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Sony: PS3 Experience For Family Is Wii 'On Steroids'
by Staff
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April 22, 2009
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Sony's Peter Dille says the way Nintendo's driven wider-audience gaming means consumers ready to move up to "next-generation high definition gaming" will end up on the PlayStation 3.
"Our view on the Wii: number one, our hat's off to them," Dille told Gamasutra as part of an in-depth feature interview. "They've created this huge phenomenon that's captivated people's imagination -- and captivated a lot of dollars."
"No one around here is in the camp of 'Oh, it's this fad' sort of spin. Again, hats off to them. We think it's good for the business, to be honest."
And good for Sony, too, according to Dille. "There's a perspective here that, if we all believe that the Wii and Nintendo are doing something that hasn't been done -- i.e., bringing more people into gaming -- that's a good thing. Now, if those people get hooked on gaming and they want to continue with their gaming habit, then many of them will figure out 'Okay, what else can I do?' and 'wouldn't a high-definition gaming experience be of interest to me?'"
Based on the profile of the Wii consumer, says Dille, the PS3 is "the perfect place for them to end up."
"It's always been a platform that's inclusive; it's got something for everyone. We believe that the family that's been involved in Wii gaming -- having a PS3 as the centerpiece of their living room is a great thing that the whole family can enjoy much the same way that you can enjoy Wii but perhaps on steroids; it does so much more."
So from Dille's perspective, it's just a matter of time before consumers reintroduced to gaming via the Wii make their return to the PlayStation brand with which they were familiar in the previous generation. "The Wii is not positioned as the digital entertainment hub in the way that the PlayStation 3 [is]," he says. "So we think that over time all those folks will migrate back to the PlayStation 3 -- when I say "back," that takes the view that they were PS2 gamers, went to the Wii, and then would come back."
And as for Wii users entirely new to the space? "As I said earlier, if they didn't come from anywhere, if they're just new gamers, then that's good for all of us. We believe that we'll have a fair shot as selling them a lot of our products down the road."
The full feature on the state of Sony in 2009 is now available at Gamasutra (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).
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PS3 Experience For Family Is Wii 'On crack' would be a better title for the article. Families looking for fun should look for Wii. Its very user friendly, easy to pick up and hard to put down.
With the release of Wii MotionPlus coming, it will be an even greater console for family and friends!
The PS3 is for losers who live in their mommas dark creepy basement.
"Caliko D -
The PS3 is for losers who live in their mommas dark creepy basement. "
I actually take offense to your ignorant statement yah jerk. How would I sound if I said the Wii is just for middle aged women suffering from menopause and prepubescent kiddies who wet their beds? That's right, I would sound like I was a jerk with foot in mouth disease. Think about it for just one minute.
I rather they focus on what they have now and maintain that before they lose what marketshare they still have.
Most of the families that bought the Wii are never going to think twice about the PS3, due to its cost, being less user-friendly and lack of pick up and play titles provided by Nintendo.
I also don't think Wii gamers were PS2 owners. My mom and aunt bought one. If you would have told me last generation that would be happening, I wouldn't have believed it.
As for the moving up to PS3. MS said the same thing a year ago, saying Wii owners would "graduate" to the XBox360.
No, they really haven't... The full interview, they still use the "Wii owns the closet" mentality. Apparently, Sony wants the closet too.
I don't think that Wii owners will graduate to hi-def gaming by purchasing a PS3. No, they are more likely in great numbers trade up to the hi-def version of the Wii--the Wee Two. It will be more 1080p capable and cost less than the PS3, and the next-box.
Sony needs to extol their own virtues. Pick your best selling, most original, and best looking games to sell the PS3. When a PS3 game is good, it is really good, much more than a "Wii" on any type of illegal performance enhancing drug.
There is just so many times that a person can hear the same thing, "We have Bluray. We have Free Online. We have PS Home. We have the Cell. You can install Linux. You can replace the default Hard drive. We have built in wireless." They have been touting their strengths for 3 years now.
The problem is that they have yet to address their weaknesses and have created more.
Price is the biggest obstacle. This is primarily due to the Bluray drive. It is expensive to produce. They are not selling enough bluray players to decrease the cost fast enough to lower the price of the PS3. Without lower costs, they will not be able to profit enough to sustain production and lower the cost of the console at the same time.
Backwards computability is another problem. They started off with it, but in an effort to address the cost issue, they scrapped it and now PS2 owners and people who want PS2 games, are less likely to get a PS3. Had they kept it around and found other ways to address the cost issue, they might be in a different boat right now.
The controller is the next issue. They were in the middle of a lawsuit over the dual shock and instead of settling like Microsoft, they decided to fight. This battle forced its way into the release window for the console and they couldn't produce a dual shock controller. So they went ahead without it and made the statements that dual shock was history. Turns out that people liked history and still wanted the dual shock. After they got creamed in the lawsuit, they licensed the tech and produced the dual shock and denied ever making their previous remarks.
Finally, there is the Sony arrogance. This can be seen everywhere. In all their press releases, presentations, interviews, their arrogance bleeds through like an artery wound. This arrogance has compound the other issues and has alienated a lot of developers and customers alike. Why would I buy a console when the console company tells me that I should get a second job to afford it? Do you realize how insulting that is? That alone turned me off of buying a PS3.
They have a lot of problems this time around some technical some attitude. One thing is for sure, they need to address them and fix them. They may not be able to do it this generation, but if they really plan on competing next generation, they better fix them.
One thing I thought was strange was that the guy doing the interview never confronted him about the price issue, they touched upon the subject a couple of times, but he didn't go in depth on the topic and ask about maybe getting rid of some of the expensive equipment in the PS3 like the 360 Arcade.
Loosen up. I recognize this is investor fluff. I don't see why we shouldn't be able to sarcastically point out the fact that this is just an attempt to get investors to buy Sony stock. And I didn't get your email.
@Ephriam
You are right. Sony cannot play to its strengths because its strengths are no longer as attractive as they were before. There are numerous things that have changed since the PS2 released. On major change is that "serious" Japanese titles like JRPGs are not doing nearly as well in the US as they once were. The fall of grace of the Final Fantasy series is symbolic of the larger trend.
Another is that Sony is trying to repeat is strategy of making the PS3 look like multi-media hardware. They did this with the PS2 and it was successful. For a long time the PS2's DVD player was attractive because DVD players were nearly as expensive. But Blu-Ray isn't having the same effect as DVD, even after it has won. Plus you can buy Blu-Ray players for almost half the price of a PS3. So that strategy is not working like it used too.
Sony needs to find a new path for itself. Or start competing on price with the 360. But I think either is a difficult move for Sony, because it admits defeat.
In fact in this regard I'd say price was the most important factor. "If" someone who'd only begun console gaming with a Wii (and there's a lot of em), decided they wanted to experiment with some the other games around, they're likely to take a look at price first. The PS3s price is more like a giant commitment to console gaming, it's not a price you can look at and go, "what the heck, if I don't like it who cares". The 360 price is in fact quite similar to the Wii price most places you go. (approx: 700 for PS3, 400 for 360, 400 for wii here in Aus).
After that they'll look at game range, and they have a relatively similar number of exclusives, and all the games that I think the casual gamer from the Wii is likely to want to play are on both. So unless they're moving because they heard of a particular title price still stays the major influencing factor), people moving from wii to a higher machine probably care considerably less about technical capabilities than necessary for them to strongly consider a PS3 for it's particular strengths.