TiE23
10-25-2006, 01:21 AM
Wii and 360 priced too high compared to the PS3?
We’ve almost come to expect for Sony execs to make off the wall comments when it comes to the current climate in console gaming. We've heard Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi say that the PS3 was "probably too cheap" and just recently European VP Jamie McDonald stated that European gamers "don't mind" delays with regards to the PlayStation 3. Now, we have some commentary from Sony Australia's Michael Ephraim to add to mix.
Ephraim stated that for its intended market, the Nintendo Wii is too expensive despite its "family oriented" roots. "For this Christmas, I think that price point is still not family entertainment because AUD $500 is a lot to fork out, but we welcome the Nintendo heritage of gaming where they can appeal to a broader audience because long-term that is critical for the industry," said Ephraim.
Ephraim concedes that the XBOX 360 has done well in Australia, but that the unit is still a bit on the expensive side. His main problem with the console, which many may agree with, is that the content just isn't there yet. He also goes on to say, "It's still pricey, and I'm sure Microsoft will do everything they can, but if you just look at the offerings from each format and the marketplace that we are now playing in, especially PlayStation 2, it has to be affordable because we are talking about mass-market and non traditional gamers."
How does one respond to such commentary on Wii/360 pricing? It'd be one thing if the PS3 was at price parity or even cheaper than the competition, but it is the console with the higher price tag. In the case of the Wii, the base PS3 is twice as expensive for North American customers. Perhaps Sony is touting its Blu-ray-equipped PS3 as having a lot more value per dollar than its competition, but “value” is a measure that is different for each individual gamer.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4507
Xbox 360 Core: $299
Xbox 360 Full: $399
Nintendo Wii: $249
Sony Playstation 3 Basic: $499
Sony Playstation 3 Full: $599
Um, what.
If sony is in fact trying to justify this ridiculous price claim by their bundled blu-ray player then they've either completely lost it (likey) or they believe we the consumers are complete idiots. Not only have we not seen the final result of the blu-ray vs. HDDVD war yet, it's not like the prices for a blu-ray player are always going to be near 1k. Remember when the DVD format just came out? **** was expensive as hell then too, but now you can get your cheap ass a decent DVD player for about $50.
And what about that mystical "Cell processor?" Developers are going to take years to learn to code to the PS3's full processing potential. On top of that it's extremely complicated to code an application with 8 threads. The truth is, due to the intricacies of having a processor that complex you're not guaranteed to get a PS3 with the full 8 cores. You'll get at least 6, but i've read that plenty, if not most, people will end up getting 7. This is the same way computer and other hardware is built. A batch of cards/ram/whatever are created. They then undergo testing to see which pieces will become high performing, high priced products and which will become lower end products that will be marketed as something different at a lower price. Remember when you heard about people flashing their nvidia 6800s to 6800GTXs and such? It's the same idea, except in this case nvidia was trying to meet market demands for that level GPU, not because the cards failed high tier testing.
I was never going to buy a PS3, and I never will. Especially now with sony's incessant bitch fits that only end up hurting the gaming community. Think sony's shutting down of lik-sang.com and how hard Sony worked/works at killing off the homebrew community for the PSP. And what the hell was with the PSP's processor factory underclocking from 333mhz to 222mhz? Brain dead. All of it.
Also, informat ninjas say that the PS3 can only use 6 threads at a time.
We’ve almost come to expect for Sony execs to make off the wall comments when it comes to the current climate in console gaming. We've heard Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi say that the PS3 was "probably too cheap" and just recently European VP Jamie McDonald stated that European gamers "don't mind" delays with regards to the PlayStation 3. Now, we have some commentary from Sony Australia's Michael Ephraim to add to mix.
Ephraim stated that for its intended market, the Nintendo Wii is too expensive despite its "family oriented" roots. "For this Christmas, I think that price point is still not family entertainment because AUD $500 is a lot to fork out, but we welcome the Nintendo heritage of gaming where they can appeal to a broader audience because long-term that is critical for the industry," said Ephraim.
Ephraim concedes that the XBOX 360 has done well in Australia, but that the unit is still a bit on the expensive side. His main problem with the console, which many may agree with, is that the content just isn't there yet. He also goes on to say, "It's still pricey, and I'm sure Microsoft will do everything they can, but if you just look at the offerings from each format and the marketplace that we are now playing in, especially PlayStation 2, it has to be affordable because we are talking about mass-market and non traditional gamers."
How does one respond to such commentary on Wii/360 pricing? It'd be one thing if the PS3 was at price parity or even cheaper than the competition, but it is the console with the higher price tag. In the case of the Wii, the base PS3 is twice as expensive for North American customers. Perhaps Sony is touting its Blu-ray-equipped PS3 as having a lot more value per dollar than its competition, but “value” is a measure that is different for each individual gamer.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4507
Xbox 360 Core: $299
Xbox 360 Full: $399
Nintendo Wii: $249
Sony Playstation 3 Basic: $499
Sony Playstation 3 Full: $599
Um, what.
If sony is in fact trying to justify this ridiculous price claim by their bundled blu-ray player then they've either completely lost it (likey) or they believe we the consumers are complete idiots. Not only have we not seen the final result of the blu-ray vs. HDDVD war yet, it's not like the prices for a blu-ray player are always going to be near 1k. Remember when the DVD format just came out? **** was expensive as hell then too, but now you can get your cheap ass a decent DVD player for about $50.
And what about that mystical "Cell processor?" Developers are going to take years to learn to code to the PS3's full processing potential. On top of that it's extremely complicated to code an application with 8 threads. The truth is, due to the intricacies of having a processor that complex you're not guaranteed to get a PS3 with the full 8 cores. You'll get at least 6, but i've read that plenty, if not most, people will end up getting 7. This is the same way computer and other hardware is built. A batch of cards/ram/whatever are created. They then undergo testing to see which pieces will become high performing, high priced products and which will become lower end products that will be marketed as something different at a lower price. Remember when you heard about people flashing their nvidia 6800s to 6800GTXs and such? It's the same idea, except in this case nvidia was trying to meet market demands for that level GPU, not because the cards failed high tier testing.
I was never going to buy a PS3, and I never will. Especially now with sony's incessant bitch fits that only end up hurting the gaming community. Think sony's shutting down of lik-sang.com and how hard Sony worked/works at killing off the homebrew community for the PSP. And what the hell was with the PSP's processor factory underclocking from 333mhz to 222mhz? Brain dead. All of it.
Also, informat ninjas say that the PS3 can only use 6 threads at a time.