State of the PS3. What is Sony doing wrong?
On top of the world. That’s where Sony was. The Playstation 2 outsold all of its competitors by a substantial margin. It was the undisputed king of the last console generation. The positive momentum leading up to the launch of the Playstation 3 was almost unparalleled. Then everything just started going wrong.
Rumors of manufacturing difficulties kept Playstation 3s out of stores for the first few months. Then, once the supply was met, the demand for the system dwindled. Despite early showings of great success for it’s European launch, the Playstation 3’s sales figures plummeted in the weeks following. Due to their continual mistakes, Sony has lost game exclusives, advertising rights (as backlash to their mind-numbing “This is Living” set of commercials”, and profits.
Throughout all of Sony’s mistakes, the Playstation faithful have never quit. Fighting back on forums, defending Sony’s mistakes, and keeping hope alive. They truly want their $600+ investment to be appreciated by the company they have put so much faith in. Those cries seem to be falling on deaf ears.
So much so, that the Playstation fan base has taken it upon themselves to fix Sony’s mistakes. The “This is Living” set of commercials are seen as so terrible, the Playstation faithful must trust in their meager abilities to make them more appealing.
This is how sad the Playstation community has become. Somehow, I can’t blame them.
The worst evidence of Sony’s disregard for their customers is their lack of support. Since the launch of the PS3’s online service, users have urged Sony to upgrade the experience. Sony’s service only recently was updated to allow “background downloading”, yet problems remain. Fans have taken it upon themselves to sign petitions, yearning for features that they were promised by Sony.
So what can Sony do? How can they appease their customers? The answer is quite simple. Listen to them.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
The PR for Sony has so much stink of arrogance to them, it sickens and saddens me. On top of just not buying a PS3 of course, when I am in a store, I sometimes find myself just completely avoiding any Sony branded products at all (ie if I am buying blank dvds or something). I know that may seem a bit like going too far… but when you think of the lies (worldwide launch date, how many systems they will have at launch) and retarded things (alliwantforxmasisapsp, Jack Tretton’s EGM interview).. it really makes me want to show this company they are doing wrong in the only place a person can, by speaking with their wallets.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Sony is highly arrogant. I agree with you on that Paco. It makes me sad in a way that I have to consider the 360 the top system, because I’m not exactly a Microsoft supporter. Microsoft is greedy, but they have been listening to the customer some and responding to demands of the consumer.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Every games/console manufacturer becomes greedy and arrogant after a spell at the top. Atari did it, Nintendo, Sega and now Sony. It takes a knock back as Sony are definitely having in the early stages of Ps3 to kick them back in to listening to their core customers.
I wouldn’t say the ps3 is dead though, especially in Europe as it’s only been out 2 weeks! The games will prove whether the console can cut it or not.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Great article. Sony is such a huge multi-national corporation they have a hard time relating to what their fan base really wants.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I’m always happy to read negative things about the PS3. I want the PS3 to fail, even if that means that the XBox360 has to succeed.
But in an attempt to be unbias, I think that the competition and failure is good for the PS3 and any console. Better things will come of it in the future.
April 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Oh yep. The Playstation Online system IS improving, the updates will come as the updates did come for the PSP.
Sony is sometimes listening, however they cannot listen to everything. Sony practically has tons of people asking for all different kinds of stuff, and they just can’t keep up with all of it.
I mean, Playstation Home, that new online experience thing just like Second Life and many online social games is probably the thing that will start to make the PS3 rise. It’s free too, so that may be something to consider
April 15th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
[...] http://www.1pstart.com/state-of-the-ps3-what-is-sony-doing-wrong/ [...]
April 20th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
The machine is $600+. Thats without everything you need to play it.
Now, who is gonna pay that for a game system without a bunch of killer games? Early adopters. Oops, there’s no games for them either that are truly ground-breaking.
Sony’s grand plan was to release a 600+ machine and just expect everyone to buy it? (We paid a lot to make it, and we have nothing software wise to give you making the system a boutique decoration- but BUY IT!)
Ok, its the games. Well, we’re still waiting for it. And sony fanboys can shut up right now- because nothing they have can’t be done on a cheaper system and better so far.
Well…maybe a miracle happens and they drop the price anyway. Instead, they take away the cheapest version of the system. BUY IT NOW! (Um, is that REALLY the plan?).
Still no groundbreaking titles, still no price break, still same ol’ arrogant Sony. YOU BUY NOW!!!!!!
OK?
April 20th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Does BB stand for Bum Bandit?
October 1st, 2007 at 9:06 pm
[...] short: No, probably not. Not as long as the PS3 issues go [...]