Wednesday, May 09, 2007

PS3 Bombs, As We Forecast

Way back in October, we ventured that the Sony Playstation 3 would prove to be a dud in the marketplace, because it was too expensive and tried to be too many things at once.

We were right.


Today's WSJ reports that: "Sales [of the PS3] have paled compared with Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 consoles. Sony's videogame unit is expected to produce about $2 billion in losses for the year that ended March 31."


This confirms the results of our own informal market research at Best Buy a month ago. While shopping for new games for the Curmudgeonly kids' new Wii--which they lobbied hard for--we noticed boxes of unsold PS3's sitting on the shelf. Nearby, a lady desperate to get a Wii--which wasn't in stock--begged a salesman to let her know when the next shipment would arrive. The Curmudgeon kids have disdained any interest in the PS3.


The problem with the PS3 is that Sony used it to try to get consumers to buy its high definition blu-ray DVD player, a bauble many consumers don't need, or might prefer to deal with separately. At the same time, that raised the game console price well above that of the competition, a serious miscalculation. (Sony could more effectively have brought out a less expensive upgraded PS3 for the average gamer while offering an upscale version with all the blu-ray bells and whistles.)
So much for market savvy.


4 comments:

Stivel Velasquez said...

I got a good laugh seeing the pictures of crashed PS3 and men holding fans on them. Best part is we got confirmation that the boothes they were being held in were in fact properly ventilated.sportsbook Its possible these were non retail units and therefore were buggy, or that they are retail units and the PS3 doesnt have sufficient cooling.
http://www.enterbet.com

kimberly sayer said...

For analyst Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, the future of consoles isn't much of motion-sensing or high def, but could be something else entirely.Harding-Rolls believes that, at least for 2008, the major factor that can make waves in the industry is the ability of a console to be a mutli-media entertainment set-top box. Here's a quote from Harding-Rolls:One of the market shifts to watch out for in 2008 will be the continued evolution of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from games consoles to multi-media hubs. Now that these multi-media services - online video,costa rica fishingIPTV, digital terrestrial TV and PVR functionality - are now available or poised to come on line in different markets, this 'hub' strategy is emerging as a key console battleground for Microsoft and Sony.This echoes pretty well the two-part piece we had earlier this year (pt.1, pt. 2) on "the battle for the living room" waged between the PS3, 360, and Apple TV.Regardless, Harding-Rolls points out that the PS3 might make its comeback by 2008, especially since Sony is promising a lot of exclusive content, and more importantly, support for multi-media. Which by the way, we could be seeing tomorrow in the form of PS3 FW 2.10!If Harding-Rolls is right in his forecast, then we just might see the fruits of Sony's labor over making the PS3 appeal to consumers as "more than just a games console" by next year. Which isn't all that surprising, if you consider that the PS3 has already been named as the "Gadget of the Year" for 2007.
http://www.fishingcostaricaexperts.com

kimberly sayer said...

For analyst Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, the future of consoles isn't much of motion-sensing or high def, but could be something else entirely.Harding-Rolls believes that, at least for 2008, the major factor that can make waves in the industry is the ability of a console to be a mutli-media entertainment set-top box. Here's a quote from Harding-Rolls:One of the market shifts to watch out for in 2008 will be the continued evolution of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from games consoles to multi-media hubs. Now that these multi-media services - online video,costa rica fishingIPTV, digital terrestrial TV and PVR functionality - are now available or poised to come on line in different markets, this 'hub' strategy is emerging as a key console battleground for Microsoft and Sony.This echoes pretty well the two-part piece we had earlier this year (pt.1, pt. 2) on "the battle for the living room" waged between the PS3, 360, and Apple TV.Regardless, Harding-Rolls points out that the PS3 might make its comeback by 2008, especially since Sony is promising a lot of exclusive content, and more importantly, support for multi-media. Which by the way, we could be seeing tomorrow in the form of PS3 FW 2.10!If Harding-Rolls is right in his forecast, then we just might see the fruits of Sony's labor over making the PS3 appeal to consumers as "more than just a games console" by next year. Which isn't all that surprising, if you consider that the PS3 has already been named as the "Gadget of the Year" for 2007.
http://www.fishingcostaricaexperts.com

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