Sony Strikes Back

[BrandonMcAuslan]

Firstly 4 years old is a bit young to be using as an example - maybe a lot of 6+ year olds have DS. But 4 is too young.

Secondly the pink DS also appealed to a lot of (teenage/twentysomething) girls. (I know a few girls with one) - and whats wrong with it? Why NOT sell pink consoles? and why not sell consoles/games that can also appeal to kids? they are a valid market.

Anyway back to my 10 year cycle thing...
Seems a bit excessive eh? Is this just a marketing ploy to make people think they won't need to upgrade their console ever. i.e. Parents thinking - "great I buy my 12 year old this and I'll never need to buy another games console!"... Then he turns 17 and the new wii60 is out...

[Ads]

[Shiftfallout]

I like how a lot of you are automatically coming in biased and not really being objective. I should have known this would happen. Sadly.

Yes, nothing wrong with colored consoles, though his analogy hit the point in how they were marketing the PSP.

If you look at the life span of a lot of systems, many can make it to 10 years. PS1-2 is still being played, and PS2 games are still coming out strangely enough.

It doesnt mean there will never be a new console in 10 years, rather that games will still be made for those consoles.

Anyways, keep hating a lot of you seem to excel at that instead of take it as is.

[hotpotato78]

My thing is right, why does everybody feels like you have to be in your mid 20's to be a hardcore gamer..i will have to read that piece by piece shift, that is very long. lmao He basically said nintendo was kiddie though lmao If the ds stored music and movies, adults would play it just as much......... i think sony needs to get real because they only target the older people. how could you be surprise to see a kid with a psp. IT'S A GAME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

[MasterJedi2U]

Lol thats funny..."our roots in gaming". Nice damage control there though shift.

"You can spot the classic Nintendo fanboy from a mile away. They've been loyal, but they are a bit outside of the mainstream."

That interview is ridiculous. The guy is an asshole and he thinks hes above Nintendo. He can barely hide his disdain for the Wii and DS. But thats fine with me. The more arrogant they are the better the downfall.

[Shiftfallout]

My thing is right, why does everybody feels like you have to be in your mid 20's to be a hardcore gamer..i will have to read that piece by piece shift, that is very long. lmao He basically said nintendo was kiddie though lmao If the ds stored music and movies, adults would play it......... i think sony needs to get real because they only target the older people. how could you be surprise to see a kid with a psp. IT'S A GAME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

well, when cartoons were invented they were made for adults. Same can be said for video games. The average gamer is 30 years old according to studies. I dont think he was saying nintendo is kiddie, rather saying that they both market to different audiences. Of course its not suprising to see a kid playing a game, but it might be suprising to see a kid playing on an expensive piece of equipment, or a game with mature content.

Heck, even I was suprised when saw a video of this 5 year old playing WoW.

I think the suprise comes when you find someone outside your target audience using your product at times. Take for example, tampons. They are clearly targeted towards a certain age female, yet i would be suprised if I saw a 5 year old girl walk into a store to buy some for herself.

Lol thats funny..."our roots in gaming". Nice damage control there though shift.

That interview is ridiculous.

You are ridiculous, and trolling.

[ssbb_lover]

Nice read...now time to discuss (I like reading your long posts, Shift, just so you know; they're interesting, unlike 80% of the bologna on this forum nowadays)

(When I say "he" I mean John Tretton, not Shift)

He's asked 1st, "Is there anything that will surprise about the PS3"; his answer is the mot simple possible, "it surprises me more every day..." C'mon Tretton, put some thought into it. So he starts talking about how he plays the games his own company makes for weeks on end (not that this is surprising, just the fact that his has no relevance to the question and his only answer is...well, just sorta stupid).

GP then asks "GP: How well do you think that message is getting out there? That the PS3 has more going on than just gaming?". Of course, this is what Sony is known for; adding extra gizmos where (int he case of the PS3) extra gizmos aren't needed. So, I would say the message is pretty clear to a lot of people that the PS3 has tons of extras, however many people are mis-lead into thinking that all of the extras turn the PS3 into a "over-priced hunk o' junk" which isn't true. The highlight of the paragraph to me is when he says...

"But I think we do the industry and the technology an injustice if we assume that all gamers care about is gaming and that they don't do anything else with their time."

....actually, most people distinguish the two things. They want to play games on their gaming-console, and they want to do all their other shit with machines that are designed for that particular stuff (DVD player, computer, MP3 Player, etc.). That's why so many people are pissed at Sony, because of that exact reason.

"Do you think the PS3 isn't getting good advertising, as well as too much bad advertising?" He replies hinting that Sony is the leader, the dominate company in gaming, how everyone is after them (which I agree, the PS2 was and still is a major success). This (IMO) disappointing follow up [the PS3] leads to tons of bad coverage, and not enough of the good. Honestly, how many Wii commercials have you seen....okay, now how many PS3 commercials have you seen? Think of the good-to-bad ratio of articles for the Wii...now the PS3. Sony is definitely, I think, getting spat on more than they really should.

When he's asked about what he thinks about M$ and Ninty he confesses, while he's still proud of the games Sony develops, he's jealous of their platforms as well (obviously, with games like Halo and GoW; and Mario, Link, and Smash Bros.). Who wouldn't? Bare with me, the next paragraphs will go quicker....

Moving on....

Then he's asked multiple questions about the success of the PS2, even after the release of the PS3. He says that it's 7 years in, it's got the best games out for it by now, it's well known. This will also happen with the PS3 as well, according to Mr. Tretton. He says (throughout the interview) that they're going for long-term success (with those prices you must!), however long they're seeing is unknown to me, but I don't think the PS3 will be making a huge turn around for a while.

"PSNetwork, give us the skinny" It's free (which is a reason that it's better than the 360) and it's better than the Wii's free online service (then again, the console is $350 more...all I have to say is that it better be a f*** load better than a little kiddie console ). Oh, it's easier to access to (from what i've heard though, the Wii's interface is much easier to access...)

I like when he says "That promise [buying the PS3] is requires consumers to take a leap of faith."

Also, "But the best proof points are, 'were you satisfied with your PS2 or PSP?' The research we get is overwhelmingly positive." That in no way implies that the PS3 will be just as great. This has been shown with the destruction of companies (at least the console making aspect of them).

"How will the PS3 stack up in the future?" His basic reply was, "Like I said before, we're shooting for a long-term success." He admitted that the ONLY think he would like to change would have been the release, which was high near impossible (obviously you would only know that if you produced the PS3...no further comment). He said he would stick with his price tag, it's more than you could ask for for $600 (which is true). He states over and over "it's an investment..." and it is, just like it's previous two consoles. Time will tell if it was worth it.

"Will the price ever come down?" To me, I couldn't see anywhere he just said "yes" or "no". He gave an example and hinted no further...

"Will there ever be an even more updated v. of the PS3?" Once again, no hints towards "yes" or "no" (in my eyes). I did agree with him, however, on that entire paragraph. The following:

"TRETTON: It's something that's in consideration, but again, it's very early on in the PS3's life cycle. We believe that every consumer should have a hard drive, and they absolutely have to have 50 GB Blu-ray drives. For the gamer, Blu-ray video may not be desired today, but we went through the same thing with the PS2. People didn't buy it for the DVD player, but in many instances the PS2 was the first DVD player they ever owned. A lot of them still use it as their DVD player today. I don't think Blu-ray is the reason why gamers would buy the PS3, but I will guarantee you that every consumer will see value in that over time. You may not own a 1080p television today, but how many of us have HD TVs now when we didn't even know what it was three years ago? Technology moves quickly, and people tend to live in the here and the now.

With including the Blu-ray in the PS3, we're taking some lumps in the short term so we can say "I told you so" in the long term."

He points out an interesting fact in the next section when he's asked: "Are the PS3 sales what Sony has expected to see?" We all see how people rave on about how the PS3 sucks ass and is just worthless, not a true gaming system, but how the PS2 was the god of the 2nd generation. Well listen to this, "Considering those lofty sales heights, our initial PS3 numbers hit one million faster than the PS2." So in theory, the PS3 should sell better. So maybe Sony really is looking for the long-term success, maybe the PS3 will really just become the "PS2 #2".

Pretty much a big fat "NO" to new, pro controllers.

Bunch of GFX q's...

He's then asked about one thing that most, if not all gamers dream about: "Will our favorite games from the [previous console] be updated with new graphics and put on the system?" He says it's definitely a possibility. That's great news for my ears (even though I won't ever get a PS3 most likely, but this could pressure Ninty to do it themselves; M$ too if they haven't already promised this).

Okay, I honestly can't do anymore...the rest of the questions I think are mostly about the fan-base and how they're getting crapped on by people who nothing about the console...

Phew, I hope that all came out the way I planned.

[hotpotato78]

I get what you are saying but still i feel as if i wouldn't be surprise because it is the mature adults that are buying it for the kids.... But average gamer is different from hardcore gamers......... But if he suprise then it shows you that sony only focuses on adults.. i have never heard nintendo say they are focusing on one age group. It's not that they target different groups, its because the world make it seems as if nintendo is for kids. But if you say you only see kids with my product then obviously that's like saying its for kids. Most likely who every is buying your product is who it's for. so if most teens by a product then most likely its for teens. I feel as if sony never focus on nothing other than adult gamers. Crash was the closes game they had to a kid i think. and rapa da rapper or whatever it name.

[viperjason]

Anyway I'm interested in the whole "10 year cycle" thing. Think back 10 years ago. What did games look like? Would you be happy still playing ps1 games?

I still love playing mario kart on my N64. Hows that for product life? Now only if I can find Mario Party 3.

[Shiftfallout]

^
Yeah im still playing PS1 games as well. I even boot up alleyway, i loved that game for the game boy. Thanksfully my PSP can play all those old games.

[MasterJedi2U]

Umm you're trolling son. And now tampons and videogames can be used as analogies to one another. The bottom line is that sony will say anything to make this situation look extremely better than it really is. Yes we know they targeted the so called "hardcore gamer". But they forgot that hardcore gamer is a stereotype and a really stupid one at that. They come in all ages, colors, and sexes. Hence Nintendo is reaching BOTH "hardcore" and "causal" gamers. And in fact NEITHER is better than the other in my opinion so sony is losing out by doing that.


You posted the article as flame bait and thats what you're probably going to get. Me saying it was ridiculous was a statement of an opinion. DEAL WITH IT. I like reading it but I found it to be 90% bullshit and 10% bitching.

As for the 10 year cycle thing I for one don't play my N64. Threw that away years ago. Same thing with the SNES. Don't get me wrong. I loved both systems. But they were done and past their prime. So I moved on. Its fine if you still play those systems but we really don't know if everyone who had an 64 or PS1 STILL plays it regularly. I'm betting thats NOT the case.