It was only a few weeks ago when Square-Enix called Sony out on its confusing marketing of the PlayStation 3, due to the fact that the machine was being pushed as a different type of system at different times. Is it a multimedia player? Is it a computer? Is it a games system? Just what demographic is Sony trying to reach with its schizophrenic marketing? Well, Kaz Hirai answered Square-Enix and straight up told us "The PS3 is a game machine." Awesome, that's settled then.
Except ... not.
Seems that even after saying just yesterday that the PS3 is a game machine, Sony has once again changed its tune and is now pushing the console as a Blu-ray player this Christmas. Hirai did admit that pushing the console's multiple functions is a "balancing act," and Sony definitely needs to be careful, because trying to do too much leads to confusion. "The PS3 is first and foremost a videogames machine but we want to say – by the way, it's a great Blu-ray player as well," Hirai stated. To be honest, I don't think that message has ever been in danger of getting lost. We've heard it plenty of times in the past.
Sony recognizes it has to be careful, but how careful will it actually be? We have to remember that gamers typically don't care much for format wars, they just want a good game library. Both of the previous PlayStation incarnations proved that superior hardware means nothing in the face of superior software. We're all well aware that Blu-ray gives us the best Talladega Nights experience one could ask for, but now is the time to promote the games.
[Merci, Justin]
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:
10:07 AM on 09.21.2007
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Remember what Square Enix said if they wouldn't?
Hirai seems to put it well in more candid settings, but when he's on stage he's trying to sell the system instead of just giving a straight answer. Everyone does it. The theme could be "Step Right Up" by Tom Waits.
Need to come stock...
w/prescription bottle of Lithium & a copy Motorstorm!
It would "PUSH" millions of Americans to buy 1 or 3!
I would buy a PS3 if there were games I could get excited about, or if HD was more important now. Also, if it didn't cost so dam much! Sell it for < £200 and you have a consideration, < £150 and you have a deal.
I think the only people who would have a problem with the PS3 being marketed as a movie player, game machine, media center, so on are people threatened by PS3's success.
Getting PS3s into living rooms, in any fashion is good business. Increased hardware numbers means increased developer support and more/better games. I'm failing to see the argument against it.
That's not the issue, it's the fact they don't say "it can do z b and c" it's the fact they say "It is built for a" then a few days later say "This is best for b"
Nothing seems to be working except PriceCuts...
It's their advertising that, honestly as a BS3 "EARLY ADOPTER" is laughable...
L@@K Microsoft... They pushing (B)illions into ads & "Deals"... HALO 3 GAMEFUEL Mt. DEW, anyone? A Halo 3 Themed Nascar... HALO 3 on every G**D**N Website on the face of the planet...
I WANTED to buy a 360 2-3 times, until I broke down & ONLY bought a BS3! AND to make matters worse I'm hyped up more about Halo3 than my ( REALLY AWSOME ) copy of Heavenly Sword... Why because I've been beat down by Microcrap's AD Campaigns... Not that I want Halo3 I just wish I was hyped up about the NEXT SONY BIG THING... Well that is... ( Adds Sony's Awesome Advertisment, Where? )
Get it?
Also, I think this was Kutaragi's vision all along. I mean The PS1 played audio cds and some asian versions played video cds so it was a media player then, a hi-def media player now.
when you go buy a car usually the more options the better. now more options means more money so people have to make decisions concerning this balance between options and price.
now granted there isn't as many options with the ps3, but you are getting a machine that has lots of options that make it versatile beyond being just a game machine.
i don't know, i guess i just can't stop thinking [thanks to this bickering] there is a very large part of the population that think, " does the playstation 3 play games? i mean the ps1 and ps2 play games, but the ps3 seems like it does other stuff. that fact alone brings in to question its ability to play games." seriously, can that be true?
come on everyone, don't give the ps3 an identity crisis too. people already make fun of it because of its figure. let it be all that it can be. [and no that was not an army pun, just what i wanted to say]
40% of the people that bought one ( Me not one of them ), bought it solely on hype; apparently!
That's poor Advertising on Sony's part... For what I believe as the best next-gen console... Sony is so use to be #1. They forgot what's it like to be behind. Meaning a atmosphere & an attitude once strongly held, needs tuning & reshaping!
PS3 is really going to need to capitalize on not only its versatility as a gaming console and a blu ray player, but that it has games that people should be looking forward to. Microsoft has peddled Halo3 everywhere, same with Gears of War. PS3 needs to do the same with MGS4 and GoW 3
PS3's still have BC, it's just all software now instead of hardware, so less titles are compatible. But if Cabala's Super Beer Chugging/Deer Rape 4 is that important to you, I'll buy you an older PS3.
I'm not getting into the BR vs HD DVD thing, but I'm not worried about my decision to stick only with a PS3.
The dicky thing they've done is release the console with no rumble and then show up a year after they settle the lawsuit and act like it's no big deal and expect US to eat the cost of getting rumble put back in.
Square and Konami do whatever they want to do, whereever they want to. If MGS never comes to 360, it never comes, big deal. It will, but I'm speaking in hypotheticals.
FFXIII? Okay, how much of a big splash did X make? Huge? X-2? Less. FFXI? Less. FFXII? Slightly more than X-2, but nowhere near as much as X or any of the PSX ones. FF's getting to the point of lower returns, meaning that they're going to have to get their head in the game to pump life back into the series, or leave it for soemthing else. Considering they think they can plan to milk a decade's worth of games out of FFXIII's franchise, I would say this horse is about to start being beaten before it's even dead.
FFXIII may end up a great game, but 10 years worth of content and spinoffs off of one title? Get over yourselves guys.
I've said this all along... The Saturn and Dreamcast we both more powerful machines than the PS1 & PS2, but Sony eradicated Sega with good marketing and a great library of games... And if Sony are not careful, that is exactly what Microsoft will do to them this gen...
Brand loyalty is all well and good, but what about all those people who were loyal to Sega? Didn't save them did it...
sony needs to run away and join the fucking circus
^ the sound of the concept of the joke completely passing over his head
Eventually, he'll transform!!
You're remembering wrong. The PS2 came out when the Dreamcast had already been out for a few months and the launch library was a joke compared to all the games that were on Dreamcast. What was evident immediately was that the PS2 had more power than the Dreamcast. A good example was DOA2, which was already on the Dreamcast, was the same game but with added lighting & motion blur effects for the PS2 version.
Trust me, I owned a Dreamcast at the time, but I could still see that SSX for the PS2 was something that would not be possible on a dreamcast. The draw distance and the amount of effects happening on the screen surpassed anything I had seen on my Dreamcast.
Now that the Dreamcast is dead, there's a vocal community that wants to rewrite history and make it seem like it was a powerful machine that just wasn't given a chance, but that's just not the case. It had some cool quirky games -- but most of those (Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, so on) were Sega published and can now be found on other platforms with superior graphics.
There are a lot of parallels you could draw between the Dreamcast vs PS2 and 360 vs PS3. However, to say the PS2 won because it had more games isn't true. It won because Sony was able to market the PS2 as a powerhouse of a machine that could also play those crazy new things called DVD movies. The huge library of games came later.
Sorry. Deiga scared the living S outta me.
-the ps2 has a good library and is selling well.
-The 360 is a piece of shit of hardware that is making Microsoft loose money with a gaming division that it should be making profits some months ago.
(im not going to talk about the wii because is another marker segment)
- the ps3 is good hardware, expensive right now.
All im saying is that maybe, just maybe the ps3 is going to be important at the end of the 360 cycle, when the 360 technology is outdated the ps3 will have a good line up of games ready (hopefully), lots of power under the hood and is going to be like the ps2 right now.
I think that the ps3 is going to be THE console in three years time, but i could be wrong, we need games for the thing.
I would rather have it just play games and cost $200-$300 less instead of pimping whatever media format they're trying to shove down our throats.
You forgot to mention that it knocks out the fat!
If the console can do all the things it says it can why not advertise it? Case in point the Iphone, while it may not be the best device out there the marketing campaign was stellar, and it showed a ton of things that a "phone" could do. I'm really not sure why Sony seems to focus on one thing then another, but hey at least they can. If your car could give you a back massage, cook your dinner, and pleasure you while you drive wouldn't you advertise all those things rather than focus on just one?
Now granted I will give the PS3 the props as the best Blu-ray player out there, especially in terms of picture quality and firmware upgrades.
But if Sony is gonna push the PS3 as a Blu-ray player that just "happens" to play games as a bonus feature, they're in for a shock. There are cheaper Blu-ray players just as good as the PS3 available right now; come holiday time those prices will drop. Now take into account that the PS3 will NOT see another price cut, and the PS3 loses some appeal as a Blu-ray player compared to the competition.
I hope this angle plays out well for Sony. And BTW I own all 3 next gen systems, and want to see them all succeed.
This is how I see things:
The PS3 was built to be "future-proof" for quite some time - 10 years, right?. The thing is, Microsoft will come out with a new Xbox in 2, 3, 4 years, somewhere in there. The 360 is a powerful machine and the graphics, for most games I've seen, are pretty comparable to the PS3's. The 360 costs about $100 less. The way I see it, Microsoft will make sure that the 360 will ALWAYS cost about $100 less. That gives Microsoft a permanent price advantage. Things are pretty even at this point; that's when Sony's Blu-ray steps in to claim "superiority" as a system. However, when Microsoft is ready to launch its next system, the PS3 will finally be at a price that average people might be willing/able to pay for a console. In addition, the PS3 will be halfway through its life cycle. Microsoft, being a relatively smart company, will launch the new system for not too much more than the price of a PS3. The new system will have even more capabilities than the PS3 in terms of graphics, sound, hard drive, multimedia, internet, full backwards compatibility, etc. Who knows - maybe it'll even have a Blu-ray drive, since the "format wars" will (hopefully) be over and the price of technology should decrease significantly by that time. Microsoft's new system will basically be what the 360 kinda wants to be now - a game-playing media hub - but it will succeed to this end much more than the 360 or PS3. That gives Microsoft the advantage in virtually every way. While Sony is still developing the PS4, which won't be due out for another 5 years at that time, Microsoft will be selling it's new system like hotcakes, and also working on their next system - which will probably be released at the same time as the PS4. Microsoft wins because of two main reasons: 1) They were able to sell two consoles in the same period that Sony sold one. 2) Microsoft's new technology will be more powerful and fairly priced (compared to the PS3 launch).
Does anyone agree?
^teh blue ray?
Nice points, few things to consider though. The systems that you calim Microsoft will develop will of course cause current xbox users to upgrade their systems. Meaning in that timeframe you will be buying a new console maybe twice before sony releases another? Of course with no specs its hard to think about it now, but of course it will be better, how much better remains to be seen. So you spent $399 for a 360, and then 4 years later you will spend say another $499 for another xbox system. That's a lot of cash to go through in that timeframe. Do you think that will alienate xbox users who think "Jesus another console?"
Just for argument's sake lets say that the next xbox has all the capabilities as the ps3 does now, and its made much better, less prone to overheat, more storage, and will include some high definition movie player in it, better graphics etc. but not completly blow the ps3 out of the water. So you upgrade, keeping in mind you spent $399 on your 360, and now another $499 on the new one. The higher price of the ps3 now doesn't seem so bad when you consider that aspect.