Hi Sean,
I was wondering if you had sean this playstation 3 addon that was just launched in Austalia (I don’t seen to see much international mention of it).
It is a dual tv turner, effectively giving the playstation 3 pvr functions. This has caught my interest and has me considering buying a playstation 3 as I am currently looking for a PVR and this would cost me about 80 AUD more than a dedicated machine.
Looking at it from a pros/cons perspective I see the following:
Pros
Dual PVR
Blueray player
Playstation 3 games
This is quite alot of value.
Cons
Blueray player
Playstation 3 games
Why do I list these two as cons? Simple really I don’t personally value HD tv, at least on my lcd tv I cannot tell the difference between HD and SD content unless I am within a foot of the screen. I guess that makes me a overshot customer, or just someone who brought a decent tv. I have other personal reasons why I prefer DVD over blueray but I don’t need to bore you with babble about video encoding suffice to say that I prefer video of a file size to quality similar to what you get from itunes.
Now the real surprise to even myself is that I see playstation 3 games as a con, I just see them as another drain of time and money since I already have a wii/PC/portables. Further, I do wonder if I really need them since all but a select few I would eventually be able to play on PC (probably at higher resolution and with community patches/mods if the game is good).
In the end I see myself buying a ps3 for the pvr function but not the games or blueray because of the value it offers, as I doubt I’d buy more than one or two games and not go out of my way to buy blueray content until I am forced to by a lack of a DVD release (although I’m fine with pay a extra dollar to rent a blueray movies).
I realise that is anecdotal a responce, and likely only applies to me but I found it a interesting responce to by turned off at the thought of having another way of buying games.
I am curious to here your thoughts on how this could effect hardware and software sales of the ps3.
I don’t think it will have much effect at all. What is going to sell game consoles are games. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are so overloaded with ‘features’, and both are within the price range of the Wii, but none of that is moving the systems. Blu-Ray selling the PS3 has been a big LOL this generation.
The events of this generation should not only force all of us to re-evaluate the conventional wisdom of console sales in the present but also in the past. It was conventional wisdom to say that the PS2 sold so well because it had DVD playback. Sony believed this and that is why Blu-Ray was crammed into the PS3. Nintendo apparently believed in it too which is why they made a version of the Gamecube that played DVDs and were considering it for the Wii. Nintendo is currently doing many movie over the internet services for the Wii in various countries.
But I suspect Nintendo’s philosophy toward it is very different. Nintendo intends to compete with television, not join with it (as Sony would want to do as Sony does have content on TVs and sells TVs as well). Much of the movie streaming may be to make the Wii to be placed in the living room more, to integrate the console more into the living room experience (in the same way as making the console small where it can fit in).
Passion is a requirement for gamers to be gamers. I think a problem why so many companies have had problems selling their game consoles as well as their games is because they see only customers, not passionate customers. If you were selling a washing machine or a refrigerator, you do not need passionate customers. People need a washing machine or a refrigerator to live.
People do not need gaming. As you said, you find it queasy buying more games as you know games are a waste of time. Gaming requires excitement to sell. It requires the consumers to be passionate about the product.
Best selling games tend to have many passionate customers behind them. For example, there are many passionate customers behind the next Final Fantasy game or the next Halo game.
What I’m getting at is when a console sells because of its games, you already have passionate customers there. But when a console sells because of non-gaming features, you do not have a passionate customer. This is why we have PS3s sitting around doing nothing but play Blu-Ray movies.
Sony needs customers to buy games. That is where all the money is in is with the software. Both the PSP and PS3 had many people buying the hardware but not buying the games.
I believe passion and excitement are what drives momentum. Games are what cause passion and excitement so it is games that drive momentum. Price cuts don’t create passion. Neither do non-game features on consoles.
I don’t think PlayTV will do much for the PS3. And you buying the PS3 for PlayTV doesn’t mean you are a passionate PS3 consumer. Customers that are not passionate are not going to be useful to Sony.
Let me give another example of the passionate customer. When Wii Sports came out, people were so passionate about it that they told other people, they sold Wii systems by word of mouth. Think back over twenty years ago with the NES. People were passionate about the original Super Mario Brothers. Passion creates word of mouth. Passion creates future sales.
And of course technology cannot create passion. Upgrading the shaders isn’t going to create passion in the customers. Software creates the passion. The only people passionate about the hardware are some dorks on the Internet.
I don’t think consoles sales and momentum should be viewed in a customer versus non-customer way. Rather, it should be viewed in a passionate customer versus customer. Price cuts, non-gaming features, and all will create some new customers. But the passion is not there. And without the passion, there can be only a bump with no true momentum.
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