Some Thoughts on Sony
Reading an article in the WSJ today, I can’t help but wonder what the hell Sony is doing. The console market has been for some time now the one arena where they have dominated. They decided to come out later than Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and loyal customers were willing to let that slide. Since, they’ve delayed it two more times and customers were still willing to let that pass. Now, I think they’re teetering on some thin ice. They have a limited number of units available in the U.S. and they are delaying the release in Europe until spring. Also, they have listed some 8,000 games that will not be backwards compatible on the unit. This wouldn’t be a problem except that for a while this was seen as an advantage to the 360. Sony had over 70% market share at the time when the XBOX 360 hit. I’d have to think it will decline significantly.
Also, the WSJ and other outlets are guilty of comparing the 3 new consoles. While there are 3 new consoles, it is obvious to me that only 2 are actually competing. The Sony PS3 and the Microsoft XBOX 360. The Nintendo Wii is not really their competitor. Their system seems to be focused on a much different type of gamer. The system and target seem to be reminiscent of Sega’s last hardware project…the Dreamcast system. Nintendo has done a decent job of reinventing itself over the years and have thrived because of it. I wonder who will ultimately come out on top between Sony and Microsoft.
Liked the blog! I was talking about this the other day with some friends. Thanks for the insights. The XBox 360 and the PS3 are actually really close graphic wise. If you look at them and play with them, side by side. (Go to Target…they have a PS3 to try.) There just seems to be so much hype about the PS3. Sony has spent a shit-ton on marketing this puppy. (Sony is known for over-hyping stuff.) I’m thinking it will probably end up trumping the XBox 360 in the long run. Plus, it has two sizes of Hard drives available. If you buy the smaller one you could eventually upgrade to the larger one. That seems to matter to a lot of the guys I have talked to since Sony seems to be gearing up at going after the downloadable game market that Xbox currently dominates. (Although, they really need to get moving on that. Their current downloadable games list sucks!) Sony is also supporting the new blueray technology where as xbox is only dvd. (The problem with this is that Bluray is expensive, causing the price of games to go up.) I know animators and game designers are mostly going to favor the blu-ray technology because of the substanial difference in storage power. So who knows…I guess we shall see! Each console seems to have its different benefits.