According to analysts at Wedbush Morgan, seemingly still unable to lay off the crack pipe, the PlayStation 3 will ship in 2007 if the Xbox 360 fails to ignite the hardware market.
Of course, this stands in stark contrast with wider expectations, set by Sony at The PlayStation meeting last week (albeit off the record) that we’ll see at least a Japanese launch of PlayStation 3 in spring 2006.
Sony is keeping tight-lipped on this as you might expect, though SPOnG cannot help wonder if the analysts quoted above have any tangible concept of what it takes to launch a videogame platform. The entire process is a massive undertaking and cannot be decided upon a whim, as suggested.
From manufacturing to retail, PR to third-party publishing/developing, SPOnG would assert that it’s simply impossible to maintain a transient console launch strategy as Wedbush Morgan describes.
Expect official comment from SCEI at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
We expect Sony to defer a decision regarding PS3 launch until it is able to assess the likely success of the Xbox 360, and anticipate that Sony will make its decision shortly after the Xbox 360 launch. We do not expect the PS3 until mid 2006, at the earliest, and should Microsoft fail to garner sufficient software support to gain an insurmountable lead, we think that there is a possibility that the PS3 launch will slip into early 2007.
Of course, this stands in stark contrast with wider expectations, set by Sony at The PlayStation meeting last week (albeit off the record) that we’ll see at least a Japanese launch of PlayStation 3 in spring 2006.
Sony is keeping tight-lipped on this as you might expect, though SPOnG cannot help wonder if the analysts quoted above have any tangible concept of what it takes to launch a videogame platform. The entire process is a massive undertaking and cannot be decided upon a whim, as suggested.
From manufacturing to retail, PR to third-party publishing/developing, SPOnG would assert that it’s simply impossible to maintain a transient console launch strategy as Wedbush Morgan describes.
Expect official comment from SCEI at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
Companies:
Sony
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Comments
Joji 29 Jul 2005 12:55
1/8
Take that pinch of salt people. It all sounds pretty weird. Speculation killed the cat.
Are these people on the MS payroll.....or just smoking that crack sh*t again? Sounds like the latter.
Are these people on the MS payroll.....or just smoking that crack sh*t again? Sounds like the latter.
BustyKrusty 29 Jul 2005 15:28
2/8
I sincerely hope they're wrong on this one but on the other hand Sonys manufacturing process is slow and painful.They were always last to ship to all,and having difficulties while doing it.Bach was right when he said it..."Blue-Ray,Blue-Ray you're a sweet delay"
slow,risky, but sweet!, did i say slow
slow,risky, but sweet!, did i say slow
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fluffstardx 29 Jul 2005 21:26
3/8
The benefits they're getting from BluRay also just don't add up. So you have more storage; big whup. You've also got high cost, games prices rise, what are the access speeds like...
It was a shot in the foot to them picking a format not readily available. Drives up cost, drives up production time, adds so few benefits... and what happens if Blu Ray loses out to HD-DVD? A new generation of film format missed, and an incompatible "computer for the living room". It's a big mistake it seems, and they need that machine out, available and in droves at a MASSIVE loss in price to get it to be successful. Now... they're in trouble. Especially seeing as the other two didn't bite as well...
It was a shot in the foot to them picking a format not readily available. Drives up cost, drives up production time, adds so few benefits... and what happens if Blu Ray loses out to HD-DVD? A new generation of film format missed, and an incompatible "computer for the living room". It's a big mistake it seems, and they need that machine out, available and in droves at a MASSIVE loss in price to get it to be successful. Now... they're in trouble. Especially seeing as the other two didn't bite as well...
ProfChaos 29 Jul 2005 22:34
4/8
The benefits from Blu-Ray are huge. Now don't get me wrong it's underhanded as hell. The problem here is that Sony doesn't give two s**ts about making games or serving the gaming market. They want to beat Toshiba's HD-DVD to market. They will and they'll win the battle for next-gen movie storage media. This is why they are will to take a loss on they're hardware with PS3. They stand to make 15% or more on every movie sold in the world. By my calculations that is a clear $1b in the US alone. That is just licensing fees. If they sell the media as well they stand to make much more. Now tghat China is entering these markets with a population of 4-5b people they stand to turn a healthy profit and make more money than God.
By putting the Blu-Ray player in the PS3 they can flood the market with their players, forcing the market to use their media. They learned they're lesson from the Beta vs. VHS fiasco they got killed in. The system, by that logic, will cost $400-450US so that they don't alienate the market. I think they're letting people think that the system will be really expensive so that range doesn't seem oppressive.
If you're looking for a gaming machine next-gen, wait for the Revolution. Everyone else is just using theirs as a leg into a new industry.
By putting the Blu-Ray player in the PS3 they can flood the market with their players, forcing the market to use their media. They learned they're lesson from the Beta vs. VHS fiasco they got killed in. The system, by that logic, will cost $400-450US so that they don't alienate the market. I think they're letting people think that the system will be really expensive so that range doesn't seem oppressive.
If you're looking for a gaming machine next-gen, wait for the Revolution. Everyone else is just using theirs as a leg into a new industry.
TheEliteSamurai 30 Jul 2005 03:32
5/8
"Now tghat China is entering these markets with a population of 4-5b people"
Not to be picky but China's population is 1.3 B, your off by quite alot.
Not to be picky but China's population is 1.3 B, your off by quite alot.
fluffstardx 1 Aug 2005 15:15
6/8
Problem is, the other two didn't rise to it. Now it's Sony only, if PS2 bombs, the media bombs. Like the UMD...
config 1 Aug 2005 17:24
7/8
Support from content owners is more important than sticking compatible drives in any number of consoles.
Studio support for BluRay was flagging compared to HDDVD. However, the recent confirmation that 20th Century Fox is backing BluRay is starting to make things look just a bit more favourable for the format.
It's also worth remembering that this isn't just Sony's baby. The format is backed by a consortium of massive electronics manufacturers including Samsung, Philips, Sharp, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita, Pioneer and Thomson. That's compared with HDDVD's triumvirate; Toshiba, Sanyo & NEC.
Whichever formats wins, it's down to two factors - neither of includes PS3 as a key variable;
1. Massive support from the content owners
2. Massive support from consumers that give a s**t about another media format, happy to ditch their existing DVD collection.
Studio support for BluRay was flagging compared to HDDVD. However, the recent confirmation that 20th Century Fox is backing BluRay is starting to make things look just a bit more favourable for the format.
It's also worth remembering that this isn't just Sony's baby. The format is backed by a consortium of massive electronics manufacturers including Samsung, Philips, Sharp, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita, Pioneer and Thomson. That's compared with HDDVD's triumvirate; Toshiba, Sanyo & NEC.
Whichever formats wins, it's down to two factors - neither of includes PS3 as a key variable;
1. Massive support from the content owners
2. Massive support from consumers that give a s**t about another media format, happy to ditch their existing DVD collection.
tyrion 1 Aug 2005 17:50
8/8
fluffstardx wrote:
Problem is, the other two didn't rise to it. Now it's Sony only, if PS2 bombs, the media bombs. Like the UMD...
Assuming you meant the PS3, Blu-ray can only bomb as badly as any other proprietary media we've seen in the games industry.
Nobody uses tapes any more, what a bomb of a format that was!
Nobody uses SNES carts any more, heh, what a bomb!
The worst that can happen to Blu-ray, the absolute worst is that it doesn't get picked up as the next-gen DVD format. In which case it will be the PS3's proprietary media format. No big deal, it's still cheaper to produce than an N64 cart ever was.
Same goes for UMD, but that format is being given a decent crack of the whip by more media companies than just the ones that Sony owns. It's also recently been certified as an ISO standard data medium, the first step to getting it into non-Sony hardware.
Back to the PS3 and Blu-ray. Even if it never gets used for anything else, at least the PS3 will have a superior storage medium than the XBox 360's DVD format. And that's before Microsoft risk fracturing their own market by introducing HD-DVD models of the XBox 360 after launch.