PS3 a Failure?

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nullzero

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According to this article it is looking bleak for the SONY PS3.


"It’s Official: PS3 is a dud for Sony

The data has been coming in for several weeks now, but we are now in a position to state with certainty that the PS3 is a bona fide dud for Sony. Here are the facts:

When the Playstation 3 first came out, supply could not keep up with demand. PS3s were selling for up to $2000 on eBay. No one was sure whether this had more to do with low supply or high demand.

For the first couple weeks, distinctions were not being made between the Wii’s low availability and the PS3’s low availability. But things slowly started to change. As Christmas approached, the price that people were willing to pay for Wii’s only climbed. However, with a week left before Christmas, Playstation 3s were auctioning on eBay for less than retail.

As soon as people realized that you couldn’t make a profit with PS3s on eBay, they started returning them to the retail stores. It wasn’t rare to walk into a Circuit City or Best Buy the week before Christmas and find 3 or 4 returned Playstation 3s.

In fact, when GamingMoments returned its PS3 to Circuit City after failing to sell it on eBay, the employees told us that more and more people were starting to do this, confirming a trend.

However, even with a surge of Wii supply on December 17th, Nintendo Wii continues to be totally unavailable. No returns at the stores. You can’t get one on eBay for less than $450, almost 2x retail.

The disparity between Nintendo Wii and PS3 is expounded by the fact that GamingMoments sent out several representatives on a post-Christmas hunt out to a variety of big box gaming and retail stores. What did we find?

Three different GameStops reported having PS3s but no Wiis. Two Targets reported having at least one PS3 and one reported having no PS3, while all three reported having no Wii. Three EB Games reported having PS3s and when we inquired as to why the PS3 was in stock they reported either that everyone wants a Wii or that lots of people are returning their PS3s. Only 1 of 3 Walmarts had PS3s, according to the clerks in electronics, but they probably weren’t aware of PS3s that had been returned after Christmas. In any case, none of the Walmarts had a Nintendo Wii.

The fact of the matter is that supply has caught up with demand for the PS3 and this is ashame for Sony since supply is still quite low. In fact, Sony will probably start to face overproduction issues with the PS3, since it isn’t likely that Sony was aware that it’s system would be such a dud and that so many systems would get returned.

On the other hand, even with a robust supply of Wii’s, Nintendo’s system remains in hot,hot,hot demand. Even post-Christmas, there isn’t a single unit available. This bodes quite well for Nintendo’s position in the video game wars."

Source: http://www.gamingmoments.net/2006/its-official-ps3-is-a-dud-for-sony/
 
Maybe for now. It will be more interesting to me once it comes down to like.. 300. See you in 2015 =/
 
What we can confirm just from looking at Ebay is the fact that the price is clearly a factor, being this early in the game I can come up with hypothesis that alot of people aren't willing for spend $600 for a handful of un-interesting games and an online service thats not breaking any head lines

I can see the price becoming a non-factor in the future with better PS3 only titles in the future, come the new year they should have some console selling games that will make people want to pick up the machine then. I still don't see the console breaking its own grown for a little while longer, its still gotta defeat its own supply problem, and fire their add producer :D
 
I personally feel the PS3 is a failure. It was idiotic to force people to buy a blue ray (that's what it's called right?) player when 80% of the population aren't even going to use it. Sony tries to push too much of their shit with everything they release. It's priced way too high, not many people are going to shell out $600 for a gaming system, especially not when the 360 + Wii is in the same price range. I'm not impressed with the system itself either, but I have not played one nor do I own one so I suppose that is moot. Still too early to call it a total failure though, one month is hardly enough time. If I was going to buy a console it would be the 360. Has great online play, has the arcade feature, Xbox games play on it, superb graphics, and people can buy the HD player add-on for only <$200. The Wii doesn't impress me either but I'm not really into interactive video games and I have a HDTV and I plan to use it.
 
Its blu-ray, or BD-ROM, it has alot of good support, and is unknown how much of it is the driving factor in the end cost, it is using brand new system memory, a brand new CPU, the G71 based GPU, all these should factor into the price as its just coming out of the fabs, nothing on the xbox360 is all that brand new except for XENOS, which is probably why the console costs so much as well

also another reason for the low hype over the PS3 is the fact so many people are still content with their PS2 which has a ton of content and is increadibly cheap. Would you be interested in an upgrade that doesnt have anything interesting on it yet, is more expensive and you are already sitting down with something sub $150, with access to hundreds of games?
 
Trimlock said:
Its blu-ray, or BD-ROM, it has alot of good support, and is unknown how much of it is the driving factor in the end cost, it is using brand new system memory, a brand new CPU, the G71 based GPU...
I think part of the problem with that is even though it's all new and shiny, it doesn't seem to be capable of doing anything that the 1 year old 360 can't do. That makes the price harder to swallow.

I'm going to pick one up at some point, but I get the feeling it wont be because the cross platform games will be better - but simply because it has exclusives that I want. In fact it's likely that I'd pick up the cross platform games on the 360 simply due to achievements and xbox live.
 
who is gamingmoments.net?
great way to route traffic traffic to their 7 post blog.

it's way too early to determine anything.

Sony tries to push too much of their shit
Blu-Ray is not a sony owned proprietary format.
 
It's a bit early to write it off, and even if it has the least market share, it still wouldn't necessarily be a failure.

Remember PS3 isn't just about games for Sony. It's about Blu-ray adoption. They just want people to already own Blu-ray so that when more Blu-ray releases come out next year, people can compare the number of HD-DVD capable vs. the Blu-ray capable, and decide to support the front-runner. If they wanted the PS3 itself to succeed they could've just gone with DVDs and skipped all the supply issues of using brand-new blu-ray drives(the short supply was due to problems in getting the blu-ray laser). Could've shaved about 150-200 bucks off the price too.

PS3 might actually be capable of some nice games way down the line, even though the launch line-up appears to be pretty crappy. We don't really know how nice the games could be, (Then again, if they don't have the sales early on, developers won't specialize on the PS3 platform to make this happen since the developers need people to sell to. So the complex PS3 games may not happen at all.) There could still be a blockbuster exclusive for the PS3 to drive up it's popularity, like how Halo helped the Xbox.

Personally though, I'd much rather that it just die. That way it won't get exclusives so I can play the would-have-been exclusives on my Wii60. I like that the PS3 has nothing that interests me because I'm already spending way too much money...

EDIT: And god I love achievements, I didn't pay it any thought when considering buying the xbox360 but they turned out to be a great "carrot" to keep me playing. I don't even particularly care how many points they give, just seeing "Achievement Unlocked" makes me feel satisfied.
 
Psychotext said:
I think part of the problem with that is even though it's all new and shiny, it doesn't seem to be capable of doing anything that the 1 year old 360 can't do. That makes the price harder to swallow.

I'm going to pick one up at some point, but I get the feeling it wont be because the cross platform games will be better - but simply because it has exclusives that I want. In fact it's likely that I'd pick up the cross platform games on the 360 simply due to achievements and xbox live.

Oh i'm definetly agreeing with this 100%, I see no reason to go with the cell, or XDR, their idea to go with a G71 based design was smart. Its a well balanced GPU, low power, small, powerfull, increadible support on all OS platforms.

Just why are they going with technology that is so extreme they are just now hitting the table? it has me confused on why a company would rely on this technology to run their platforms. For both price and reliability.

It's a bit early to write it off, and even if it has the least market share, it still wouldn't necessarily be a failure.

I wouldn't write it off either, its going to take some time for it to even start walking fast though. It has alot of hurdles to over come, mostly out doing the PS2, the Xbox360 which has not had any problems with supply lately, their BD-ROM diode supply shortage and properly advertising the damn thing.
 
Trimlock said:
I wouldn't write it off either, its going to take some time for it to even start walking fast though. It has alot of hurdles to over come, mostly... properly advertising the damn thing.

What, baby dolls that talk in tongues and cry blood, and executives that talk about you as though you were a retarded sheep don't make you want to buy a PS3?
 
dj_2004 said:
I personally feel the PS3 is a failure. It was idiotic to force people to buy a blue ray (that's what it's called right?) player when 80% of the population aren't even going to use it. Sony tries to push too much of their shit with everything they release. It's priced way too high, not many people are going to shell out $600 for a gaming system, especially not when the 360 + Wii is in the same price range. I'm not impressed with the system itself either, but I have not played one nor do I own one so I suppose that is moot. Still too early to call it a total failure though, one month is hardly enough time.

100% yep.

Although, if White Knight Story is half as cool as it looks, I'll get one just for that game. =D
 
Namork said:
What, baby dolls that talk in tongues and cry blood, and executives that talk about you as though you were a retarded sheep don't make you want to buy a PS3?

Heheh, yeah, seriously, what the hell were they thinking with that ad? Did they not do any focus group testing at all before releasing that freaky baby ad?
 
kelbear said:
Heheh, yeah, seriously, what the hell were they thinking with that ad? Did they not do any focus group testing at all before releasing that freaky baby ad?


That baby ad was awesome man.
 
Yeah, awesome if you want to the PS3 killing your children in their sleep.

I guess it could have been worse. It could have just been an add saying "Ken Kutaragi will make you his bitch"
 
Namork said:
Yeah, awesome if you want to the PS3 killing your children in their sleep.

I guess it could have been worse. It could have just been an add saying "Ken Kutaragi will make you his bitch"

Most of their PR releases send this message, so I think they didn't feel it necessary to create a commercial about it, too.

IMO, Sony definitely takes the "no publicity is bad publicity" thing too far when they draw attention to themselves with racist/creepy/illegal(graffiti) advertisements. Just because we're talking about you doesn't ALWAYS mean it's good, Sony. :rolleyes:
 
The PS3 is a failure simply because Sony decided to attach a failure of a format onto their bread and butter of a console. The PS3 COULD have been out a year ago, and COULD be out with a 399$ price tag, and COULD have been out in great supply. All of this was possible, had Sony not been intent on trying to win the nex gen DVD wars through their gaming market. Microsoft wised up last year and released the XBox 360 without the HD DVD drive. Not only did that decision help Microsoft get a year head start against its competitors to gain market share, but at the same time this decision indirectly helped them gain the upper hand in the DVD format wars. Not only is there almost 9 million XBox 360's on the market, but with the HD DVD external drive option, there are now more HD DVD drives in homes then Blu-Ray drives which have been forced in the throats of gamers who may not even care about the drive to begin with.

Could you imagine how things would have went had Microsoft decided to be anal and force ship XBox 360 with an internal HD DVD drive? What about if Sony decided that Blu-Ray was to be shipped as an add-on? How different the situation would be. Almost all of Sony's production woes is due to the blue laser in the Blu-Ray drive and their very low yield.

The PS3 is a collosal failure, and FFXIII is not going to be saving this turd.
 
Sony was steering the PS3 Titanic for the iceburg for a long time. Alot of people saw it having problems when they first announced the specs. I don't think the system is going to be a complete failure, but they are going to lose serious market share in the US and Europe at the very least. Sony put themselves in a crappy position. They had to get it out but the holiday season, even if it wasn't completely done. Right now it is still a beta quality system with a high price tag. In about a year it will probably be completely polished. Sony still has enough developer support to keep it from being a complete failure.
 
Great a Blog site that no one looks at. That site could be owned by MS for all we know, so what if no one is buying the ps3 for stupid money online, the wii is also going for retail price, does that mean they are doomed also.
 
Rash said:
Great a Blog site that no one looks at. That site could be owned by MS for all we know, so what if no one is buying the ps3 for stupid money online, the wii is also going for retail price, does that mean they are doomed also.

Yeah, because everyone who says anything bad about the PS3 is clearly in Microsoft's pocket. Everyone knows that Sony is an upstanding company and would never resort to those sorts of tactics personally.

Oh wait.

Perhaps the Sony backlash is a bit overblown. I'm sure in a few years people will have calmed down, but don't pretend Sony's done no wrong.
 
This is the dumbest thread I've read in a long time. All of these comments from NON PS3 owners......

First of all the OP quotes "an article" which basically just twists facts around and spins information in a negative way....

Sony hit the 1 Million mark of PS3s sold before end of year as they said they would. PS3 continue to fly off shelves. Online retailers that post that they have 1000 or more units sell out within an hour.

You cannot compare the WII to the PS3. its like comparing kia to a corvette. They each have there own purpose. Different market...

Blu Ray is absolutely taking off like a bat outta hell. Walk in to any best buy or other store and you'll see that they can't keep blu ray movies on the shelf whereas HD DVD sits at full stock because nobody is buying.

How the hell can you even judge a product in a month of its launch? The xbox 360 had WAY MORE PROBLEM and even worse games at launch and your calling the PS3 a failure? You people are hilarious.

Sony is not a perfect company and the unit is not flawless but I am sick of hearing these overexaggerated threads sayins, "Its offical PS3 blows...."

Fact of the matter is its a great peiece of technology, a wonderful Blu Ray player, and gaming on it will blow away the competition over the course of the next year.
 
dborden said:
Sony hit the 1 Million mark of PS3s sold before end of year as they said they would.
They said 2 million by year end.

dborden said:
PS3 continue to fly off shelves.
Yet we hear retailers reporting that the PS3 is taking days rather than hours to sell out. A situation that didn't happen with the 360 until far later

dborden said:
Blu Ray is absolutely taking off like a bat outta hell. Walk in to any best buy or other store and you'll see that they can't keep blu ray movies on the shelf whereas HD DVD sits at full stock because nobody is buying.
What? http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
 
I'd say the PS3 *launch* was a failure. Maybe failure is too strong, how about Fiasco?

Honestly it's what, a month out since release? If that?

Let's give it time guys before we start doing the ER death calls.
 
dborden said:
This is the dumbest thread I've read in a long time. All of these comments from NON PS3 owners......

First of all the OP quotes "an article" which basically just twists facts around and spins information in a negative way....

Sony hit the 1 Million mark of PS3s sold before end of year as they said they would. PS3 continue to fly off shelves. Online retailers that post that they have 1000 or more units sell out within an hour.

You cannot compare the WII to the PS3. its like comparing kia to a corvette. They each have there own purpose. Different market...

Blu Ray is absolutely taking off like a bat outta hell. Walk in to any best buy or other store and you'll see that they can't keep blu ray movies on the shelf whereas HD DVD sits at full stock because nobody is buying.

How the hell can you even judge a product in a month of its launch? The xbox 360 had WAY MORE PROBLEM and even worse games at launch and your calling the PS3 a failure? You people are hilarious.

Sony is not a perfect company and the unit is not flawless but I am sick of hearing these overexaggerated threads sayins, "Its offical PS3 blows...."

Fact of the matter is its a great peiece of technology, a wonderful Blu Ray player, and gaming on it will blow away the competition over the course of the next year.

That they are losing over $200 on for each unit sold right now. The backwards compatibility is crap, the interface is not polished yet and they have stopped flying off of shelves. Also, where are you getting the 1 million sold number? Last I heard it was 500k that were shipped. Is that a worldwide figure?

dborden said:
Fact of the matter is its a great peiece of technology, a wonderful Blu Ray player, and gaming on it will blow away the competition over the course of the next year.

This comment right here is a tell tail sign that your objectivity is questionable at best. After seeing the side by side comparison with Gears of War and Resistance Fall of Man, I don't thing Sony will "blow away the competition". Frankly, Resistance looks like Halflife 2 on a 6800. Yea, its said that its not using the the full capability of the system, but Gears of War is also only using one core of the 360's 3. Since the room for growth is still there for both systems, there is definite strong competition.

Here is the list of Sony's mistakes with the PS3.
The big number 1 is that they used another difficult to program for format.
2. Which is closely tied to #1. They shipped their dev kits out late and made no real move to really help their third party developers. They kinda just expected that all would bow to the great god Sony and still make games for their system regardless of what Sony does to increase their development costs.
3. They have been losing exclusive deals left and right and have done virtually nothing to stop the trend. Microsoft has been on their knees blowing about every developer to get them to make the same games for 360 now. They have been remarkably successful.
4. Blu-Ray may be a great format for HD movies but it has no real place in a video game system at this point. It raised the price of the system, helped cause delays, AND its not a proven format so its a big gamble. It also severly reduced the attachment rate (how many games that are bought when the system is purchased) on the system as many bought the PS3 just for that player. Developers are watching that attachement rate and they cannot be real happy. Since the adoption of HDTVs in this country is still around 10% or so, doing the HD assault on all fronts is just not that great of an idea right now, especially with unproven formats.
5. They chose a chip design that currently has a really low yield rate and this is also costing them a bundle.

Lets get down to brass tacks. The PS3 is going to be a big success in Japan, but they are going to lose alot of their overseas market. The Nintendo is a different sort of system. Its not really in the same market. The 360 though is truely the big winner in this blunder. Sony is still riding their momentum from the PS1 and every system they have made since has been less developer friendly.
 
While I don't think anyone can say beyond speculating that the PS3 is in the toilet, I believe that they made a mistake using Blu-ray. The drives are so unbelievably expensive and read data at half the speed of a 12x DVDROM, and not using Blu-ray would probably have allowed them to price the machine lower and have a much larger supply available (as well as not alienating Europe for four or five months).

I can see why Sony included Blu-ray, but after seeing the 360 for a year (their obvious competition) don't you think they would have gotten their ducks in a row to make people pay $500-$600 for a premium package? No background downloading? Web interface is being labeled as poor in comparison to the 360's? Backwards compatibility is terrible? Graphically the machine is about on par or less than most of the 360's titles? Sure the PS3's titles are technically first gen, but how much longer have they had to develop for?

I think Microsoft made a good decision: make the HD-DVD player optional. Sony is trying to market to people who want an "all in one" media center, but I think it is resulting in most gamers refusing to pay the high cost and therefore drastically lowering the potential market for the machine. Do all the media center people want to have a gaming machine with Blu-ray?
 
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