Sony’s Plan: PS3, PSP, Bravia HDTV’s and Blu-ray

What is Sony’s plan when it comes to success in the gaming and gadget marketplace? This plan may be one that involves many products including the PS3, PSP, Bravia HDTV’s and Blu-ray all complementing each other.

Every console Sony has ever made has lost an absolute fortune at the start, they can afford to do this because their consoles last for 8-10 years. In addition the PS3 compliments their other business – next gen consoles help drive sales of Bravia HDTV’s, the PS3 helped ensure Blu-ray became the next format – saving Sony the millions it would have cost to scrap it (see Toshiba) and giving them a potentially lucrative new revenue stream. It really annoys me when people ignorant to how business works look at things in such black and white ways – PlayStation is probably the most important brand Sony own, and brand power is 9/10th of the law in the businesses Sony operate. Also look at how sales of the PSP have picked up since the PS3 launched and it’s various complementary services. And let’s not forget that Sony have 23 or so successful game developers/publishers.

So that’s Sony covered, now what about Microsoft? Clearly the person who wrote this article has fallen for all the big talking spin MS put out. Let’s think – the 360 still cost them a fortune to develop, though granted not quite as much as the PS3, the 360 was plagued with hardware faults and the warranty issue that has cost them billions, now they have slashed their prices and sell at a loss (do you honestly think the 360 Arcade makes them any money?!), they spend an absolute fortune on advertising, and let’s not forget the huge sums of money they pay developers just to get games on their system or more recently to pay for DLC. Don’t be under any illusions that the 360 is some sort of Wii-style success story, any success the 360 has is a result of Microsoft’s open wallet policy. And remember now that 3rd party titles are getting hard to buy MS only have around 3 developers to rely on.

Then let’s look at sales – MS launched the 360 a year early ( 1 1/2 years in some regions) and it’s sold 22M or so, the PS3 launched a year or more later and has sold 16M, in other words the PS3 is selling at a faster rate. Some people really do have a funny idea what counts as a failure! If the PS3 ends up outselling the 360 by the end of this cycle it’s more likely it will be Microsoft that will be wondering whether it’s worth continuing, not Sony.

Then you have to consider what MS will add to their next console? HD movie disc playback? High capacity storage medium? More advanced form of processor? In other words all the things the PS3 already has. More likely it will be an incremental PC style upgrade to piggy back on PC Games. I can’t see the next Xbox doing anything outside of the box, look what they’ve done for far of the 360:
Scene It = Buzz
Lips = SingStar
In the Movies = EyeToy
Avatars = Miis
NXE = the love child of the XMB and Wii Channels
In other words they’re completely devoid of original ideas unless they can buy them or copy them.

Now look at the PS3 – still hugely popular despite what the fanboy Sony-hating blog posters like to claim – it has an unique cutting-edge processor that people are now starting to understand – it has more than ample storage – it has the makings of a very compelling online community infrastructure. In other words Sony is highly likely to keep these core technologies in the PS4 meaning it will be much cheaper to make and much easier for developers to get up and running.

To say any of the big 3 won’t be in the next gen race is frankly ill thought-out stupidity, and if I had to put money on one withdrawing, my money would be on Microsoft before Sony…

Thanks: PS3 Owner