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Megacorps are bad for gaming; Sony, EA, Activision, MS, and their ilk
Topic Started: Oct 24 2006, 09:29 AM (6,747 Views)
Belpowerslave
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Groover
Sep 9 2009, 09:55 AM
Maybe MS will drop the price of Live someday or make it free.
Ha, ha, with moves like this, I'm saying "Never". ;)

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/20886/Valve-Forced-to-Charge-for-Left-4-Dead-Expansion-Pack/

Gotta love it.

Bel
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sheath
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
Here we go, right smack in the middle of the most positive Sony news in four years is the facts. I really love the shoddy logic on the whole Industry needing Sony to succeed. Was the whole industry suffering from people not spending, and Sony generated a huge spending bump? How much real profit did the PSthree really bring to retailers? We don't know, sales equals good, as always. Can't wait for Christmas this year to drive it all home for these toadies. Educate us oh great Sony, oh great googly moogly I need to be educated as to how great your machine is!

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/retail-praises-sonys-excellent-ps3-price-point

Whether this is a trend that will continue is difficult to predict. "Once we get 4-5 weeks in of the new machine then it'll be interesting. You'll be able to see what the take up against the Xbox is," said McCabe.

Retailers agree though that the sales surge is what Sony, and the industry as a whole, desperately needed.

"Sony really needed this shot in the arm and this sort of initiative brings momentum for the entire industry," commented Muspratt.

Consumers perhaps haven't realised just what the PlayStation 3 can do, added McCabe, and its continued success could rely on Sony getting this information across. "It's a very powerful machine. It's seen as a games machine and a Blu-ray player and that's about it. Where that's just two things it can do - it can do an awful lot more. Its down to the games, but it's also down to Sony educating the users."
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Groover
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Well if you ever walk into a Games store and imagine what it would look like if all the PlayStation games where not in the store. You would have to see that as a huge impact on the gaming industry that would be. I know that might be seen as a dream to some but I think some people look too hard at the Company and not the game development houses Sony has. They have made some great games. If those games where not out and future games from these studios where gone that would be a huge impact. This isn't religion this is video games. I buy consoles to play games that it offers. Competition is good for all of us gamers(looks at price cuts).
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sheath
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Believe it or not, I actually argued this exact way, except for the totally weird religion remark, about Sega. It turned out that without them the talent goes to other companies and the world goes on. The difference? Sony bought and stole the talent that they now have in house. If the 360 doesn't sell the Wii will, if the Wii doesn't sell something else will. The market is not improved based on Sony's financials. The game industry is not improved by Sony self publishing games that would have been made anyway.
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sheath
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VGCHarts, a now notoriously pro Sony pro Nintendo website, even realizes that the slim's legs aren't any longer than the original PS3 models.

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=5126

"The only other console to see increased sales last week was Xbox360 – with a full week of Elite and Pro SKU price drops, sales were up a further 16% on last week. While the price cuts have evidently done little to offset PS3 slim sales this week, we expect a large decline in PS3 sales over the next three weeks and expect the price cuts from Microsoft to have gone some way to keep them in the game.

A fair proportion of the 550,000 PS3 buyers this week will be existing PS3 owners (especially in Japan) wanting to upgrade to the new machine, maybe 30-40% (as a rough guess), but the remainder will be new buyers - who have been sitting on the fence, waiting for the price to drop. With a very strong line-up of exclusives in the next 6 months this is make or break for PS3 if Sony want to take 2nd place this gen."

"Let me expand on the 30-40% will be existing owners comment since it seems to have been taken wrongly by some people.

Typically after a price drop you would expect the following to happen:"

Posted Image

"So these are just arbitrary figures I've chosen but it shows a typical pattern of a price cut. An initial lift, followed by a few more weeks of increase as people become aware of the cuts then followed by a slow decline until the effect of the cut wears off. This is the kind of thing we saw last year when the 360 Arcade dropped in price.

Now, this is what we normally see when a new product launches (that consumers are familiar with):"

Posted Image

"Large first week as the fans go out to buy, followed by a steep decline thereafter. Most games follow this kind of sales pattern and if a console didn't have price cuts, new games, promotions to keep bumping sales it would follow a similar pattern.

Now what I'm saying is that the PS3 slim launch + price cut has aspects of both. To some (the die-hard fans) it is like a new console launch and they will rush out to get one. To others, it is a price cut and they will plan to get one in coming weeks. Therefore I am proposing we get something with PS3 that looks like a combination of the above two graphs:"

Posted Image

"Large initial spike followed by a decline but quickly hitting a plateau at a level of ~twice the original level. So what I was saying is that we won't be seeing 500k weeks from now on with PS3 - this is very much a spike due to pent-up demand, existing buyers purchasing the new model and increased marketing / awareness around the product. I expect weekly sales to slowly run back down to ~200k by the end of the month and stay at that sort of level until the holidays arrive. Therefore, I think it is reasonable to suggest that around 1/3 of the sales this week (150,000-200,000, less than 1% of all current PS3 owners) would have come from the hardcore PS3 fans rushing out to buy the new system. A similar thing was seen when DSi launched, DSL, PS2 slim, GBA SP and every other revised product."
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sheath
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http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-tackles-bbc-over-ps3-failure-report

Sony has issued an unprecedented defence of its PlayStation 3 console amid claims that it is suffering from inherent hardware failure issues, and that Sony's out of warranty repairs service is inadequate.

The BBC's Watchdog programme will tonight air a report claiming Sony "refuses to fix" systems suffering from the so-called 'yellow light of death', which forces the console to shut down immediately after booting up.

In response, Sony's has issued a detailed six page document, reprinted in full on GamesIndustry.biz, questioning the accuracy and research of the Watchdog report.

"From the correspondence to date, I have serious concerns as to the accuracy of these allegations and the likely tone of the Watchdog report," wrote Ray Maguire, MD of Sony UK, in response to Watchdog's allegations.

"The information that you have provided suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the technical issues and a mis-characterisation of SCEUK’s Out of Warranty repairs policy."

As a stunt for the show, Watchdog set up a van outside Sony's UK headquarters – dubbed the PlayStation Repair Action Team – earlier this month and offered to fix consoles suffering from the hardware problem for free.

Watchdog received 155 complaints from viewers, with 10 viewers showing up for the street stunt. Watchdog also issued a technical report to Sony, based on only three home consoles, one of which had already been subject to an attempted repair by a user.

"The testing concerned a sample of only three PS3s, which cannot, on any basis, be deemed to be representative of a UK user base of 2.5 million," stated Sony. "One of these had in addition been materially altered by the owner."

"SCEUK has run searches of its customer complaints/warranty database to identify the number of reports made to it regarding instances of system shutdown or failure in circumstances where the front panel yellow indicator is illuminated," added Maguire. "The results show that of all PS3s sold in the UK to date, fewer than one half of one per cent of units have been reported as failing in circumstances where the yellow indicator is illuminated."

A third-party refurbishing company repaired consoles for Watchdog, with the firm usually charging around GBP 103 for repairs on a PlayStation 3, compared to Sony's cost of GBP 128, charged once a console is out of its one-year warranty.

"Importantly, it is clear that third party repairers will profit from any public concern that is raised about the reliability of the PS3, and have an interest in criticising SCEUK’s after sales service (despite the relatively small price differential in their own service offering). "The BBC will therefore doubtless wish to exercise caution before relying on anecdotal evidence, provided by them, concerning the extent or cause of these issues," offered Maguire.

It's expected Watchdog will attempt to compare Sony's issues to Microsoft's now infamous Xbox 360 'red ring of death' problem, which prompted the company to extend the warranty of the home console to three years from the purchase date.

The show will air this evening in the UK at 8pm. The official website explains that "Iain Lee solves a problem with one of the best known gadgets in the world - which the manufacturers refuse to fix."

Presenter Iain Lee is no stranger to the videogame business, having fronted corporate events for the likes of Capcom and Microsoft. He has also been employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft, according to his work for MSN's Tech and Gadget site.

Maguire concluded his correspondence by warning the BBC that it will take "all necessary steps" to protect the business and the PlayStation brand

"I regret to say that neither the correspondence to date, nor the 'PlayStation Repair Action Team 'stunt, have given me much confidence that you are treating this issue fairly. If the report is broadcast in what appears to be its current form, SCEUK will scrutinise its accuracy and will take all necessary steps to protect its reputation and that of the PS3."

A spokesperson for the BBC told GamesIndustry.biz that "Watchdog is investigating this matter, but the programme makers will not comment on stories before transmission as it can jeopardise the investigation".

The full response from Sony to the BBC's Watchdog programme is reprinted below. Some names have been removed:
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sheath
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PS3 sales have dipped over 40% this week after the initial launch spike. The facts are, if the 360 sales don't increase at all, the PS3 and 360 will sell at pace with one another through Christmas. This means that PS3 software sales will remain one half of 360 software sales and that 8 million console gap will not be closed anytime soon. The gist here is that even one of the most successful console "relaunch" megahyped events in the history of gaming has actually failed to put the PS3 where Sony needs it to be.
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sheath
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Belpowerslave
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Lol, that's hilarious! We ought to try find the program online...

Looks like you can watch it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/

...and I think this may be it on Bittorrent:

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/131372409/watchdog?tab=summary

Keep an eye out, I'm sure you can find it. If you do, let us know!

Bel
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sheath
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http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/scea-no-umd-conversion-programme-for-pspgo

SCEA: No UMD conversion programme for PSPgo

Sony America has said that it will not be possible for people to exchange their UMDs for digital versions of the games they already own.

"We were evaluating a UMD conversion programme, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the programme at this time," a spokesman has told Kotaku, as reported by Eurogamer.

The idea would have been to hand in your UMD copy of, say, Lumines, and receive a digital copy of the same game in return.

In Europe, at least, Sony is offering people who upgrade to PSPgo the choice of three free digital downloads, providing they own at least one UMD game.

There are 17 titles to choose from, including Echochrome, LocoRoco, Patapon, Resistance: Retribution and WipEout Pure. The deal, which will run between October 1 and March 31 2010, was announced at TGS yesterday.
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DarcSeven
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I'm gonna sing the DOOM Song.
Then I will keep my big-ass, outdated, but still much more worthy of my love and affection PSP-1000 model, thank you very much Sony. And if Tekken 6 isn't released on an UMD... I'll probally just get over that since I know how to transfer games via my PS2 and PC. But it would still anger me. ;p
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Groover
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I don't remember them promising this at all. I remember them looking into it. Either way the price tag is keeping me away. I will just use my current one and I can download the games directly to my PSP over Wifi from the PSN Store for my Memory card or get the UMD.
Edited by Groover, Sep 25 2009, 10:42 AM.
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sheath
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
And the PSthree is already selling below 360 in America. Worldwide the PS3 is still ahead by less than 70k. Given the margin of error with sales figures the two are already selling on par with one another even without a super wiz bang relaunch of the 360 this month. That is not even considering that first and third party titles are still, as always, selling significantly better on platforms other than that Sony console that costs everybody too much.

Again, not rooting for the 360 here. It is just good to see the worst company to ever scourge the gaming industry put in its place.
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sheath
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http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/pspgo-price-drops-to-GBP199-in-uk

PSPgo price drops to £199 in UK

Retailers in the UK have already begun cutting the price of Sony's new handheld, the PSPgo, less than a week after release.

HMV, GAME, Play.com and Amazon are now all selling the console for £199.99, down from the RRP of £224.99 the machine was introduced at last week.

Yesterday, Sony told GamesIndustry.biz that first weekend sales of the hardware were in line with expectations, with the PSPgo selling as many units as the PSP-3000.

Some retailers have refused to stock the console, blaming a high price in the UK and its digital-only specifications, leaving stores unable to sell software for the handheld.
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sheath
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
I just added a bunch of posts from the removed PS2/3 section that were relevant to this combined thread.

Also, with the PS3 outselling the 360 by 80-100k units per week worldwide I thought I'd figure out how long it would take the PS3 to catch up with the 360 in total sales. Assuming a sustained 100k per week difference average in favor of PS3 it would take a little over six years for the PS3 to have the same install base as the 360 worldwide. So, much like many other posts and news releases have said, in 2016 the PS3 may just be significant to developers.
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sheath
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I have been, and remain, non-sequitur
Gran Turismo PSP/5 plays itself. Er, I mean it's easy to play and doesn't challenge you in any way. Actually, I'll just let the developer speak for it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-gran-turismo/57623?ref=playerfeat

The PSP version when compared to the "traditional" versions of Gran Turismo, the game progress is ten times faster than it used to be so you can gather a lot of cars in a shorter amount of time. And you will be able to carry over your cars that you have unlocked in the PSP version into Gran Turismo 5, so if you are a fan of the PSP version when GT5 is released you will have a large number of cars already starting off from day one. I think that Gran Turismo PSP is designed for the entry user and that is why it has taken on a more casual game design and is perfect for casual players and a first time entry into Gran Turismo.

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DarcSeven
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I'm gonna sing the DOOM Song.
Belpowerslave
Sep 3 2009, 05:25 PM
You're forgetting the best perk!

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/102/1020773p1.html

Causes the number one exclusive title on the system to constantly crash! That's good work!

Bel
I got a chance to test the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. No crashes yet so nyah! ;)
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Belpowerslave
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That's not what others a reporting...;)

http://www.examiner.com/x-12491-Dallas-PS3-Examiner~y2009m10d19-PS3-broken-by-firmware-3031-One-team-may-know-the-answer

Bel
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sheath
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And it seemed like they were doing so well...

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/playstation-3-sales-up-as-losses-widen-at-sony

PlayStation 3 sales up as losses widen at Sony

Sales of PlayStation 3 hardware have grown during the second quarter to 3.2 million, compared to 2.4 million in the previous year.

However, losses grew in Sony's Network Products & Services Division – the group responsible for PlayStation products – to JPY 58.8 billion, from JPY 40.6 billion in 2008. Sales were down 24.2 per cent to JPY 352.6 billion.

"In the game business, the deterioration in profitability was mainly due to a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, and the impact of the appreciation of the yen," said the company.

Sales of the handheld PlayStation Portable were down marginally from 3.2 million to 3 million, while PlayStation 2 sales fell from 2.5 million to 1.9 million.

Sony sold 23.9 million PlayStation 3 games during the period, up from the 21.2 million in 2008, while PSP sales were also up to 12.9 million, compared to 11.8 million.

Sales of PlayStation 2 software dropped drastically, from 23.2 million in 2008 to 11.1 million.

The entire Sony business posted a loss for the fourth consecutive quarter of JPY 32.6 billion from July to September, compared to a profit of JPY 11.05 billion in 2008.
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Belpowerslave
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Only in this shitty economy can something like sales going up result in actual losses. ;)

Bel
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