Hilarious new Sony PS3 article, "shortages will be completely eased by May" Huh?

[jajaja]

if the market maintains it current trend, market position will stay the same for all three systems. as i said in my post, it will take drastic action for sony to buck the current trend, and cutting the price of the PS3 in half would qualify as drastic. a ticky-tack price drop wont help very much, as it would be easy for MS to match it.

Of course, if the trend stays exactly like it is now for the next years to come it might not look to bright for Sony, but the market is constantly changing. Next year it can be totaly different, no one knows for sure. Therefor its impossible to say now how each console will turn out in the end. As said, we can guess and predict, but not say for sure. Only time knows and we'll have to wait and see

[77punk]

i wont complain of price of the ps3 considering the complexity of the system. I just dont think Sony thought enough about how this will be the revolutionary system. I wont think about buying one until either price drops on games or RE5 comes out and rocks the socks off.

[veronica_marsfan]

Blasphemy! The Saturn was never a waste of money.

It had a lifespan of just-over two years long.
I invested in two Sega consoles (32X and Saturn),
and both were terminated early by Sega.

I wasn't going anywhere near the Dreamcast, for fear it too would be terminated after only two years on market. I waited to see what Sony & Nintendo had in 2000.

The earlier poster was correct:
Distrust of Sega is what killed the DC.

[Nature Boy]

if the market maintains it current trend, market position will stay the same for all three systems. as i said in my post, it will take drastic action for sony to buck the current trend, and cutting the price of the PS3 in half would qualify as drastic. a ticky-tack price drop wont help very much, as it would be easy for MS to match it.

Two things. (a) Current trends don't dictate future market positions. Look at the SNES vs the Genesis - it took a long time, but they were even by the end of that generation. (b) They can't cut the price in half or they piss off all their hardcore, early adoptor customers. Piss them off and who is going to buy your stuff at full price next time?

I don't disagree they'll need to do something (drastic might be a little melodramatic), but there are plenty of ways to increase market share. Pricing is just one of them.

[veronica_marsfan]

Two things. (a) Current trends don't dictate future market positions. Look at the SNES vs the Genesis

Or Betamax vs VHS.
Betamax owned 80% of the market in 1980.
But VHS won the war by 1990.

Betamax "won" the early adopters between 1975 and 1980, but the masses (the majority of consumers) flocked to the VHS format. VHS decks were cheaper & offered twice the recording time, which appealed to people with limited budgets that couldn't afford the pricey Betamax decks/tapes.

[Rob2600]

Sony outsold Nintendo in the last two generations. In both of those generations, Sony had a one year head start. This time around, Sony didn't have a head start and the Wii is outselling the PlayStation 3 by 2-to-1.

It's the same situation with the portables, too. The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were released within a month from each other...no head start...and the DS is outselling PSP by 1.5-to-1.

It seems as though when Sony doesn't get a big head start, they don't come out on top.

[jajaja]

Afaik PSP did outsell DS the first couple of months, but then the good games came out for DS and i guess you know the rest of the story Shows how big importance games actually are when it comes to selling a console.

[Rob2600]

Afaik PSP did outsell DS the first couple of months

There's a huge difference between "units shipped" and "units sold." Sony loves bragging about how many units its shipped because it sounds impressive, but in reality, it's an almost useless statistic compared to actual sales figures.

Shows how big importance games actually are when it comes to selling a console.

You're right, to an extent. Marketing is probably even more important, which is unfortunate because a great catalog of games can go unplayed due to ineffective ad campaigns and branding. It seems like this time around, Nintendo was able to do what Apple did with the iPod and create a high "coolness" factor for the Wii, whereas Sony hasn't been able to do that with the PlayStation 3.

Price is also very important. I'm guessing the PlayStation 3's high 3DO-style price tag doesn't appeal to mainstream consumers. In my area of the U.S., a $500 PlayStation 3 plus a game and tax comes out to $596. A $600 PlayStation 3 plus a game and tax comes out to $715. That is a considerable purchase for many people. On the other hand, a $250 Wii plus a game and tax comes out to $325, which is cheap by comparison...half the price!

[jajaja]

PSP did sell more, not just shipped. Check the stats i posted earlier (those are US only tho). Here are some other stats from Media Create (Japan). These are units sold. Shows that PSP did sell more in the begining.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=82975133&size=o

[Nature Boy]

Sony outsold Nintendo in the last two generations. In both of those generations, Sony had a one year head start. This time around, Sony didn't have a head start and the Wii is outselling the PlayStation 3 by 2-to-1.

Sega had a head start on both of them and look where the Dreamcast ended up!

[veronica_marsfan]

Wii is outselling the PlayStation 3 by 2-to-1..

Source?

[joedick]

Source?

I don't know about overall numbers, but wii outsold PS3 2 to 1 in March in the US and overall in Japan:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...=5298&Itemid=2
http://wii.ign.com/articles/777/777967p1.html

[jajaja]

The 2 last week in Japan, PS3 was outsold like 7 to 1 compared to Wii. No suprise tho. Super Paper Mario was out last week and in general Wii is cheaper and have much more games

[Rob2600]

Source?

Page 21 of Nintendo's Consolidated Financial Statements document lists total Wii sales at 5.84 million as of March 31, 2007:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2007/070426e.pdf

I also used data from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_wii

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_3

At the very least, Wii is outselling PlayStation 3 by 1.83-to-1 (5.84 million vs. 3.2 million). At best, Wii is outselling PlayStation 3 by 2.04-to-1 (6.52 million vs. 3.2 million).

[veronica_marsfan]

Hmm.

My next-generation console might end-up being a Nintendo. (surprise)