Sony Shifting PS3 Marketing to Focus on Blu-Ray

Tabernaque86 writes "What started as joke among gamers Sony is now using as a Christmas advertising campaign. Kaz Hirai, president of the games unit, has been quoted as saying that the PlayStation 3 'makes a great Blu-Ray player'. That theme will be central to a wave of ads in North America and Europe. From the article: 'Sony on Thursday disappointed analysts by failing to cut the PS3's price, but Mr Hirai did not rule out a future price cut. "Going aggressive only on price without being able to back it up with content doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," he said. A price cut would have a "real impact" on sales only if there were enough software titles to support the PS3. But analysts were skeptical and said Sony could miss its shipment targets for the year. "Without a price cut close to Christmas, reaching 11m shipments is going to be very tough," said David Gibson, analyst at Macquarie in Tokyo.'" This is regrettable, too, because there really are a number of strong titles coming out for the console this year.

Cheapest, and possibly upgradeable

[Shabbs]

Well, it is one of the cheapest Blu-ray players out there, and possibly one of the ONLY ones that is upgradeable to Profile 1.1. All other Profile 1.0 players are most likely not upgradeable. So, while it's not "hi-fi looking" it is not a bad buy if you want a Blu-ray player. You can always fall back on it as a gaming/media platform.

Cheers.

PS3 as a Blu-Ray Player

[Dr Cool]

I bought a sweet 47" 1080p LCD TV about a month ago. Of course, I had to get some kind of HD movie source and I don't watch cable TV. I prefer to rent movies. Since Blockbuster is now stocking Blu-Ray movies, it was a natural choice that I choose a Blu-Ray player. I looked around at prices and all the players are fairly expensive. Sony sells a standalone Blu-Ray player for $499. Imagine my surprise when I walked around the Circuit City store and noticed a 60 GB PS3 for... $499! I intended on buying a Blu-Ray player. But I walked out with a PS3. I haven't owned a console game machine since the Nintendo back in the day. And my roommate is the only one who's played games on it so far but I do enjoy watching him play it. So yes, I'm one of the few who bought a PS3 specifically because it's a Blu-Ray player. But I'm sure that if a killer game comes out that I'm dying to play and I know it's not coming out for the PC (my preferred gaming platform), I'll definitely drop $60 on it for my PS3. But for now, it's my HD movie machine.

Re:Games, games, games

[Osty]

Yeah, I call shennanigans on Sony's "marketing machine" being the Dreamcast's downfall. As we can plainly see, Sony's "marketing machine" sucks. The PS2 just had tons of mindshare momentum coming off the PS1, a good performance-per-dollar factor, large library of PS1 games it was (mostly) compatible with, and some good exclusive games.

People hadn't yet fully seen how arrogant Sony can be (they were just coming off the successful PS1, and though they promised the world with the PS2 just like they did with the PS3, nobody knew yet that they couldn't deliver). Sega didn't have the money to compete against Sony in terms of marketing dollars, and they were not as successful in getting third-party developers on the Dreamcast platform (the EA sports games were notably missing). Things are different this time around because:

• We've already been through one round of Sony's lies. The PS2 never really lived up to the claims that it could render Toy Story in real time, so we took what they said about the PS3 with a huge grain of salt.
• Microsoft replaced Sega in the console wars, and they have more than enough money to meet Sony blow for blow in a marketing war.
• EA has all of their sports games on Xbox, and this time around the 360 is the premier console while the PS3 gets the shitty ports (rather than the other way around last time).

Sony's burned too many bridges and they have very strong competition this time around, with the Microsoft juggernaut out of the gates early with Xbox 360 and the breakout success of the Wii. Sony will need a miracle if they want the PS3 to become something other than another 3DO.

Re:Cheapest, and possibly upgradeable

[KDR_11k]

The problem with that stance is that the vast majority of the market wouldn't pay much more for a BRD player than a DVD player and realistically the hi-def formats won't become dominant until you can buy a player for ~50$ so going with a HD player isn't a big decision anymore. Even if I had a HDTV I wouldn't pay 10x the price for a movie player just to up the resolution.

Re:The PS3 and the Wii

[Diginosis]

The holiday season will be pretty big again this year for the wii, even with what I believe is a lackluster library of games. Why? Because of the parents and the non-gamers it appeals to. The less violent games (let's leave resident evil out of this for discussion sake) make parents happier about their decisions and allows even 5 year olds to play the games. In addition the non-gamer appeal makes it a good gift for couples, and I can personally vouch that I am considering getting a wii just to play with my girlfriend. Lastly its september and you STILL can't get a wii easily, the madness will continue for another holiday season...

What the f...?

[shoptroll]

Sony, for the love of all that is holy please have your right hand talking to your life hand.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/09/kaz-hirai-plays.html [wired.com]

Please please please adopt some consistent marketing and executive speak.