People have to KNOW that there are exclusives for that to play into their thoughts. Also keep in mind the vast majority of people who have bought gaming consoles in the past have not paid more than $200 for them, so anything over that will feel expensive, yes there will be more people who buy the PS3, but if it works like it did for the last price drop it will be a 2-3 week sales spike and then sales will drop off again.
As far as the brand name and all that, yes it does have an effect, thats why the PS3 is doing as well as it is, but its not as powerful as you seem to believe. The big guns have yet to show themselves on the PS3, the best marketing appeal the PS3 has is it's the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.
I question the validity of the graph...it shows the PS3 underselling quantities that we 'knew' and what is with the Wii skyrocketing in a straight line up in the last 2 weeks of the graph...there is no rational explanation for that either.
Rather than causing me to question X vs PS3 in EU it causes me to question the correctness of the graph itself.
@pilias_simber, i think now it may be different because now they're starting to have a couple of true exclusives that people desire and because as the prices near eachother people are more likely to buy based on a cool brand feel, while with 500-600$ the cost made people think more. The Sony exclusives have more power because while just about all xbox360 games are or will be playable on the PC the same doesn't seem to be true for ps3 exclusives.
@ixaarii, Honestly I don't really see how this is much different from what they've been doing all along.
What Sony REALLY needs to do is borrow a move from MS and start pushing the advertisements for it's games, even multiplatform games. MS does so much advertising on some Multi-plat games I think many people are not aware they are even available on the PS3.
Big news today for me is not an actual news but the two tv spots I just saw for ps3 (submitted them to vids). It's the big thing sony has been needing imo for the ps3 to make real use of it's strong brand name: a interesting add campaign making the device cool. With the lower price and a couple of good exclusives it can now start hitting hard. This kind of thing could change a lot of things I believe.
In interesting point about the graph is it highlights that the PS3 was not as dominant in Europe over the 360 as we have all been told was the case.
Now that I see that the 360 and PS3 have been neck and neck for most of that graph it highlights how critical it is for Sony to maintain this spike. Of course this relies on MS not upsetting the apple cart, which is probably unlikely now although they claim Europe to be Strategic and I cannot disagree.
SEGA had a great reputation too, but they had to resort to shorter console lifespans in order to try and stick around. If it's one thing we should realize by now it's that having a great reputation won't move consoles that people don't want (32X, N64, GC, now maybe PS3?).
Sony is NOT a video game company. They can only lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this division for so long before their shareholders demand action...
@welshbloke, totally agree. One thing that puzzles me though: people talk a lot about long lifespans... but even though that makes financial (initial losses) and user sense (great not to have to upgrade yet have great running games) it's puzzling to me how with so much proliferation of technology this can be okay with consoles. Eg. when i first heard that the ps3 had just a total of 512mb i was scratchign my head in huge confusion. With PCs heading towards 4gb with 2gb becoming quite common I was expecting a need of at least 1 gb in the next two years. I know consoles are a completelly different thing than PCs and I think ps2 has only like 32 and works great... still, a console going on 8 years, not even going with sony's 10 year, ... that's a long time in technology terms. Then again technology is awesome when it's a means to an end (content,artwork ...)and with internet connectivity i think ps3 will be more and more in a good position: in 2-3 years it could be a very solid device, with okay potential but more importantly with the posibility of living long, strong install and the ability to deliver from games to movies to internet... Even if then it would be packaged with a keyboard/mouse, considering widespread HDtv and internet it could become a cheap internet terminal... Also i read stuff about a "unified console"... i think that's just wishful thinking. if the industry needs it it will happen, but not via consensus i believe, but simply because consumers choose it (with their wallets). Like you said i believe there's mroe than enough consumer space for different system for different purpaces. I'd theorise that the space is for 2, max 3 players in the nonportable market: one system to live longer, and another to constantly provide cutting edge every say 4-5 years, with a third being cheaper and more casual oriented or movie/music oriented. However a more probable long term solution i believe would be two long living consoles but each launching when the other one is towards the end of it's lifecycle. That way those who constanlty want to have and are wiling to pay for a system with new and exciting features can get what they want, while in the meanwhile those who buy in cheaper have longer lasting systems.
I see folks suggesting that they either pull out of the Games market or drop the PS3 and bring out a PS4.
Both suggestions are extremely unlikely. Although if a manufacturer was having similar difficulties with a product it is very likely they would can it and move on but this scenario is unlikely to happen with Sony.
Firstly they have a huge reputation and this would be serverely damaged across the Sony division, secondly they will make money and this division even with its current problems will become very profitable probably reversing the trend we see today of the other divisions propping the game division.
It is probably true to say that they expected to be in a better position today than they are but 2 years down the line it is very likely the console will be holding its own.
The talk of being second to Microsoft often sparks this dire need to pull out but I suspect the longer life spans of this generation and the better penetration due to the Living room space and the Wii effect will see all three current generation consoles benefiting. Sony who should eventually starting pulling away whether this will mean catching the competition is another story.
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People have to KNOW that there are exclusives for that to play into their thoughts. Also keep in mind the vast majority of people who have bought gaming consoles in the past have not paid more than $200 for them, so anything over that will feel expensive, yes there will be more people who buy the PS3, but if it works like it did for the last price drop it will be a 2-3 week sales spike and then sales will drop off again.
As far as the brand name and all that, yes it does have an effect, thats why the PS3 is doing as well as it is, but its not as powerful as you seem to believe. The big guns have yet to show themselves on the PS3, the best marketing appeal the PS3 has is it's the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.