Talking as part of Gamasutra's latest 'Analyze This' column, OTX's Nick Williams says that, according to his company's data, one third of those who plan to purchase God Of War III have yet to buy a PS3, implying a major bump for hardware sales when the game debuts.
Analysts including Williams were questioned as part of this month's column dealing with the major turmoil in the world economy, and how it might affect the game industry.
They particularly asked how the consoles trailing in the hardware battle -- the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 -- would fare during 2009, and Williams explained:
"The price point for the PS3 remains a real problem for Sony. Sony execs now find themselves in the precarious position of trying to balance consumer price expectations with the high costs of producing each PS3.
That said, the PS2's continued success more than eight years after launch suggests that Sony is thinking long term with the PS3. If Sony can continue to bring down hardware manufacturing costs, it seems likely that it will offer a price cut by the end of Summer 2009.
The launch of God of War III in late 2009/early 2010 will mark a pivotal moment for Sony. But in order to ensure that this game is a hardware sales driver, the cost of the base-level PS3 will need to be in the same ballpark as the Xbox 360 and Wii.
According to our latest consumer tracking study, only two in three people who plan to purchase God of War III currently own a PS3."
OTX's Williams also weighed in on the Xbox 360 and how it can weather current market conditions, commenting:
"Microsoft faces a different set of challenges. The Xbox 360 is now the de facto leader in connected consoles, and Xbox Live is the leading edge for new experiments with downloadable content.
In order to stay a few steps ahead of Sony in the online space, Microsoft needs to continue refining Xbox Live as a valuable medium for both consumers and publishers. During a time when consumers are doing less shopping, an impulse buy on Xbox Live is going to be a lot easier to swallow than a drive to the local store."
You can now read the full Gamasutra 'Analyze This' feature, including additional, detailed comments from Screen Digest and EEDAR analysts about the state of the game business and prospects for the rest of 2009.
Can't say I'v heard of said analyst. Anyhow, GOW III pushing HW to any extent is much like saying KZ2 will. Although I would say GOW III may have more luck with a proper price cut as he suggests.
I wonder if the survey makes clear that God of War III will not appear on PS2. Thats the type of game that attracts a decidedly casual player base that might not be up on the latest news.
I'll have to agree there. If GOW3 came out as a launch title or at least in the early moments on PS3, it would be a very different story. It is so late in the game right now that I feel most people have already chosen sides. With the financial state of the nation, I don't imagine many people running out to own both high-end consoles just to play one game. There may be a lot of temporary Xbox -> PS3 swapping among friends but I don't know how much of that will amount to new hardware sales.
The God of War franchise is not that strong. It sold maybe 6 million units between both first and second titles and, more important, the first game was released on March 2005. Considering the PS2 was surely over 50m by then (100m reached on November 2005), one cannot assume it will "move hardware" in an appreciable way.
Hasn't the PS3 already had a bunch of pivotal moments? By now either it's on the right or wrong side of the pivots. How many pivots can one thing be on? More than two and it's not a pivot, it's a base, a small base. Maybe the forecast should be about whether or not the base will grow from a small base to medium sized base? That's more predictable than it blowing up suddenly to a huge base with many pivotal points.
I don't think GOW III will move a lot of hardware as the article says.