people to connect with the game. It can start to feel more like a lecture on the history of the world rather than a compelling narrative.

I can agree with that. Insomniac is going to change that the second time around.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I still don't get why Sony couldn't have lowered the price of the PS3 without removing backwards compatibility.

costs plain and simple, the chip wasn't free to make and add, where with emulation you just have to pay a coder once to make it and a bit extra to tweak it

You LIKE Sony? I also assume you have no soul or, indeed, conciense. Sony has had no fine selling points besides Resistance, which can be beaten by a similar PC counterpart of Crysis (<total lie, I'm just assuming) and MGS4, which will probably be on the 360 within 2 years, Like BioShock defectwed to the PS3 this month. Seriously, all it has is a Blu-Ray drive, which 360 can has by fall, and good graphics, which I can tell is a torrid selling point: Graphics do not a great game make, but only by story and the light of gameplay can a game be excellent (Examples: See Call of Duty, Half-Life, BioShock).

Have you even seen any gameplay footage of MGS4? Just by looking at those you can tell that the game is HUGE (not hype sense) and it could never come the the 360.

All those other games that were ported to the Xbox360 or PS3 from the other console were ported because they could easily be ported. That's basically why Xbox got DMC4 and PS3 is going to get Bioshock, both of them have some processing power to spare.

And if the 360 is going to possibly get Blu-Ray capabilities, then why didn't it start out with those features in the first place? That's a weakness to being 1 year ahead of the competition as you would be behind in technological advances.

Not a hater, just pointing out.

yeah 360 isn't getting mgs4, the designers have actually said "the 360 has no hope in even attempting to run this game"

as for the blu-ray capabilities, m$ wouldn't have put it in the 360 from the beginning they were on the hd-dvd side, i'm guessing they didn't include hd-dvd cause of the format war, which helped winning sony the war

the fact is that right now the 360 has had to limit features in the game due to the lack of a larger storage medium and it's only going to get worse from here on

hate to say it but m$ pulled a sega with this, they jumped the gun to be first to market and are paying for it now