The PS3 tanked

February 17, 2007 | Category: blog, technology, video games

black playstation 3 systemvia The Loop: What The F*#k Happened to the PS3?

Nerds all around the world lined up to be the first to have a PlayStation 3. SUCKERS! That system totally tanked like a week after it had been out.

People realized that it wasn’t worth the money, there were no games out for it and then began kicking themselves for not buying a Wii instead.

Sadly, my brother is one of those people… Although playing Resistance online is pretty sweet… if everyone had headsets like SOCOM did it would rot my teeth of super sweetness.

Geektoid gives 5 reasons why the PlayStation 3 crashed & burned:

  1. white ps3, gray ps3, black ps3The arm and a leg. Most people would rather keep their arm and leg and just pick up a PS3 after the price goes down. This was the major reason the PS3 tanked so early on. Many people couldn’t afford one. I make decent money, I could of afforded one (barely), but the item didn’t justify the price tag. Its a console and a Blue Ray player. Sure, the hardware was worth way more than the actual console, but still, too expensive.
  2. Lack of availability. This hurt the launch so much that its inconceivable that Sony would launch the console with so little stock. This was just plain stupidity in Sony’s part.
  3. Same song and dance. What did this console have over the PS2? Better graphics and a shiny new Blue Ray player that will probably go the way of the Beta max. Besides that though, what else did it have to offer? What innovations were born with the PS3? None. Well maybe one… but lets not speak of that..
  4. Technical difficulties. This was somewhat of a problem with the PS3 shortly after release. The most common problem was overheating due to lack of air circulation.
  5. eBay reselling. A large chunk of PS3 buyers only bought the system to resell it on eBay. Unfortunately, when you buy something to sell it at a higher price, you don’t buy peripherals or games. This was clearly indicated by the ratio of sold games to consoles which less than one game per console.

wiimote and nintendo wii systemTIME magazine mentioned the PS3 as 1 of 5 things that were over hyped (went from buzz to bust):

The big story in computer games this year was HOW TO BLOW A HUGE LEAD, by Sony. Its PlayStation 2 was the champ in the last round of the console wars. This time Sony bet on a chip called the Cell and a disc format called Blu-ray. They’re probably awesome, but how would anybody know? The PS3 is hideously expensive–it goes for up to $600–and Sony manufactured only a piddling few hundred thousand for the U.S., fewer for Japan. Plus it’s hard to write games for; the launch titles were lame. You know you’re in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii. (source)

Whilst Gearlive gave 5 reasons why the PlayStation 3 WILL fail (written in August of last year):

  1. comparison all video game systemsNo early mover advantage. Sony was the first out of the gate with PlayStation 2 (Sega launched Dreamcast between generations), but this time they’ll have been beaten to market by Microsoft and Nintendo both.
  2. Extremely expensive. While PlayStation 2 launched at a relatively high $299, it was still at a reasonable price point compared to other console launches. Microsoft was widely criticized for launching the Xbox 360 at $399, but Sony will double their own price point for the PS3 at $599. (I’m intentionally ignoring lower priced configurations for “crippled” hardware.) No console selling for such a high price point has ever been a success in the marketplace.
  3. Blu-Ray has competition. When DVD was released, there was no competing high-end video format. Blu-Ray was beaten to market by HD-DVD (by just about a month), eliminating the first-mover advantage in the video space. Blu-Ray has been criticized for poor video playback compared to HD DVD (though this may just be an early hardware issue), not to mention that HD DVD discs are less expensive to produce. It seems Sony hasn’t learned much from their Betamax days. Regardless, if consumers bet on HD DVD over Blu-Ray, they could go running to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 instead of PS3. It’s possible that some consumers might see BluRay and the PS3 as a whole as a “future investment” (a line of thought Sony is actively encouraging), but it’s an incredibly risky strategy.
  4. PS3 requires significant additional investment. While it’s laudable for Sony to appeal to the videophiles and technologically adept, for either video games or high-definition movie playback, you’ll need a significant investment in display hardware … you’ll need an HDTV. While Microsoft has touted their HD capabilities, movie playback and even gaming looks fine on regular TVs, and still superior to existing competition. For PlayStation 3, many of the features heavily emphasized by Sony (such as 1080p) require the use of HDTV to see additional benefit. BluRay looks no better than DVD on a standard definition TV, making that price tag even more painful to deal with when substitute products are available at significantly lower prices.
  5. No “wow” factor. When PS2 was first shown to the public, the excitement was palpable. PS2 was such an obvious improvement graphically that it was a no-brainer where you would go for “next-generation” games. When PS3 was finally revealed at the last (and I mean last) E3, the general consensus was, “Meh.” Graphically, it’s difficult to tell the difference between PS3 and Xbox 360 graphics, and in some cases, it was stated that the Xbox 360 games looked better, as developers had a year head start to work around the system. Without some other compelling feature (such as the unique controller for Nintendo’s Wii console), gaming does not have a visual improvement on the PS3. Every gamer knows that graphics are not the end-all, be-all of games, but they are a major factor and one that is working against Sony’s favor.
  6. The loss of exclusives. Already, word is coming out that developers are hedging their bets and releasing what were supposed to be exclusive PS3 launch titles on Xbox 360 and/or Wii. Microsoft made significant waves at E3 when Peter Moore announced Grand Theft Auto 4 would be on Xbox 360 with episodic content (through Xbox Live). It seems that every month, more titles are added to the list of PlayStation 3 games that are cancelled, usually in favor of an Xbox 360 version.
  7. No innovation. Another major criticism of Sony’s E3 announcements were the apparent “me too” attitude, showing off a motion-sensitive controller in a cheap attempt to steal some thunder from Nintendo’s Wii (which went on to win Best in Show), and the revelation that they will have a similar system to Xbox Live’s Achievements called “Entitlements” (apparently oblivious to the connotation that moniker elicits).

6 Comments

  1. Cris on February 17th, 2007
    1

    I’ll buy one Christmas ‘07…at the swap meet for $99 lawl

  2. Chris on February 17th, 2007
    2

    What people forget is that the PS2 suffered the same problems during its first year. It was too expensive for the time and it had very few games for it (and even fewer good games). It then went on to because a huge gaming monster. That’s not to state that I’ll be spending money on that thing right now, since it’s probably smarter to wait a year to see.
    On the flip side, all of the good games for the Wii are first party and there aren’t a lot of them at the moment. People are getting bored with the system and it needs to get some new software if Nintendo wants to stay at the top.
    The XBox 360 is sitting pretty at the moment, but its not doing as well as people thought. It’s actually the PS2 that’s doing the best right now.

  3. Em-El on February 17th, 2007
    3

    There are some reports that Blu-RAy is winning, but it’s too early to tell. If it DOES win? Well then PS3 is in good shape.

    People also said the PS1 and PS2 were “too hard” to program for, but it doesn’t amtter how hard it is, as long as people own the console.

    And, finally, when FF13 and Kingdom Hearts 3 come out, PS3 sales will explode in Japan. If a system does well in Japan, then the Japanese developers like Capcom and Konami and Square will stick with it. Metal Gear Solid 4 will also be a huge thing for American sales.

  4. jack on February 17th, 2007
    4

    All those articles make good points. But…

    The PS3 isn’t for gamers. It’s to impress people. I know this, and say this, because that’s what I bought it for.

    No one in his right mind would buy a PS3 for the games right now. Wii boxing murders PS3’s grabage (except Resistance). Halo kills Genji.

    But PS3 coupled with a 40-inch plasma HDTV? That’s class, if nothing else.

    Remember, Sony’s marketing to those who can afford it, not junior high kids who hold videogame sleepover parties.

  5. Da Profet on February 17th, 2007
    5

    xbox360 + hack = winner

  6. Mike on February 17th, 2007
    6

    Sony can market it to the “cool” people all it wants, but it’s the junior high kids that actually make a console a success. The last two decades are filled with consoles tha relied on being marketed to the cool, hip people. How many of them are around now? None.. It’s the mass market consoles by Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft that ultimately succeeded because of their mass market appeal and accessability. The mass market is sitting it out waiting for the price to drop on the PS3 while the Wii and 360 continue to grow in the mean time. The only way a price drop can occur is by people buying enough to bring the price it costs to make it down. When 85% of the market is waiting for the price to occur, it can’t and the system fails. Without a swarth of exclusive titles, what reason do these holdouts have to stop them from just giving in and buying a 360, Wii or both?

Leave a Reply




E-mail Easy Does It University