More Sony PlayStation 3 Woes...

[Yoon]

High PS3 Price is Pushing Away Developers

"Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers"

Sony's PlayStation 3 has been in the news a lot in the past year. First there were issues with its Blu-ray support and then there were the reports on the console’s delay and finally the fallout from the $499/$599 pricing structure. Well, it appears that that high price of entry is not only turning away potential buyers, but also developers.

Sony has received overwhelming support in the past two generations for its PlayStation consoles from 3rd-party developers, but that support may now be in question. From GameDaily BIZ:

In the PS3's native Japan, the reaction has been less than pleasant, with more than 90 percent of developers in a recent survey stating that the price of the console is just too high. And indeed it seems that this high price is affecting whether or not certain developers decide to develop for the PS3. Sony's PlayStation business has always been backed by incredibly strong third-party support, but now for the first time that could be in jeopardy.

Sony's loss comes to the benefit of its two chief rivals. BusinessWeek reports that developers are taking their business to the Wii and even Xbox 360 (which hasn't been an overwhelming success in Japan in its current or previous form). Gaming giant Electronic Arts has also been showing favoritism to the less expensive Wii when showcasing upcoming games. BusinessWeek goes on to say:

EA announced six Nintendo Wii launch titles and showed long working demos for two of those. But it offered only a short clip of a car-racing game for PS3. EA says it's still testing the potential of the PS3. "Many developers think the console's initial high price will lead to slow sales and are holding off on creating games for Sony," Hamamura says.

Sony has a lot of work to do this generation to keep its #1 crown. It may have been easy to bowl over the competition with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but it looks like the tides are changing. When you have a $200 higher price of entry than your next closest competitor that turns away customers, high licensing costs to offset the cost of development and Blu-ray drive technology that drives up the cost of the console without a 100% guarantee of wide-spread adoption, you know that you’re in for a bumpy ride.
DailyTech previously reported that according to IBM, yields on the Cell processors were extremely poor, and that most Cell processors would ship without all eight cores working. According to IBM, some PlayStation 3 units will have 7-core Cell processors and some with 8-core Cell processors.

Source: DailyTech - High PS3 Price is Pushing Away Developers

Well, well, this is not too surprising, considering the high price of a PS3. What is somewhat shocking is that EA seems to be shifting it's focus towards the Wii, rather than the PS3. This is shocking because EA in the past generation was rather apathetic towards making games for Nintendo GameCube, especially it's sports division, EA Sports.

Another big thing that is hurting Sony is that due to the amount of high-tech, expensive parts in the PS3 (read Blu-Ray Drive & IBM Cell), they will lose money on every PS3 unit sold, for possibly the first year and longer. However, it's this news bit that makes the PS3 situation sound even worse:

DailyTech previously reported that according to IBM, yields on the Cell processors were extremely poor, and that most Cell processors would ship without all eight cores working. According to IBM, some PlayStation 3 units will have 7-core Cell processors and some with 8-core Cell processors.

For those unfamiliar with how modern processors (CPU) are created, they are created as part of large batches on trays, known as wafers. In every wafer, there are always bad, faulty processors. For CPU companies such as Intel, AMD, IBM, etc., the goal is to get as many working, viable processors on each tray, since CPU manufacturing is not cheap.
If IBM is having extremely poor yields of the PS3 Cell CPU, this would mean two things:

1.) There will be a large shortage of PS3 units when the PS3 is finally launched.
2.) Sony will be forced to lower the PS3 specs, so they can use more of the faulty Cell CPUs in order for yields to be more viable.

Could this finally be the generation where Sony loses the number 1 spot?

[Guhosutsubenu]

wow.. it real looks like PS3 gona lose it to xbox and nintendo.

i think nintendo wil be the biggest.
its cheapest, its a good console.

good and cheap. what else do you want?

[Yahoo]

Hmm
I think that I will buy nintendo insteas of PS3
Im not so rich guy

[Guhosutsubenu]

evilslayer said:

Hmm
I think that I will buy nintendo insteas of PS3
Im not so rich guy

same for me. i want nintendo.
i got a cube to and its pretty cool =P

[Yahoo]

But I will still keep my PS2
I have like 80 games that I can play with PS2
I still have my PS1 somewhere too...

[Jaegar]

I'd hear about the price thing already, but not the processors. Wow, as a Nintendo fan, I've always expected that Nintendo would rise over Sony eventually. I never expected that Sony was going to help them do it though XD

[Guhosutsubenu]

jaegar said:

I've always expected that Nintendo would rise over Sony eventually. I never expected that Sony was going to help them do it though XD

hahaahah that made me laugh xD
Sony is now killing itself

[Yoon]

Historically, Sony has always been an arrogant company, always thinking that their brand image and popularity will make-up for any drawbacks in their products.

While this was true with the PS2 (who only had to deal with the Sega Dreamcast at launch), the situation with PS3 is quite a bit different, especially with the Microsoft XBOX360 having been launched almost a year before, as well as the significantly cheaper Nintendo Wii that will be launching at the same time as PS3. Also, the extra-expensive unit and developing costs on the PS3 have scared a lot developers away, including the giant video game company EA.

Only time will tell if PS3 will be able to repeat the success of PS1 & PS2, despite these major hurdles.

[phyxius]

well, i have the 360, and i can tell u that i don't think Wii can get over him on graphics, neither technically, now, what's the high punch of Ps3 that can be a K.O. for the other consoles? the games, Sony can be proud of the game wallet they have, thanks to companies as Capcom, The GT franchise, etc. just look at this:


A Slew of New Games
A whole host of game publishers are already backing the PS3 and several have even confirmed games for the console. At the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), more than 30 titles were displayed for the system, including Gran Turismo HD, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Final Fantasy XIII. Previously announced titles include Metal Gear Solid 4, Devil May Cry 4 and Tekken 6.

now, 360 have almost a year on stores and have around 30 games or less...(good games), that include 2007 versions of sports games and games of xbox that in the end came out for 360 and don't really use all the power of the console, when the 360 was show on E3 they just put CoD 2 and Perfect dark Zero (an original game of N64...) they show other games that until today, they are not finished <_<

now, in my personal opinion, i'm a guy that gave the xbox to my friend so they lend me the PS2 to play some games of that console, Sony have an advantage in that part, and i know some REALLY FANS that will buy a Ps3 for games like Tekken 6 or DMC 4, not counting the rpg maniacs that want to play FF XIII (count me on that, i hope they make another Grandia too ^_^)

[Guhosutsubenu]

what i notice is that ps2 is counting on old games

how long wil it go on xD

tekken 3234
grand turismo 3004
they recycle old games over and over again >_>

[phyxius]

luckysniper said:

what i notice is that ps2 is counting on old games

how long wil it go on xD

tekken 3234
grand turismo 3004
they recycle old games over and over again >_>

eeer....at least..they change something..>_> i'm happy if i get to see FF XV

anyway...let see, how many mario's games are out there? and is always the same...the dumb dragon kidnap the dumb princess and an italian fat men with a mustache have to save her... >_> and he never get even a piece for rescue her..lol

look at this way...

Final Fantasy > Zelda or Suidoke (xbox rpg...)
Tekken > any fight game of nintendo or xbox
Devil May Cry > Castlevania (on both consoles)
Metal Gear Solid > any game of that kind (in any console)

only good game that can get over for xbox is Far cry.....
for nintendo...can be....dunno..Resident evil 4 since they put it on G@y cube first...dunno

[KillerSmo]

Saving my money>Wasting my money
Wii>PS3

[phyxius]

i got another point for the PS3:

is a blu ray disc player <------------------that's saving u 1000 $

is matter of time to the BD to get over the standar DVD, and when that happen...u'll have to buy a player

[Guhosutsubenu]

killersmo said:

Saving my money>Wasting my money
Wii>PS3

thats just the way it is. lalal lalal lala /ho

@phy:

ehh... bleu ray disks wil be MAYOR expensive.. so who need it >_>
its like dual layer dvd, nobody use it.
and the PS3 games... they LOSE money on the PS3. so the games wil be SUPER EXPENSIVE.

so basicly everything on the ps3 (blue ray, games) will be expensive to.. the PS3 itself is expensive..

I GO WIHT SMO..
PS3 is to expensive to be even fun

its a fucking console... not a house <_<

[Jaegar]

luckysniper said:

they LOSE money on the PS3. so the games wil be SUPER EXPENSIVE.

Actually, all companies lose money on the system itself. It's just that Sony's being an arrogant ass and overpricing their games even more.

While we're on the topic of how stupid, arrogant, and nearsighted Sony is, here's something I found while browsing around
www.realtechnews.com/posts/3266
Who didn't see that coming as soon as they were announced?