Sony: we don't have enough games to drop PS3 price

[admin]

Gamedaily is reporting that Sony's Kaz Hirai told the Financial Times in an interview that the reason behind there not being a price cut on the PS3 this year is that they don't have enough decent games to support the console

http://www.fragland.net/news.php?id=17642

So basically:

Xbox 360 => tons of good games => cheap => sells well => developers want to make games for a console that is high in numbers => tons of good games ...

PS3 => not many good games => expensive => sells poorly => developers hesitatant about making games for a console that is low in numbers => not many good games ...

Sony's strategy is brilliant ...

... for Microsoft, that is.

[dazuk1972]

http://www.fragland.net/news.php?id=17642

So basically:

Xbox 360 => tons of good games => cheap => sells well => developers want to make games for a console that is high in numbers => tons of good games ...

PS3 => not many good games => expensive => sells poorly => developers hesitatant about making games for a console that is low in numbers => not many good games ...

Sony's strategy is brilliant ...

... for Microsoft, that is.

Sony will pick-up when more games are out for the PS3. I don't plan on buying the PS3 because I'm happy with my XBox 360 and Microsoft have given word that they are giving away XBox Live because the internet is free with the PS3 and Microsoft have got a lot of complaints over this. Those XBox Live cards are not cheap and they only last a year.

By the way, why so many people went mad for a PS3 where they made theirselves homeless for days queing outside I'll never know. I never buy an item straight away encase of any problems. Let's face it, when the XBox 360 first came out, people found out their XBox 360's got overheated and that was when the Intercooler was made and released. I bought my XBox 360 way after that problem was discovered so my XBox 360 never got damamged. It's like all this BluRay and HD equipment that came out; there's downfalls with those. I'd rather stick to the original DVD. How better can the picture and sound get. Some long films on DVD have pretty bad sound because so much is compressed onto one disc and that's why long films are now split onto two discs to improve the sound. It's worse for NTSC because NTSC uses more disk space where the discs spin faster. NTSC always moves faster, I remember when the tape in VHS tapes under NTSC move faster where a four-hour tape becomes a two-hour tape on Standard Play. Sorry about changing the subject a lot.

Darren.

[admin]

Here's a little analysis of what I think has happened so far:

A lot of game developers have already shifted resources to Xbox 360 and PC development because it's easier (both Xbox 360 and PC development are based on existing industry tools and languages, whereas Sony requires some new skill sets, and the more cores/cells there are, the harder it is to program the software and still achieve maximum performance), Xbox 360 to PC porting and vice versa is easier thanks to Microsoft's support on both the Xbox 360 and on Windows gaming, plus there are more Xbox's out there than PS3s, so the games developers produce will reach a wider audience.

Sony lags behind because it released the PS3 much later due to the PS3's hardware architecture being too different and new and requiring additional development time (Xbox 360 is basically just a PC in a box). Also, Sony wanted to have a Blu-ray drive in the console to help the format. But adding Blu-ray meant waiting for the copy protection system and HDMI output to be approved, which caused further delays. The high cost has to do with both of these things too.

The PS3 has yet to outsell the Xbox 360 in the US for any months since it's release. This must be very disappointing to Sony, considering new consoles tend to at least sell well for the first few months (due to pre-orders) and all of Microsoft's problems with 3 rings of death and everything. Not being able to beat a console that is half broken is a serious concern.

If the PS3 can't at least get even with the Xbox 360 in the next 6 months, then I don't think it will ever overtake it as the dominant next-gen console. This is a huge contrast to what the PS2 was able to do in the previous gen (80% of the market). There is no sign that existing PS2 owners will all upgrade to the PS3, considering many PS2 owners already have Xbox 360s (and probably the Wii too). And now the Xbox 360 has Halo 3, which is a record seller, there is also Mass Effect, GTA IV exclusive content and lots of other exclusives that will drive Xbox 360 sales upwards.

As I may have posted somewhere before, Sony's strategy was to ensure both the PS3 and Blu-ray are a success through the PS3. But the downside of putting all your eggs into one basket is if either is a failure, then both might fail, and things are not looking great for them at the moment. Xbox 360's are outselling PS3s, and HD DVD owners are buying more discs per player than Blu-ray owners (not surprising considering some Blu-ray owners are PS3 owners that don't even know or care that their machine can play Blu-ray movies).