While I’m really happy that they’ve finally owned up to having an abysmal first year w/ the PS3, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) still has some work to do, in my mind.
SCEA CEO Jack Tretton has admitted that “missteps” limited the PlayStation 3’s user base during its first year of availability, but says he’s confident Sony will dominate the console market once again.
“The first year is important,” Tretton told MSNBC, “but it’s the first inning of a nine-inning baseball game. You’re not going to win many baseball games if you panic when you’re down 1-0 in the first inning.
”I don’t think there’s any question that there were missteps, but I don’t think anybody is being honest with you if they say that the first year of any platform goes perfectly according to plan.
“I think the biggest miss for us was the launch, in that we had easily a million consumers in North America alone that wanted to get their hands on a PlayStation 3 … and we had roughly 200,000 units to take advantage of that demand. … I think that that was probably the biggest disappointment for the first year.
Well, sorta. It’s definitely true that there was a lot of hype for the PS3, but the demand quickly dwindled. There were a lot of speculative buyers who tried to corner their local PS3 market, buying as many consoles as they could in the interest of flipping them for a profit. I distinctly remember seeing PS3s going for MSRP on all of the popular online auction & personal sales sites.
”But if you put it into perspective, we’re not taking the safe route. We didn’t take the PlayStation 2 and add a few bells and whistles to it. … What we’re trying to do here is … refocus the game industry towards high-definition gaming, a real state-of-the-art, future-proof machine for the next decade.
This is where I think they goofed up. Sony put a LOT of trust in Ken Kuturagi, the man behind the playstation hardware, in every of it’s iterations. With the PS1 & PS2 being the industry juggernauts that they were, it made perfect sense to go back to the well, but what they failed to do is notice Kuturagi’s enormous pride getting in the way of what made the most business sense. While he managed to put together the most impressive console ever, he was reportedly unwilling to flinch on it’s specs, dragging the company down like an over-heavy anchor.
Sony’s refusal to keep him in check early-on and believing wholly in his vision got them to the $600 price point, which still lost them money on each sale.
“If you summed up the mission statement for PS3, it’s short-term sacrifices for long-term gains,” he added. “There was clearly an easier route to go, but we think the route we’re taking is the one that’s going to pay dividends for years to come.”
If Sony were paying closer attention to the impact of their first attempt at marketing one of their consoles as an all-in-one machine, they would’ve noticed that no-one really likes paying for UMD movies on the PSP.
The PSP is enjoying a huuuge up-turn in sales. Sony’s stopped marketing it as an all-in-one device and has re-focused on it’s gaming potential. That could be a coincidence, but let’s face it, w/ DVDs and DVD players being dirt cheap, mobile movie-watching for their target audience is largely pornographic in nature. Not many kids are going to go to the trouble of finding porn on UMD (is there even any available?) to take to school w/ them. That says nothing of them putting it on their memory cards, but that’s completely out of Sony’s control, and isn’t making Sony money anyway, so it wasn’t part of their push in the first place.
Back to the PS3: huuuuge up-turn in sales over the Thanksgiving season in response to the new $400 model and the new marketing campaign that focuses solely on games and gameplay. Gone is the confusing white room campaign w/ a doll-baby’s head…. floating around… or something. The new campaign shows GAMES. THAT’s where the meat of their loyal fan base is.
Good job, Sony. I’m glad to see you’re head’s back in the game. I’m sad to say it, but firing Kuturagi has been helpful in getting some meaningful changes in place. Getting the Sony pictures branch out of the picture (see what I did there?) has been a great move, too.