David Reeves, Sony Europe’s President said, “we simply have to suffer a little” when talking about the PS3, Europe and the competition. He was talking specifically about Sony’s loss of market share, mind-share and overall performance in the latest competitive console arena. While Sony’s president dismisses Nintendo as in a separate market, David Reeves said, “we’ve learned from Nintendo how to grow the market and move from hand-held device to device – they’ve done it brilliantly.”
What Sony may be dealing with is the fact that they’re not top dog in the latest battle for consoles. Europe has taken to the PlayStation 3 better than the United States and they’ve got plenty of fans in the region. There has been a recent upside to it all, some light at the end of the tunnel:
“PS3 games sales are up 53% and there’s a healthy 1.1m pre-order book for Killzone 2, the first of a new batch of IPs that Sony will be counting on.” (guardian.co.uk)
Although it’s reported the PSP says are down 15% and PS2 software sales are down 51%, at least the PlayStation 3 is filling in the gap for some of those losses. At some point you’d expect the PlayStation 2 to decline, gamers are probably migrating over to the new hardware.
They’ve got some things to be proud of:
- PlayStation Network increases revenues by 200% in 2008
- 55% of all PlayStation owners are on PSN
- 17.5 million PSN subscribers
- 53% rise in software sales on PS3
- Won HD format war
Unfortunately PS3 sales were down last quarter by about 9%, perhaps a response to the harsh economic times. And, of course, the fact that Sony’s VP’s are constantly defending their position in the market is a bit disconcerting. As David Reeves said:
“It’s like Ali v Foreman – go eight or nine rounds and let him punch himself out. We’re still standing, we’re still profitable and there’s a lot of fight in us. I don’t say we will land a knockout blow, but we’re there and we’re fighting.” (guardian.co.uk)
Sony is playing the defensive, guarding themselves against the punches of the competition. Nintendo making headlines for sales, Microsoft coming out of nowhere to try to build market share, while Sony holds out for the tenth round to win it in the end? We’re not yet sure if it’s Ali vs. Foreman or if Microsoft is the next Buster Douglas.
(Thanks, Guardian)
Apple cutting into
@To the Moon
Paul, you’re right about the story vs. gameplay. But a game with all gameplay and no story becomes slightly boring. People are goal driven, and the storyline provide these goals.
And yes, “Go bring me 50 rat tails” is a goal, but it is far less interesting than the ones provided by a good story.
@People don’t want PS Vita
He’s true, I don’t want the PS Vita 😀
Jordan, thing is, people do like to carry only one item in their pockets. True, a good game library goes a long way (see XBox) but there is a line where the extra games will indeed trump the discomfort of carrying an extra item.
Thing is, I don’t think Vita will go beyond that line.
@video games for London riots:
Lol! I play STALKER and a bunch of other violent games, but you don’t see me looting. Keep ignoring the 600 lb gorilla in the living room and blame it all on the games …
A friend of mine from UK kept telling me for years that the hands of the police kept being tied behind their backs with laws considering the human rights of delinquents. He for once was not surprised of what happened: when you know you won’t get punished, guess what happens.
@Epic may ban people who spoil Gears of War 3 online:
Actually, this serves Epic well. (1) They’re basically punish people for advertising the game, and this is dumb, and (2), Epic, choose your testers better. If you have a crappy PR, you get crappy people working for you. Do your homework. Have them sign NDAs.
@Intel hiring sci-fi writers to drive technology:
Jonah, you’re making a mistake. It’s not about where to go with the tech, but rather to discover what desires the people of the future will have.
In order to have a product that sells, you need to find out what will the next generations want in terms of using technology. For that you don’t need tech people, you need sociologists.
@QOTW: one problem here is that I rarely dream. The other one is that I don’t bother remembering my dreams, unless they are truly remarkable.
Paul: You asked for it, here it is; hate mail.
You mispronounced my name. My name is not Mark. How dare you sir. I hate you.
Jordan: The story you are thinking of regarding the “accidental” flushing of a GBA was actually from the cover story on the handheld by Electronic Gaming Monthly. They purposefully flushed the unit and it started working again three days later.
QOTW: I’ll be trite here and mention Guitar Hero. It’s true though, I did dream of the colors flying down the fretboard at me during the night.
My QotW answer is not a great deal away from Matt’s. It is THE classic game.
Tetris.
I invested so many hours in that game trying to get the stupid large rocket animation that all I could see when I closed my eyelids was tetrinos falling. Now I know where they got the idea for The Matrix code animations.