Analyst says: PS3 is weak, hinders industry
by Nick Doerr 
{ May 2nd 2007 at 7:00PM }
Benjamin Schachter, hard-to-type-last-name analyst number one zillion, forty-eight trillion and three, says the PlayStation 3 will crawl into second place in 2010 behind the Wii worldwide. He also says the PS3 needs to shape up, or it could bring the whole gaming industry down with it. We ask, what? If you're afraid a system will fail and ruin the industry, shouldn't the industry have been affected by the Saturn, the Jaguar, the 3DO, the Neo-Geo Pocket? The N-Gage? Let's see what he means by that. Three key things were touched upon in his report, outlined below.- First-party strength may come at the expense of third-party publishers. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are ramping up production on their exclusive, first party titles. It was the opposite last cycle, but who knows where this cycle will take us.
- The new $60 price tag is going to stick. New ways to gain revenue, like in-game advertising, downloads, online stuff, will also prove to have some staying power.
- The PC gaming market is on the decline. With the onset of large HDTV's and the "console gaming experience continues to improve versus PC gaming", there's simply more draw to consoles. Couple that with the fact that online gaming has invaded the console market, there's little advantage to PC gaming left.
That's all well and good, but what is saying that Sony's failure will bring down the industry? Unless he's talking about certain genres or publishers that thrive on Sony's console suffering along with them (first and second party publishers, niche publishers), we're not sure about his angle. Anyone else got any ideas?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mccomber @ May 2nd 2007 7:11PM
Perhaps he is speaking strictly to the short term? I'm sure plenty of people were betting on the ps3 being in the position the Wii is in right now, and as such they were putting their money into developing games for the ps3 rather than 360 or Wii.
Smaller initial install base leading to lower sales than hoped on the numerous "meh" titles that rely on huge numbers of consoles to sell and make money, bringing down the indrusty, (which I had thought was growing quickly?) as a whole. But, as we've seen with the numerous multi-platform titles, there already seems to be a solution to the current problem for these particular publishers, and if the rest of his analysis holds true, it would seem that by 2010 making games for the ps3, then the 360, would be the smart choice... but making games for both will remain the best choice to make money on the next-gen systems.
The wii is the odd man out with it's unique control system and limited technical specs as compared to the ps360. Not exactly the system that will benefit or even receive ports, at least not ones that are well done.
massive_98 @ May 2nd 2007 7:40PM
I don't know why this is posted on PS3 fanboy. Its just gonna give fuel to Wii'ers and 360er's. Hehe Wii'ers.
This guy is harsh.
kingofwale @ May 2nd 2007 7:46PM
man, 2010? Wii would be at its last leg, It will be interesting to see what kind of third party support Wii can get before 'claiming' Wii will outsell PS3 and 360.
Kung Fu Russ @ May 2nd 2007 8:10PM
I wish gaming news sites would ignore these 'analysts'. You might as well consult a psychic...wait...now there's an article!!! (first person to do this owes me a game)
Killer @ May 2nd 2007 8:13PM
(360 fanboy here.)
I don't believe that the ps3 is slowing down the gaming industry. Not at all. It's the fact that games are getting more and more expensive to make. It has nothing to do with any console.
When games start costing more than $1.5 million to make it's a no brainer that the games will stay at $60 a pop.
Let's face it, 3rd party games aren't going to be exclusive at all in the future (with some exception ofcourse). It's just the way the industry is going. The price is getting more and more expensive each generation. I remember when pc games use to be $30 back in the early years. Ofcourse those were simple graphics as well.
kingofwale @ May 2nd 2007 8:18PM
>I don't believe that the ps3 is slowing down the gaming industry.
I think any one of the trio completely collapses will hurt the market big time. we are talking about at least 3 million installment (consoles) sold in each brand. And probably hundreds of projects worked on for each console.
Xbox will always has their Halo/FPS followers, Sony fanboys are pretty hardcore. and Nintendo will milk Mario to 2130.
so, I don't see any one of them going out of business soon. If anyone is going to crack, it's going to be Wii if there's a dry-spell on 3rd part games.
alecks @ May 3rd 2007 12:56AM
Well well well. Another jerko with a crystal ball. I swear that one day i will become an analyst, seems like a pretty sweet job. Sit around all day making predictions for things in 4 or 5 years, doesnt matter if its even remotely true cos by 2010 no one will remember this dumb ass's prediction.
I bet this jerk also gets paid some good money, who the hell knows why.
lenny0487 @ May 2nd 2007 10:39PM
Once he said that the PC gaming market is on the decline, I stopped reading. he forgot about that Famous MMO that was on South Park the Other Day, yeah I said it, WoW.
aragorn @ May 2nd 2007 9:30PM
>, shouldn't the industry have been affected by the Saturn, the Jaguar, the 3DO, the Neo-Geo Pocket? The N-Gage? Let's see what he means by that. Three key things were touched upon in his report, outlined below.
Not necessarily. the above mentioned consoles never took off in the first place, where the playstation brand pretty much single-handedly introduced a whole new generation of [retarded] gamers into the fold. in short, sony represents an extremely large percentage of gaming revenues annually, so arguably the downfall of sony would in short result in large quantities of developers without a platform with a consumer base like the playstation to sell their wares.
or theoretically it'll just mean that nintendo or microsoft will monopolize the market. :p
3cubedminus3squared @ May 2nd 2007 9:37PM
Xbox will always has their Halo/FPS followers, Sony fanboys are pretty hardcore. and Nintendo will milk Mario to 2130.
Aahh. The video game trifecta.
mccomber @ May 2nd 2007 10:03PM
"in short, sony represents an extremely large percentage of gaming revenues annually, so arguably the downfall of sony would in short result in large quantities of developers without a platform with a consumer base like the playstation to sell their wares."
But that is only supported by the idea that gamers not getting their fix on a ps3 won't get it elsewhere. If, for whatever reason, sony decided not to make a ps3, wouldn't the majority of us who only own that system have gone to the 360 side? The only way that losing sony (completely hypothetical and rubbish) completely would hurt the industry is if no one filled their place. At this point it looks like the numbers may not favor Sony like they did last generation, but the total number of consoles out there is likely to be well over 100million however you slice it.
At any rate, this all seems quite "what if" anyway, doesn't it?
kingofwale @ May 2nd 2007 10:44PM
>Once he said that the PC gaming market is on the decline
yeah, ONE game, with C&C coming to console.
I remember the days when we have StarCraft, Diablo 2 out. This is definitely the age of console. There are just not a lot of 'casual' gamers playing PC games anymore.
*when I say 'casual gamer', I don't mean your dad playing solitude.*
I think Wii is stealing a lot of casual gamers away from PC
Mike @ May 2nd 2007 10:54PM
I hate Sony,they let me down way too many times.
yomanDS @ May 2nd 2007 10:55PM
I can't believe for a second that the X-Box 360 will win the global market over Wii or the PS3. So who will come out number on top? Isn't it obvious?
http://www.superherotimes.com/news/images/Box-IMG_1347.jpg
Actually the PS3 coming in second to the wii is a very realistic prediction at this point in time. Second place does not equal fail by the way.
PS3 will hinder the videogame industry? Well I think....well I guess I really don't know what to think about that.
Squishey @ May 3rd 2007 2:10AM
"...playstation brand pretty much single-handedly introduced a whole new generation of [retarded] gamers into the fold..."
Two Words...
True that.
ck @ May 3rd 2007 7:28AM
I agree 100% with point 3. I'm off the PC upgrade treadmill and the only PC hardware I've bought in the last 3 years has been hard drives.
With all that spare cash I would have wasted on $600 graphics cards and this-month's-fastest-processor I've bought a HDTV and all 3 next gen consoles.
I predict that in 2010 I'll still be on the couch.
Ali @ May 3rd 2007 9:54AM
"The PC gaming market is on the decline. With the onset of large HDTV's and the "console gaming experience continues to improve versus PC gaming", there's simply more draw to consoles. Couple that with the fact that online gaming has invaded the console market, there's little advantage to PC gaming left."
They have been saying this for years, and every time after a new console is released, is the PC market dead?
No Infact its currently a growing market thanks to MMORGPS.
sigmagoat @ May 3rd 2007 2:33PM
Give it a chance!! Its the Wii thats dragging everyone down, back to the LOWDEF days of badness.
BTitty @ May 3rd 2007 5:25PM
Yea the PC market is still settling now from console dominance. But really, arent consoles now just spec PC's? Wouldnt it be cheaper if everyone just bought one really powerful computer that ran in a central location of the home and talked to monitors/TV's and peripherals over a network and games were made for these computers?
The thing that gets me is how devs can talk about porting problems and shorting one console for anothers faults when PC developers have offered different levels of detail and performance for games since day one. The open hardware structure of a PC is so much better than a console. You could still have the big three and lets say that currently there are no consoles per se, but these computers. Nintendo could make a pointer add on for this computer and only their games would work with it, or sony would make a sixaxis controller and/or BDRom drive, and microsoft would steal your hard drive ;. It would free up these companies from making one off specific hardware and start being even more creative on the actual playing of games. Agree?