Sony, what are you doing?
So the NPD numbers are out, and it begs the questions "Sony, what in god's holy name are you doing?" There is basically a single solution to this problem, and it's so obvious it's retarded. Lower the fucking price!
$300 and $400 would do it, I think. The Xbox360 had a lot of success at that price. Come to think of it, the Xbox360's price for it's main unit (formerly the 20gig, now the 60gig) has only come down $100 in three years, which actually isn't very much at all. And no, I'm not counting the gimped Arcade unit, which is just a ploy for Xbox to claim they have the cheapest console. The reason for their somewhat unaggressive price scheme is because of Sony. Their price has been so high, Microsoft hasn't needed to lower their price.
The problem is, price is the only reason the PS3 isn't doing better. It used to be that it didn't really have a good lineup of games. That's not true anymore, the PS3 has a lot of good games (not quite as much as the 360, mind you, but still enough to justify purchasing the system). The only barrier now is the price, and they're so goddamn stupid about lowering the price, it's bordering on absurd stupidity.
They're always claiming to be "happy" with the NPD numbers, but this happiness comes from basically ignoring the existence of every other system out there. I guess you could argue that the PS3 isn't doing poorly so much as the 360 and Wii are doing SO much better. So by ignoring your competition, it makes it easier to stomach how far behind you are. I guess on a global scale, the PS3 isn't behind AS MUCH as it is in America. America is a pretty important market though, and the 360 so far has twice the units out there as the PS3.
It frustrates me. I'll be honest about my bias. I'm partial toward Sony, but I'm no fanboy. I'm partial toward them because they tend to release games that a closer to my taste than the other two systems. Now, I LOVE Mario, and I LOVED BioShock when it was 360-exclusive, but 360's robust online capabilities are somewhat lost on me as I don't play much multiplayer. I'm more of a single player guy, and I like games that push toward artfulness. That's why I tend to gravitate toward Sony. I've really loved a lot of the PSN downloadable games, more so than I like the 360's XBLA games (with the exception of Braid, which seems like more of a PSN game to me). Sony also has, in my opinion, the best first part development of any company, even Nintendo (Mario Galaxy being the exception, of course). The stuff coming out of Sony's in-house studios is amazing, God of War, Folklore, LocoRoco, to name a few. Microsoft has a few hot developers, Rare and Lionhead, but overall I like Sony's taste better. That being said:
I will never defend Sony's business decisions when they are goddamn stupid. I'm not a fanboy, so I have no stake in what they do. The problem for me is that I want to see them do well because they cultivate talent better than any other company out there. They support releases of stuff I never thought a huge company would support, Linger in Shadows being a big focal point. So the only reason I want them to do well is because they're the company that's pushing videogames toward art better than anyone else. This is what I want to see.
Lower your fucking price! It's just that simple. Stop releasing new SKUs to try and test out what people are willing and unwilling to pay for. It's just wasting time and money. The system need to be at THE MOST $300, then we'll see some market penetration. That's it, man, that's all there is to it. I know a few people that really want a PS3, but it's still too expensive.
It's just so simple, assholes.
$300 and $400 would do it, I think. The Xbox360 had a lot of success at that price. Come to think of it, the Xbox360's price for it's main unit (formerly the 20gig, now the 60gig) has only come down $100 in three years, which actually isn't very much at all. And no, I'm not counting the gimped Arcade unit, which is just a ploy for Xbox to claim they have the cheapest console. The reason for their somewhat unaggressive price scheme is because of Sony. Their price has been so high, Microsoft hasn't needed to lower their price.
The problem is, price is the only reason the PS3 isn't doing better. It used to be that it didn't really have a good lineup of games. That's not true anymore, the PS3 has a lot of good games (not quite as much as the 360, mind you, but still enough to justify purchasing the system). The only barrier now is the price, and they're so goddamn stupid about lowering the price, it's bordering on absurd stupidity.
They're always claiming to be "happy" with the NPD numbers, but this happiness comes from basically ignoring the existence of every other system out there. I guess you could argue that the PS3 isn't doing poorly so much as the 360 and Wii are doing SO much better. So by ignoring your competition, it makes it easier to stomach how far behind you are. I guess on a global scale, the PS3 isn't behind AS MUCH as it is in America. America is a pretty important market though, and the 360 so far has twice the units out there as the PS3.
It frustrates me. I'll be honest about my bias. I'm partial toward Sony, but I'm no fanboy. I'm partial toward them because they tend to release games that a closer to my taste than the other two systems. Now, I LOVE Mario, and I LOVED BioShock when it was 360-exclusive, but 360's robust online capabilities are somewhat lost on me as I don't play much multiplayer. I'm more of a single player guy, and I like games that push toward artfulness. That's why I tend to gravitate toward Sony. I've really loved a lot of the PSN downloadable games, more so than I like the 360's XBLA games (with the exception of Braid, which seems like more of a PSN game to me). Sony also has, in my opinion, the best first part development of any company, even Nintendo (Mario Galaxy being the exception, of course). The stuff coming out of Sony's in-house studios is amazing, God of War, Folklore, LocoRoco, to name a few. Microsoft has a few hot developers, Rare and Lionhead, but overall I like Sony's taste better. That being said:
I will never defend Sony's business decisions when they are goddamn stupid. I'm not a fanboy, so I have no stake in what they do. The problem for me is that I want to see them do well because they cultivate talent better than any other company out there. They support releases of stuff I never thought a huge company would support, Linger in Shadows being a big focal point. So the only reason I want them to do well is because they're the company that's pushing videogames toward art better than anyone else. This is what I want to see.
Lower your fucking price! It's just that simple. Stop releasing new SKUs to try and test out what people are willing and unwilling to pay for. It's just wasting time and money. The system need to be at THE MOST $300, then we'll see some market penetration. That's it, man, that's all there is to it. I know a few people that really want a PS3, but it's still too expensive.
It's just so simple, assholes.