Shadow_Dancer  |  October 7th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

Sony you have to do a better job at communicating your strategies. Alot of people are getting concerned and confused by the introduction of the 40GB. People are speculating that you’re abandoning BC and that all future models won’t have it. This has made alot of people furious.(Including me) Is the 40Gb replacing the 60Gb or is it being sold as an alternative model for those looking for a cheaper price? Please tell us!! I don’t like listening to Internet rumors and gossip.

rahstar2003  |  October 7th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

Its about time!! Comment 209 said it the best. Every game that gets advertised on tv has the 360 logo on it. Sometimes if you look hard enough you might catch a small ps3 logo, but thats it. The average person in america doesnt know what the ps3 has to offer, except for an expensive price, and gamestop workers telling them to get a 360!

orbio234  |  October 7th, 2007 at 9:49 pm

launch of the ps3 differed in regions..in
north america it launched in nov.2006…in oct. 2007 they have reached 5.5million sold…the sony name and word of mouth to me is the primary reason for the good sales….NOW ITS THE BIG bang….bigger budget to work with for advertising…awesome games in the pipeline….and very happy that they will have a cheaper model for those on a limited budget…they too will be able to get on the best of the best

awheaten  |  October 8th, 2007 at 8:41 am

Sony I beg of you. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeg of you, just drop the price of the 60sku/w Backwards capability. If you all try to come out with the 40gig and no backwards capability sku, I don’t think you all would be that the public would like it. Lets be honest, I’m a playstation fanatic. I have bought only 2 games for the PS3. The rest I’ve may bought online for a cheaper price. But, the point is, getting rid of backward capability is not good at all. BC is what separates you from Xbox360. You must keep at least the the ps2 BC. Ok its been awhile since my last post. Hope you all hear me.

Loucifer  |  October 8th, 2007 at 10:02 am

@awheaten

in keeping with the BC for PS2 what incentive will consumers have to buy a PS3???…think about that!!!….Sony is trying…and i stress TRYING to sell more PS3’s…if you want PS2 games on the PS3 then i’d advise you to just keep playing your last gen system…i hear Gmaestop has some for $99 :)

orbio234  |  October 8th, 2007 at 10:14 am

a lot of posts seem to think sony needs our help..so here goes…a new game for all….one liners for ps3….join in…mine is-reach out and touch the future—ps3BEYOUND…KIM NJUYEN…I RELISH YOUR NEW POST-not

kkgoh07  |  October 8th, 2007 at 10:58 am

Post 223 (Loucifer) makes a point. Removing backwards compatibility in PS3 promotes the PS3 “as is”, and helps reduce the high cost of the system (which helps bring the PS3 price down). Most people who were looking for BC already have PS2. The removal of BC to reduce cost as opposed to leaving it in and pleasing just a few consumers is probably the lesser of two evils.

samrican  |  October 8th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

finally more ps3 commercials. go sony!

GH2Champ  |  October 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

I’m glad to see your advertising because I’m tired of seeing Xbox 360 everywhere

saunderswan  |  October 9th, 2007 at 2:24 am

ok this is completely off-topic but while watching a DVD i noticed that subtitles appear every now and then while they are switched off WILL YOU BE MENTIONING THIS IN YOUR AD CAMPAIGNOR ARE YOU GONNA FIX IT?????????????????????? obviously we will have to wait for a fix but we come to expect this from the DELAYSTATION! HOW LONG WILL THIS WAIT BE???

kenji  |  October 9th, 2007 at 4:34 am

I really hope that the ads will be on TV because so far I haven’t seen anything for the PS3 on TV. I don’t think there has been one PS3 game that I’ve seen advertised on TV at all! I hope this ad setup starts to really show that Sony knows what it needs to do.

Loucetios  |  October 9th, 2007 at 12:37 pm

they do adds and lower the price of games to $50 that would stand out in a persons mind, when they see like COD4 on 360 for $60 and on ps3 $50 that would start selling games and systems now with the new 40gb

flarp  |  October 9th, 2007 at 4:01 pm

Impressive looking banner. I think name/brand recognition is not Sony’s biggest challenge when it comes to PS3 sales though. It’s the value proposition of the PS3 as a gaming and multimedia entertainment platform. While the PS3 arguably has superior capabilities over other current generation consoles, it doesn’t yet do enough to really justify its significantly higher price tag.

On the games front, the few exclusive releases so far do not have near the fanbase as other already-established titles (eg. Halo). While PS3 does have some exclusive games with larger followings planned (Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, etc.), they are still too far into the future to make the PS3 attractive in the present.

As a Blu-ray player, the ongoing format war with HD-DVD reduces the appeal of sinking money on something that could very well go the way of Betamax. At $500-600 for a PS3 console and then $20-30 per disc, the threat of being the proud owner of $1k of abandoned technology is very unappealing. Paramount/Dreamworks’ recent announcement of dropping Blu-ray certainly doesn’t help.

The PS3 has several other capabilities as a multimedia center, but the gaming and movies are probably the two key points the majority of consumers really consider.

That said, I think the only remaining tool at Sony’s disposal is price. Everyone already knows the name “Sony” and has heard of the PS3. They also know that the PS3’s retail price is more than 2x the Wii and $100 more than the Xbox360 and doesn’t offer any particularly good arguments to justify that difference.

By offering a PS3 with full capabilities (not stripped out hardware, reduced ports, reduced hard disk space, etc.) at prices comparable to the competitors, Sony could make the PS3 competitive again. Otherwise, I think the PS3 will continue to trail for another year, when it really starts to strengthen its games.

Just my thoughts…

warezIbanez  |  October 9th, 2007 at 4:27 pm

PLEASE get more TV ads- it will only benefit the company…

Oh yeah, Paramount? Paramount only has Transformers right now… get Disney to release and advertise Cars and other movies on Blu-ray, and the people wil come…

Very nice ad banner- I’m jealous of your skills now :P

kkgoh07  |  October 10th, 2007 at 8:02 am

flarp, nice summary of the current situation.
Out of curiosity (anyone can answer), how’s HOME doing? If Sony wants to reposition itself as a gaming/multimedia platform and plan to use HOME to do it, are they really successful? I remember hearing about the access capabilities of watching movies and stuff via the MMORPG-styled platform, but can’t say how effective that’s been.

Some other random ideas:
- Use of branded entertainment to add the earning potential of PS3, maybe through HOME
Similar to what Xbox is offering. Creating entertaining content for advertisers with the oh-so subtle advertisements, like Burger King’s games. Sony doesn’t always have to sell to end users to earn money.
- Value instead of price
Instead of price wars, are there any ideas to improve the perception of value for the PS3? Its always easy to talk about reducing price, but that impacts your future sales. Since raising prices is taboo, the rule-of-thumb for new products is usually to start high, and cut down (although in Sony’s case they started too high).
Promote the educational aspect (if any) of the PS3. There’s always the hype about “serious” games for training/educational purposes although nothing much has been done. Use the HOME network capabilities and go on a public school PR campaign to promote the use of PS3 there. Have kids link up across schools or something. Work with more of those gaming schools (you see more of their ads these days) and have the students work on creating PS3 games, and give them the tools to do it.
- New channels
I can imagine learning from Betamex, and find out new key channels that influence the outcome of the format war. I don’t know enough about global markets to say for sure, but maybe looking overseas (europe, asia, etc) and convincing the smaller but more numerous independent movie producers to work with blu-ray might help. That might not come under Kim’s jurisdiction, but its a thought.
- Coping with an ineffective first launch
Let’s face it…a poor first launch diminishes your future sales over the ENTIRE projected life of the console. Playing catch-up sounds nice, but total expected earnings from the PS3 already took a nose-dive. So Sony can’t just hope to increase its PS3 sales. It has to increase it at a rate that is much GREATER than the Wii or Xbox 360. And that requires a lot of AGGRESSIVE action. Sony can’t afford to trail anymore. Hard to describe without visuals…there’s a really neat graph I saw once that shows this effect.

KK

aoa_weaponx  |  October 10th, 2007 at 8:57 am

I am a really big Playstation 3 fan, and am really tired of everyone I know say that the xbox 360 is the best system on the market. Please. You have to dish out more money just to get the 360 to play a HD dvd, which is going to lose to Blu-ray. So I really hope that this helps sony out.

SlavedHeart  |  October 10th, 2007 at 9:25 am

First and fore most, I love the design, style and feel of the banner… This is master work in it’s truest definition

That being said, (here comes the HUGE pink elephant) isn’t this just more of the same? Floating PS3, spewing items in a clean white environment? Ok, maybe the work is top notch, but it’s reminiscent of the creepy baby commercial, and that even made my little brother, an 80’s metal head squeamish. Are there going to be any other ’story lines’ so to speak? A different campaign perhaps?

Scottling  |  October 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am

It’s great that the branding campaign has gotten underway. I just hope when the 40GB PS3 finally ships that Sony will rethink the PS2 backwards compatibility issue. That’s rather important to many. Plus if it’s a matter of getting the emulation coding done on a per game basis they could do something similar to what MS has done with updates and the like. Just a thought.

crump602  |  October 11th, 2007 at 2:39 am

bad-ass

cmbb0200  |  October 11th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

Hello to Kim Nguyen and to all people this may concern. The Playstation 3 has a whole bunch of things it can do— it is $599.99 for one model and $499.99 for another model. It is a fancy piece of technology–very powerful–and very expensive. It makes me upset that I cannot afford this new machine. From my perspective as a consumer—this is what I am trying to say—I just want a “video game system.”

This is it—I want a Playstation that can play PS One, PS2, and PS3 games. I do not need it to be a home entertainment system with all of the whistles and bells. I have no intention of playing Resident Evil 5 or Metal Gear 4 or Grand Theft Auto in my living room with mom and dad watching. I believe, that if Sony just made a PlayStation 3 with backward compatibility and nothing else, it would not have as many problems and it would be more affordable, more user friendly, and it will be built to last. I ask you to please consider an old idea—the idea, that “less is more” Just consider for a moment, making a game machine–that just plays PlayStation compatible games. Thank you.