Are they seriously TRYING to fuck this up?

Blackened fucked around with this message on 07-13-2007 at 09:23 AM.

So it does a better job of folding@home.

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Mightion Defensor obviously shouldn't have said:
When representatives of Nintendo were approached for comment, they were unavailable as well; being busy on the production lines helping to push out a few more Wiis an hour, to keep up with the still near-instantaneous sellouts when units hit stores.

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no just stop

Sony comes out looking like asses to many gamers, but when have they ever cared about that if they'll get more money out of the deal?

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Talonus who doth quote:
Sony comes out looking like asses to many gamers, but when have they ever cared about that if they'll get more money out of the deal?

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Not asses, idiots, because the decisions they're making won't get them more money.

Discontinuing the 60gb units isn't going to cause any selling panic. Most people don't want them anyway, nobody cares about them because they don't serve any market very well.

With the price reduction, they COULD have been at least approachable by price-sensitive gamers looking to break into the PS3, but nobody is going to jump on this boat purely out of fear of missing out. Discontinuing the 60gb's only locks out this market once again and the PS3 continues to be a toy of gotta-have-everything yuppies.

It's a certain path to dismal sales.

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Talonus thought about the meaning of life:
You know, I have to say this is actually a decent strategy on Sony's part if they're actually doing this. Sales of the PS3 jumped with the price drop and with this new announcement a lot of "on the fence" folks may get their 60GB version while they can still get it at the low price. They'll get rid of all the stock they don't want pretty quickly and they'll still get sales at the raised price on the 80GB version later on. Throw in the higher profit margin on the 80GB version, due to removing the emotion engine.

Sony comes out looking like asses to many gamers, but when have they ever cared about that if they'll get more money out of the deal?

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Not any moderately-informed consumer, I don't think. The exclusives have already jumped ship. Basically, there's no reason to buy a PS3 unless you really, really want to try Resistance: Fall of Man.

Lair looked cool, but it's definitely not worth it.

Does anyone here even have a PS3?

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Mr. Parcelan had this to say about Cuba:
Does anyone here even have a PS3?

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I do. Didn't really ask for it but got it as a gift anywho.

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And I was all like 'Oh yeah?' and Maradon! was all like:
Not asses, idiots, because the decisions they're making won't get them more money.

Discontinuing the 60gb units isn't going to cause any selling panic. Most people don't want them anyway, nobody cares about them because they don't serve any market very well.

With the price reduction, they COULD have been at least approachable by price-sensitive gamers looking to break into the PS3, but nobody is going to jump on this boat purely out of fear of missing out. Discontinuing the 60gb's only locks out this market once again and the PS3 continues to be a toy of gotta-have-everything yuppies.

It's a certain path to dismal sales.

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The PS3 sales jumped after the price decrease was announced, literally thousands of percent. On Amazon it is now the top selling video games item. It isn't a buying panic, but people certainly are buying the system now.

Money isn't necessarily the point anyway. Sony wants to get rid of the 60GB PS3s to make room for the 80GB PS3s, as they're going with a one SKU strategy. The lower price will clear out the 60GBs and the stock Sony doesn't want. After that, I can see Sony being perfectly happy with pricing the 80GB at a higher price. Yuppies and soccer moms will still purchase the system. Even many gamers will purchase at the higher price once AAA games come out. They'll also be able to release their press releases about the sales going well. There are a lot of plusses to all of this.

I'd like Sony to keep the price low and I do agree that the lower price is a much better pricing point. This is Sony though, so I really can't give them the benefit of the doubt.

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When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Mr. Parcelan said:
Not any moderately-informed consumer, I don't think.

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Moderately-informed consumers weren't buying the system in the first place. If the temporary price drop can get some of them on board, Sony will be happy. If not? No loss.

Talonus fucked around with this message on 07-13-2007 at 05:08 PM.

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Peanut butter ass Shaq Talonus booooze lime pole over bench lick:
The PS3 sales jumped after the price decrease was announced, literally thousands of percent.

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Yeah, but that's because the price was cut, NOT because they're discontinuing the 60gb. Discontinuing the 60gb is tantamount to a price increase and sales will only drop back to their old dismal levels.

Their "one sku strategy" is idiotic. There are a lot of plusses to cutting the price, not to discontinuing the 60gb.

Then I saw this, and quite literally thought, "Oops, my mistake,the idiocy continues unabated."

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Maradon! was listening to Cher while typing:
Yeah, but that's because the price was cut, NOT because they're discontinuing the 60gb. Discontinuing the 60gb is tantamount to a price increase and sales will only drop back to their old dismal levels.

Their "one sku strategy" is idiotic. There are a lot of plusses to cutting the price, not to discontinuing the 60gb.

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I agree with you entirely. Cutting the price overall would be a good thing.

Ok, let's try this another way. Right now, Sony has a lot of stock they want to get rid of. They want one SKU, so why keep the 60GB PS3s? So Sony drops the price. There's a big surge in sales, a lot of press, and Sony gets rid of the stock in maybe 2-3 months. All good things for Sony.

Lets say October at latest they're gone. October/November sales are slower because of the one higher price, but people are still going to be buying. Sales won't stop entirely. Come December? Sales pick up a little due to Christmas. Sony drops the 80GB price, which has also been a rumor. They've had time to build up the 80GB stock and now they'll get another nice surge in sales due to new good press. All good things for Sony, at the cost of losing sales in some traditionally slower sales months.

At least, that's how I see it happening. That, or the left hand isn't talking to the right hand and there's just a big old clusterfuck going on within Sony. Maybe I'm being a bit optimistic about Sony there.

Hey guys, remember when Sony blasted Microsoft for selling 20 gigs for $100?

Also note that the most faithful region to the PS3, Europe, isn't getting this new hardware. But instead, are compensated with a bundle of two medicore games and an extra controller. And no price drop on unbundled systems.

Skaw fucked around with this message on 07-13-2007 at 06:42 PM.

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Stalwart Steve.

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And yes, in terms of actual ability, I remember reading somewhere (Wired or maybe PopSci, but probably Wired) that the PS3 is, in some areas, the marginally superior machine. Faster Processor speed and a couple of other areas that seemed to signify that, long-term, the PS3 would be the better graphics machine.

The same article, however, pointed out that if trends in development continue, the PS3 wouldn't actually use most of that potential for a long time. And unfortunately, the price tag on each unit is based around the idea that you're buying this tech you aren't actually using yet and won't for a while. On the other hand, the Wii is cheaper because Nintendo has in a lot of senses found a comfortable balance between a more regular schedule of planned obsolescence and development schedule. The 360 is somewhere in the middle.

The problem is that the PS3 was in a lot of cases part of an interlocking strategy. Blu-Ray needed to get into every home fast, so Sony implemented it into PS3. The problem was Sony initially kneecapped Blu-Ray as a media, robbing it of a decisive victory over HD-DVD, and making the presence of the Blu-Ray player technology in the PS3 a financial liability to the console. PS3 needed Blu-Ray to be the obvious next-generation video media format to validate it's freakish cost, but Blu-Ray needed the PS3 to make it the obvious next-generation video media format. A very "Chicken or the Egg" situation. Great, and self-perpetuating if you can get it up and running, but you have to get it up and running to make it self-perpetuating.

A more recent article I read suggested that Sony should have taken a page from the fast food industry. When you go to the movie theater, for instance, you're offered expensive food at the concession stand. The base cost of popcorn, soda, etc, is pretty high for what you're actually buying (a tasty add-on to your limited entertainment experience). But what they do in most cases is offer you...THE COMBOS. There are at the theaters here a dozen different concession combos, combining different sizes and different treats. And what makes most people buy the mega-tub and the huge 32oz drink is the illusion that they're getting a bargain. For fifty cents more you can go from Combo 10 to Combo 12, never minding the fact that the cost to the company is only ten cents. And more importantly, it obscures the fact you're already paying a freakish amount of money in the first place.

So the theory was that the PS3 should have come in a variety of packages. There would be the entry-level model. Tiny hard drive, no Blu-Ray system, but it plays the games. Modular design would let you upgrade or augment the hard drive, and you could get a plug-on Blu-Ray player later on. Downside is that it looks like you're plugging a bunch of appliances into your base unit. But the upside is you get people interested. You crank this system out for 400 bucks or so. Put it in the ballpark of the 360.

Then you'd have the mid-range models. The gamer-emphasized one bundled with the components more interesting to hardcore gamers. Bigger base hard drive, better controllers, gaming-specific peripherals, etc. No Blu-Ray, but still the option of buying the Blu-Ray add-on.

On the flip side, you'd have the entertainment center. More designed to be the centerpiece of your entertainment center, it has a mid-range hard-drive, the Blu-Ray, but doesn't have the bundled gamer peripherals (which you can buy separately)

Then there would be the All-In-One model, smooth, streamlined, no seams separating the different components it would look sharp, have the best hard drive, the best controllers, the best everything. Game console and Blu-Ray all inclusive. This one you could charge exhorbitant amounts for because you've established a community of owners of "Lesser" machines. Heck you could launch just the first variant and this variant (as door-openers) and then offer the two middle variants a year or two later.

Instead, Sony keeps compounding one bad idea with another.

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Skaw had this to say about Robocop:
But now it's 80 gigs! $100 more for 20 gigs!

Hey guys, remember when Sony blasted Microsoft for selling 20 gigs for $100?

Also note that the most faithful region to the PS3, Europe, isn't getting this new hardware. But instead, are compensated with a bundle of two medicore games and an extra controller. And no price drop on unbundled systems.

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But you get Motorstorm in the bundle too, guyz!

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Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael said this about your mom:
stuff

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And seemingly, none of that matters. People are buying them because of the brands. Sure, the smart ones are waiting, while the retards bought them at launch. But with MGS4 and FF13, they could make the PS3 shit in your mouth while you're asleep, and they'd sell. They don't even have to be great games, and people are still going to be buying them. Blind fanatacism is awful, but it's one of the easiest things to bank your product on.

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x--SkawO-('-'Q) :
People are buying them because of the brands. Sure, the smart ones are waiting, while the retards bought them at launch. But with MGS4 and FF13, they could make the PS3 shit in your mouth while you're asleep, and they'd sell. They don't even have to be great games, and people are still going to be buying them. Blind fanatacism is awful, but it's one of the easiest things to bank your product on.

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What rock have you been living under that you don't know that the PS3 has had some of the most sluggish sales of any game console in the history of game consoles?

A total of 3.5 million PS3's have been sold worldwide as of this may, compared to 11.6 million 360's and 8.2 million Wii's. People aren't buying them, they're collecting dust on the shelves, MGS4 and FF13 be damned.

While the sales might not do as insane here as it will over when those games are released, Sony will make oodles of cash off retarded Japanese fanboys. But there will definitely be people here that buy them just for those games too. Shit, I know a couple who's sole reason for buying one is MGS4.

A few hit titles aren't going to turn the tide any more than Metroid Prime and SSBM turned the tide for the gamecube.

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Maradon! attempted to be funny by writing:
The trouble is that the same thing that worked for sony last generation is working against them now: the snowball effect.

A few hit titles aren't going to turn the tide any more than Metroid Prime and SSBM turned the tide for the gamecube.

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A lot of people bought Gamecubes for those games. And they still made Gamecube games until the end of last generation.

What's your point?

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Mr. Gainsborough attempted to be funny by writing:
A lot of people bought Gamecubes for those games. And they still made Gamecube games until the end of last generation.

What's your point?

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The Gamecube wasn't expensive to begin with and dropped a few times, didn't it?

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Mr. Gainsborough who doth quote:
A lot of people bought Gamecubes for those games. And they still made Gamecube games until the end of last generation.

What's your point?

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The gamecube sold less than either the X-Box or PS2, and had a lot more going for it than the PS3.

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The logic train ran off the tracks when Maradon! said:
The gamecube sold less than either the X-Box or PS2, and had a lot more going for it than the PS3.

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Then why did you use it as an example?

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x--Mr. GainsboroughO-('-'Q) :
Then why did you use it as an example?

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I'm getting the feeling that you are not following what I'm saying here.

I'm saying that a few high profile titles cannot sway the entire trend of a system's sales. The gamecube is an example of this: It had a few high profile titles and yet it failed to outsell the X-Box, even with a huge nintendo following in Japan going for it.