Gadzooki
GadzookiThe other day I was waiting in line for my Wii, and I missed out. But I did buy a PS3 in a “me against the world” moment. There were plenty Playstation 3s in stock, but of course no Nintendo Wiis.
I’ve been obsessing about the Wii now for over a month. But I haven’t been willing to buy one on eBay. I don’t like the idea of paying more than twice the system’s value, especially when it reveals a major defect in my character (no patience!). In any case, at this point, I’m now resorting to the “just wait until February method”.
But let’s get back to the story. I went for a Wii and came home with a PS3. My wife was more than a little pissed off that I had paid almost $750 for a new video game system (after taxes, a game and a new controller). She told me that I had no option but to return the Playstation 3 the next day.
Well, I didn’t return the PS3. What I did was hook up with a friend of a friend who tried to sell it on eBay for profit. But that totally bombed. I ended up having to get another friend to bid up the auction so that I’d at least not lose any money (Don’t tell eBay!)
The moral of this story, as you can probably tell, is that the PS3 is just not in high demand. Not for the price at which it is selling. Not only can you now walk into any random store and pick up a Playstation 3, but you can no longer make a worthwhile profit on eBay. In my view, this is indicative of the fact that the the PS3 is turning out to be a bust for Sony.
I predicted this here at Gadzooki even before the system came out, and I think my prediction is playing out more and more as each day goes by. The PS3 is trying to be too much to too many people, and for that reason it is priced outside of the range of the casual gamer. Sure, the hard core gamers are buying it up, but really, you don’t have a mass market product if only the hard core gamers are buying your system.
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4 Responses
Mr Butterscotch
04|Jan|2007I hate to disagree with you Quimby but I think that the Wii will be in exactly the same position as the PS3 fairly soon. The PS3 has hit a point where finally people can walk into stores and buy it. The Wii will have done so (in the UK at least) probably in a couple of weeks. I doubt that this will be the case with the PS3 when it is finally released in March.
The Wii has novelty value, the PS3 does not. However, it is a solid games console. Nonethless, I understand the launch lineup in the US has been less than underwhelming shall we say. I hear the UK launch should be the opposite so I expect much better sales here at least initially.
Quimby
04|Jan|2007But, Mr. B, do you think anyone will have any money left over to buy from this great launch library that Sony has planned for the UK?
My view is that Sony has priced this beast out of the range of casual gamer’s comfort zone and that Sony will suffer for this.
Plus, I don’t think Wii is just a novelty. Lots of people were saying that about the Nintendo DS, with its touch screen. From what I understand (an employee at Gamestop told me), the Wii’s motion control is “money.” It isn’t clunky or awkward.
The isn’t to say that the PS3 isn’t a good sytem. It is a good system. If I could get one for free, I’d take it. But at $600 I can’t justify it and I have a strong feeling that the average person can’t either.
It’s easy to say that the Wii will just turn out to be a novelty, but in my view, it is much more than that. It’s become a cultural phenomenon, at least here in the states, that’s bigger than the video game industry. Much like it is common to find adults on subways playing the DS and Brain Age, I’m hearing adults talking about how much fun the Wii is. Because it has become a cultural phenomenon, the Wii very well may become exactly what Sony and Microsoft wanted to create: the center of everyone’s living room.
Quimby
04|Jan|2007While I was writing the previous comment, there was a phrase that was sitting at the tip of my tongue but not quite coming off. I’ve got it now: disruptive technology.
The Wii has the real potential of becoming a disruptive technology and not only winning the current generation war, but blowing Microsoft and Sony out of the water. I’m not saying that it will happen, just that it is the only system in the current generation with the capactiy and momentum to do so.
Mr Butterscotch
06|Jan|2007You’re right - the Wii could be a disruptive technology. Could perhaps. However, I still think that those disinclined not to play games won’t do so. Some will bridge the gap but a lot still won’t.
As for the price of the PS3, there’s no getting away from it - damn that thing is expensive. Nonetheless, I still kind of feel that it has the best of both worlds - a media center console with a motion sensing control.
The Wii controls are accurate, there’s no doubt. They are fun to boot. However stuff like Zelda (a good game yes, but not exactly ground breaking) doesn’t use much of the motion sensing and other features of the Wii. It becomes a sub-par product in that sense. What do you do, make a fresh game and risk it being ‘gimmicky’? Or go all out, and make something genre blending and have it too ’standard’?
To be honest, this debate is one of the most exciting things about the nex-gen as frankly I feel underwhelmed with all of them right now. I still haven’t seen a MUST HAVE - Gears of War, Zelda and Resistance don’t fall into that so what do we have? Maybe this year will be the year of the PC gamer… Who knows.
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