PS3 has lost to Wii and Xbox360 (discuss)

[GReaper]

This generation of consoles has shown that Sony doesn't always have a magic touch for sales domination - which I'd say is a good thing as competition is important. Waiting for Blu-ray to launch the PS3 was a poor choice, it gave MS an entire year over Sony and they're still miles behind.

Price is such an important factor and Sony ignored it. Only fans will buy consoles at high prices, the PS3 has been too expensive and is still too expensive for people. Xbox had a product at just over £200 for launch, whilst Nintendo got it right by pricing the Wii at under £200.

Even now the PS3 is still £300, which looks rather expensive compared to the current Xbox 360 and Wii prices. I know people will say that it is a superior console, but when your competitors offer a fun experience at a much lower price it's hard to convince the mass casual gaming market to pay over £100 more.

Having said all this, we're actually getting a PS3 - but mostly because of the Blu-ray, wireless media connectivity.

Maybe as more and more people upgrade to larger HD TVs and Blu-ray discs come down in price they'll consider the PS3. It still has the potential for a lot of sales, as do all consoles when they lower the price. Had it been around £200 for this Christmas I'd have guessed it would've sold in huge numbers.

 

[Bodhi]

Thing is tho, the 360 probably only has another couple of years left before the next one comes out, by then PS3 will really be hitting its stride. Don't think you can call this generation over by any stretch of the amount.

 

[cHodAX]

Had it been around £200 for this Christmas I'd have guessed it would've sold in huge numbers.

Totally agree, the only things stopping me buying one are...

1) The price

2) God of War 3 ain't out yet

3) Lack of backwards compatabilty so I can play GoW1&2 on the same box that I will be playing GoW3 on.

At £200 I would probably have taken the plunge this Christmas but I don't see that pricepoint being available until Christmas 2009 to be honest.

 

[ST^]

Totally agree, the only things stopping me buying one are...

1) The price

2) God of War 3 ain't out yet

3) Lack of backwards compatabilty so I can play GoW1&2 on the same box that I will be playing GoW3 on.

At £200 I would probably have taken the plunge this Christmas but I don't see that pricepoint being available until Christmas 2009 to be honest.

Shame about the BC. I've got a 60gb and God of War 2 actually runs in 576p, one of the few (the only?) games with a REAL advantage other than just upscaling on PS3. Looks fucking amazing on the triple

 

[Ch3tan]

Yeah, I do the same ST^, god of war 2 and shadow of the colossus were the only games to get any play time on my ps3 until fifa 09 came out.

Hopefully sony will release a BC model or a software upgrade that will allow it at some point. It really is a big selling point they have messed up on.

 

[Lethul]

Panasonic nailed their colours to Plasma rather than LCD, but the Viera TVs are actually very good (nice colour and good viewing angles, and stylish screens). I still think the best picture I've seen on an HD TV was my old Philips though (before my dumbass brother broke it), that Ambilight feature really makes the picture stand out more.

As for screen size, I think anyone looking at HD content on anything less than a 36" screen and thinking its appreciably different is deluding themselves. Certainly at normal TV watching distances (and my laser-enhanced eyes are fucking awesome, so its not because I'm a blind old-fart).

Have you seen the new extra slim red samsung? Its picture is jaw-dropping (i think its called SAMSUNG LE-40A856 )

 

[ST^]

Panasonic nailed their colours to Plasma rather than LCD, but the Viera TVs are actually very good (nice colour and good viewing angles, and stylish screens). I still think the best picture I've seen on an HD TV was my old Philips though (before my dumbass brother broke it), that Ambilight feature really makes the picture stand out more.

Yeah I've seen the ambilights and if they're great. The Aurea 42" in particular is so good, but also so expensive :/ Seems like a gimmick at first but it does make a big difference.

 

[cHodAX]

NPD results out tomorrow but the previews are...

In advance of the official release of the NPD software and hardware sales results for December in the US, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter has released his preview, including an expectation that the PlayStation 3 will have been hugely outsold by the Xbox 360.

In his note he reveals his preview numbers as 1,350,000 unit sales for the Microsoft console, compared to 750,000 for the PlayStation 3 - while both are dwarfed by the expected 3,250,000 Wii sales.

Thats 10,000 employees being laid off with upto another 10,000 on the cards, also expected to post only it's second ever annual loss ($1.1 billion). Things ain't looking great for Sony, they ain't going bust or even close but they are hurting at the moment. Falling a further 600,000+ units behind X360 and 2.5 million further behind Wii, Sony really have lost thier core consumers this generation. Why? Price, plain and simple.

 

[Aada]

NPD results out tomorrow but the previews are...



Thats 10,000 employees being laid off with upto another 10,000 on the cards, also expected to post only it's second ever annual loss ($1.1 billion). Things ain't looking great for Sony, they ain't going bust or even close but they are hurting at the moment. Falling a further 600,000+ units behind X360 and 2.5 million further behind Wii, Sony really have lost thier core consumers this generation. Why? Price, plain and simple.

I'd say it has to do with the rather bad selection of games out as well.

 

[Wonk]

I'd say it has to do with the rather bad selection of games out as well.

I agree. There's only a few PS3 games that I actually want to own :/

 

[Zenith.UK]

The biggest obstacle to mainstream takeup of the PS3 is price, plain and simple. The developers are also cautious about coding or porting games to it because it doesn't have as many units sold as X360. Nothing unusual there, it's ordinary market dynamics.

I fall into the "My PS3 is good for bluray and upscaling DVD, and hey, it happens to play games as well!" category. I have 6 PS3 games (2 bought recently in the Woolworths Final Closing Sale), 7 bluray films and 1 bluray boxset. Of the films, 4 of them are duplicates of DVDs I already had.
I spend maybe 1/4 of the time it's switched on watching blurays, 1/2 the time streaming video from my PC and the remaining 1/4 playing games. I know the X360 can stream video as well but they don't play blurays and the less said about the HD-DVD drive the better.

I don't understand why people are so polarised into the "My console sold more than yours", "But my consoles better than yours" etc etc. You buy a console based on your own priorities. If you're into your COD multiplayer games with your mates, then you'd get an X360. If you wanted to have fun with all the family you'd get a Wii and if you want to play blurays and play a few games, you'd get a PS3. Maybe it's about the competition for the companies that make them, but Mr Mainstream Consumer doesn't care about Sony's or MS' share price. They just to make sure that Little Consumer Jr gets to play what they want.

 

[cHodAX]

I don't understand why people are so polarised into the "My console sold more than yours", "But my consoles better than yours" etc etc. You buy a console based on your own priorities. If you're into your COD multiplayer games with your mates, then you'd get an X360. If you wanted to have fun with all the family you'd get a Wii and if you want to play blurays and play a few games, you'd get a PS3. Maybe it's about the competition for the companies that make them, but Mr Mainstream Consumer doesn't care about Sony's or MS' share price. They just to make sure that Little Consumer Jr gets to play what they want.

Personally I post because I was mocked on this forum for the last two years because I argued fiercely against those people saying how the X360 was going to get trounced by PS3 and then claiming that I didn't know what I was talking about. Thankfully pretty much all my points have been proved vaild over the course of time, the main one being the price issue crippling the PS3's chances of success for the last two Christmas holidays periods. Soze didn't agree then, he probably doesn't agree now but the fact remains 'little timmy didn't get a PS3 for Christmas because Wii and X360 are half the price'.

I am not posting saying X360 is better than PS3 although I will go argue with anyone who tries to tell me that the PS3 is a better games platform. Mainly because hardware is my thing and as powerful as CELL might be it is crippled by poor software libraries and developer kits and the fact that the SPE's just aren't good at running most types of game code. Then you have the GPU, technically inferior to the GPU on the X360 and lets be honest here it doesn't matter how good your CPU is if you are always going to be limited by an slightly underpowered and poorly integrated GPU as has happened in the PS3 design.

I continue to fight the X360's corner when called upon but I have always been honest, I would like a PS3 when the price is right but that isn't right even after 2 years, the price is something Sony have bungled right from the design stages by building an overly complex media system when the Sony customers wanted a kick ass gaming console instead.

 

[cHodAX]

Oh and as for Wii...

‘There are too many crappy games on Wii’ | Gaming Industry | News by MCV

 

[cHodAX]

Thing is tho, the 360 probably only has another couple of years left before the next one comes out, by then PS3 will really be hitting its stride. Don't think you can call this generation over by any stretch of the amount.

Microsoft pretty much said this week the next console will be 2012 purely because of the economy, makes sense to me. The PS3 should have been hitting it's stride this Christmas and it hasn't happened, it has only fallen further behind and Nintendo ate another large slice of Sony's pie in the meantime.

Sure the PS3 might develop into a massive hit when the price reaches £129 but lets be honest, that isn't happening before 2011 by which time Wii 2 is out and the next Xbox is being touted. That will have an effect and Sony still won't have the margains to work with as they did with the PS2 generation and it's installed userbase of 150 million consoles. Infact I doubt PS3 will have done 50 million before 2011, that is a massive amount of customers to lose in one generation.

 

[soze]

Personally I post because I was mocked on this forum for the last two years because I argued fiercely against those people saying how the X360 was going to get trounced by PS3 and then claiming that I didn't know what I was talking about. Thankfully pretty much all my points have been proved vaild over the course of time, the main one being the price issue crippling the PS3's chances of success for the last two Christmas holidays periods. Soze didn't agree then, he probably doesn't agree now but the fact remains 'little timmy didn't get a PS3 for Christmas because Wii and X360 are half the price'.

My point has always been i did not think the PS3 was expensive for what it has. Plus it has the games i like. I dislike the 360 mainly because of the controller thats just me. I still do not think the PS3 is expensive if you are going to make use of it but there is no fighting the fact that for pure games the 360 is a beast.

Seemingly the PS3 is droping to $299 in June, not sure what that means for the UK.

 

[cHodAX]

My point has always been i did not think the PS3 was expensive for what it has. Plus it has the games i like. I dislike the 360 mainly because of the controller thats just me. I still do not think the PS3 is expensive if you are going to make use of it but there is no fighting the fact that for pure games the 360 is a beast.

Seemingly the PS3 is droping to $299 in June, not sure what that means for the UK.

Rip-off Britain? Treasure Island? £249 would be my bet.

 

[Will]

With the swiftly dropping exchange rate, we are starting to look far less gouged on price nowadays.

 

[soze]

Rip-off Britain? Treasure Island? £249 would be my bet.

Or Sony just say no price drop at all for europe

 

[Wij]

With the swiftly dropping exchange rate, we are starting to look far less gouged on price nowadays.

Eurozone just dropped interest rates so the pound should gain a bit back on the euro.

Anyways, price-drop in June ? How much more of a lead will the other consoles have gained in the meantime ?

PS3 came last this generation. It's not going to change.

On the bright side. I've pre-odered SF IV for PS3 and ordered a USB Sega Saturn pad to go with it. That will rock

 

[cHodAX]

On the bright side. I've pre-odered SF IV for PS3 and ordered a USB Sega Saturn pad to go with it. That will rock

Cool! Let us know how it works out, a mini-review is called for!

 

[Aada]

My point has always been i did not think the PS3 was expensive for what it has. Plus it has the games i like. I dislike the 360 mainly because of the controller thats just me. I still do not think the PS3 is expensive if you are going to make use of it but there is no fighting the fact that for pure games the 360 is a beast.

Seemingly the PS3 is droping to $299 in June, not sure what that means for the UK.

What is wrong with the 360 controller? the controller is BUILT around both hands holding it when i pick up a 360 controller my hands just mould around the control pad my thumbs rest NATURALLY on the analogue sticks and my fingers on the centre buttons/triggers.

The PS3 pad is the most horrible thing in the world it isn't comfortable to hold and after a while playing my hands actually start to ache because the analogue sticks aren't in a natural position for your thumbs to rest on.

Analogue sticks also don't have any GRIP at all for your thumbs meaning they just slide off sometimes, i can't count the number of times playing COD5 where my thumbs slide off sometimes.

What about the triggers? i mean are they actually triggers? what are they meant to be exactly? most PS3 shooters have the shoot button as Right Bumper which is just retarded.

 

[Billargh]

Why are you trying to argue over why someone dislikes a pad Aada? Seriously, it could feel like a pair of tits and some people would still dislike it.

 

[soze]

What is wrong with the 360 controller? the controller is BUILT around both hands holding it when i pick up a 360 controller my hands just mould around the control pad my thumbs rest NATURALLY on the analogue sticks and my fingers on the centre buttons/triggers.

The PS3 pad is the most horrible thing in the world it isn't comfortable to hold and after a while playing my hands actually start to ache because the analogue sticks aren't in a natural position for your thumbs to rest on.

Analogue sticks also don't have any GRIP at all for your thumbs meaning they just slide off sometimes, i can't count the number of times playing COD5 where my thumbs slide off sometimes.

What about the triggers? i mean are they actually triggers? what are they meant to be exactly? most PS3 shooters have the shoot button as Right Bumper which is just retarded.

Which is why i said its just me I prefer the PS3 i do not think everybody should but i do. I have wierd thumbs and the 360 pad is not comfortable.

 

[ST^]

lol analogue sticks have no grip, your thumbs can slide off them? you must have a serious lack of friction on your thumbprint. Did you burn them off MIB style?

 

[old.user4556]

Why are you trying to argue over why someone dislikes a pad Aada? Seriously, it could feel like a pair of tits and some people would still dislike it.

Because he will argue black is white when it comes to the 360; you're wasting your time getting your point across even when it's your own personal opinion - he'll still tell you you're wrong.

I was over at my mate's place last night, he's just bought himself a 360. Now remember I'm a naive console newbie.

We had a lengthy chat about the state of the console market and we talked about the PS3 pricing being a sore point with the 80GB model bundles coming in at £300 which seemed pricey when you purely look at it from a "console" perspective (ignoring the blu-ray functionality).

I asked him how much he paid for the 360.

"£150 all in, cheap as".

I said "fuck me, no wonder the PS3 can't compete - what size of hard disk is in it?".

"ahh it's not got one" he said.

"oh right" i said. "how much is one with a hard disk?". He said "the 60 GB one is about £180-£190, still a good bit cheaper than the PS3".

So we moved onto the subject of connectivity. "have you got this wireless to the media PC?".

"Nah it's not got wireless on it".

I said "ahh is that the problem with the arcade version?". He said "no they're all the same, you need to buy a wireless dongle for it - that's about £60 for a microsoft one but you could use a linksys which is about £45 ish".

I said "riiiiiight".

So we played some games, Halo 3 on a split screen which was ok but I hate FPS games on consoles. We then farted about with the streaming films and online stuff and the friend avatars with the little sleeping heads.

I said "lets play someone online".

"we can't, i've only got a silver login - you need a gold membership, which is really shit .... you need to pay to play online".

I said "how much is that?"

He said "£35-£40 a year".

Then I said "let me get this straight..."

"so I need to buy a 360 60GB bundle at £190 or so, then buy a wireless dongle for another £40-£60, then a subscription at £40 to play online - so i'm paying nearly the same price as a PS3 for similar spec with a fugly external PSU, a fugly external wireless dongle, it's bloody noisy and doesn't do blu-ray?".

"yeah I suppose, but you can't get halo 3 on the PS3".

:lol:

 

[Bodhi]

What is wrong with the 360 controller? the controller is BUILT around both hands holding it when i pick up a 360 controller my hands just mould around the control pad my thumbs rest NATURALLY on the analogue sticks and my fingers on the centre buttons/triggers.

The PS3 pad is the most horrible thing in the world it isn't comfortable to hold and after a while playing my hands actually start to ache because the analogue sticks aren't in a natural position for your thumbs to rest on.

Analogue sticks also don't have any GRIP at all for your thumbs meaning they just slide off sometimes, i can't count the number of times playing COD5 where my thumbs slide off sometimes.

What about the triggers? i mean are they actually triggers? what are they meant to be exactly? most PS3 shooters have the shoot button as Right Bumper which is just retarded.

What's wrong with the 360 controller? It's too big, the buttons are shit, the analog stick is in the wrong place, the D-pad is rubbish and it eats batteries. Apart from that it's great!

On PS3 games the shoot button is on R1 because you don't need analog input with a gun? You're either firing or you aren't? Or does the trigger make you feel like you're firing a real gun?

 

[GReaper]

My point has always been i did not think the PS3 was expensive for what it has. Plus it has the games i like. I dislike the 360 mainly because of the controller thats just me. I still do not think the PS3 is expensive if you are going to make use of it but there is no fighting the fact that for pure games the 360 is a beast.

Saying it's not expensive for what it is reminds me of the 3DO back in 1993!

Yes, it's a nice machine and does a lot, but if it's too expensive and people buy cheaper alternatives which can entertain them just as well - why bother paying the extra money?

 

[Ch3tan]

some stuff about 360 prices

G, your prices are wrong. 360 prices have not been at that level since summer last year.

Not going to get into it though as Chodax, Aada and Soze are around, and rinse and repeating the same old as usual.

 

[old.user4556]

£185 for a two game bundle?

Xbox 360 60GB Premium Pack with Kung Fu Panda + LEGO Indiana Jones + Wireless Controller - Xbox 360 - GAME.co.uk

Ok so I made it up!

It's £165 with no games here:

Play.com (UK) : Xbox 360 Premium Console with 60GB HDD : Xbox 360 - Free Delivery

Can you point me in the direction of the right prices then?

 

[Deebs]

Interesting thread. Sony may have lost the console war this generation but I cannot wait for the next generation. The Cell processor is an incredible piece of technology which was let down by Sony's rush to market on the graphics chip.

G4 consoles are going to be way different. Imagine multi Cells hooked up with decent GPU's. Microsoft will have similar tech but Sony have the headstart in the development knowledge.