Sony Dropped the Ball
I've watched the videos.
I've sat through 5 hours of conference feeds from 3 companies.
My conclusion.
Sony blew goat chunks at this E3.
Last E3, in an effort to steal Microsoft's thunder, Sony played a bunch of video at E3 that represented what games would look like on the PS3.
They claimed at the time that those videos were representative of gameplay. They made other claims, in magazines and on TV that the videos were running on real PS3 hardware.
The videos they showed blew everything away. They made the Xbox 360 look like a childs play thing. People walked out of E3 calling the Xbox 360 the Xbox 1.5. Sony openly claimed that the X360 was competing with the PS2, not with the PS3 which would be out of its league.
E3 2005 Motorstorm: "Real Gameplay"
E3 2006 Motorstorm: Actual Gameplay
E3 2005 Tekken 6:"Real In-Game Model"
E3 2006 Tekken 6: "WTF?"
E3 2005 Killzone: "When you play it.. it will look like that"
E3 2006 Killzone: "Where did you go?"
Fast forward to this E3.
Sony had to show real games.
Not a single game even came close to the videos they showed last year. Killzone disappeared completely. Motorstorm looks good, but hardly anywhere near the target video (you especially have to see it in motion to see how far it strayed). Tekken 6 doesn't even look like the same game. Heavenly Sword (not shown) is now confined to tiny little rooms.
In fact, so downgraded they are, that the next wave of X360 games look BETTER than anything that will be launching on the PS3. Gears of War alone blows everything the PS3 had to offer completely out of the water.
Now, mind you, the games look fantastic. They really do. Especially Metal Gear Solid 4 (due late 2007 thus no where near a launch title) But Sony lied, raised expectations, and prayed that everyone would forget a year later.
They didn't.
And then, at the end of their conference... they announced the price.
$499 for the tard-pack
$599 for the full-featured product
The feature stripped version of the PS3 costs a full $100 more than the full featured Xbox 360.
The controller is identical to the PS2 but lost the rumble (remember my blog post about Sony and their lawsuit with Immersion?) and added a tilt-sensor and wireless.
Why?
Bluray. Sony is pushing so hard for this format to win, that they are desperately including it in the PS3. The problem is... bluray is Very expensive. Even at $600, Sony will be losing somewhere in the ballpark of $150-250 per unit. (Microsoft loses ~$175 on the premium X360 right now)
But perhaps this isn't such a bad idea? After all, there will be shortages no matter what, and early adopters are willing to pay. X360s were going for over $1000 on ebay after all...Is Sony's strategy then to milk the early adopters for all they've got... and then when they have enough inventory to sell, drop the price?
Sounds like a good idea to me... hell, why should all the ebay freaks make all the money?
But Sony's in a tight spot. The other problem they have is... their friendly neighborhood bluray manufacturers. There are 14 manufacturers lined up to make bluray...
But how can they sell their drives at a loss? Bluray drives will cost $800-$1200 through early 2007... but you can get one for cheap in a PS3. But the PS3 isn't THAT cheap now. Is this high price also in place to not scare away all the other manufacturers, who would just as easily jump ship and start making HD-DVD players, driving down the cost of HD-DVD further and making it an even more dangerous foe?
Will Sony be able to drop the price on the PS3 soon after launch? They will lose more per unit, AND piss off other bluray manufacturers. It's a tough spot.
Their claims that the X360 isn't in the same league fell flat at the conference. Gears of War, Bioshock, Mass Effect, all games that showed that the X360 is MORE than capable of standing toe to toe with the almighty PS3, AND at $200 less. When the PS3 launches with somewhere between 12-20 titles, the X360 will be swinging with 150.
The war has started, the players have showed their hands, and the only gun in Sony's court is their brand name with 100Million PS2 owners looking for an upgrade. I wouldn't put money down that none of those people won't buy a non-Sony console. Especially since US is only getting 1 Million units this year. A lot of parents will walk out of the stores with a different console.
Wii be jammin next.
I've sat through 5 hours of conference feeds from 3 companies.
My conclusion.
Sony blew goat chunks at this E3.
Last E3, in an effort to steal Microsoft's thunder, Sony played a bunch of video at E3 that represented what games would look like on the PS3.
They claimed at the time that those videos were representative of gameplay. They made other claims, in magazines and on TV that the videos were running on real PS3 hardware.
The videos they showed blew everything away. They made the Xbox 360 look like a childs play thing. People walked out of E3 calling the Xbox 360 the Xbox 1.5. Sony openly claimed that the X360 was competing with the PS2, not with the PS3 which would be out of its league.
E3 2005 Motorstorm: "Real Gameplay"
E3 2006 Motorstorm: Actual Gameplay
E3 2005 Tekken 6:"Real In-Game Model"
E3 2006 Tekken 6: "WTF?"
E3 2005 Killzone: "When you play it.. it will look like that"
E3 2006 Killzone: "Where did you go?"
Fast forward to this E3.
Sony had to show real games.
Not a single game even came close to the videos they showed last year. Killzone disappeared completely. Motorstorm looks good, but hardly anywhere near the target video (you especially have to see it in motion to see how far it strayed). Tekken 6 doesn't even look like the same game. Heavenly Sword (not shown) is now confined to tiny little rooms.
In fact, so downgraded they are, that the next wave of X360 games look BETTER than anything that will be launching on the PS3. Gears of War alone blows everything the PS3 had to offer completely out of the water.
Now, mind you, the games look fantastic. They really do. Especially Metal Gear Solid 4 (due late 2007 thus no where near a launch title) But Sony lied, raised expectations, and prayed that everyone would forget a year later.
They didn't.
And then, at the end of their conference... they announced the price.
$499 for the tard-pack
$599 for the full-featured product
The feature stripped version of the PS3 costs a full $100 more than the full featured Xbox 360.
The controller is identical to the PS2 but lost the rumble (remember my blog post about Sony and their lawsuit with Immersion?) and added a tilt-sensor and wireless.
Why?
Bluray. Sony is pushing so hard for this format to win, that they are desperately including it in the PS3. The problem is... bluray is Very expensive. Even at $600, Sony will be losing somewhere in the ballpark of $150-250 per unit. (Microsoft loses ~$175 on the premium X360 right now)
But perhaps this isn't such a bad idea? After all, there will be shortages no matter what, and early adopters are willing to pay. X360s were going for over $1000 on ebay after all...Is Sony's strategy then to milk the early adopters for all they've got... and then when they have enough inventory to sell, drop the price?
Sounds like a good idea to me... hell, why should all the ebay freaks make all the money?
But Sony's in a tight spot. The other problem they have is... their friendly neighborhood bluray manufacturers. There are 14 manufacturers lined up to make bluray...
But how can they sell their drives at a loss? Bluray drives will cost $800-$1200 through early 2007... but you can get one for cheap in a PS3. But the PS3 isn't THAT cheap now. Is this high price also in place to not scare away all the other manufacturers, who would just as easily jump ship and start making HD-DVD players, driving down the cost of HD-DVD further and making it an even more dangerous foe?
Will Sony be able to drop the price on the PS3 soon after launch? They will lose more per unit, AND piss off other bluray manufacturers. It's a tough spot.
Their claims that the X360 isn't in the same league fell flat at the conference. Gears of War, Bioshock, Mass Effect, all games that showed that the X360 is MORE than capable of standing toe to toe with the almighty PS3, AND at $200 less. When the PS3 launches with somewhere between 12-20 titles, the X360 will be swinging with 150.
The war has started, the players have showed their hands, and the only gun in Sony's court is their brand name with 100Million PS2 owners looking for an upgrade. I wouldn't put money down that none of those people won't buy a non-Sony console. Especially since US is only getting 1 Million units this year. A lot of parents will walk out of the stores with a different console.
Wii be jammin next.
posted by Gigaflop at
10:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home