How much of Sony's success belongs to Sony?

[Flake]

Quick note: Let's avoid any bashing here, okay?

Sony is a pretty nifty gaming company and they have, until this console generation, enjoyed unrivaled success. A lot of people made a lot of money.

But my question is how much of it was Sony's doing and how much of it was either terrible decisions by their rivals (i.e. Nintendo sticking with cartridges, Dreamcast leaving the scene, Bernie Stolar, etc) or contributions by 3rd parties (Square putting FFVII on PS1, Konami and Capcom fully supporting the PS2, etc).

Or was it really just good business and great game console design on Sony's part?

[yomomma1]

Link to video http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-EPISO ... No-Clothes

(DANG that link looks suggestive)

[EvilRyu2099]

I think it's both.. Sony did a great job convincing game publishers to buy into their 3D technology.. They basically wanted the games to dictate the system, not the hardware, which made it go a long way.. Stolar probably is to be blamed for the Saturn's demise, since he is basically the reason we never got to see the great imports that the system produced.. The Nintendo 64 was a great system, but like you said the cartridge based hardware drew many developers away... I never thought the ps1 or ps2 were perfect, but they had the best gaming libraries I can remember, and that's basically the end all be all in a system usually..

I honestly think the ps2 was mainly successful because of the momentum of the PS1... That, and the fact it was a DVD player as well.. It also had a great gaming library, but I really think the success of the PS1 was really the reason for the PS2's success.. I never thought the Dreamcast failed other not having DVD features.. I just feel that no one was going to beat the PS2 because of the momentum its previous system set... It could not fail imo..

[EvilRyu2099]

Lol my last paragraph is so redundant... Man I'm tired...

[Krooner]

Link to video http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-EPISO ... No-Clothes

(DANG that link looks suggestive)

Interesting ideas, but he say near the top Sony had FORESIGHT. Last I checked foresight is at the opposite end of the "Lucky" spectrum. The console being a hit or not was a bit of a punt, but other than that they took advantage of what they saw coming and whichever way you write it out that's good business.

[JordanPlayer]

You can have foresight but still get lucky with how well a product does. Just think what would have happened if Blu-Ray bit the dust and HD-DVD became the main format... Sony would be in a pretty bad spot right now. I think Microsoft had the better business plan sticking with dual layer DVDs and having a HD-DVD attachment rather than relying solely on the life of a media format (and turns out that was a pretty good decision in hindsight). Sony was "lucky" that the movie/film industry eventually went with Blu-Ray due to disc size (wasn't the case with VHS/Betamax).

One of the reasons I got a PS3 bundle for $300 was b/c of the price, it came with 2 games (LBP and Ratchet & Clank), and it would play Blu-Ray discs. Once the Blu-Ray format established itself the PS3 was instantly focused on as being one of the cheaper, but best players that also was a game console! That along with tons of great exclusives FINALLY coming out have led to a PS3 revival... the XBox has been losing exclusives to Sony/PC and has been losing ground to Sony.

While all of this was happening Nintendo was sitting there chuckling as consoles were flying off the shelves and they were basically printing money. I honestly think it will be very interesting to see how things shake out when Nintendo finally brings a HD console to market that will be on closer footing to its competitors. It's also interesting to note the trend lately to push 3D. While Sony has this capability on the PS3 with lowered resolution, Nintendo is about to knock it out of the park on the 3DS with glass-less technology that can be turned on/off and greater graphical power overall. Unless PSP 2 does something big to shake the portable market up I foresee it struggling along or possibly dying.

[EvilRyu2099]

While all of this was happening Nintendo was sitting there chuckling as consoles were flying off the shelves and they were basically printing money. I honestly think it will be very interesting to see how things shake out when Nintendo finally brings a HD console to market that will be on closer footing to its competitors.

NO reason really to do that since they are dominating the market as is..

[AppleQueso]

You can have foresight but still get lucky with how well a product does. Just think what would have happened if Blu-Ray bit the dust and HD-DVD became the main format... Sony would be in a pretty bad spot right now. I think Microsoft had the better business plan sticking with dual layer DVDs and having a HD-DVD attachment rather than relying solely on the life of a media format (and turns out that was a pretty good decision in hindsight). Sony was "lucky" that the movie/film industry eventually went with Blu-Ray due to disc size (wasn't the case with VHS/Betamax).

One of the reasons I got a PS3 bundle for $300 was b/c of the price, it came with 2 games (LBP and Ratchet & Clank), and it would play Blu-Ray discs. Once the Blu-Ray format established itself the PS3 was instantly focused on as being one of the cheaper, but best players that also was a game console! That along with tons of great exclusives FINALLY coming out have led to a PS3 revival... the XBox has been losing exclusives to Sony/PC and has been losing ground to Sony.

I don't know how good a decision I'd say it was that Sony banked so heavily on Blu-Ray. Sure, it won the format war, but consumers overall seem to have been slow to adopt it. Most folks don't really see the benefit of HD (just look at the number of people buying HDTVs only to watch nothing but SD content on it ), and as far as I'm concerned Blu Ray remains a format that appeals to home theater enthusiasts far more than the average consumer. It's certainly not the console-pushing powerhouse that DVD was.

[JordanPlayer]

NO reason really to do that since they are dominating the market as is..

I'm not saying it's gonna happen any time soon, but Nintendo is going to eventually bring a console to market with HD capabilities

I don't know how good a decision I'd say it was that Sony banked so heavily on Blu-Ray. Sure, it won the format war, but consumers overall seem to have been slow to adopt it. Most folks don't really see the benefit of HD (just look at the number of people buying HDTVs only to watch nothing but SD content on it ), and as far as I'm concerned Blu Ray remains a format that appeals to home theater enthusiasts far more than the average consumer. It's certainly not the console-pushing powerhouse that DVD was.

I would agree that Blu-Ray didn't take off like DVD did. You had to have a HD television and Blu-Ray disc player which weren't cheap... also the fact many people didn't want to re-purchase their DVD collection (for the most part up-conversion does a pretty good job). I don't even have any Blu-Ray movies myself It is an added benefit for the console to be a Blu-Ray player though.

[ZeroAX]

Here's an article Edge published on its 200th issue.

http://www.next-gen.biz/features/the-ma ... laystation


Much of Sony's success belongs to Sony. They didn't make any great games, but they changed the way the industry did business.

1) By greatly dropping licensing fees, and making games much faster to manufacture (a few days compared to Nintendo taking months)

2) Treated games with more respect than children's toys, and marketed them to a wider demographic.

3) Opened up to new markets.

and much more, just read the article, it's a really good read.