Danny Willis Wrote:No, this isn’t a delayed April Fools joke. Bobby Kotick, the man in charge of Activision, said in an interview with The Times (Not the Contra Costa Times. Some other Times. I think it might be a little bigger.) that unless Sony changes some things his company may stop supporting their consoles. In his words:

I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.

. . .

They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP too.

That’s pretty serious considering Activision is the largest video game publisher in the world. It probably won’t come to that — I can’t see them not lowering the cost in the next year or so regardless of what Kotick thinks — but if I were Sony I would definitely be a little nervous about this. If this inspires some bravado in EA and they make a similar statement it could seriously hurt console sales.

(And please, people, this is news about a statement by an executive, not a personal attack against you for preferring a certain faceless multinational corporation that doesn’t care about you outside your wallet. Let’s try to be adults and not turn the comments into some petty console flame war shouting match. Have some dignity.)

Shinryuji Wrote:Sony's screwed...

doesn't it already cost more to build a ps3 than what it's sold for?

Sn1perJohnE Wrote:Sonys not screwed, theyre most likely going to lower the cost by 50 to 100 bucks this xmas, that would make an insanely large push in their sales. Basically they can be thought of as Sony "drying" up the current price range that it is in, dropping the price, especially during xmas, they will sell the most consoles in that time. Only problem is the econmy, although it may have leveled out somewhat, but there still gonna be a bit of a dismal xmas in terms of sales.

MetaSeraphim Wrote:They just need to remake the PS2.

Takebacker Wrote:Fix'd.

MetaSeraphim Wrote:Huh? The PS2 was perfectly fine, unless you mean they need to remake the PS3 into something more PS2 like.

Sn1perJohnE Wrote:I never really got what this "useless crap" is. @-a I mean on the older models that had ports out the wazzoo, maybe, but the current models dont even have backwards compat with them (which makes my first gen model worth more ).

Only real useless thing i can think of for the PS3 is the camera, which isnt useless to all people, only to people who dont need it.

Matt Wales Wrote:Executives at major retailer GameStop have weighed in with their console predictions for the remainder of 2009, expecting both PlayStation and Wii to receive a meaningful price cut before the year is out.

That's according to a research note from analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee, following a meeting with key GameStop executives. As reported by Gamasutra, GameStop cites the slowing of sales for both Nintendo and Sony's consoles, with PlayStation 3 in most urgent need of attention.

Previously, Bhatia has predicted that PS3 might lose up to 100 USD of its current price point alongside the release of EA's Madden NFL 10 in August.

With growing pressure from the games industry to slash the price of the PlayStation 3 - most recently from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick who questioned his company's continued support of Sony's machine in the light of a probable attach rate tumble - we doubt we've heard the last of the issue yet.

MetaSeraphim Wrote:That Blu-Ray player is pretty worthless.

Blaine Wrote:The PS3's "extra useless crap" is the stuff that makes it a beast in the graphics department. Don't tell me you think a Wii or a 360 could support full blown High Definition on a screen like the one at Sony's E3 press conference. If I remember right, the speaker said it was like 60' x 40' during the MAG preview.

butterfli Wrote:"It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better."

The Wii kinda sucks pomegranate in terms of good games for the teen audience but Nintendo did a smart thing by making the Wii fit and other family games and now most older audiences are getting back into gaming = profit.

FF13 should bring some people back to the ps3.

DrRusty Wrote:They advertised FF13 BEFORE the PS3 was even released. I'm pretty sick of waiting for it. I asked gamestop when it was coming out and they said probably 2010, and last year they said 2009.

The only thing PS3 has goin for it right now is blue ray and Little Big Planet. Well they have kingdom hearts too..