by Playfuls Staff |
8th January 2007
Sony’s arrogance or ignorance concerning the future of the PS3 is getting annoying. They haven’t kept a single promise by now, but they are still convinced that there’s nothing wrong inside the company.[more]
Yes, they finally reached the landmark of 1 million PlayStation 3 consoles shipped in the US. I intentionally underlined “shipped” because we’re talking about 1 million pieces reaching the stores’ deposits,
not 1 million PS3 owners. And they have
not reached this landmark at the end of 2006,
as previously announced, but at the end of the first week of 2007.
One might say this is a short interval, which can be easily overlooked. But consider this short history: Sony delays the PS3 in November 2005 (when its Microsoft-built rival Xbox 360 was launched) for March 2006. Then, at the beginning of March 2006 they delay it again, triumphantly declaring that November 2006 will see a
simultaneous (yes, that’s exactly what they’ve declared) world-wide launch of their craved gaming console. And that they are expecting to sell around
4 million by December 31, 2006!! Few months pass, with nothing but grim rumors about manufacturing problems, and in September 2006 they admit that the Blu Ray diode is very short in supplies and that they will have
only 400, 000 consoles ready for the US, and
only 100,000 for Japan. Oh, and they also launched the PS3 in Japan
first, and a week later in the US… And Europe will have to wait until, yes, you’ve guessed it, March 2007!
As if all these lies weren’t enough, NPD Group reported that in Japan
only around 80,000 PS3 consoles were sold in the first week since launch (and there’s no reason to think that the rest until 100,000 remained unsold…) and
only around 197,000 in the US for the same first week since launch. They were still confident though that they will meet the silly target of 1 million PS3s by the end of 2006. They have met it in early 2007.
Did you see anyone from Sony officially denying those numbers? No. And silence is an answer too. Did you see anyone at Sony apologizing for the mess? NO. But we are certainly seeing Mr. Dave Karraker, Sony’s spokesman, who candidly declares: "Are we worried about strong sales of the Wii or Xbox 360? Not really. It was a great year for the industry overall. With the tide all ships rise." He also says that the company has been airlifting additional PS3s each week and will continue to do so through spring, if necessary.
Oh, joy… OK, I agree with the fact that PS3 is one of Sony’s major investments in the last decade, and that the console is vital for the mass adoption of the Blu Ray DVD format. I also agree with the fact that any sign of
admitted weakness is disastrous (although Kaz Hirai said : “If you asked me if Sony’s strength in hardware was in decline, right now I guess I would have to say that might be true”- this concerning both PS3 and the laptop-battery scandal) for company’s shares and revenues. But hell, Mr. Karraker, Mr. Hirai and Mr. Kutaragi, we are NOT stupid! You DO have a problem!
When gamers think of a reason today for which they should be buying an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3, “Gears of War” comes in mind first. Second, it’s the price and broad availability of Microsoft’s product. And the impressive additional software package that comes with it. And the Xbox Live, with additional HD TV content. You, the reader, should try now this exercise now: what is the most impressive game for PS3 for which you would buy a PS3? Resistance- Fall of Man? Pwnd by Gears. Tekken 6? I don’t know if the HD experience changes the gameplay that much, so the PS2 would suffice. But let’s think at something else: maybe you want to buy a PS3 because it’s a cheaper Blu Ray player. How many Blu Ray movies are there available on the market? How many of those HD movies are that enticing to you to determine you to acquire a PS3?
And think of the Wii also. Cheap, fun, broadly available, with sufficient games at launch. The majority of industry analysts call it “the most successful launch of a gaming console ever”. And that’s because a Nintendo spokeswoman said the company's earlier prediction to ship 4 million units by the end of 2007 is still on target (with 1.8 million pieces sold last year). Not to mention that Microsoft declared more than 10.4 million Xbox 360s have been sold by December 31, and that the company expects to see between 13 and 15 million pieces sold by June 2007.
Ok, although I do not fully trust what Microsoft spokesman David Hufford said about Xbox 360, I honestly declare my total disappointment for Sony’s manner of handling PS3’s problems. I do agree that the PS3 is a great gaming console, that is too advanced yet for what studios are providing, and I admire Sony’s intention to offer the best for gamers. But I totally lost my faith in what Sony declares now. I am not even sure that they will eventually launch the 5KG monster in the Europe in March! No wonder Sony’s overall market value dropped to only $45 billion, compared to Samsungs $145 billion…
And when I hear Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, saying “the fact that we were able to reach the one-million mark faster than our top-selling platform, the PS2, further validates the strength of the PlayStation brand and our belief that consumers are ready to experience true high-definition gaming"- makes me wonder if Sony’s officials live on the same planet like us and watch the same news as we do…
What HD gaming gentlemen?! Have you been gone lately? I haven’t seen any decent promotion campaign for any of the next-gen games that are playable on PS3. Hell, I didn’t even see a decent advertising campaign for PS3, and you are trying to convince us that the pigs fly?! And is HD gaming PS3’s ultimate purpose? Well why didn’t you say so? It would have been a lot better to have a cheaper HD-capable PS3, without an obligatoire Blu Ray player attached that skyrockets the console’s price to $600 … To have it as an option (like the HD DVD external drive for Xbox 360), yes, I agree.
"We're equally strong in all three markets [US, Japan and Europe]. We can't afford to sacrifice any one of them," Tretton declared at CES. OMG, Europe was already sacrificed in November, and this guy tells me that I, as a European, am important…
In the end, I want to get this straight: I hate neither Sony, nor the PS3. I instead hate those Sony officials who seem to consider us as mentally handicapped and unable to see the reality.
