Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Sony has lost over $3 billion on the PS3

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » The Afterlife » Sony has lost over $3 billion on the PS3 (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Author

Topic: Sony has lost over $3 billion on the PS3

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-28-2008 05:09 PM

I have the Wii. All of the technology inside of it is very old. The friggin' Power Glove for the NES which was featured in the spectacular 1989 Fred Savage movie The Wizard uses nearly the same exact technology. The Wii is also less fun to play than the PS3 or the Xbox 360 unless you are playing with grandma.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-28-2008 06:22 PM

quote: Geena Phillips
Now, did Nintendo decide that changing the entire nature of videogaming was more important than having 1080p video?

I wouldn't say Nintendo revolutionized the world of video gaming with the Wii. Both XBox360 and PS3 are still selling well in spite of the Wii's success. Even the PC gaming platform is still advancing. In the past, a new generation of gaming console would come along and lay waste to its competition -kind of like what Playstation did to the Sega Dreamcast or what the original Nintendo NES did to Atari, ColecoVision and any other console out at that time in the late 1980s. That isn't happening now.

The Wii is a hit because of two things: low price and the Nintendo brand image. Nintendo understands the core demographic of their market and pitched the Wii very well to capitalize on that. It's an admirable example of marketing -even better than anything Apple is doing to sell its products.

The motion sensitive controllers are a nice ad point, but it's hardly "revolutionary" technology (it's been around for quite a while). The PS3 controllers have some motion sensitive features to them, but that isn't the main selling point for the PS3.

Mario and the trademark Nintendo whimsy in many of its games will sustain the Wii only for so long. It's not a great thing for non-exclusive games like Guitar Hero III to be among the most popular titles for the Wii.

One big drawback I see with the Wii is that it was designed primarily for use on old TV sets. It does not work well with HDTV monitors. That's going to spell trouble for the Wii in the long run. Some may think native 720p or 1080p HD support isn't a big deal. Well, it becomes a big deal once you have a good quality HDTV monitor. Standard resolution 480i/480p stuff tends to look like ass.

quote: Geena Phillips
Don't get me wrong, the XBox 360 and PS3 are machines with amazing capabilities... it's just that almost none of those capabilities are about gaming.

I'd call that statement inaccurate.

The processing power of the PS3 was principally designed with high resolution gaming in mind. It's only incidental all that processing power enables the PS3 to load Blu-ray movies faster than just about any standalone BD player and breeze through lots of multimedia files with ease.

| IP: Logged

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-29-2008 01:26 AM

At the risk of turning this into a gaming thread:

-Guitar Hero on the Wii is in mono. MONO! I am not fond of music games, but if I HAD to play a Guitar Hero game it sure as hell wouldn't be the Wii version.

| IP: Logged

Tom Mundell
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: Silver Spring, MD, USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 06-29-2008 08:13 AM

There is actually a corrected disc which plays in Pro Logic II just fine. I received mine from Activision several months ago. I have no idea which version is on store shelves though, I would hope the corrected version but I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the original discs are still floating around.

| IP: Logged

Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 06-30-2008 05:54 PM

I think Sony is playing the long game with the PS3, and it shows with how they are approaching things.

By pricing the console below cost, they are counting on future sales to offset the difference. This is common in the gaming industry, so no big surprise there.

By bundling in the Blu-ray drive, they built in lots of disc capacity for the future, and they tied the success of the PS3 and the success of the Blu-ray format together.

By buying out Warner Bros. and/or Fox to seal the deal against HD DVD, they shut down their biggest current threat to the Blu-ray format. I suspect that Sony has also been subsidizing Blu-ray production costs to encourage movie releases on the format in spite of problematic yields (I don't know if that continues to be an issue or not).

By releasing Bonus View and BD-Live on the PS3 to the point of exclusivity in the market, it makes the PS3 the only choice for the informed public looking for the best Blu-ray experience now and in the future. Those people are now potential buyers of PS3 games, which makes the circle complete.

The long-term view is the right one, so long as the market responds in good enough numbers in the time Sony has to absorb the investments they have made and continue to make in order to achieve success.

As much as I wanted HD DVD to succeed, I have to admit that Sony is doing a lot to make the PS3 and the Blu-ray format a success. It's a big gamble, but if they succeed, it will have paid off.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 06-30-2008 06:56 PM

Sony is releasing another firmware update (version 2.40) on July 2 to add more gaming features that customers have been requesting for a long time (full XMB media bar functions in game, in game messaging, gaming trophies, etc.). Some of this is an answer to some of the unique bells and whistles on XBox360.

The 2.40 update comes on the heels of another firmware update (2.36) that was released just a couple of weeks ago. Since buying my 80GB PS3 in January, it seems like the PS3 firmware has been updated 4 or 5 times -most of those updates being issued to add or improve features to the PS3.

quote: Scott Jentsch
By buying out Warner Bros. and/or Fox to seal the deal against HD DVD, they shut down their biggest current threat to the Blu-ray format.

The Warner Bros. pay off rumor has never been substantiated. Representatives from Warner Home Video repeatedly denied every taking any sort of a pay off for their turn to BD exclusivity. Warner Bros. has maintained their move to BE exclusivity was a result of trying everything else they could to get consumers to upgrade to high definition movie disc players. WB supported both Blu-ray and HD-DVD better than any other studio and even distributed movies on the unique "TotalHD" dual format disc. None of it worked. So they picked the format they thought had the best chance of success to get the "war" finished.

Fox never considered going with HD-DVD due to its lower quality copy protection. Fox wasn't going to support any HD disc format until Sony and Panasonic further improved the copy protection scheme in Blu-ray.

quote: Scott Jentsch
By releasing Bonus View and BD-Live on the PS3 to the point of exclusivity in the market, it makes the PS3 the only choice for the informed public looking for the best Blu-ray experience now and in the future.

I think that situation is totally incidental and not the result of any deliberate moves from Sony. The real problem is all the other consumer electronics manufacturers being far too conservative in their BD product development pipe lines. It's their own fault they fell way behind PS3.

I think those companies counted on home theater fans having the good taste to buy a more expensive standalone BD player rather than a gaming console. Maybe they figured the PS3 was more at home in a kid's bedroom than having a legitimate place in a home theater equipment rack. Either way companies making standalone BD players (including even Sony) have been stuck for the last several months playing catch up with PS3.

High priced standalone Blu-ray players will continue to have a difficult time competing against PS3 unless they can fully demonstrate superior performance to the PS3. And not just on image quality and audio streaming options either. They have to beat the PS3 on disc load times and utilize Bonus View and BD Live features with more speed and stability. A fancy brand name and gold trim on the product isn't going to be enough to justify the high price premium.

Most standalone players are only going to become competitive with the PS3 when their prices get down to low enough levels where the 40GB PS3 seems expensive by comparison. I don't know what that price would be for sure, but prices under $200 would be a good target.

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.