Is the PS3 doing any better than what it was a couple of years ago?

[atarian63]

Billions and years wasted on just a 25-30% market share and still barely or not profitable seems like the "GM" business model. If xbox was a stand alone company they would be asking for a bailout Just shows you cant buy the market no matter how deep your pockets are.

Also Vista sell LOTS of Macs. Not to mention if Vista was so great why does Best Buy and others offer a Downgrade available when you buy a new pc. The service dept at my local says they are doing a large percentage of new systems with XP. Doensnt bode well for Microshaft.

As for PS3. I have one. It's my bluray player. I own no games for it. The Wii is my primary current gen console.

I think I'm listening to a broken record and a poorly informed one at that.

 

Doesn't bode well for M$ as they rake in $1.5 BILLION dollars a month anyway?

The downgrade is more because initial hardware support sucked and then the "VISTA SUCKS" stuff started scaring people away.

VISA and old hardware with no drivers is a real problem but it works well on new systems. Not saying it wasn't a total blunder.

Macs are an even smaller part of the market than the 360 is in the games market.

http://techspotlight.today.com/2009/01/02/...-share-roundup/

 

Not profitable? All the not profitable articles I'm finding are from 2006-2007.

The 360 became profitable over a year ago.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/the-xbox-turns-a-profit/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/24/xbox-go...wn-up-business/

 

And SONY has been in video games for how many generations and owns LESS of he market than M$.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/26/playsta...ll-way-more-pr/

 

The 360 was released in Nov 2005 and became profitable around the end of 2007.

That's only a couple years and if you believe SONY the life of this generation is 10 years.

Since M$ has a completely integrated CPU+graphics chip still scheduled on it's time line I'd have to say they will be around to make money for a few more years.

It has alot of ground to make up to be "profitable" as it has lost so much so far and that assumes that it remains where it is. Barely profitable. It would take years just to get even.Also most articles show it to be late 2008 with the new chipset (new and improved with only 20% bad off the line instead of 50%)

Many think Sony will surge soon I would expect most of that to come at microshafts expense.

A big failure so far. You just can't buy yourself and industry.

Linux on the server side cutting into profits. Linux on the home side cutting into profits, Mac on another side with market sharing increasing due to the flop if Vista, and Xbox barely profitable. Long term I would rate MS a sell stock.

Edited April 3, 2009 by atarian63

[atarian63]

Quadruple post. Who's a broken record now?

Ha Ha! Not right but a strong opinion. I respect that, no issue there.

[Atarifever]

Many think Sony will surge soon I would expect most of that to come at microshafts expense.

Many have thought that every day since 2006. It hasn't happened. It won't. Nothing has changed except the number of games made for the Wii and the price of the 360. There is literally nothing that could lead to a PS3 surge. That's not a value judgment against the PS3. I just fail to see how the most expensive console with the least users would manage to turn things around in the middle of a recession with no real big AAA exclusives in the pipe, and certainly no more exclusives than the other two. Why would people spend more money for no more value, during a recession, as developers around the world have really started directing resources elsewhere? Even the "it's a Blu-Ray player" reasoning no longer holds as Blu-Ray player prices drop, while downloading and streaming movies is rising, while most people still don't have high def, during the worst economy since the 1930s.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Atarifever

[atarian63]

Many think Sony will surge soon I would expect most of that to come at microshafts expense.

Many have thought that every day since 2006. It hasn't happened. It won't. Nothing has changed except the number of games made for the Wii and the price of the 360. There is literally nothing that could lead to a PS3 surge. That's not a value judgment against the PS3. I just fail to see how the most expensive console with the least users would manage to turn things around in the middle of a recession with no real big AAA exclusives in the pipe, and certainly no more exclusives than the other two. Why would people spend more money for no more value, during a recession, as developers around the world have really started directing resources elsewhere? Even the "it's a Blu-Ray player" reasoning no longer holds as Blu-Ray player prices drop, while downloading and streaming movies is rising, while most people still don't have high def, during the worst economy since the 1930s.

You make some good points. It has been said Sony is going to drop the price as well,rumor is $299. That should help! Also direct bluray downloads from Sony is catching on. I know several people locally doing it. I am not sure people see it as lesser value. The Xbox is kind of a Walmart machine. Though you can get them all there. For some the $$$ is an issue but for many it is not.

Most of my friends as well as many here own all three.

Also in Japan PS3 has outsold the Wii for 2 consecutive months.

 

Time will tell on this but if they do the $299 price point the increased sales will result in another decrease for Xbox.

 

For the most part I really don't care. Only the Wii has much that I want to play and I am getting some interest in my Ps3 finally.

I mostly play my Atari products and my arcade machines.

[Atarifever]

For the most part I really don't care. Only the Wii has much that I want to play and I am getting some interest in my Ps3 finally.

I mostly play my Atari products and my arcade machines.

I think perhaps your dislike of Microsoft is making you overestimate Sony's chances. This would basically have to be as big a comeback as the SNES over the Genesis, and unlike that one, the PS3 is currently in the position of the TG16, not that of the SNES.

 

I'm no big Microsoft fan. I'm a Yahoo portal/RSS/ Messanger user, getting to those services with Firefox, running Ubuntu, and saving my thesis to Goggle docs, so I use Microsoft for precisely nothing outside of work, where that's my only email option. Even there I have set up so that I use my Yahoo calendar with reminders popping up through Yahoo Messanger, and my memos and addresses are also in Yahoo, so I only have to use MS for the email itself. Thus, I'm hardly a fan of them. I can't even think of one MSN branded website I have used.

 

However, I think their console has good games, so I bought one.

[atarian63]

For the most part I really don't care. Only the Wii has much that I want to play and I am getting some interest in my Ps3 finally.

I mostly play my Atari products and my arcade machines.

I think perhaps your dislike of Microsoft is making you overestimate Sony's chances. This would basically have to be as big a comeback as the SNES over the Genesis, and unlike that one, the PS3 is currently in the position of the TG16, not that of the SNES.

 

I'm no big Microsoft fan. I'm a Yahoo portal/RSS/ Messanger user, getting to those services with Firefox, running Ubuntu, and saving my thesis to Goggle docs, so I use Microsoft for precisely nothing outside of work, where that's my only email option. Even there I have set up so that I use my Yahoo calendar with reminders popping up through Yahoo Messanger, and my memos and addresses are also in Yahoo, so I only have to use MS for the email itself. Thus, I'm hardly a fan of them. I can't even think of one MSN branded website I have used.

 

However, I think their console has good games, so I bought one.

It's possible that is so. I do dislike most things microsoft and hate to see them do to the gaming world what they did to the computer world. That said it is somewhat possible for ps3. I bought the ps3 back when bluray was much higher priced and thought maybe there would be some games at sometime that I would like. There are a few but most are just the xbox type game which I don't like. Pc gaming just doesnt work for me. I am interested in direct donload and there is a linux o/s for ps3 that looks interesting.

[Mendon]

Exclusive games like Valkyria Chronicles, Siren, Demon's Souls, Resistance, Pixel Junk Monsters, Uncharted, Crash Commando's, Metal Gear Solid, and Burn Zombie Burn have made owning the PS3 a true pleasure and worth EVERY dollar I've spent on the system.

 

'Nuff said.

 

 

Mendon

[Atarifever]

Exclusive games like Valkyria Chronicles, Siren, Demon's Souls, Resistance, Pixel Junk Monsters, Uncharted, Crash Commando's, Metal Gear Solid, and Burn Zombie Burn have made owning the PS3 a true pleasure and worth EVERY dollar I've spent on the system.

 

'Nuff said.

 

 

Mendon

 

Entirely possible.

 

 

To clarify my position, my point is that those games, great though they may be, have not led to a surge up the charts for the PS3. Once Uncharted, Resistance, and Metal Gear didn't do it, it was pretty obvious no game likely would. Then Home dropped and got lambasted in the media and didn't lead to any surges. So I think Sony is in a Saturn position.

 

They haven't reached critical mass, they have nothing left bigger than what has already hit (I doubt there's anything left as big as a Metal Gear exclusive for example), and developers have claimed they are hard to produce for, because their system is, at root, too powerful. That is the exact position of the Saturn. Also like the Saturn, they have too very strong competitors with larger install bases. Also like the Saturn, even if they do a price drop, the other systems are already ahead of them on that front, and will likely be able to make further price drops themselves. Seriously, is it not possible to drop the Wii's price by now? It'll get a nice price drop for Christmas for sure. The 360 can already sell for $199 with five download games and a pack in full game, internal storage, and wireless controllers. They have so many things they can do with prices of their SKU this Christmas it's not even funny. Add an extra game with the core package, pack in Halo Wars or Halo 3 instead of Tennis, add more internal storage, throw in a trial gold membership, drop another $20-30 from the price, remove the games and drop more money from the price, etc.

 

Again, this is not a value judgment of the console. I prefer the SMS and 7800 to the NES. I love the TG16 and dislike the SNES. I hate the N64 and PS1 and love the Saturn. I preferred the Gamecube last generation. I love the NGage and Lynx. So I am well aware that it is entirely possible that the PS3 may end up being the best console of this generation. Market success does not equal a great product, nor is the reverse true. So I guess I agree with you 100% that it may be very worth owning. It's just not going to be number one, and I doubt very much it will be number two, success wise.

[Reaperman]

To clarify my position, my point is that those games, great though they may be, have not led to a surge up the charts for the PS3. Once Uncharted, Resistance, and Metal Gear didn't do it, it was pretty obvious no game likely would. Then Home dropped and got lambasted in the media and didn't lead to any surges. So I think Sony is in a Saturn position.

I keep thinking that if anything it will be God of War III, and Gran Turismo 5--I let most of the other exclusives slip by, but I'm planning on buying those at launch. Final Fantasy 13 not being a ps3 exclusive is quite a hit to sony--those really move systems.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Reaperman

[Atarifever]

To clarify my position, my point is that those games, great though they may be, have not led to a surge up the charts for the PS3. Once Uncharted, Resistance, and Metal Gear didn't do it, it was pretty obvious no game likely would. Then Home dropped and got lambasted in the media and didn't lead to any surges. So I think Sony is in a Saturn position.

I keep thinking that if anything it will be God of War III, and Gran Turismo 5--I let most of the other exclusives slip by, but I'm planning on buying those at launch. Final Fantasy 13 not being a ps3 exclusive is quite a hit to sony--those really move systems.

I don't doubt that those will move some systems, I just don't think they'll move any more than other exclusives on other systems. I don't think Sony sales will stall, but I think the best case scenario is that it keeps pace with the 360, and I can't see it offering anything to overtake the 360. Meanwhile, the others have lots of things they can do. The Wii has tons of cushion for a big price drop, can make some new games using motion plus, has balance boards in nearly as many homes as there are PS3s so lots of "Mom" games are on the way, etc. The Xbox can change up pack ins, drop prices to the ridiculously cheap $150 range in the foreseeable future, and can pack in more accessories with the cheaper system. The other two systems have more room to improve their performance on the market, while the PS3 only really has reactive measures it can hope to take (price drops to not let the others get too far ahead, pack ins to match those on the Wii and 360, paying for exclusive content like Microsoft, fighting to keep big budget games from going Xbox exclusive, etc.) It's the Saturn position, and it isn't fun. The benefit to us consumers is that, like the Saturn, the PS3 is likely to offer lots of games in niche areas and to take chances publishing anything that will let Sony have it as an exclusive. Leads to a great library in the end, but not incredible success for the company overall.

[cimerians]

Who here has a PS3 with an HD TV?

[Starscream]

Me

[moycon]

Same here.

[+SpiceWare]

me, been HD since 2001. My set predates HDMI and it only supports 480i, 480p and 1080i. Sending a 720p signal results in a blue screen with an out of sync message.

 

The PS3 games don't interest me as much as the PS2 games did. I find that I use it more as a blu-ray player, which is not a bad thing as when I bought the PS3 it was less expensive than a dedicated blu-ray player - and those players couldn't support the 2.0 spec.

[Gabriel]

Who here has a PS3 with an HD TV?

 

Me.

[Mord]

A console could do decently in the US, but if it gets beat in Japan, that will shorten it's lifespan, and it's support.

 

it's actually pretty simple.

 

And also rather wrong. You're talking about Nintendo there, and they have a history of supporting their console, whatever they make it to be, for a full generation. They don't do the 1-2 year copout cycles like Sega was known to pull just because it failed in a market. (or just wasn't #1)

 

Additionally, you have to keep in mind that consoles sales WILL generally go down once everybody already has it. Doesn't mean everyone junked their Wiis and are now buying PS3s.

 

Wake me up when the total PS3 sales even approach the total Wii sales in japan. THAT would at least indicate some sort of shift in the market worth looking at.

[JamesD]

It has alot of ground to make up to be "profitable" as it has lost so much so far and that assumes that it remains where it is. Barely profitable. It would take years just to get even.Also most articles show it to be late 2008 with the new chipset (new and improved with only 20% bad off the line instead of 50%)

Many think Sony will surge soon I would expect most of that to come at microshafts expense.

A big failure so far. You just can't buy yourself and industry.

Linux on the server side cutting into profits. Linux on the home side cutting into profits, Mac on another side with market sharing increasing due to the flop if Vista, and Xbox barely profitable. Long term I would rate MS a sell stock.

Ok, so where are the links to back this up?

Anyone can make a statement like that but if you have no evidence to back it up then it's just M$ hater bashing and doesn't mean anything.

[JamesD]

I just want to remind people that the real money in the games market is in the software sales, not console sales.

 

The PS3 is supposed to be profitable by August btw.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/13741.cfm

[cimerians]

To those who answer yes......is this the movie player you now use?

 

I mean, because of this system, I've pretty much tossed out all my dvd players (except my region free one and I have my pc hooked up to the TV as well)

Mainly because of the upscaling and the updates.

 

I'm not sure if this has any affect on sales because I didnt care at all about Blu-Ray when I bought my PS3 but now its so sweet to have that option and the DVD playback is fantastic.

I think a small percentage might be attributed to it being a blu-ray player.

 

Bottom line, I think the price of this thing kind of makes it a niche system to have where the 360 is kind of like the Atari or NES of today.

Makes little sense though as Wii sales have\are off the charts.

[moycon]

To those who answer yes......is this the movie player you now use?

 

Rarely use it.

Mostly now we use the 360/Netflix to watch stuff, if we watch a standard DVD we use the HD-DVD player.

I usually don't use my video game consoles to watch movies, I've always felt it just puts needless wear on the drive.

The only time we use the PS3 for movies is if we watch a Blu-Ray flick. I think the last time was about 3 or 4 weeks ago when we watched Kill Bill Vol 1

[Gabriel]

To those who answer yes......is this the movie player you now use?

 

Yes, I use it as a movie player. I've put most of the episodes of Macross Frontier on the hard drive, and I tend to use it more for playing DVDs than my 360.

 

But recently I hauled the old XBox out of the closet. I figure I'll use it to play DVD movies on instead of the PS3 and the 360. I'd rather wear out the worthless Xbox than one of my modern systems. And considering I have one of the original BC 60G PS3s, I never want to send it in for service for fear it will get replaced by a shitty non-BC system.

[Starscream]

To those who answer yes......is this the movie player you now use?

 

I mean, because of this system, I've pretty much tossed out all my dvd players (except my region free one and I have my pc hooked up to the TV as well)

Mainly because of the upscaling and the updates.

 

I'm not sure if this has any affect on sales because I didnt care at all about Blu-Ray when I bought my PS3 but now its so sweet to have that option and the DVD playback is fantastic.

I think a small percentage might be attributed to it being a blu-ray player.

 

Bottom line, I think the price of this thing kind of makes it a niche system to have where the 360 is kind of like the Atari or NES of today.

Makes little sense though as Wii sales have\are off the charts.

 

 

Nope. I seldom buy BR movies becuase I am cutting costs and entertainment is always the 1st on the chopping block. Secondly, I use the 360 HD DVD add-on because the PS3 does nowhere near as a good job as the 360 for upscaling, and thirdly, Netflix thru the 360.

 

If I wasn't in major cheap mode, I would be getting BR movies more often and probably use the PS3 for more movies.

[atarian63]

To those who answer yes......is this the movie player you now use?

 

I mean, because of this system, I've pretty much tossed out all my dvd players (except my region free one and I have my pc hooked up to the TV as well)

Mainly because of the upscaling and the updates.

 

I'm not sure if this has any affect on sales because I didnt care at all about Blu-Ray when I bought my PS3 but now its so sweet to have that option and the DVD playback is fantastic.

I think a small percentage might be attributed to it being a blu-ray player.

 

Bottom line, I think the price of this thing kind of makes it a niche system to have where the 360 is kind of like the Atari or NES of today.

Makes little sense though as Wii sales have\are off the charts.

It was the main reason I bought one and it is now my primary DVD player. Direct D/l from sony sounds great too, maybe a bit early on releases. It other places in the house I have upconvert DVD players.

[atarian63]

It has alot of ground to make up to be "profitable" as it has lost so much so far and that assumes that it remains where it is. Barely profitable. It would take years just to get even.Also most articles show it to be late 2008 with the new chipset (new and improved with only 20% bad off the line instead of 50%)

Many think Sony will surge soon I would expect most of that to come at microshafts expense.

A big failure so far. You just can't buy yourself and industry.

Linux on the server side cutting into profits. Linux on the home side cutting into profits, Mac on another side with market sharing increasing due to the flop if Vista, and Xbox barely profitable. Long term I would rate MS a sell stock.

Ok, so where are the links to back this up?

Anyone can make a statement like that but if you have no evidence to back it up then it's just M$ hater bashing and doesn't mean anything.

Please, they have been everywhere on the net and here at Atariage. Why reiterate a fact gone over here many times. That a big 30Billion dollar hole to try to fill up. It gets a "FAIL".

[JamesD]

Please, they have been everywhere on the net and here at Atariage. Why reiterate a fact gone over here many times. That a big 30Billion dollar hole to try to fill up. It gets a "FAIL".

Which means you have nothing to back it up but M$ bashers and their blogs.