Sony’s Rocky Road
It seems to me that Sony has been in the news a heck of a lot lately, and it hasn’t been anything positive. The PS3 will be released in a month and a half, and yet the amount of negative press is dwarfing the sense of anticipation and buzz that you’d expect. Just today it was reported that a poor showing at the Tokyo Game Show had caused speculation that the PS3 will have heat issues.. and several analysts have already shown fears that Sony’s game division is going to bring them down. Add this to Sony’s battery woes which they estimate will cost them $170 to $254 million USD, and you have a company that is up against the ropes.
Now, I’m not writing Sony’s obituary here. This company is too far entrenched to allow a few bad mistakes to knock it out. But it might get taken down a few notches in the coming months. The PS3 could have been Sony’s knockout blow, positioning it as the reigning champion of the gaming world.. but an unfocused attitude toward gaming and an arrogant stance as to what it can force out of a gamer’s wallet are leading it down a path of difficulty. With PS3 costing $499 to $599 at launch (with competitors Nintendo Wii at $249 and Microsoft Xbox 360 at $299 to $399) they are assuming that money is not a factor. Sure, to some this is certainly the case.. but I’d venture a guess that it will become more of an issue than Sony recognizes. By the time you’ve gotten a PS3, another controller and a game or 2, you are literally going to be out HUNDREDS of dollars, much more than if you got the same equipment with the other consoles. Sony is betting that its customers will be taken in on PS3′s ability to play Bluray High Definition video content. But this is not yet even the standard High Def format.. Sony doesn’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to creating dominant media formats. If Bluray fails, PS3 has lost it’s main advantage over Xbox 360. Some people may say PS3 will have much better graphics, but this has yet to be proved definitively.. and how much different do people really expect them to be? Think Xbox vs Gamecube here… the differences are negligible.
On top of this all, Sony is facing shortages on PS3 production, and might leave a lot of people turning to Xbox 360 when they can’t find the newest Sony product on shelves this holiday.
I am no Sony hater, mind you.. I can appreciate some of the sweet technologies that we’ll find in PS3. I just think the price-point is wrong, the strategy Sony is following is poor, and their future is going to be bumpy. Will they emerge on top, or are they basically handing the reigns to Microsoft with their more-afordable, but nearly-as-capable machine?
We’ll see.