Next Battle-Europe PS3 Launches in 1 week.....

Like it has in the U.S. since December, only more so.

I believe the HD DVD xbox360 add on was released in Europe this week.

Well, Im not sure they will be sold out, but i'm pretty sure they will sell well. I got the Wii for x-mas, but already looking forward to the PS3 (pre-ordered). And guess what, it will mainly be used for movie watching the games i want for it won't be released until next year (GT5). And since around 70 % of the movies released is region free there's a lot of movies i'm gonna buy from the US. I stopped buying DVDs 1 year ago in anticipation of this machine.

I'm 34 years old and have a decent income and work in the City in London. I actually don't know anyone that has a HD DVD player or Xbox 360. But about 3/10 friends are getting the PS3 and they've all heard about blu ray, noone has actually heard about HD DVD, they think thats blue ray hehe.

And I really don't care about the great old movies that Universal has, as all the old movies i want i have on DVD and will not spend money replacing them yet, i'll spend the money on great blockbusters which both me and my wife enjoy. And I'll be buying all pixar and disney movies again.

Now im just waiting for the new Samsung 46" 1080p to be released in April and the future looks pretty blue

News from the front in terms of the Euro launch:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=23523

The HD DVD addon was released some weeks ago. The reviews for it are mixed, most complain about lack of HDMI and the loud sound from the 360 to use it for movies, although they say it's a cheap way to get HD.

I'm shure that the fact that the european PS3 is a bit downgraded in comparison to the units released in the rest of the world didn't go unoticed in the gaming community.

This could impact initial sales.

I don't expect queues outside stores next friday.

Definitely not true. Amazon.co.uk shows the release date of the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on as December 1, 2006.

The 360 add on was the primary reason HD DVD took the lead in the waning months of 2006 four to one in disc sales in the UK (a bit more than 8K to a bit under 2K as I recall).

However, the PS3 launch, if it does even come close to selling out, is very likely to bring the Blu-ray numbers way up. Unlike the USA, HD DVD has not had time to get entrenched in Europe, and such small numerical leads will likely vanish overnight if 200,000+ PS3s get sold.

Also note that relative pricing on high definition discs in Europe is equal or perhaps even lower than in the USA. Glancing at some online European retailers, it looks like people in the EU pay about the same amount as Americans do for high definition discs, counting for conversion rates, even factoring in the much higher taxation, so Europeans are much less likely to go into sticker shock at the price of high definition discs IMO.

Well I really couldn't care less if i can't play my old PS2 games on it right from the start, i still have the PS2. It's not as if it will stop working when the PS3 arrives in the house.

That is the downgrade, performance is not downgraded in any way.

Im not sure if that is correct. Could be though, but was not released in Norway until a few weeks ago.

Well, the rest of the world will have that same version shortly, so Europeans needn't feel cheated in that sense. Frankly I'm going to 'upgrade' my PS3 to it sometime soon.

Lower power consumption, simplified chipset, upscaling on all the 'key' game titles... that's my kind of system. Granted that's only if all my PS2 games play on it, but I have decently high hopes for that.

I personally don't view it as a downgrade at all, pending the full B/C list though of course.

xbdestroya,


The question is not the initial sales burst, but how it will continue to sell once all the hardcore types buy it. The NA sales numbers are not pretty and if Sony sees sales drops in Europe similar to those in NA, Sony would have to do something, maybe dropping the price.

well the lack of decent games is holding back sales as there are other systems with some decent titles. I would expect PS3 to really pick up once MGS4 etc are released. System just quickly needs a killer ape and its away.

I guess they will be dropping the price after they have introduced to all regions, at least they are able to reduce price somewhat after the "downgrade". Anyway, i think it eventually it will sell very well. But because the lack of "big" games for it could be slow.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see sales of HD movies in both format the next few months in Europe. I'm pretty sure we'll see the same as the US is seeing now.

My guess is that Sony is going to do the same thing in Europe as they did in Japan and the US: sell the PS3 at whatever price the market will bear in the opening days of release in order to keep losses per unit down as much as possible.

They must know that the $599US/£425/599EUR price point is too high for mass market. I don't think that's the point. They're undoubtedly making PS3s for significantly less than they were at initial launch.

I fully expect Sony to announce a "surprise" price drop within 2-3 months once the European initial demand at the higher price point starts to flag. As soon as they can get away with it without aggravating their EU fanbase. They'll never hint at this, of course (to avoid the Osborne effect), but the evidence all points in the same direction.

But still at a 'significant' loss to themselves as well.

Since SCE has a stated goal of reaching expense/profit parity by close of fiscal '08, I'd be surprised if they got overly aggressive on the pricing side this early on. The thing is expensive, and that is hurting it, but I don't think the time for price cuts has come yet. It'll come when there's resonable expectation that there's plenty of software people would pick up along with it.

Icemage,


Well, if the NA market is any indication, interest flagged almost immediately, so there might be a really quick price drop.

I agree.

However, they could not drop the price on the PS3 in Japan or the USA prior to the EU launch. It would have jeopardized their initial sales revenue from Europe, since EU buyers would have expected a lower price (which, multiplied by 1,000,000 units, ends up being a lot of money left on the table, as I'm sure you'll agree).

Does that make more sense?

icemage,

you are exactly right. Personally, I think Sony has a big problem on its hands with the PS3. It will be very interesting to see what they do and how it all plays out.

I speculate there will be no price drop until the holidays (novemberish), and there will only be a price drop if the 360 releases the hdmi version with a larger harddrive.

Oh, and the downgrade???

So, adding upconverting, and fixing problems with playback of interlaced titles is a downgrade? Damn, people will complain about anything.

How come you think they have a problem with the PS3? Most financial analysts believe the PS3 will eventually be the winner in the console war by 2010. Do you not think Sony is planning longer forward than a couple of years? Also do you have more information than a financial analyst who has access to some decent research?

Its not just PS3 that has lower sales than anticipated. Nintendo Wii knocked out both the 360 and the PS3, microsoft has adjusted down the sales of the 360 as well. Btw, PS2 is still the best selling console still. In the long run however the Wii will lose it's flavour, i've got the Wii and must admit im a bit bored with it already.

Jiffylush,


I never said anything about the downgrade.

Harol,


Quite true, and this is relevant how since we are discussing the ps3? Also, the fact that the PS2 continues to outsell the PS3 by large margins should concern Sony as the PS3 is supposed to replace the PS2.


Well, let us see, back to back decreases of 50% in sales volume in NA. Sales well below expectations. If the websites are to be believed, few PS3 exclusive games.


Ah yes, financial analysts are invariably right? Hmm, tell that to Enron investors. Tell that to all the people who invested in the Dot.com bubble before it collapsed. Analysts are not always right.


I am sure that they do have a long term plan. But again, what does that have to do with what is being discussed, which is the relative poor sales performance of the ps3. I am sure that Sony is going to do what it has to to sell the PS3.


No, but the sales numbers are not pretty. Explain to me how back to back drops of 50% are a good thing.


Again true, but given the hype and the projections from Sony, it is something of a bigger deal.

The Wii is a freaking fade. Everybody knows this ...its $249 and a lot sales are impulse buys. It will not have a long life span like the PS2. The xbox360 is somewhere between the Wii and the PS3. Already, Microsoft is planning refresh models. Rumor has it they will release a model with HDMI and a bigger hard drive in May or sometime before Chirstmas. Even with the update, it falls short of the PS3 because it will still use a DVD as their optical format. They will eventually have to update it to a next gen optical format whether its a Blu-ray or HD DVD. So we are talking about at least two refreshes here before the xbox is on par with the PS3 in terms of technology. My question to users is why bother with multiple refresh when you can be set for years with the PS3??

Its not a good thing but it could be explain nonetheless. There are VIRTUALLY no games for the PS3 in February. If you are not into HD movies, who in their right mind would buy a $599 game console with just two good game titles? With more games coming out, the PS3 will sell better. Despite all this, the PS3 is selling better than the xbox360 in the same time frame. Last year at this time, the xbox360 had no competition either. The PS3 is in competition with the Wii and xbox360 ...both are much cheaper as a game console. When Sony made their initial calculation in terms of sales, they had no idea Wii would take off as it did.

The relevance of also mentioning the PS2 in PS3 discussions is that Sony makes money on that console, there will be a lot of people wanting to upgrade from PS2 to PS3 and old games are still playable, it steals volume from Xbox360 and Wii (mostly Wii).

Also if you had read the Sony yearly reports (which i has not hehe) you will find that they recon PS2 will outsell PS3 until 2008 which is not exactly a bad thing when that is a machine they make money on.

Anyway, you make a good point regarding financial analysts, and i guess i have to agree with you with regards to their historical performance . But I still don't think the PS3 will ever be a problem for Sony. It might not be the success they wished it to be, but will still be a major selling console. Perhaps only 20 million instead of 30 million. I think the PS2 has now sold around 120 million units, pretty impressive. The Xbox sold 20 million .

Some matters of fact to clear up any confusion:

XBox 360 add-on Euro launch dates:

Germany: 22nd November 2006

France: 10th January 2007

UK: 1st December 2006

SyHd,


I agree that there are several explanations, and you offer a few which are certainly valid.

Harol,


Quite true. But that is only important for Sony's financials, not in the selling and marketing of the PS3.


Well I think we disagree here on a couple of points. I think that a CURRENT PS2 sale is a lost PS3 sale. Most people tend to keep their consoles for awhile. So, if I buy a 2 now, I wont be buying a 3 for a couple of years.

I could be wrong, but I dont really think that the Xbox and PS compete against eachother in the sense that the games appeal to different types. Xbox games tend to be FPS and the PS tend to having the fighting games like Final Fantasy. I think different people buy the different systems for the different games.


You have a point, if this is what their internal models say.


The numbers for the PS2 are indeed impressive, but it has been around a lot longer.

It is already out.

We won't see a price cut for the PS3 until November in NA and March in EU. Prices will be cut to $449 in the US, 449 in the EU, and £329 in the UK. My prediction.

A quick note: The Xbox software catalog is dominated by FPS games.

The PS2 has a much wider range of games. It's not "just fighting games". It also does sports games (Madden, MLB, Tony Hawk, FIFA Soccer, etc.), role playing games (Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, Xenosaga, Metal Gear Soliid, etc.), driving games (Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, Midnight Run, etc.), free roamers (Grand Theft Auto), platformers (Prince of Persia, God of War, etc.), and a host of other gametypes and genres. And naturally it does have the best fighting games (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter), the only notable absence of which is Dead or Alive, which is actually more of a softcore porn game than a legitimate fighting game if one were to be honest.

In reality if you look at the software lineup of the three new consoles, they're remarkably similar in tone to their predecessors. The Xbox 360, while doing a somewhat better job of getting quality non-FPS games (Ninja Gaiden Black, Viva Pinata, etc.) is still heavily focused on FPS gaming (which is why it does well in the USA and does almost nothing in Japan).

The Nintendo Wii is trying for innovation in gaming, much as the Gamecube before it tried to focus on strong gameplay. Unfortunately, it too is suffering from lack of execution. The games for the Wii so far are lackluster, and the case can be made that the "creative" new control scheme has actually hurt the quality of several games in its library.

Sony is still setting the tone for their software library, and as much as detractors may decry their current pricing, that pricing won't stay high forever, and in the mean time they continue to cultivate the relationships to get the wide variety of games that brought the PS2 to victory. They continue to make their software library diverse and approachable to everyone, not just a certain niche.