[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Is Sony's PS3 Really a Sinking Ship? here

[taustin1382]

yes, people are happy to have jobs at the moment.... 400 bucks for a game system that you cannot fully take advantage of without a $2000 HDTV is not going to do well in a recession.

[Tech4me]

Agree....I have a feeling.....all tech/toys will drop after Christmas.......with this slow market.....

[Yetti]

It's not merely CNN that is reporting this kind of analysis. You have the Washington Times out there this week saying Sony is doing everything in its power to hinder PS3 sales. Then you have multiple analysts in the industry just this past week saying Sony should be worried. The real problem for Sony is just turning around the business sooner rather than later. They have wiped out all of there PS2 profits this gen and now they are starting to dip into the PS1 profit days. If this keeps up those will be wiped as well. They had another $379 million loss last quarter and going into 09 it’s not looking good as the Yen could make this there worst quarter yet

[technicalhitman]

Sony definitely bit off more than it can chew with the PS3. With the exception of my best friend who makes a much higher salary, most folks I know don't own a PS3. All of my friends and neighbors in my middle class area have said the PS3's cost doesn't bring enough value to the table.

Don't get me wrong, its a fine Blu-Ray player but again I don't know many folks who have jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon. If anything, folks are cutting back on both formats. Although The Dark Knight movie will be a big splash on both formats, that was expected because of its huge box office and awards season coming up. I think this is a flash in the pan moment for Blu-Ray, then sales will fall in 2009.

I think Sony should start working on a Playstation 4 that is much cheaper. Take advantage of quad-core processors or the Intel i7 processor. Get a great GPU. Give it enough memory and stick with standard definition DVD's with an optional Blu-Ray model. Place it around the 250 dollar price point. Then it would sell.

Microsoft has definitely beaten Sony in the hardware sales but Microsoft is beating Nintendo and Sony with a software attach rate of 8.1. As long as Microsoft is selling units and stays in the number two spot, Microsoft is growing the base while making huge software sales. Meaning that the criticism of the Wii stands. Its a fad that sells units, but people don't buy as many games versus an Xbox 360.

This also means that developers are going to go to the 360 first with their "A" teams, while Sony and Nintendo continue to get the "B" teams. 360 games continue to get the highest ratings. That makes the best gaming experience on the 360.

It makes me feel bad for Nintendo. All those units sold, but the software attach rate isn't even close to the 360. If they aren't careful, Microsoft could begin to close the gap as bad games continue to infest the Wii gaming environment.

[kehvan]

The simple fact of the matter is, the PS3 was a very poor business decision for Sony, because they invested a geat deal of time and effort into technology that was too far ahead of its time thus its production costs were much higher than competing platforms. Now if Sony had the deep pockets that Microsoft has, then this wouldn't be too much of an issue, but Sony's cash reserves were never high enough for them to make the PS3 cost effective.

[looseprop]

I've got a PS1 and PS2 but this holiday I bought an Xbox instead. Too much $$ for the PS3 (and I got a $40 gift card). I don't really care about Blu-Ray right now, especially when I trying to stretch my dollars. There sure were alot of lonely PS3 boxes stacked up at Best Buy. If a non-stripped PS3 ever gets down to $300 I may consider it next year (if I still have a job).

[JTCU]

@TECHNICALHITMAN
Attacth rates mean absolutely nothing. Nintendo has been incredibly successful with the Wii because it was dirt cheap to develop and produce. The ONLY thing that matters is margins. Nintendo may sell less games but they don't have to make up such heavy losses by subsidizing the expensive hardware that Microsoft and Sony have both had to do to remain competitive. Nintendo may even make profit on the Wii system itself. While Microsoft has made some significant inroads in getting cheaper components for the system they are still facing billions in hardware losses, especially from the RROD.
Sony has pissed away so much money its insane. The PS3 was costing them upwards of $800 in the beginning and remains very high, a reason why they are hesitant to cut the price further, despite the declining sales and bad economy. Unfortunately Sony is a victim of bad timing in the economic world beyond their control. A $400 Blu Ray player with some quality titles would be a steal in a booming economy, I have a feeling that will not be the case in a recession. I think that even in hard economic times the Wii is a good sale for families and casual gamers plus anyone that can justify the cheaper system and cheaper (though less higher rated) software. Remember Wii games remain at last Gen prices not the $60 highway robbery of the 360 and PS3.
SONY and Microsoft have and will continue to lose billions on their next generation systems. Microsoft can sustain those losses well into the next generation or two, can Sony?

[betona]

I just bought my college-age son an XBox 360 (don't tell him, okay?). I spent all of about 3 seconds looking at a PS-3, but their price is double what I paid and absolutely not going to happen. Now 3 years old, you'd think PS-3's would be down to the $199 range.
But over the past 4 decades that I've known about them, Sony has never had competitive pricing on anything. I do love the blu-ray, but I have an LG player for that.

[Yema]

During this whole "argument" people are seem to be forgetting that the 360 was released a year earlier than the PS3! The PS3 is 2 years old, not 3 like the 360.

[Maarek]

The PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player to date which includes a gaming system. Get one of these as the big box gift and you'll make everyone happy even the teenagers.

[Maarek]

the 360 is ONLY a gaming system.

[theangrycarp]

I agree that if the price of a the ps3 did go down to even 350 dollars that the sales would be much higher. Compared to the xbox 360, a ps3 is a better product and has much more room to grow. I have had both and I prefer the ps3 much more. When I bought a ps3, I didn't have to go out and buy a pricey wireless adapter for online play (which is about 80 dollars - last I checked). I also wasn't locked into a proprietary hard drive - meaning you must go through microsoft to upgrade your hard drive and that's also very expensive. With my ps3 I can simply take an external HD, create folders for my media and plug it right into my ps3 to access any of the media I want. That's awesome. I'm not sure if all the xbox fans know this --but HD DVD is dead! Overall the initial price of the ps3 is more expensive but it's a better product. It's one of the best purchases I made last year. When it comes to console shopping - you will get what you pay for so buyer beware.

[commentator]

i purchased all three consoles: I recently gave away my Wii because there were not enough games to engage me (the lame version of Animal Crossing: City Folk was the last straw); the PS3 is used almost exclusively as a DVD player. I bought LittleBigPlanet on the strength of its rave reviews; but could not get into it. When games are released for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 I invariably buy the 360 version: in my view XBox Live is more advanced than any other online play service -- and i like the Achievement system. BioShock is my favorite game of the past year... and the 360 had it first. Yes, I had the infamous red rings of death, having bought my 360 in 2006. But it was replaced by Microsoft with a newer model that makes virtually no noise and has a different serial number, All in all, I would say the 360 has given me the best value of all three consoles, by far. I am still waiting for Sony to impress me with anything other than a blu-ray player....

[coastie65]

I bought a PS3 in early September and at $400, I thought it was a good value as it offers a lot. I have a 42" HDTV that it is hooked up to through an HDMI cable and is fantastic. It does a great job of Upconverting SD DVD's as well. You do not need to spend $2000 on an HDTV as was suggested in an earlier post, I didn't. Mine was $1199 and is cheaper now. As long as Nintendo has franchises such as Zelda, they'll do okay, and they have found a multitude of new uses for the Wii, such as Physical Therapy. Micro$oft's only goal is as it has always been, to dominate and control the field. In the process, they have produced a poorly designed console, that leaves players frustrated with RROD's and a wait for repair. The Wii is innovative, affordable, and appeals to a broad range of players. Yes, the PS3 is pricey, but in my opinion, you get your money's worth. There is a slight issue of rushing games to market before they are ready for the PS3, such as Tomb Raider: Underground. Uncharted 2 is on the way, for the fans of that thing. I agree with the Author in that the figures may be slightly skewed for the reasons given. coastie65

[lmalave]

Um, wrong. Ever hear of XBox Live Video Marketplace? Ever hear of Netflix video streaming?

Microsoft offers HD movies and TV shows for download (via Marketplace) or streaming (via Netflix). It looks like Microsoft played their cards right on this one. Blu-Ray just isn't taking off, and it's already being superseded by online video services. Movies are going the way of the music industry: fewer and fewer people will buy physical discs and more people will get their content online. Plus people are used to renting their movies - not buying them - so that's even less of a reason to buy blu-ray discs rather than rent movies online.

[lmalave]

Just a correction: you don't need a wireless adapter to play online. The XBox 360 has an ethernet port so you can just connect the XBox directly to your router. Anyway this is better since a wired connection will always have lower latency than a wireless connection. The hard drive cost is a legitimate complaint, but an XBox 360 + XBox Live Starter Pak is only $298 and that gets you a machine with 60 GB which is plenty. Also,keep in mind that the XBox 360 is also a Windows Media Center extender, so if you have a lot of video and music content you can just keep it on a Windows Vista Home Premium computer (which is what the vast majority of PCs ship with today), and have access to all that content right from your XBox.

[demilokineo]

XB360 beats the PS3 officially now because of streaming netflix.

[coastie65]

Downloading Videos is at the bottom of my list as I prefer to buy or rent rather than download the things. That is an individule preference on my part, as I know there are those who do like to download them. When it comes to system reliability, Xbox is at the bottom of the heap as has been proven time and again. You can save some money, if you are willing to deal with the aggravation. coastie65

[dannysal]

Gee wiz Matt, did someone from Sony call you yesterday and "request" you write this story and/or are you just a typical Sony fanboy? Yikes. If you include the PS2 and PSP in this story then you must include the Wii and DS! Yikes. Right now, the inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3 is great but BD, in general, is a niche market and it will reamin that way until the players and media drop in price. The Sony "must have" games pale in comparison to the Halo and Gears of War series. Not even close. What is comes down to is this: the vast majority of games are offered on both consoles. Games on both consoles look and play great. Why,then, spend $200 more for a PS3?