Games Generation 8 consoles

[ECA]

how thin do we need to go? From CRT> TFT was a massive difference. TFT>LED was a nice difference, LED>OLED ehhhhhh.

Saving 3ft in the living room from CRT was worth it, saving 1.5-2" ehhh people won't shell out en masse.

 

[Ch3tan]

I'd say the psp is a massive flop; it was hacked apart and therefore didn't make software publishers or Sony any money.

 

[cHodAX]

how thin do we need to go? From CRT> TFT was a massive difference. TFT>LED was a nice difference, LED>OLED ehhhhhh.

Saving 3ft in the living room from CRT was worth it, saving 1.5-2" ehhh people won't shell out en masse.

It's not just size, colour reproduction and power usage are drastically improved. Thickness reductions are just the icing on a very tasty cake.

 

[Ch3tan]

The power usage is an important one, bills are only getting higher. It's an important consideration when buying new tech.

 

[DaGaffer]

Also if Sony and MS have learned anything both should be developing sub £200 family related machines. PS3, PSP, PSP GO and the Vista have all been outsold by the cheaper Nintendo machines. Console gaming is not now only for the hardcore it is now a family activity so pricing and abilities should reflect that IMO.

Wii was a fucking gimmick POS but the pricetag meant it sold by the boatload to people who'd never bought a game before let alone a console.

Your price range is probably accurate, but, that doesn't necessarily mean they need to launch another Wii. Big problem with the Wii is that while it outsold the other two massively (90 odd million to 60 odd million for the others to date), it also has a much lower tie ratio (XBox owners buy nearly twice as many games over the life of the console as Wii owners), so the overall profitability of the console "ecosystem" is much harder to call, and it'll get more complicated as you have to add in DLC and non-games revenue (like Netflix fees) etc. To be honest I don't think the ultimate future of consoles has much to do with physical hardware specs at all; it'll be defined by the quality of the content portals that go behind the hardware (there's even been discussion in the past about rationalising around a common hardware platform to save costs).

 

[cHodAX]

Also if Sony and MS have learned anything both should be developing sub £200 family related machines. PS3, PSP, PSP GO and the Vista have all been outsold by the cheaper Nintendo machines. Console gaming is not now only for the hardcore it is now a family activity so pricing and abilities should reflect that IMO.

So, after 5-6 years you are finally admitting that my 'little Timmy' arguement was right then?

 

[soze]

So, after 5-6 years you are finally admitting that my 'little Timmy' arguement was right then?

Not had a PS3 for about 3 years Since I stopped using it as a media centre it has lived at my Nan's All I have currently is a 360 for Fifa. But no you are still wrong

 

[cHodAX]

Not had a PS3 for about 3 years Since I stopped using it as a media centre it has lived at my Nan's All I have currently is a 360 for Fifa. But no you are still wrong

Answer the question you dirty gooner bastard!

 

[soze]

Your price range is probably accurate, but, that doesn't necessarily mean they need to launch another Wii...

I don't think we need a new Wii. I think the Glowy Dildos and the Camera are better options anyway. But they are expensive add on's if you bring in the new version with these capabilities as standard for under £200 you make the Wii pointless.

 

[old.user4556]

You're all missing the point that the PS3 was a massive success because it achieved what it set out to do; win the HD format war.

Re 4K, I'm reading some fabulous bullshit (i.e. Job's post) that it's not going to be the next big thing. Guess what, it will be because they're need to sell us something down the line after blu-ray, and as ECA rightly pointed out, 3D has been a bit shit.

The advantage of 4K (for me..) is the ability to go to much bigger TV sets without losing pixel density. Sony were keen to push 1080p but to encourage you to sit closer to the TV; 4K will allow that to a greater extent. I have a 52" Sony Bravia in the living room (used to have a ~65" screen / projector) and would love to go to something in the 80" plus range in the future. Projectors are great and offer a good cinematic experience, but they're not that practical for day to day viewing, this could be the ticket that I'd be interested in.

 

[cHodAX]

You're all missing the point that the PS3 was a massive success because it achieved what it set out to do; win the HD format war.

Re 4K, I'm reading some fabulous bullshit (i.e. Job's post) that it's not going to be the next big thing. Guess what, it will be because they're need to sell us something down the line after blu-ray, and as ECA rightly pointed out, 3D has been a bit shit.

The advantage of 4K (for me..) is the ability to go to much bigger TV sets without losing pixel density. Sony were keen to push 1080p but to encourage you to sit closer to the TV; 4K will allow that to a greater extent. I have a 52" Sony Bravia in the living room (used to have a ~65" screen / projector) and would love to go to something in the 80" plus range in the future. Projectors are great and offer a good cinematic experience, but they're not that practical for day to day viewing, this could be the ticket that I'd be interested in.

Won the format war and yet hammered Sony so badly that they are still posting losses to this day? Come on, let us stay in touch with reality here. Blu-Ray will pay off eventually, PS3 has just about paid itself off but compared to the previous generation Sony has lost tens of millions of customers, the marketshare loss is epic. The goal of business is to turn a profit and have continual growth, Sony has struggled to turn a profit for years now and instead of growth they are actually seeing decline in key markets. How you can see that as a success is beyond me, they have tread water at best but as a company they are considerably weaker than 7 years ago.

 

[old.user4556]

I see it as a massive success because, it was a massive success. That's got nothing to do with what Sony turn as a profit or their long term strategy - I am purely referring to the HD-DVD and BD situation.

 

[soze]

One thing I will say about Sony is the PS2 is still getting games come out I think I saw Fifa 12 on it the other day. If the PS3 is still about making money in 8 years how can it not be a success? Yes I know its not as popular as the PS2 but it was facing exceptional competition. Rather than saying Sony failed what's wrong with saying the Wii and the 360 were great competition? cHodAX you are a negative old soul

 

[cHodAX]

Nonsense, they are a business, it is only a success if they turn a profit. Sony do not own the Blu-Ray spec alone and they do not take all the license fee. Go and have a look at the historical financials and tell me that is has worked out well for them. The Sony Pictures and Music divisions are losing marketshare year on year for over half a decade, the TV business is in such bad shape that they are trying to rid themselves of it. The Playstation business is not delivering anything like the revenues they had hoped for, certainly compared to PS2 era. Total sales and revenue numbers have remained stagnant for a full decade and yet expenditure has eaten away at their bottomline so badly that they are predicting another billion dollar loss for this year.

Don't tell me that is winning, it is Charlie Sheen levels of stupidity.

 

[cHodAX]

Rather than saying Sony failed what's wrong with saying the Wii and the 360 were great competition? cHodAX you are a negative old soul

Mate, PS3 did not fail, I have not said it was a flop. What I state now is what I stated 5-6 years ago and you all shot me down, Sony made some very bad design calls on PS3 and it strangled the company for a couple of years financially. Competition was strong, stronger than the last generation but Sony failed to anticipate the huge loss of marketshare and it is still biting them in the arse in 2012. Don't believe me? Go read the financials, they are not pretty.

Yes they sold 50 million plus units, yes BD killed off HD-DVD but to what end? Is BD a massive financial success for them? Really? Numbers to back that up? They aren't in the financials for 2001-2011 and the 2012 numbers are going to be massive losses for Sony.

Business is all about profit and growth, if you have neither then you are not winning, you are staying afloat. Tech businesses require profits to invest, innovate, create new products and secure future growth, Sony are now having to loan that money in the hope of future growth. It isn't going well for them.

 

[old.user4556]

Nonsense, they are a business, it is only a success if they turn a profit.

You are missing my fucking point. There were TWO MAIN REPLACEMENT FORMATS FOR DVD, it was either Blu-ray or not. The PS3 set out to put a BD player out into the mainstream at a time when a BD player was £1000 - not only did it conquer the format war but it put Blu-ray on the map and into people's homes. If it hadn't succeeded in doing so then Sony could quite easily be a lot more up the shitter than they are now.

Wait a minute, aren't you a 360 owner?

 

[Raven]

Their problem is that they think they are the best in the market and can charge more. They are not the best in the market in any sector any more, if they dropped their prices across the board they would shift more units and make some money.

As for winning the format war, yes they did. They still aren't turning a profit though so it's kind of pointless. Digital media on a physical product, days are numbered.

 

[old.user4556]

Personally, I think Sony need to take a really good look at themselves. I think you're right, I'm not sure what Sony do any more: they're trying to get into markets that are already saturated or other manufacturers now do better. Their TV range hasn't been reviewing well in comparison to brands like Panasonic or Samsung, they're trying to break into the DSLR segment that Canon and Nikon have got firmly stitched up, I doubt their phone segment will be able to rival HTC, Samsung and Apple, and we all know that downloadable content is the future.

 

[Job]

Well I do have years of experience with HD, and my present setup is about 16ft diagonal, with 1080 projector, it's very hard to get media that's good enough for, even at that size, to look better than 720p.
It's all about the bit rate and post processing, just like cameraphones, resolution means jackshit.
Super high bit rate DVD quite often looks better than most of the supposed 1080 material out here and if you're just looking at a 40 inch screen from normal viewing distance, then above 720 is irrelevant.
Very few films have been converted well enough for the full Bluray 1080 to look any better than the 720.

 

[ECA]

Their problem is that they think they are the best in the market and can charge more. They are not the best in the market in any sector any more, if they dropped their prices across the board they would shift more units and make some money.

As for winning the format war, yes they did. They still aren't turning a profit though so it's kind of pointless. Digital media on a physical product, days are numbered.

Nope.
Massively reduced. but not gone.

Even in the UK we don't have the broadband coverage to make it viable, nor does the US , and that's not even talking about modern european countries that have terrible internet and would basically render them consoleless.

 

[cHodAX]

You are missing my fucking point. There were TWO MAIN REPLACEMENT FORMATS FOR DVD, it was either Blu-ray or not. The PS3 set out to put a BD player out into the mainstream at a time when a BD player was £1000 - not only did it conquer the format war but it put Blu-ray on the map and into people's homes. If it hadn't succeeded in doing so then Sony could quite easily be a lot more up the shitter than they are now.

Wait a minute, aren't you a 360 owner?

No, I am not missing your point. Sony had a chance to unify the next gen HD media spec they didn't want to share the licensing pie with more people. They pushed BD and won, no question. Pushing BD into PS3 had an effect though, it drove the company massively into the red for a couple of years as they absorbed the unit build cost and sold every PS3 at a heavy loss. Now, in the past that has paid off, however this generation the competition was stronger, PS3 did not sell as well as hoped but more importantly the software attach rate of PS3 was horrid for 3-4 years. Attach rate is vital, every software unit sold is licensing money in Sony's pocket, PS3 did not deliver anywhere near enough licensing revenue. Now BD, sold well but is still being massively outsold by DVD and we are what 5-6 years down the line? BD is not turning the profits Sony predicted either, both revenue streams are way behind the anticipated curve and for that reason total company revenue has not increased. Infact the TV business has performed so badly that they are now posting worse revenue numbers than 10 years ago and are predicting a billion dollar plus loss for this financial year.

What I am saying is this. PS3 DID NOT FLOP, BD WON THE FORMAT WARS. SONY ARE BLEEDING MONEY AND NEITHER BD OR PS3 HAS YET PERFORMED ANYWHERE CLOSE TO ORIGINAL PROJECTIONS.

 

[cHodAX]

No I am not a 360 owner, haven't been for 3 years if you want to back check on old threads, I do own a PS3 slim though. Happy to post picture evidence.

 

[old.user4556]

New levels of retardedness have been reached. I think I'm done with this thread.

 

[cHodAX]

New levels of retardedness have been reached. I think I'm done with this thread.

Or you could make a constructive post, ask a question and wait for an answer?

If you want me to predict what would have happened if they didn't persue BD then I am happy to do so.

 

[old.user4556]

Nah I'm done.

 

[cHodAX]

Nah I'm done.

Shame, you usually have something interesting to say but I cannot see where you were going with this point and you have failed to explain it.

 

[cHodAX]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/19/feeling-blue-blu-ray/

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/...-ces-we-have-to-ask-is-blu-ray-dead-50002208/

DVD is still eating a big share of the disc based movie pie, BD is also having real problems with streaming now starting eat the arse end of thier HD movie business in ever increasing numbers. Every film streamed is lost revenue for Sony.

 

[old.user4556]

Shame, you usually have something interesting to say but I cannot see where you were going with this point and you have failed to explain it.

I have explained it to this thread, but you're still telling my that my opinion based on a factual situation is wrong. You went off on a somewhat completely unrelated tangent about profits, revenue, strategy, long term etc when I was trying to put across the very, very simple point that it succeeded in winning a format war that at the time was very critical. That, was a great success.

Please, try to get this into your head: I do not give a fuck about the fucked-up peripheral situation that Sony now finds itself in; I am purely referring to the BD vs HD-DVD format war that the PS3 was instrumental in securing.

 

[cHodAX]

I have explained it to this thread, but you're still telling my that my opinion based on a factual situation is wrong. You went off on a somewhat completely unrelated tangent about profits, revenue, strategy, long term etc when I was trying to put across the very, very simple point that it succeeded in winning a format war that at the time was very critical. That, was a great success.

Please, try to get this into your head: I do not give a fuck about the fucked-up peripheral situation that Sony now finds itself in; I am purely referring to the BD vs HD-DVD format war that the PS3 was instrumental in securing.

Ok but understand, it is a pointless win if Sony don't profit from it. Can we agree on that?

 

[old.user4556]

I do not care, Sony is a cluster-fuck.