Brass Tacks: “The Playstation Triple”

by Thomas Cox

Posted: 19-11-2008

Every so often we owe it to ourselves to look at events holding up the fabric of the industry. Welcome to the Brass Tacks

Since its inception, the Playstation 3 has seemingly been doomed to fail, due to a mix of bad publicity, horrible timing, and terrible marketing. We start with the unveiling of the Playstation Thrice. We see this huge convex machine, utilizing the Spider-man film’s font, with a tiny Boomerang shaped controller, colored a drab silver.

The entire gaming community was taken back with shock and disgust. Especially considering that Microsoft managed to make their new controller far more ergonomic than both their controller S, and their horrible original Xbox controller (if you could even call it that; I prefer the term hulking behemoth).

Then, to further their bad luck, later that year Nintendo creates a motion controller and accuses Sony of copying the feature with their own Six Axis feature.

It gets worse the following E3 as Microsoft proclaims that you can buy a 360 and a Wii for the price of a Playstation 3. This proposed alliance was never commented on by Nintendo (either positively or negatively), but soon became the mantra for 360 and Nintendo gamers alike.

But then we move into Ken Kutaragi, who essentially destroyed any chance of good publicity they had with claims to the effect of, “The PS3 will be expensive, but you will want to work hard to buy it.” Further complicating matters was the confirmation that its controller would lack a rumble feature, and rumors that it would cost an upwards of $1000 for the console alone.

However what hit them the most in the months before the introduction of the PS3, was the Xbox 360’s one year jump on both Nintendo and Sony, as well as Nintendo’s amazing publicity regarding titles like Twilight Princess and Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Shaky start is an understatement

And finally the day comes that PS3 is released, but it would be released simultaneously with the Wii. Stores across the country sold out of Sony’s third child. The problem is, they also sold out of Nintendo’s Wii. And they were able to ship more Wii’s than Sony was able to ship PS3’s. This resulted in another stroke of bad press, albeit unforeseen. Across the country, the lucky few who were able to obtain Playstation 3’s were being mugged in parking lots, followed home, or threatened at work to surrender their new consoles to rabid fanboys desperate enough to take such measures.

Sony continued selling out the console up until the holidays, due to factory shortages. Eventually this stopped, and shops were overflowed with Playstations. Due to a lack of games, and the Wii’s marketing to demographics previously untapped, the Playstation slugged along its first year of life.

After a year of underselling, Sony adopted and publicized Ken Kutaragi’s “10 year plan”. Essentially, he stated the system was so advanced it would last and be technologically relevant for the next ten years. As any right-minded technology enthusiast or gamer will tell you, this is certainly not possible.

Another brick in the wall has been Sony’s arrogance in being unwilling to drop the price of their console to something more reasonable. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem, but as many are aware, North America is going through an economic crisis, the likes of which could affect the entire world. As such, the cheaper price point for the Xbox 360, and the already affordable Wii, have become more attractive buys.

Sony does have a base of dedicated zealots, though. I dare you to look up any youtube video blog regarding the Playstation 3, or search any gaming forum boards, and you’ll find great numbers of completely dedicated Playstation 3 fanboys, ready to give life and limb for their console.

In fact, earlier this year it was announced that the latest installment of Final Fantasy would be ported to the Xbox 360 as well as the Playstation 3. One angry fan threatened to kill himself upon hearing the news. Stories like these don’t help Sony’s publicity either.

It has been a tough run for the electronics giant

This year, though, has been looking up for Sony. They released three big exclusive titles: the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4, the innovative side-scroller Little Big Planet, and the follow up to Insomniac’s epic, Resistance Fall of Man 2. Their updates with the trophy feature, as well as their open beta tests, have shaped the Playstation Network into a rival to Microsoft’s praised Xbox Live service. Even still, that doesn’t mean Sony is without its share of problems.

Currently, Sony’s profit has dropped a staggering 70%, their share prices are fluctuating, and they are being outsold by not only the Wii and the Xbox 360, but also the Playstation 2, not to mention Sony has been losing insane amounts of money sinking all of their hopes into pushing Blu-Ray as the disc format of choice. Which begs the question: Will Sony go the way of Sega before them?