The Inquirer – Monday 11 December 2006:
FORCING PS3 punters into buying a Blu-Ray format player with their consoles might be backfiring on Sony.
Not only did a shortage of Blu-Ray gear force the PS3 to ship late and in too low quantities, according to analysts, a lot of players hate it. Yankee Group analyst Michael Goodman said that early adopters of the PS3 would have bought it at any cost. But those who come to the product later will be more price-sensitive.
Blu-Ray however is adding $150 to $200 to the product and punters do not really want it.
Goodman said that Sony had created something that is not for today’s market. Blu-Ray was not a market driver on a console and it is only driving the price higher.
There is some good news for Sony, the PS2 was the best selling console last month!
Bundling a blu-ray drive may be initially expensive, but will be a big factor in market penetration. It may yet backfire on Sony, but as long as the PS3 keeps selling out…
I will not be buying any PS3 products in the near future. We have wii and xbox360 which will meet our gaming demands for the next few years. Sony has lost their leadership role in this by badly implementing their product introduction this year. It will rank up their with the “Classic Coke” marketing blunder and with other such marketing driven concepts.
#1
“…..the PS3 keeps selling out…”
Which is why Sony should keep the Blu-Ray production at a low level. It’ll keep the PS3 sold out.
Seriously, I think it was a bad move. The inclusion of Blu-Ray is the main reason for the PS3 delay. The delay made the game developers do other things than making games for PS3. So, when PS3 now is dripping into the market, the games are scarce, and the price is high.
Too much money for eye candy. And to utilize the Blu-Ray, the “kid” has to hook it up to the HDTV. No more hi-def football, Daddy 😉 Or do the homes have multiple HDTVs by now?
I think Sony wanted another market domination a la the portable cassette players in the walkman era. Could they be wrong? Could Sony go wrong? Have they been wrong in the recent couple of years? You be the judge…….
I move to retire the term ‘next-gen’. Its not so bad when it is read, but whenever i hear people at a trade show forced to say ‘next-gen’, I feel a little sorry for them having to use such a lame piece of jargon.
As far as the PS3 is concerned… They were supposed to have exclusive agreements with serveral ‘next-gen’ games that are releasing in the next few months. Because of delays with the PS3, those games are getting initial wide releases.
While initial sales are brisk, it looks to me like sony has another PSP on their hands. Not a failure, but not accomplishing segment dominance like was hyped.
3,
One can get an HDTV switcher.
Blue ray was included simply to increase Sony’s market share of the format and ensure its victory over HDDVD. Too bad Sony can’t do anything right now a days and it will end up hurting them.
#5
I don’t think the problem is too few connections on the HDTVs. The dilemma is rather what to watch; The kid freak playing a PS3 game, mommy watch pro football, or daddy watch Dysfunctional Housewives in HiDef.
Consoles were often put in the kid’s room, but unless the kid has an HDTV, that’s a waste of the Blu-Ray.
Hm, maybe Sony should bundle the PS3 together with an HDTV set? It would add a “little”, but it’s not like that’s ever stopped them.
I’d agree with 6 about the Blu-ray. That thing mainly retails for $800 – $1000 in a market where HD-DVD is about half the price. If Sony is going to win the high def DVD war, my opinion is that they have to practically give it away – as they are doing in the PS3, and as they should be doing generally in the market. They can worry about profits later as Google and scores of other internet companies such as Google & YouTube have shown the way.
RBG
“There is some good news for Sony, the PS2 was the best selling console last month!”
Eh?
From the link:
“Nintendo … seems to be winning thus far with around 476,000 units sold in the US to date versus $197,000 for PlayStation 3. That’s an outsell ratio of over 2:1.”
Nintendo … seems to be winning thus far with around 476,000 units sold in the US to date versus $197,000 for PlayStation 3. That’s an outsell ratio of over 2:1
Price and availability are the main reasons, not to mention the cool factor of the controllers.
What Blu ray and HD DVD are for, in the long run…Is security.
Games will be released that wont Use DVD format.
But beyond that, it will be for the movies, and this is a first release Niche.
If Blu-ray can release Lots of movies that will play on the PS3.. It should take over the market. for the larger format HD content, thay want as much security on the system as possible, and Both formats will have this SOON.
All I say to you guys is… WIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!! 😀 Bought one and it is terrific.
😀
#9
The article was pointing out that the best selling console system last month (at 664,000 units) was the six-year old Playstation 2 not the new Playstation 3. Not surprising since the PS2 console sells for about $129 and has far more games (and at a lower prices) than the three newer systems combined.
From the link:
“Interestingly Sony’s PlayStation 2, which was introduced six years ago, was the top seller last month with 664,000 units shipped in the US.”
Steve
#13. Thanks Steve S for taking the time to actually read the article before commenting!
Ah…sorry, it’s Monday.
Uhhh… What is a “punter” and what does it have to do with PS3s?
#16 –
refering to Madden 2007 perhaps?
I don’t think adding Blu-ray to the PS3 was a mistake. I think it was smart. Blu-ray Movies are the best movies!