Videogame industry analyst and deep-sea shark wrestler Michael Pachter has published his predictions for last month's sales, believing that when the dust has settled, Sony and the PS3 shall emerge as victor, helped along by the PS3 Slim and $299 price point.
"We believe that the recent round of price cuts may benefit the PS3 the most in coming months, given that unit sales last year were only 1.5 million for the September -- December 2008 period," claimed the handsome man. "The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 for the past 13 months, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition.
"We think that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 in September, and may continue to do so for the rest of the year. Microsoft has the ability to lower price yet again, but we anticipate the introduction of a more feature-packed Xbox 360 in early 2010 (likely with a 250Gb hard drive) at the same $299 price point; we think that Microsoft will cut price only if it begins to lose significant market share to Sony."
What do you reckon? Has Sony finally risen to the occassion, and should Microsoft start worrying and finally take the competition seriously?
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:20 AM on 10.08.2009
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Microsoft have "percieved value" but not real value. Sony offers the most for the money, even at the old higher price!
MS is ALL ABOUT perception, trickery, lies and confusion. Tricking people into buying a console with many missing parts, only to charge extra and then more for LIVE etc.
Where as Sony has always been straight up with what it offers, a more advanced system at a higher price - that's given them a bit of a prestige market spot, where those who can afford it have it, those who can't want to know why it's so expensive. Now it's dropped it's like all those people can get on the train as it's now more affordable but still just as awesome.
Pachter, you often irritate me but i think you're onto something here.
You make a cheap product - you get a big start over a shorter period.
You make a QUALITY product - you may lag behind at first, but eventually, over the long term you get where you need to be.
@DarkMagic56 we aren't talking about Nintendo, just Sony and Microsoft for some reason.
Japs - make the future, go for advanced tech, make it good even if it's expensive, marketing is an afterthought. Sure at first people will be turned off by the price, but as technology catches up with you you'll already be there.
Yanks - Make it cheap, make it fast, grab as much cash as we can and market market market market and advertise, make them think they want it, make them think they need it, get their cash and spend that making hurdles for the competition.
I personally HATE Amurkin business practice, and i work for a company based in California!
Excluding the original N-gage of course that still is bad.
Really, consumers shouldn't care? That's a silly position, I'm sorry to say. If your preferred console doesn't sell at all, developers won't make games for it. Then what do you do? But as the consumer, you're not supposed to care, right?
Oh and...
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!
now i don't own an xbox, i own a PS3. but seriously, try thinking.
@darkmagic56. i've heard commentators say that microsoft and sony don't view nintendo as competition. which in retrospect is really true. different market, different purpose. they cross each other, but are not the same.
He just defeated his whole argument with that.
Also, I don't think that quality=winning. Lots of people will argue that betamax in the 80s was a superior product to vhs (personally I wouldn't know, by the time I was old enough to care betamax was already on its deathbed). And unless you were born after 1997 I think you know how that battle went down.
And before I get labeled a 360 fanboy let me me say that I own all 3 current consoles and I absolutely adore my PS3. I've had a much better ownership experience with my PS3 than the 360. If someone told me that I had to give up one of my consoles it sure wouldn't be the PS3 I'd be giving the short goodbye to.
No, you're wrong. His statement is that the recent price cuts will benefit the PS3 greatly. How does the fact that the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 until this point negate that point whatsoever? Perhaps you based your post on the misleading title of the article, since nowhere within does Pachter assert that the PS3 "is winning", only that things will start looking up for the console in the near future.
But I do think the PS3 has finally risen to the occasion. Microsoft needs to stop banking on their past success and start competitively pricing their Xbox. Yes, people bought your system when it was cheaper and had more games, but that isn't the case anymore. Bang for your buck, the PS3 easily win, especially with no blu-ray, paying for live, and no wifi.
The Xbox should seriously be $200 for an Elite, if they wanted to competitively price it. They are seriously relying heavily on the fact they outsold the PS3 to justify their extremely high price point for the Elite.
Drop the price, make Live free, and your machine will stay competitive. Right now, the PS3 is all ready to beat the crap out of you. You're underestimating the competition at this point, only because they haven't put much of a fight out until now. Well, the PS3 is fighting, and the Xbox's response is beyond lame.
So....yeah. I love my Xbox, don't get me wrong, but they are sucking at competitively pricing their system (just like the Wii, huge surprise).
Think about what it would do to us consumers if some company actually wins before you compose a comment like: "Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo is teh suxors, I hope they die"
"xbox was the first on console online connectivity"
actually it was the Japanese NES. I love that fact.
...and I take very good care of my consoles, so don't even go there. You don't think that there is a reason nothing on there online repair forms mention anything about a yellow light? Of course not, your throat's too full of Japanese cock. Just STFU, your shit's tired, both systems are flawed.
"In the end I don't care who "wins". I just want games that don't suck ass."
But t
*Joke stolen from Ricky Gervais.
I'm often very humored about all of you wannabe (usually teenage) analysts. Always trying to quote sales numbers and whatnot, usually coupled with some off-beat and completely uneducated view of the facts... Let me ask you two simple questions...
#1: Being as Honda outsells Ferrari... does that make Honda a better product?
WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU CARE WHO SELLS MORE? Seriously, give me ONE freaking good reason as to why anyone as a consumer with give a flying dingleberry which product sold more units than another product and I will promptly delete my account and never comment on another article here.
You're all fanboys and completely retarded in your loyalty.
Has a consensus been reached on who has the better games? Not speaking about the past.. as of right now, who has the best catalog and lineup?
I would probably vote for PS3... the sheer diversity of titles, especially on PSN, would seem to pull the lead over the 360...
Thoughts?
(yes, this is an issue that should actually matter to consumers... who gives a damn how many people bought a good game? The real question... is it a good game?)
I think it really depends on the kind of games you're looking for. What's been cool about this generation is that all three consoles have a very specific culture around them. The Wii is light, casual, friendly and fun. The 360 is very much a competitive core gamer experience and the PS3 is more experimental and artsy.
Being that I'm one of those "games are art hippies" I prefer the PS3's lineup. Stuff like Echochrome, Flower, PixelJunk, Heavy Rain really appeal to me. Even Home is interesting simply because it attempts to break out of the standard "game" mold (even though many would argue it failed).
It all depends on the games you like to play.
PS3 still wins on BC though. I'm still going through the old PlayStation library. Hopefully they wise up and start populating the PSN with a ton of PSone and PS2 titles. That way I can actually start giving the money to the publishers that make them instead of buying them at flea markets.
The 'Bang-for-buck' ratio falls squarely in Sony's court, all they have to do is keep serving up AAA EXCLUSIVE games and MS will be going into 2011 with a severely bruised ego and market share.
But... Unfortunately for ALL of us, that's not going to happen.
A extended warranty doesn't mean shit unless your ACTUALLY going to fix the issue. The problem with MS's extended warranty for RROD is they just replace broke with broke.
So to me, your little "MS was nice enough to fix my console 4 times for free" speech translates to "Why in the hell did it take them 4 times before they got it right...or just got lucky"
Also, my friends and I have used Sony's return/repair service for both in warranty and out of warranty items...and not ONE of us has had a bad experience with the unit only being out of our hands for about two weeks (this is from me dropping it off at UPS until it's return to my house).
The reason why the Wii was successful was how it was shown to the public & how it was showing gamers playing video games while off their butts & moving. The 360 is making Natal & PS3 is making PS motion to take on the Wii soon so this give me reason to believe that the Wii is still in competition with the two which would mean they are in the same market.
The dusty as all hell 24 year old NES that I have still works. I have to blow the cartridges but hey, Mega Man 2 fires up like its 1988. Of course, there is a lot less that can go wrong with a cartridge based system. Most of the issues are of physical contact and age.
PS3=Rock Solid Solution? I don't think so. But the content on the system, price point and features that I want drove me to purchase it, and complete the Triforce.
It is now a triple threat, chairs and ladders, brawl town bully cage match! I hope they all come out fighting the good fight!