PS3 All in wonder
In a recent Business Week article, Kenji Hall writes that PS3 might possibly confuse the audience with too many features. Sony’s super-packed PS3, which will debut in the summer of 2006 in Japan and the fall of 2006 U.S, will come with Blu-Ray drive, wireless feature, latest CPU called the “CELL”, on-line capability, and many more latest technologies. However, these many features will certainly confuse the very reason to purchase this machine which is to play next-gen games. Kenji Hall states that by having feature like Blu-Ray drive will drive consumer to buy Blu-Ray dvds instead of spending that money on games. Sony makes most of their money via games than selling the system itself. In fact they are expected to lose 1 billion dollars on PS3 console alone and to recover the money and be in the black means selling licenses to game developers.
Moreover, when PS2 came out, people have bought 3 games per system but when PSP came out, due to the hand held system’s ability to play music and movies, the ratio has gone down to 2:1.
Some question whether Sony is trying to cram too much into the new box. The PS3 is expected to cost $350 to $400. While it has the potential to be a megahit, Sony’s message might get muddled in the process of going after too broad a market, says Deutsche Securities analyst Takashi Oya. “It would be difficult to sell PS3 initially as anything other than a game machine,” Oya says. Sony declined to comment on such concerns.
If consumers buy the PS3 as a multimedia machine, they might not purchase as many video games. Sony ought to know: The handheld PlayStation Portable (PSP) has been a success since its debut in December, 2004. But since the PSP also plays music and movies, fewer people are buying games designed for it. In the PS2’s initial year on the market, players bought more than three games for each machine that was shipped. For the PSP, that ratio slipped to 2 to 1.
via PS3land.com