A couple of recent discussions and posts has got me thinking. What are we predicting in the case of long term hardware sales.
What had me a little confused and what started me of was the launch of the DSi I falsely assumed this would be a new product as it introduced new features that would mean previous versions may not be able to play them and it was effectively backwards compatible with DS games in general.
This got me thinking is the DS a brand and not actually a product? Are we then just predicting how long Nintendo will continue to use the DS as a brand? Could this be the same with a upgraded Wii and would that simply continue.
The playstation is a brand yet it obviously was a new product that launched with the version 3. The Xbox is a brand but it was obvious when it launched the 360.
I realise for example that both the PS3 and Xbox360 have changed since launch. The difference though I see here is that models have changed in capacity and internally for cost saving measures for the most part.
If as an example Microsoft offered the Blu Ray version of the 360 and followed this up with allowing games to be alternatively delivered via it I guess as much as we might not like it that would still be a 360.
So technically they could continue to beef these sytems up and add additional functionality and say tough go get the new model. After all with the introduction of Hard Drive only games you could say this has sort of happened to Xbox 360 Arcade owners already.
Food for thought. So when is a new product a new version and not a new product. I apologies if this is just plain nonsense to you.
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What had me a little confused and what started me of was the launch of the DSi I falsely assumed this would be a new product as it introduced new features that would mean previous versions may not be able to play them and it was effectively backwards compatible with DS games in general.
This got me thinking is the DS a brand and not actually a product? Are we then just predicting how long Nintendo will continue to use the DS as a brand? Could this be the same with a upgraded Wii and would that simply continue.
The playstation is a brand yet it obviously was a new product that launched with the version 3. The Xbox is a brand but it was obvious when it launched the 360.
I realise for example that both the PS3 and Xbox360 have changed since launch. The difference though I see here is that models have changed in capacity and internally for cost saving measures for the most part.
If as an example Microsoft offered the Blu Ray version of the 360 and followed this up with allowing games to be alternatively delivered via it I guess as much as we might not like it that would still be a 360.
So technically they could continue to beef these sytems up and add additional functionality and say tough go get the new model. After all with the introduction of Hard Drive only games you could say this has sort of happened to Xbox 360 Arcade owners already.
Food for thought. So when is a new product a new version and not a new product. I apologies if this is just plain nonsense to you.