Originally Posted by JerryL
I actually think the Wii's success is not just price based. Its really that the PS and Xbox serve the hard core gamers while there are many who just want a little fun and thats where the Wii comes in. The price has to be low because its a whimsical kind of thing. But it does show price is very important for these things.

I would agree completely. A further example would be the success of the DS vs the PSP in the handheld gaming market too as it has that same unique “pick up and play” factor that the Wii boasts, only better as you can take the DS with you wherever you go. Nintendo are at fifty million DS` worldwide and counting which is wonderful considering most wrote it off as a gimmick before it came out. It also shows how these complicated machines that Sony and Microsoft are putting out only really appeal to a certain demographic of the games market (mostly males, in their 20s and up). Sony and Microsoft are simply not competition for Nintendo anymore. Nintendo's doing its own thing with their cheap little fun devices that print money. smile

Quote
I can't disagree with your points but simply would say that the BR camp likes to point out its superior installed base of players. Yet a substantial chunk of that is probably PS3 machines- which are really bought first and foremost as game boxes. Hence giving some support to the argument that the situation is not really as rosy for BR as the BR association likes to make it sound.

As I wrote above, I can`t honestly imagine that more than 300,000 out of the 2million PS3 owners in the US use their console to watch Blu-ray movies. Is that enough? Again, it might be, as there`s only so much the PS3 could have ever realistically achieved in helping Blu-ray. I completely agree however that it`s tiresome hearing the PS3 used to defend Blu-ray player adoption. The vast majority of people who own these next-gen consoles are not even aware they can display games in HD, let alone movies.

On the other hand I would personally consider it unwise to assume all is completely rosy for HD DVDs market share as far as hardware is concerned, just as I would consider it unwise to think they`re not spinning sales data in their own right.


Quote
I will finally point out that if the PS3 didnt have to be delayed or saddled with a dual mission it would have been to market sooner, and therefore making profits sooner- not allowing as much room for the Xbox and the Wii. I'm a believer in striking when the iron is hot and it seems to me Sony allowed it to cool. Its still a success, yes, but I think it would have been far preferable for Sony to have made the PS3 a single purpose device.

This I think remains the one factor we can`t honestly call just yet. In the long term it may either prove to be an incredibly smart choice, or a very stupid one. I`m not convinced Sony`s expectations of the console`s performance in its first year were quite as high as the industry and various journalistic pundits hyped it up to be. That`s not to say they didn`t get arrogant in expecting more than they got, but if they`re smart then they might well be playing a careful game that could pay off over time. It`s just too early to tell at the moment. Being first to market has its advantages, but might not be too great in the long term. PS3 has unquestionably set itself some lofty goals. Whether it can reach them only time will tell…

You mention had it come to market sooner, and not been saddled with Blu-ray, the PS3 would have been making profits sooner. I still believe this misses the point somewhat. I`ve stated how Sony and Microsoft are fighting their own little battle whilst Nintendo just does its own thing, allowing them to point and laugh by waving their money from the sidelines. This is all true, but again, for Sony and Microsoft, making a decent profit on hardware isn`t what this is about. Due to the nature of the hardware they build, it`s always the software and sales of accessories that will matter to them as it's the games and peripherals that make them their money (and now they both have the lure of online gaming marketplaces imbeeded in their consoles as a further resource of revenue).
For Nintendo it`s easy to make profit on both hardware and software. The Gamecube was in profit back when it launched, and the Wii is effectively a Gamecube with wireless motion control tacked on. As a result Wii sales naturally bring in an awful lot of money for Nintendo and they own a whole chunk of the games market for which they have no direct competition. The battle is really for second place this generation.

One thing I will say for Blu-ray`s integration in the PS3 is that there is demand for more capacity in the games development industry and I think there are some clever ways developers/publishers will abuse this benefit over time - not just in terms of making bigger and more extravagant games - but also from the point of view that the capacity can allow them to tailor a single pressing to suit multiple territories as they can fill the space with multiple languages and text based translations without having to go to the trouble of localizing releases for specific territories anymore. We`re on the cusp of seeing games that are beginning to make use of the disc space already. The problem is that given so many games are multi-platform these days developers will design to the lowest common denominator in order to provide an even experience between platforms. As a result it may only be the Playstation`s exclusive titles that go to any great effort to make use of the disc space handed to them, at least for the time being.

I have always detected at least some degree of sincerity from Sony Computer Entertainment with regards to why they consider Blu-ray to have significant advantages for gaming. Blu-ray wasn`t really forced upon the gaming division as many think, but instead there was one of those rare unanimous agreements amongst varying divisions at Sony that it will be the best way forward (though certainly each division within the company had differing agendas as to why they wanted Blu-ray in the console).