Posted on 03/25/2007 7:47:23 PM PDT by JohnSheppard
In an interview with Martin Matt, from the popular GameIndustry.biz site, Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire calls America "a land of cheap people", while the UK is “a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium”.
When asked about the high price of the PS3 in PAL areas, especially in the UK (where Sony’s console is currently being sold for GBP 425- US $840- more expensive than anywhere in Europe) this is what Ray Maguire had to say:
“If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium, and the cost of people is a lot more. The cost of retail is vastly more in the UK than it is in the US and that's before you even stop to consider the US doesn't have VAT at RRP, they put a small amount on afterwards. Whereas, we get stung by 17.5 per cent. And pity the poor Irish and places like Sweden.
(Excerpt) Read more at playfuls.com ...
They are selling, among hard-core gamers and people with just too much money to blow, or want a relatively cheap Blu-ray player. They're just not selling to a wide audience like the Wii.
Personally, I think the PS3 is too far ahead of its time. It should have been released maybe next year when that technology is cheaper and game development can better take advantage of its architecture (learning from the three-core 360). They could have at least left out the Blu-ray unit to make a lesser model, giving that as an external option for later.
actually I wonder if they are Sony, just marketed under a different name. a lot of the electronics are made in the same factories (probably in S Korea) and have different brand names put on the finished product. Or so I was told the last time I bough electronics.
And for the price of a bare PS3 (no games, one controller) he can have the Wii, extra controllers, memory card and several games.
Sony's console is boring and grossly overpriced... They put winning the Hi Def DVD format war over gaming with the PS3, probably not a bad long term strategy for the company, but it will hurt them long term in the game space... but protect an even bigger world wide asset for Sony by helping them win the format war.
In terms of consoles, Wii is going to eat everyone elses lunch in terms of sales and profits this generation, no one else will even be close.
I think you'll find that gaming consoles are already sold at cost, usually below cost when a system is launched. The prices can't get any lower until they've sold enough to recoup their initial losses. That's usually a couple years, then you see price drops and pricing competition.
Everyone makes their money off the games, and those do go on sale when demand for them slows. They have a higher profit margin, and thus more wriggle room.
And don't forget Wii is compatible with all Cube games.... and since a lot of people never had cubes that now have Wii's... $20 at your used game store can get you some great games too.
Personally I'd recommend Pikmin or Pikmin2... not the same as the Wii sports, but you definately can lose hours controlling those little critters.
And if time is a rare commodity.. don't pick up Zelda Twighlight Princess.....
Graphics over all else is and was just stupidity. My son and his grandmother had a blast playing Wii Sports for hours 2 weekends ago, both laughing up a storm the entire time....
Big N got it right, make games easier and more intuitive to play, broaden your market appeal, and basically make games FUN and you will make lots of $$$..... And do it all without LOSING money on the console to boot.
Not really. Both the PS3 and 360 are actually sold at a loss, the PS3 around $300 each. Nintendo is the only one that makes a profit on each one sold. IIRC, the 360 only recently went into profitability, and the PS3 is still deep in the hole.
All expect to make money on licensing the games and accessories, so that raises the price for each game a touch. In the end, game publishers don't actually make much on each game sold.
Traditionally console manufacturers lose money per console at launch... the exception in current generation is Nintendo's Wii which actually makes them money when they sell one... and Cube had a slight loss at its launch, but it was minor and only very briefly.
Nintendo long ago dumped the lose a tone of money per system sold and hope to make it up on game licensing. Which is why, even with disappointing mistakes causing their last console to not achieve its potential (though I don't know how anyone can call 24 Million units a failure) still made the company pleanty of money! Wii is even more so.. and lets not forget about Gameboy and DS as well. From a business perspective Big N knows how to make money.
Doesn't rely on other businesses to carry their loses.
And their laptop battery really burns me up, too.
Reading comprehension is important. Before we go ballistic over his statement, we should first try to understand what he is trying to say. My interpretation is not that we (Americans) are "cheap people", but that because of our market, things can be sold at a lower price and a profit be made. That is, you sell something for less, and make it up in volume. The United States is a very big market compared to the UK.
Then he goes on to explain that the additional taxes on their product makes it more expensive then here in the United States where we do not have VAT.
I do not think he was insulting the United States (although he did use a poor choice of words to describe why prices in the United States for his product is less then in the UK).
Wii is effectively sold out everywhere, I only got lucky to find one... and had to wait in line before the store opened on the day the shipment came in, along with about 50 other people to get one.. needless to say, they were sold out in minutes... and this was nearly 4 months after the consoles launch! So much for it being an "impulse buy" as Sony people claim... and as far as Bill Gates calling the Wii crap, and graphics trump all.... Gates, get back to me when your SQL Server can actually deliver on the promises you gave on it over 7 years ago you schmuck.
In less 1/3 of a year, Big N has sold over 6 million Wii's... and not remotely met demand... to put that in perspective... with over 15 months of sales the MS machine has sold < 10 Million.... So in 4 months Nintendo has sold 60% or more of the total sales of 360s has managed in 15 months.
The arrogant geeks in Sony and MS are having their shirts fed to them... Graphics may drive your wet dream desires, but most folks don't like sitting in a dark room for hours alone pretending to kill monsters in FPS with no friends or family to do things with....
Most of the rest of us have girlfriends/wives/family/friends/kids or basically LIVES. You make and market your product for people who just lock themselves in rooms for hours looking at blinking lights on the TV while mashing buttons... you have a very very very limited market appeal.
Big N owns this generation in terms of installed base, Sony's #1 position in console sales is over. Broaden appeal, and market, price it right, and you sell more.. simple model, and its paying off big time for Nintendo.
Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios
" Okay. "Bowling for Columbine" was a very different approach, which was to hold a mirror up to the American cultural schizophrenia. I know people get upset when you use the word "schizophrenia," so I should probably think of another word. The American cultural dilemma, which is gun culture, the fact that you can go into a major national retailer to buy guns and ammunition. I thought the end of the film, where they went and doorstepped Charlton Heston, was just fantastic. [Laughs.] I mean, I just loved that. And that scene where he's walking away on his own? It was just brilliantly edited. So I don't think that movie was about Columbine. I believe that movie was about the culture, society and values that allowed something like that to happen. I have to be very careful. I'm not an American. "link
They're practically printing their own money with the DS. Games like the brain ones and Nintendogs have sold millions of DS sets to people who otherwise wouldn't buy a handheld game system. They've sold 35 million, expect another 23 mil in the next year. Even if Nintendo doesn't dominate this generation of consoles they'll still be rolling in cash and in a healthy position for the next generation.
Ha. I work in Redmond (WA), and my home address says Redmond... and my main machine at home runs Kubuntu Linux. I think that's the future for our household; already I have the answer to the situation that forced us to upgrade one machine to Win2K last year.
Sony is doing very well -- their console is at #2, behind the Wii and ahead of the 360. Their problem is that those stats are for sales of the five year-old PS2. :)
LOL! Exactly.
True, but Nintendo is going to own the console this generation as well. IN terms of installed base, MS nor SONY will touch the number of Wii's that will be out there.
Sony will be the biggest overall loser, falling from completely dominant position to a battle for 2nd place with MS.
Personally I think when all is said and done Sony will wind up the #2 console this generation, with MS's lead evaporating rapidly as PS3 price drops come. However PS3 will not sell anywhere near the 110 Million consoles each that the PS1 and PS2 have moved.
The problem Sony has to watch out for though, is that the PS3 price drops better happen fast, or third party developers are going to just scrap PS3 support, and the PS3 will be left with little more than cheap movie tie in product titles for their console.
Here's how its going to shake out.. the Wii is going to be unquesitonably the best selling console this generation, bar none. Sony nor MS will sell anything close to the total number of Wii's. Wii's will be in homes from families with small kids, to the geriatric set. The "Hard Corp" gamers will have all 3 systems... because that's what hard corp gamers do....
The moderate gamers will have a Wii and one other console, which means Sony and MS are going to be battling to fight for which system is going to be the better "2nd system" for a gaming household to have.. Not a remotely enviable position.
In terms of firepower, Sony has the bigger guns here long term, with a huge back catalogue of compatibility, but a lagging and to date unimpressive catalogue for their new system. Sony's decided that winning the FORMAT war for hi def DVD is more important to them than Console war at the moment, and as a company as a whole, its probably a better move. Sony has far far far more to lose if HD-DVD becomes the prefered format over Blu-Ray. Frankly I think SONY will win this format war solidly when all is said and done.. and the PS3 price point will drop significantly... but it needs to happen before they lose 3rd party developers.. If their focus remains the format war too long, and don't sell systems, its eventually going to cost them 3rd party software developers support, which is a very very bad thing.
With that said, I say when the dust finally settles, you'll find Wii being the highest seller this generation, with PS3 #2 and MS #3, the only question is going to be how big is the gap between 2nd and 3rd going to be?
Sony knows it has to price drop, no matter how much they say they don't. With barely 2 million units world wide sold, they have to do something and quick. 2 Million is a good installed base for Blu Ray... but not remotely enough for consoles.
The advent of the tunnel opens lines of commerce that weren't possible before. The UK is going to have to adapt.
Exactly, the PS2 train will not keep running forever... it gives the the flexibility to fight the Hi Def DVD War for a while using their console as part of the battle... but eventually the console must stand on its own. God of War II will indeed sell some PS2s... but the PS2 days are numbered.
If the PS3 doesn't get an installed base large enough quickly enough, 3rd party developers will leave Sony... they are already seeing exclusive franchises break to other systems because they aren't selling enough consoles.
For the short term they can get away with it, but they can't for too long... or they will lose 3rd party support.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.