There is quite a bit of buzz on the Internet about the recent launch of the PLAYSTATION3 (and yes, officially, it’s supposed to be in ALL CAPS—as if Sony is heralding the arrival of newest console.) The convention wisdom seems to be that Sony is an unstoppable juggernaut on the field of videogame consoles, but there have been a few chinks revealed in Sony’s armor. Enough, I believe, to spell Sony’s ultimate loss as the leader in the console market. Let’s take a look at few examples:
- Microsoft’s XBOX 360 lead in the marketplace
Among next-generation consoles Microsoft currently has 99.9% of the marketplace, due entirely to their one-year headstart entry onto the playing-field. Regardless of superior technology, the advance lead into consumers homes counts for quite a bit. The original Xbox was technologically superior to the PlayStation2, and yet, spent its entire life cycle playing catch up to the PlayStation2. Had both consoles been released at the same time, Microsoft would have surely made significant in-roads in terms of marketshare. It would be a mistake to ignore the PlayStation2’s backward compatibility with the PlayStation. As a result the PlayStation2 launched with a large library of titles already in place. With this newest generation, this will not play as large a factor as the Xbox 360 already has a significant library in place and this continues to grow–especially with the Xbox Live Arcade. - Xbox Live Arcade
Much like Valve’s Steam, Xbox Live provides a direct link into the consumer’s home and provides a low-cost avenue to provide new titles at significantly reduced price. Unlike the PLAYSTATION3’s target of hardcore gamers, the Xbox 360 has not forsaken the casual gamer–nor has it ignored the retro-game market. The Xbox 360’s consumers adopted en masse classic games like “Street Fighter II” and new retro-style games like “Geometry Wars.” - Price
It would be a mistake to ignore price in this equation. Both Microsoft and Sony are offering two flavors of their consoles. The Xbox 360 is available at two price points: $300 and $400. The cheaper of the two lacking only a hard-drive and wireless controllers–each of which can be added on. The PLAYSTATION3 is available at price-points $200 higher: $500 and $600 each. Not entirely a fair comparison, but let’s not forget this is the same price point as the failed 3DO console. - Blu-Ray
Sony appears to be betting the farm that consumers will flock to the PLAYSTATION3 as a comparatively inexpensive entry into the Blu-Ray market (stand-alone players currently cost just shy of $1000). - Developer support
Let’s face it, developers hate working on the PS3. Much like the PS2, Sony has chosen to make hardware differs significantly from the Wintel world in which most developers are comfortable. For better or worse, Microsoft provides mature libraries and SDKs and excellent developer relations. Sony, on the hand, has notorious bad Dev Rel and offers sketchy, at best, libraries. - Launch numbers
Sony missed their promised number of consoles available by a long shot. Europe was delayed and, even after continually revising their numbers down, Sony only delivered 80K out of 100K for Japan and, by most reports, delivered about half of the 400K for North America. - SIXAXIS controller
The tilt-sensitive PS3 controller is just a silly copy-cat of the Nintendo Wii’s full motion controller. In addition, since most titles are developed for both the 360 and PS3 simultaneously, the support for the SIXAXIS controller will be a spotty afterthought. Also the lack of rumble support seems to have hit a nerve with the gaming community. I’ve never been fan of controller rumble, but it is puzzling to see an existing feature replaced at the last minute.
Tags: doorstop, playstation3