Sony reveals plans to win Christmas battle

[wraggster]

Via CRN

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has hit back at criticism that its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console is suffering from sliding sales and revealed it is harbouring treats for gamers up its corporate sleeve to conqure the all-important Christmas market.

Nintendo’s Wii console is currently riding the crest of a wave in terms of market share, leaving both Sony and Microsoft in its wake. But Jonathan Fargher, SCEE representative, said it was wrong to pit the Wii and PS3 against each other.

“The one thing we have always done with the PlayStation is stick to our business strategy,” he said. “We keep an eye on the competition, but it is unfair to put the Nintendo Wii and PS3 in the same category. The Wii is a sub-£200 console and does one thing pretty well. Compare that with a £400 piece of hardware that plays next-generation games, allows users to access photo files and has built-in Blu-Ray technology.

“Many people have said PS3 is not doing well, but in nine weeks we have sold more than one million machines in Europe, which is faster than the sell-through rate of the PS2. The PS1 and PS2 sold 115 million machines worldwide, so we are confident of the PS3’s performance in time,” he added.

“However, the problem has been a boom and bust scenario with the software, particularly in the summer months when many firms tend not to release big-name games.”

Fargher said Sony is looking to counterbalance the lack of games from third-party developers by making other titles available on its online PlayStation Store.

“It will be towards the end of the year when the big titles start to show what the PS3 can really do and hopefully make people feel more comfortable about the decision they made to invest in our hardware.”

Titles due to hit the shelves in the Christmas run-up include the latest instalment of favourites such as Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, and Drakes: Uncharted Fortune, which is from the same creators as Crash Bandicoot, and Jak and Daxter, he added.

“If you look at the hardware, you do get a lot for your money: as well as playing Blu-Ray, the PS3 also upscales DVDs to High Definition (HD) format, and if a gamer is lucky enough to own a PlayStation Portable (PSP, pictured, below-left) they can access their PS3 remotely using the PSP and a Wi-Fi connection,” said Fargher.

At the PS3 launch backward-compatibility issues had blighted the console, but Fargher told CRN the problems had been ironed out.

“The backwards-compatibility issues have pretty much gone away,” he said. “There are now up to 2,500 playable titles including all the major ones that gamers want to play.”

Fargher said Sony has also released the PS3 Firmware update – v1.8 – which upscales both PS1 and PS2 games to HD and can be downloaded onto the PS3.

“People don’t want to throw their games library away and want to make sure that the investment they have made, in terms of software, is catered for. Firmware v1.8 allows this,” he said.

Add this to the console’s ability to support games outside the PAL format, which means gamers can buy titles from the US and Japan, and the PS3 gives value for money, he said.

On the hand-held side, Sony is certainly not neglecting its PSP console. Fargher hinted there could be a redesign of the console on the cards, and admitted there had been a lack of AAA titles available for the format.

“There are many high-profile titles in the pipeline and the PSP will continue to grow. We are working with a number of content partners for the PSP, so watch this space,” he said.

Hamish Thompson, a representative for the Dixons Stores Group, said the gaming market was very buoyant.

“We are confident about Sony. Launching the PS3 at the time of year that it did got it off to an impressive start and we are certain that the interest and demand will build as we get closer to the peak season of November, December and January.

“It is an interesting market as there is a lot of competition. All the [different vendor] products are appealing to a broader demographic and they all have another dimension to them, such as Blu-Ray and online connectivity. It certainly creates an exciting buzz, which is great news for retailers.”

[pt9087]

There are many high-profile titles in the pipeline and the PSP will continue to grow

:thumbup: Nice, sony havent given up!

[h4s30]

sony is right its wrong to put the ps3 and the wii together in the same group because they are in fact2 different things

but sony forgot about xbox

[Buddy4point0]

yea the 360 has much better games than the ps3 right now, and the wii is a completl differnt kind of system, not next gen, more like parallell gen

[paul1991]

Did you notice that they said wii doesn't play next gen games?

"The Wii is a sub-£200 console and does one thing pretty well. Compare that with a £400 piece of hardware that plays next-generation games"

Its cute that sony thinks HD is everything.
They also didn't take into consideration two factors:
Not many people own HD sets(Im playing wii on a '70s RCA color. I doesn't get any lower def.)
Not many people have wifi. This makes most of the PS3 features useless.

Suck on that Sony.

[mavsman4457]

Not much of a secret plan besides confirming stuff like a new PSP and the release dates of some good/great games.

[jedikevin20]

Lol. I laugh at stuff like this. Its freakin june still. ahaha. They can announce whatever the crap they want but I wait to see if those dates come true. Also seems he's trying to spark back up controversy but calling ps3 next gen and wii parallel lol. I agree they are 2 seperate animals entirely and cannot be compared like people have been I consider both next generation systems. They both in separate styles though. Its basically (Wii)|(360, PS3). This is all a response to some articles on the nintendo to sony shares etc. Take a look yourself. (gamespot)

Last week both Nintendo and Sony shares continued to climb, with the former rapidly creeping up on the latter's market capitalisation, according to Bloomberg. Today Nintendo shares temporarily overtook Sony, hitting a record high of 45,350 yen (approx $367), which brought the company's net worth to 6.57 trillion yen ($53 billion), in comparison to Sony's 6.48 trillion yen ($52 billion). At the close of the Tokyo-based Nikkei stock exchange, Nintendo's shares had dropped down to 45,100 yen ($365).

The company may also beat Sony's sales figures this year, as it has forecast 1.14 trillion yen in revenue ($9.2 billion) this business year, following on from 966.5 billion yen ($7.8 billion) in its last fiscal year, which ended March 2007. Sony, which reported 1.02 trillion yen ($8 billion) sales in its game division, has not published an estimate for its financial 2008 year, which also started in April 2007.

Nintendo is reported to have sold about 2.37 million Wii consoles in the US, 2 million in Japan, and 1.47 million in other regions, including Europe.

Nintendo spokesperson Ken Toyoda said that he did not believe that sales in the US had reached their full potential, and that in the past, the company had sold twice as many consoles in the US as in Japan or Europe.

All to say all this and gamestop statement is just console politics. Let snot get to involved. They can say and do whatever they want. Let all jut look for the games and enjoy w00t

[Basil Zero]

err...the xbox360 has more games because of its cheaper cost and the fact that it had 1 year ahead release advance, companies who were making next gen games released it on xbox360.

[Cloud_35]

How's that gonna be without Manhunt 2?????

[KeenCommander]

"...we are confident of the PS3’s performance in time..."

I bet SEGA thought the same thing about the Saturn. Not to mention that they're completely ignoring the bigger issue, the XBox 360, which is a much more real competitor, since the Wii really is aimed at a slightly different market. About the only thing that Sony is RIGHT about is that Nintendo designed the Wii for a different market. Unfortunately for Sony, they designed the PS3 for a NONEXISTENT market, meaning that they are correct, the PS3 isn't not selling because of the Nintendo Wii, it's not selling because of there own stupidity in creating (for the second time - see the ill-fated PSX) a console that is not what the people want (PSP was not quite the same thing, it was actually a great console that was forced to compete with an absolutely amazing one from Nintendo and therefore lost, but not by any fault of its own (other than the damn analog nub)). The XBox 360 dominated the market that Sony hoped to get into for a full year before the PS3 release, not to mention that it's cheaper, has better games (although those red rings of death are rather scary), and has better online support. The market for the PS3 is far too limited for it ever to be a success, Blu-Ray has been and IMO will continue to be a major flop, removing on of its selling points, and the only real market left is hardcore gamers who prefer the 360 since it has better games, something that doesn't seem likely to change any time soon (PS3 has a few heavy hitters (MGS, FF XIII) but I don't think it will be enough to turn the tide in their favor. Put it this way: If Bill (Microsoft) starts selling high powered lawnmowers and dominates the market, is it a smart business decision for Ken (Sony) to start selling more expensive lawnmowers a year later with added features that no one actually wants? Methinks this is hardly a sound business strategy.

Note: Do not call me a Nintendo Fanboy, I own a PS2 and a PSP and consider them both to be great systems. I just consider the PS3 to be a gigantic blunder in both concept and execution.