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Sony Promises 1M PS3s This Year 123

Posted by Zonk from the they're-trustworthy-you-can-trust-them dept.
Joystiq reports that Sony is still promising 1 Million PS3 units in North America for this year. This, despite much lower estimates as released yesterday. From the article: "basically, these numbers don't mean anything. Despite what appears to be gross incompetence to much of the gaming press and the hardcore industry watchers (that's you guys), the mainstream gamer is blissfully unaware of reductions in shipping estimates. To him, it will appear that the PS3 is the hottest thing this holiday -- just like the Xbox 360 appeared to be last year and the PlayStation 2 back in '00 -- and may have no problem waiting for the demand and/or price to go down. People are still buying PS2s today, remember? Just a reality check before the hype consumes us all." For more on this, 1up has analyst reaction to the release news, and comments from GTA creator Dave Jones on his reaction to the news.
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Sony Promises 1M PS3s This Year More

Sony Promises 1M PS3s This Year

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  • They only need 999,999 (Score:5, Funny)

    by TomatoMan ( 93630 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @11:50AM (#16060256) Homepage Journal
    I won't be buying one.

    Thanks for thinking of me though!

    • If you hate Sony... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by paladinwannabe2 ( 889776 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:04PM (#16060366)
      Shouldn't you be hoing for a surplus? A shortage means that they are selling all the PS3's that they are making. While they are technically losing money on each unit sold, they lose even more on each unit that doesn't sell. If there is a surplus of PS3s, that would be a deathblow to Sony's counsole dreams.
      • but if there's a shortage, I'm gonna buy up as many as I can via reservation and sell all but one on ebay. I made a KILLING... a texas chainsaw massacre ... doing that with the 3 extra 360's. Sold two for $1100 and one for $779. Others made $1600-$2000 on those things. I expect that I could make a pile even selling them at flea markets.
        • Why in the world would you sell all but one? Need I remind you that you are posting to Slashdot, so you are supposed to want a Wii, not a PS3? Haven't you seen this video [youtube.com]?
      • No matter how many they make, there won't be a surplus during the first holiday season given all the pent up demand. After the holidays and after people have gotten bored with the idea that they must buy a PS3 right now even if it means death fighting and being gouged, then that's when the surpluses kick in and screw sony.

  • What is Sony thinking? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BlahMatt ( 931052 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @11:54AM (#16060290)
    And where are they getting these numbers? It's like they're saying look over here at these magically appearing numbers while over in the corner they sit and hope like hell that we're all entranced by them and we won't remember when no PS3's ship this year. You'd think after all the screw ups in the past they might just try telling the truth for once.

    So, I wish them luck in reaching their goal, but also, I am calling BS on them.

    You heard me Sony... BS. http://games.slashdot.org/search.pl?query=sony+lie s [slashdot.org]
  • The lower the shipping (and, hence, sales since most are assuming the thing will sell out) numbers, the less chance any given person will actually see a PS3 playing on someone's TV this year and well into the next.

  • PS3 will be Sony's Dreamcast (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Brenin ( 954751 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @11:56AM (#16060312)
    For a price point that high, I don't see many parents buying this for their kids. Only folks with a disposable income will fork over the cash for that and the (hopefully decent) launch titles. They should have dropped the Blu-ray and come down on the price point to be in line with the Xbox 360 at least. The main competition will only be between the Wii and the 360 for some time coming until Sony decides it needs to take a hit in the wallet to move the product.
    • To be fair, $100 more for a High-Def player is cheap. The $300 360 is a bad joke and the $500 PS3 is comparable feature wise to the $400 360. The 360 is WAY overpriced, although maybe they will drop the price for Christmas.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        To be fair, $100 more for a High-Def player is cheap. The $300 360 is a bad joke and the $500 PS3 is comparable feature wise to the $400 360. The 360 is WAY overpriced, although maybe they will drop the price for Christmas.

        Anyone who would consider the $500 PS3 as a High-Definition player is pretty foolish to begin with because (although some content providers have promised not to use the IC tolken) the IC tolken will probably be enforced as soon and you start seeing a decent number of HD movie Torrents; as

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by burnetd ( 90848 )
        The price of a Xbox 360 will not drop until the PS3 is out and reduced to a similar price. Sony may be Evil(tm) but they are Darth Vader to Microsoft's Emperor.
      • Erm, too bad I already have a DVD player that does 720p. I don't really care about 1080p anyway, which is the only real advantage of BluRay. I suspect anyone with a TV that does 1080p already has a really nice DVD player. For HD gaming, well, I can hook a PC up to my TV with DVI and play with a wireless keyboard and trackball at 1280x900. It's actually a pretty comfortable rig.

        Screw the PS3, the reason I want a Wii is because it actually has games I'm interested in. No fanboy crap here (ok, I'm a Zelda fanb

        • Erm, too bad I already have a DVD player that does 720p.

          You may have a DVD player that upscales to 720p, but that isn't really the same thing as what you're saying. I mean, I can take my 1 megapixel camera and scale an image from it to 5 megapixels - but that doesn't mean i suddenly have a 5 megapixel camera. Upscaling DVD players don't magically make the content be 720p.

          I don't really care about 1080p anyway, which is the only real advantage of BluRay.

          HD-DVD does 1080p as well. I think you're confusin

      • To be fair, $100 more for a High-Def player is cheap.

        To be fair, $500 for a home entertainment device--ANY home entertainment device--does not qualify as "cheap" to me.

        To be fair, I have no desire to own a High-Def player at this point in time, so that $100 would be wasted money if I were to buy a PS3.

        • Ya, and $400 is also way too much. Only crazy people will be buying a 360 or a PS3 anytime soon($300 is the sweet spot). If you were in the market for a High-Def player the PS3 would be a good deal and anyone crazy enough to shell out $400 for a 360 you would probably shell out $100-$200 more for a high-def movie player which retail for $500+.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by pittuck ( 811351 )
      One thing people seem to be overlooking is the possiblilty (although ive not kept up the latest development) of running linux on a ps3. If sony can sell the ps3 as a fully functional desktop pc (as in allowing word processing and research to be done for the price of a usb keyboard and mouse) then they might have a good hope at the lower income people.

      I mean they have a monitor of some sort, so its $530 for a next gen console, br player and desktop pc. Rather than $300 for a 360, $400 for a PC...

      Sony h

      • They can buy a laptop for that price, and get both the convenience, AND the "built-in monitor".

        The whole PS3 concept is DOA - the WII is where the hype, and the price point advantage, are.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )
      I don't know, I think the blu-ray is one of the most important parts of the PS3. I think it's good they keep it there. I don't predict sales to be very good until the drop the price, but it will still sell some. The blu-ray drive will give the system a much longer longevity than the 360 (assuming MS sticks to their no-HD-DVD-games position) because it will let the developers put more content/higher resolution content on a disc (no stuppid swapping).

      This is a console that may do well, but it will grow into

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by iroll ( 717924 )
      Won't that make it Sony's TurboGrafix?

      Because I don't remember Dreamcast being outrageously priced, like the TurboGrafix 16 was.

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by MikeFM ( 12491 )
      The PS3 is the Lexus while the XBox 360 is a Scion and the Wii is a Toyota Civic. All have their markets and are decent products for the price they're available for. All of them sell well and are profitable. Any market has this stratification.

      The PS3 is nothing like the Dreamcast. The DC was fine but had bad timing, a lack of features, and a lack of games to let it stand up against the competition. If anything the Wii is at risk of becoming the next Dreamcast. The PS3 is pimped out and has the huge legacy l
      • Although your comparison is ridiculous I have seen worse. So could you please come up with a more assinine metaphor. I also thought that your jackassery was a bit mis-guided and lost its context in the middle of your argument, you should work on that too. I suggest adding a cup more of BS and a titilating lie or two and your horror of a post will be made perfect.

        P.S.:
        You do get a gold star for motivating me to login and write this.
      • Let's accept your analogy for the time being.
        This means that the PS3 will become an elite system that is only bought by men in a mid-life crisis or very rich people.
        It works for the lexus because they actually make loads of money on each car sold. The PS3 on the other hand is sold at a loss. The idea is to sell enough units to make developping for the console highly profitable and consequently make lots of money on licences and sold games.

  • Reality Distortion Field (Score:5, Funny)

    by E-Rock ( 84950 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @11:57AM (#16060314) Homepage
    It's amazing. I think they're research into duplicating the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field have backfired. Instead of projecting a delusional field of product love outward towards the consumer, like Apple, instead the field has inverted and Sony staff are the ones with the warped sense of reality.
    • It's dangerous to mess with those distortion fields. Personaly, I think it would be just better wisdom if they included SEP Fields [wikipedia.org] with every PS3 and throw in DVD drives. That way, they wouldn't have a shortage and the consumer would never notice they didn't have Blu-Ray drives. That would clear up most of the hype problems.
  • ...that they won't start selling in Europe before March 07. In other words, a lot of people will do whatever they can to get one, either from the US or Japan. And since more people know people in the US than Japan, that's likely where they will go shopping.

    In short, don't think that more than 750k of those boxes will actually stay in the US.
    • Will buying from the US be a problem for them if they don't have a NTSC tv? I have heard there are converters out there to convert PAL to NTSC but I have no idea how common or expensive they are.
      • From what I've read - at least from UK Interweb posters - most new (particularly digital) TVs over there will support both NTSC and PAL. It's certainly not a concern for someone willing to pay a premium to import a game console.
        • Interesting... But the Blue Ray disks will also be region encoded. Does that mean that the NTSC PS3 will require NTSC blue ray disks? Do those have to be imported or are they sold over there in both NTSC an PAL?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )
        Will buying from the US be a problem for them if they don't have a NTSC tv?

        Not if most TVs sold in PAL and SECAM regions have a SCART (standardized RGB connector) input and can sync to 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

      • NTSC and PAL are standard definition standards.

        I highly doubt anyone going to the effort of importing a PS3 is going to be running it in standard definition.
      • People who shell out the dough to get a console shipped overseas are very likely to have a TV with SCART, which doesn't care about petty things like color standards.

        Also, yes, you will need RC1 BluRays. But you can rest assured that people will just have them shipped as well. Although, and here's a problem for Sony, they will choose very carefully which games to buy because those games will cost about 1.5 times what they "really" cost, due to shipping and customs. In other words, they will sell fewer games.

  • As Sony says: (Score:3, Funny)

    by monopole ( 44023 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:03PM (#16060361)
    "There is only one PS3" and they're sticking to that production target. But it isn't expensive enough.

  • PS3 sacrificed for Blu Ray (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ConfusedSelfHating ( 1000521 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:08PM (#16060402)
    Sony made a decision to sacrifice the Playstation3 on the altar of Blu Ray. If they had released the PS3 with a standard DVD-ROM, it would cut their cost by about $300 dollars (it's estimated by Merrill Lynch that Sony's cost for a Blu Ray drive is $350 a unit). They could easily sell the PS3 for $350 taking less of a loss than they are currently taking per unit. They could have released it at the same time as the Xbox 360 and kicked Microsoft's teeth in. Instead we witness the delays and dramatically cut production. When most companies release a new product, they don't risk their bread and butter products that make their profits. Microsoft doesn't put the Windows franchise on the line in order to sell their music player (which will probably fail terribly). Nintendo didn't risk the DS on the release of the Wii. If the Wii fails, Nintendo will still have the DS as a profitable part of their company. If the Playstation3 is brought down by Blu Ray format, it will be a very messy situation for Sony. Sony has setup a situation where the Blu Ray format must succeed. No rational company does this.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by joe 155 ( 937621 )
      interesting point and for the most part right, although I think your examples viz MS and Ninty are a little off. The DS is tied to the Wii, it wouldn't be good for either if one failed, there will be link-ups etc. and MS can't risk windows - no matter what MS seems to do windows keeps going strong, there are thousands of viruses they keep shafting people over patches/WGA etc... and still on top!

      but that's just life!

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Volante3192 ( 953645 )
        The successes of the DS and the Wii are mutually exclusive though. Sales of one does not adversely affect the other, while they may drive additional sales.

        On the other hand, Sony is explicitly tying together Blu-Ray with the PS3. You can't get it without it. I guess the best way to put it would be if MS bundled Windows with Zune (so the only way to get Windows is to get a Zune, even if you didn't want the Zune...and you're paying for it as well)
        • Given the announced pricing for Windows Vista, I'll be severely pissed if they don't include a Zune with every purchase!
      • I think what the parent meant was that MS and Nintendo aren't banking the success of one product on the success of a another. The Wii doesn't need the DS to succeed, nor does the DS need the Wii. They can succeed on their own. Same with MS and Windows, though Office is tied pretty closely, but those are both already successes (let's not debate it, there's more of them out there than anything else). The PS3 needs Blu Ray to succeed in order for it to succeed (at least as a HD movie player). Sony also is usin

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by SydShamino ( 547793 )
      The executives of Sony's hardware development groups see their hardware products as an opportunity to force some new, proprietary format down consumer's throats (see also beta, ATRAC, memory stick, blue-ray, etc.). The executives of Sony's content group see their proprietary formats as a way to force new content restrictions down consumer's throats.

      As an electrical engineer and hardware designer, I feel really bad for the actual developers of the PS3 console. I can't imagine they want to develop a product

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by ivan256 ( 17499 )
      it's estimated by Merrill Lynch that Sony's cost for a Blu Ray drive is $350 a unit

      It is estimated by just about everybody that the lone Merril Lynch analyst that made that estimate has reached maximum shit capacity, and is now overflowing with shit.

      Sony read the market correctly when they determined that the market wasn't read for a new console yet last christmas, and is presently eating Microsoft's lunch with last generation's hardware. What sane company kills a profitable product that is leading the mark

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ivan256 ( 17499 )

        troll n.

        An {electronic mail} message, {Usenet} posting or other
        (electronic) communication which is intentionally incorrect,
        but not overtly controversial (compare {flame bait}), or the
        act of sending such a message. Trolling aims

        • I don't think it was a troll comment, but I do disagree.

          I think the major reason that the Xbox 360 is not selling as well as it could is that it is too expensive at $399 for the Premium version. Very few people want to get the inferior one (even though it is upgradeable), so a lot of people are waiting for the price drop.

          Despite a small install base, the games are doing quite well. You often see a new Xbox 360 title at number 1 on the console charts (not in Japan of course).

          You are correct that people wil

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by ivan256 ( 17499 )
            And if Sony didn't want to launch the PS3 around the same time as the Xbox 360, why did they originally state a Spring 2006 launch?

            See, I would ask that question differently:

            If Sony wanted to launch the PS3 around the same time as the Xbox 360, why did they originally state a Spring 2006 launch?

            The difference between Q3 2005 and Q2 2006 in the retail world is an eternity.

            I would also argue that the PS2 is not obsolete, and won't be until the stream of new games for it dry to a trickle (which won't happen fo
    • I don't know, I doubt they would have gotten it out the door any sooner. Look how much the Wii hurt them. Basically, they can't bear to not have every single feature everyone else has, and then some.

      That, and Blu Ray does make sense here. I don't want to have a scenario like the old Final Fantasy games, where you needed four discs for one game. But then, I guess if the four discs combined cost less than a fourth of one Blu-Ray disc, not to mention savings on the price of the whole console, you may have

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by alienw ( 585907 )
      I think Merrill Lynch is full of shit. There is no way in hell the blu-ray drive costs that much. I doubt the bill-of-materials cost is more than $50, since it's roughly the same thing as a regular CD/DVD drive. The vast majority of the cost is probably due to yield problems with their custom chips.

  • Can we please, please, PLEASE (Score:4, Funny)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:13PM (#16060434) Homepage Journal
    start referring to them as "Son¥" now?

    • Re:Can we please, please, PLEASE (Score:4, Funny)

      by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:18PM (#16060476) Homepage Journal
      start referring to them as "Son¥" now?
      No we can't. Simply because most non-Japanese users don't know how to type/insert the Yen sign.
    • Why not go one step farther and call them "$on¥"?

      Really, this sort of thing is retarded. Saying things like Windoze, Winblows, Internet Exploder, Linsux, Nutscrape, etc. just makes you look more and more like an idiot.
      • Wow, someone doesn't know how to detect sarcasm. It was meant as a slight on the whole M$ thing which I personally detest. The reason I asked is because slashdot seems to have a bigger and bigger anti-Sony bent as of late, and thus if they are a company on slashdot's groupthink hate list, then I was sure slashdot would come up with someway to communicate that in an immature fashion. I just decided to try to get a "funny" mod by accelerating that process....
        • Oh, I know how to detect it quite well. I knew exactly what you were doing there. I one-upped your sarcasm, and then went on a rant. I apologize for not enclosing it in tags. No personal offense to you intended.
  • After the CPU clock speeds, the GPU polygons-per-second (or whatever), the price tag, we now have a number for the units shipped to america (I'm guessing that 1M number is also for Canada, or do we have another 100K extra units for Canada alone?)

    Nintendo still hasn't revealed anything: price, release date, number of units. If the Nintendo DS is any sign, however, there won't be a shortage in my town.

  • I still don't understand the market for this box (Score:3, Insightful)

    by the computer guy nex ( 916959 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @12:24PM (#16060531)
    What demographic are they aiming for?

    Teenagers don't have this kind of money, and most parents won't buy it for them.

    Adult gamers will prefer to Wii, due to their Nintendo roots, innovative design, and cheaper price.

    Home theater enthusiasts will have a separate professional high definition player.

    The only market I see is the 20somethings out-of-college with disposable income. But even then, the bulk of this market already has a 360 and may not want both.

    Just don't see where the demand will be coming from.
    • Well, I know my brother were very interested before the price tag (I'm a huge Gran Turismo fan). Both of us would have bought it at $400, my brother just because it's a Playstation. But we are appaled. That and the news that gamew will cost 60-90 according to many reports... completely unacceptable.

      I still know a few very single guys who have the money saved up for the PS3 already (one guy has about $1000 stashed away so he can buy a few games). But other than that, nobody I've met is interested in a $

    • "What demographic are they aiming for?"

      People With More Money Than Brains.

      Hey, it works for the GOP...
    • Adult gamers will prefer to Wii, due to their Nintendo roots, innovative design, and cheaper price.

      I don't think we can assume that the entire adult-gamer market has roots in Nintendo's classic systems anymore.

      There's a new generation of post-adolescents about to come of age that weren't even BORN during Nintendo's 8-bit heyday. Their first tastes of console gaming weren't with Mario and Zelda, but rather with Cloud Strife and Lara Croft. Their nostalgic allegiance is with Sony. It is this type of gamer,

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by MoriaOrc ( 822758 )
        Being a 20 something (21 specifically) who is going to be finishing college in a year or so, and working at an internship this summer that (if it were year round) would be only a little below 50k, I believe I fit your bill.

        And let me say that, while I don't have much history with the 8-bit console generation besides playing duck hunt on my neighbors NES from time to time, my first big generation was the 16-bits (SNES and Genisis). Among my friends, it's mostly the same way, and those that didn't start in 1

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 7Prime ( 871679 )

        Eh, the only difference in idea of what Nintendo means to that demographic is that Link played the flute, and Mario had a cap with wings on it and battled head to head with Pikachu. Seriously, Nintendo's "classics" didn't die with the SNES.

        Anyway, all these games that we're describing are not even 10 years old (FF7 was released in 1997), we really haven't entered the generation that were young children after the SNES yet, anyway. I'm 25, sure I grew up with "A B Select Start", but a 15 year old grew up wi

    • Why do I keep seeing teenagers with 60GB Video iPods?
    • Don't forget those of us who have been gaming for 20 or more years and have never owned a Nintendo system and don't really intend to start here. Sega all the way until the PS2.

      I'll be buying a PS3, as soon as Sony start to sell the damned things here that is.
    • 1. Teenages have insane amounts of money (or goods and services equivalent to an insane amount.) How many get cars for their 16th birthday? Their own computers in their bedroom separate from their parents'? Cell phones, digital cameras, ipods, musical instruments? Or for that matter, massive game collections? Spoiled brats are the exception rather than the rule, but name a teen without some combination of at least three of the above. Not every teen has these luxuries, but the conspicuous spenders at the top
    • I think your quite right, there isn't much of a market for a $600 game console. My expectation is that only the hardcore gamers that MUST have a PS3 will buy it.

      But I personally think that most of the industry is shortchanging Sony, I think they have much more market insight than they let on. What if even though it launches at $600, the price of the console follows a steep negative slope as time goes on? What if the price is down to $300 by March? Sure call me crazy, but I can cite a few reasons why thi
  • Maybe they expect a shortage to work in their favor, if one were to occur: as they have a few months to bolster production, the media will be able to broadcast that "The PS3 has sold out across America! Not one can be found, except on eBay for $2000!" Sony will give the illusion that everybody wants one - when, in reality, everybody who wanted one already had it. But will anyone buy it? I dunno. I'm just anxious to see how it plays out. When I'm not busy playing with my Wii. (Obligatory Nintendo joke
  • Game consoles should use swapable optical drives so when the machine gets Disc Read Errors, I can just go to the store, pick up a slimline slot loading DVD drive or Blu Ray drive or whatever and pop it in there.
  • How much do online rumors, reports and criticism really effect sales of any particular product? We have folks on both sides of the argument saying how much it will or won't effect the PS3.

    Obviously as more folks get more information from the web the effects will increase... I think the PS3 will be a great help in gauging where we're at, as far as online marketing.

    We had one other big testcase this year with "Snakes on a Plane" and it seemed to boost ticketsales if just a little bit. However with the PS3 the
    • Most if not all of the "hype" on the Internet for Snakes on a Plane appeared to be making fun of the movie itself. I don't know how that would be considered positive. I think the situation that the PS3 is in now is similar to that of Snakes on a Plane as there are groups that enjoy ripping on Sony's various blunders (if you didn't already notice from reading Slashdot.)


      P.S. Giant enemy crabs FTW! [ytmnd.com]

      • SoaP was ripped on as "camp." Which to many, sayyy the Rocky Horror and MST3k crowd, makes it more interesting than a typical B-grade action flick... Even the studio saw this as positive, and repositioned themselves. The started [viral]marketing it as camp, and even reshot some scenes to make them _more_ ridiculous.

        PS3 is different. A gadget is either considered a value or it isn't. You don't see people buying UMDs _because_ they're a ripoff... only possibly _in spite_ of it.

        The closest thing to "camp" in t
  • Duke Nukem Forever will ALSO be shipping One Million Copies by the end of this year. OH, and it's European release date will be the first quarter of 2007.
    • I've already pre-ordered my copy of DNF for the Indrema and Phantom consoles. This is going to be one awesome Christmas!!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by amaupin ( 721551 )
      Duke Nukem Forever will ALSO be shipping One Million Copies by the end of this year. OH, and it's European release date will be the first quarter of 2007.

      Wow, one million copies just for Ohio.
  • I think I speak for all of us when I say the saddest part of all this, for me, is that my plan to convert entirely from DVD to the wonderful technology that is Blu-ray [bluraysucks.com] will be tragically delayed...
    • I think the potential benefits of Bluray in the PS3 are way bigger for Sony than they are for gamers, and that the Sony management has either convinced themselves otherwise, or they think consumers are too stupid to notice.

      As other comments have noted, some analysts are saying around half the cost of a PS3 is going to go towards the bluray drive. If you're going to add $300 to the cost of a console when the average cost for a console has only been around $300 historically, you've got quite a task ahead of y
  • Are Sony's exploding batteries powering the Shuttle? Maybe they require some blinky Blue LEDs!
  • It would be more impressive if Sony were promising two original, non-sequel, non-license, and actually entertaining games to ship with the PS3.
    • It would be even more impressive if Nintendo were promising two original, non-sequel, non-license, and actually entertaining games to ship with the Wii.

      Don't get me wrong though: I want Twilight Princess and Mario 256. Some of the best games have been sequels. SNES had A Link to the Past, PS1 had Nocturne in the Moonlight and Final Fantasy 7, DC had Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Even World of Warcraft is from the franchise.
  • So let's only ship 1 million to create a shortage (sound familiar, XBOX 360?).
    This means that we'll have a repeat of having people trampled, simply trying to snag a PS3 (given that it sells at all).

    With a $600 price mark, only 1 million consoles being made (read: a large shortage of the consoles), and very expensive games, the PS3 is as good as dead already; before it's actual launch.

    Sony's in some serious trouble here.
  • I want to see who will be ripping into Sony if it does well. We don't even know if it will do good or bad, but everyone is predicting that it will fail. I have faith in Sony, and I believe they can put a good product out there for consumers. All I see here on slashdot is a lot of people jumping on the "Anti-sony" bandwagon...

  • Apt comparison... -except- ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @02:13PM (#16061358)
    ...there was no current-gen competitor for the PS2 or the 360 when they launched.
    They were the only game in town, which allowed them to survive an otherwise precarious launch.

    This year, the PS3 is launching itself into the market alongside the dramatically cheaper, more numerous Nintendo console, and a 360 with a very respectable foothold.
    These are hardly comparable situations.

    Furthermore, the PS3 is not notably more powerful than the 360, and it's advantages are a moot point for all but a tiny segment of the -hardcore- gaming audience.

    It would take twenty minutes to explain to Joe Consumer why the PS3 is better on paper.

    -Then- you'd have to spend another ten explaining the theoretical advantage is moot unless he's spending several thousand dollars on a TV, and planning on spending another thousand on an HD video player in the very near future.

    If he doesn't have an HDTV, the marginal theoretical performance advantage and 1080p capability don't matter.
    If he isn't planning on buying a blu-ray player in the next year, then the 'cheap' BR player capability doesn't matter either.

    All that 'potential' for $200-$300 more than last generation's price hike, and all ignoring one very large elephant in a very small room: by the time either of those advantages -truly- matter, the PS4, 720, and Wii Too will be in the hype machine.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by buzzzz ( 767841 )
      What you are forgetting is that the end consumer doesn't really care for those numbers. PS3 only has to appear significantly better than the 360.

      All Sony has to accomplish is the consumers going - "oooh ... it's also a Blu Ray DVD Player" and "Guys, it's much faster than XBox" and "Look at how many cool games there are on it". In the end, a single major title on PS3 that is not on other consoles could make it a success as could a significant number of DVD releases on Blu Ray.

      In the end, it's a risky deal fo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by *weasel ( 174362 )
        The end consumer doesn't care about spending $200 for 'potential' they can't access without spending $2000 -more-?

        I think you woefully underestimate the masses.
        They certainly can be dumb and impressionable, but they're more canny than you estimate, for major entertainment purchases.

        Spending more than a few hundred bucks for a TV is not something the casual market has -ever- gone for.
  • will go into the store for a PS3, will see its price tag and will leave the store with a Wii.

  • Here's how it's gonna go down (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MadAndy ( 122592 ) on Thursday September 07, 2006 @05:10PM (#16062561)
    With so few PS3s available, they'll all sell out, despite the high price - there are enough suckers that will buy them. They could really do with a killer game though. Or in my case, a decent copy of Ubuntu on the beast might do the trick ;)

    In a way the high cost of the BD drive is a good thing - it gives Sony room to move. As more drives are made the cost will inevitably fall, and quickly - say by $100 or more. Having creamed the die-hards, Sony would pass some of the lower costs on in 2007. PS3s going for $349 next year?

    Microsoft is the main fly in Sony's ointment, and what they're able to do with the 360's price and game set will make a big difference in this war. But they're going to hurt later on for not including HD-DVD built-in. Sure, it's available as an add-on but can they seriously expect major buy-in from a couch-prone consumer base? I doubt it. On the other hand they could've included it like Sony did but then they'd be in the same pricing situation as Sony.

    Add to that the controller (blatant rip off from Nintendo, bless Sony's black little heart), and there you have it: PS3 has everything built-in, but is presently more expensive; 360 is cheaper but you have to buy extras. Game makers will have to produce to the lowest common denominator, which is going to be that much lower on the 360. A large game that's a single disc on the PS3 will have you swapping discs part way through on the 360.

    I don't like Sony one bit, continually trying to foist their proprietary formats and DRM on us - but long term I still think they're generally doing the right thing with the PS3. Time will tell.

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