Analysts: Sony was saved by Wii success

semiautomatix

semiautomatix

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Sony and the PlayStation 3 were saved by the success of the Nintendo Wii, says marketing research group DFC Intelligence.

Speaking in its piece, 'is it time for the PlayStation 3 to shine?', the group claims that the success of Nintendo's console in this generation ultimately blocked Microsoft from snatching the top slot from Sony. So in a way, Nintendo did Sony a favour.

"While Sony's strategy was to crush Microsoft, and ignore what it considered to be an out-of-the-race Nintendo, consumers had other ideas," it says.
"The lowest priced system, the Nintendo Wii far outsold the others. In North America, the PlayStation 3 was soundly outsold by the Xbox 360. Even in Europe, a market normally dominated by Sony, the Xbox 360 slightly outsold the PlayStation 3. The past few years, Sony's very existence in the game business seemed to be in peril."

It continues: "The main danger Sony faced was that the Xbox 360 would become embedded as the system of choice. Instead consumers flocked to the Nintendo Wii.

"The Xbox 360 had solid sales, but they have not been enough to give Microsoft anywhere near a breakout market position. In many respects, Sony was saved by the success of the Wii."
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Now this is an interesting spin on a the story. Unfortunately it appears that the Wii will become the PS2 of this generation with the other two consoles fighting it out with less than 50% between them!

So well done Nintendo, after the Gamecube we expected very little from the gaming company.
 
It is interesting...not sure which Sony would have chosen...

I don't think they aimed at the same markets so market share is almost a moot point...
360 & PS3 are aimed at hardcore gamers. XBox is 13-45 hardcore gamer, PS3 has a slightly higher aged market, probably richer and established.

Wii went for the jugular and just took everyone else, (kids, senior citz, casual gamers) and obviously the odd hardcore gamer here or there...everyone that i know that owned a PS2 or X-Box that owns a wii also owns one of the other 2..and more interesting than that is the attach rate on their hardcore consoles is much much higher than the WII...

Wii saturated the market, got great market share, attach rates were low, reputation is not great with mostly shovelware, hardcore games performing horribly and the same old IP's in Mario and Zelda...they probably done enough to hold off 360 and PS3 in terms of install base...but things don't look that rosy for them either...maybe the WiiHD or Wii2 will change that...
 
Lets add the links
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=226580?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS

Very selective extract! It actually originated here:

http://www.dfcint.com/wp/?p=264

On September 1, 2009, we finally got it: a new PlayStation 3 priced at $299 (€299, £249, ¥29980). Of course, the impact was immediate with PlayStation 3 September sales for the first time beating both the Wii and Xbox 360 in the U.S. However, the big question is now that the price has come down to earth can the PlayStation 3 live up to its true potential in both the holiday 2009 season and going into 2010?
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DFC’s analysis of the position of the PlayStation3 going into holiday 2009 and 2010 is similar to what we felt about the Xbox 360 going into holiday 2007. The cards are in Sony’s favor and now is the time to make the most of them. The next year will be extremely important for PlayStation3 sales and Sony’s overall position in the marketplace. Now is the time for Sony to shine…or else.
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Lemon369 said:
It is interesting...not sure which Sony would have chosen...

I don't think they aimed at the same markets so market share is almost a moot point...
360 & PS3 are aimed at hardcore gamers. XBox is 13-45 hardcore gamer, PS3 has a slightly higher aged market, probably richer and established.

Wii went for the jugular and just took everyone else, (kids, senior citz, casual gamers) and obviously the odd hardcore gamer here or there...everyone that i know that owned a PS2 or X-Box that owns a wii also owns one of the other 2..and more interesting than that is the attach rate on their hardcore consoles is much much higher than the WII...

Wii saturated the market, got great market share, attach rates were low, reputation is not great with mostly shovelware, hardcore games performing horribly and the same old IP's in Mario and Zelda...they probably done enough to hold off 360 and PS3 in terms of install base...but things don't look that rosy for them either...maybe the WiiHD or Wii2 will change that...
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Based on what ?
 
Interesting article but only has a single point of view. The introduction of the Wii also brought forth people that were looking for something different from the PS2/PS3/Xbox360. We can also argue that if the Wii were not around, most of the Wii owners would not be playing games. Gamers playing games for a long time bought the Wii to try out something different and not really to replace their PS2. PS2 replacments came either from PS3/Xbox360.

Although I do admit that Sony has lost quite a bit of market share because the PS1/PS2 was the predominant console, times have changed and the future generation of consoles will definitely be something to look forward to, whether you are a Sony or M$ fanboi. Both companies made mistakes and both will defintely up the ante in the next round.
 
timgaul said:
Are you expecting a link or some sort of substantiation? You'll be waiting for a long time for anything besides insults from Lemon.

But I agree, its a bunch on nonsense.
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Wow Mr. Pimple... if you can't talk to me, it's talking about me ;) I'm soon gonna be Mr Popular on here..and will still be smarter and more witty than you ;)



@Nerf : Not sure what you mean, i made a lot of comments there...what, based on what ?
 
I'm saying there is no basis for any of your comments. LOL

I think you are reading far too much in to it... a Wii is a Wii, people liked it and got it. A PS3 is a PS3 people liked it and got it.

The demographics of who purchases what is impossible to figure out. Some people have all three consoles some have one. I know a lot of kids have a PS3... does that make it a kids console ? A lot of adults have the Wii does that make it an adults console....

You are talking about imaginary statistics that don't exist....

Also... everyone keeps throwing around the term "hardcore", take a look at this definition from the wiki
"Hardcore gamer is a widely used term applied to describe a type of video game player. There is currently no unanimously agreed upon definition for the term (see Usage section). Some describe hardcore gamers as those whose leisure time is largely devoted to playing or reading about video games. This type of gamer prefers to take significant time and practice on games, in contrast to a casual gamer. Many hardcore gamers pride themselves on mastering the rules or use of a game, although this is not a strict requirement. Conflicting opinion argues that it is not so much the time spent on games however, as casual gamers can spend hundreds of hours on games without ever mastering them."

Rather don't flaunt the term like it means something... it doesn't. Back in the day hardcore ment "cool" or "fun" and that is relative.
 
@IAP : Thanks, exactly my point..the entire thread is based on imaginary scenario's...the best we can ask for is for there to be some logic and reason applied to our scenario's and maybe substantiate somewhere...and analysts are exactly the most reliable sources, althought i'm really hoping Pachter is right about XBL costing $100 in the near future ;)

@ Nerf : Guess you read the above. The entire basis argument is moot because the thread suggest the impact of an event that never occurred. You have made some interesting comments.

1. Demographics (target market/market segmentation) is the cornerstone of a business...what features that market consider important or not important, what type of marketing is appropriate, what type of bundles....it's accepted that the Wii is for casual gamers and across the age band.

2. Wiki isn't the only reference, try industry sites and documents...I got tons, the most interesting would be an industry white paper from last year on casual games :
http://www.igda.org/sites/default/files/users/u51/IGDA_Casual_Games_White_Paper_2008.pdf

Check Appendix C for the Bio's of contributors to the document and you'll see it's industry heavyweights....then do a search for "hardcore" read those 15 sentences, the description of the gamer and his habits and tell me there is no term in the industry such as hardcore, so i can really do my homework get a more reliable and explicit source to the existence and definition of a hardcore gamer.

As with Dr. Z and Tim, just because you don't know, doesn't mean it doesn't exist !
 
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Nerfherder said:
I'm saying there is no basis for any of your comments. LOL

I think you are reading far too much in to it... a Wii is a Wii, people liked it and got it. A PS3 is a PS3 people liked it and got it.

The demographics of who purchases what is impossible to figure out. Some people have all three consoles some have one. I know a lot of kids have a PS3... does that make it a kids console ? A lot of adults have the Wii does that make it an adults console....

You are talking about imaginary statistics that don't exist....

Also... everyone keeps throwing around the term "hardcore", take a look at this definition from the wiki
"Hardcore gamer is a widely used term applied to describe a type of video game player. There is currently no unanimously agreed upon definition for the term (see Usage section). Some describe hardcore gamers as those whose leisure time is largely devoted to playing or reading about video games. This type of gamer prefers to take significant time and practice on games, in contrast to a casual gamer. Many hardcore gamers pride themselves on mastering the rules or use of a game, although this is not a strict requirement. Conflicting opinion argues that it is not so much the time spent on games however, as casual gamers can spend hundreds of hours on games without ever mastering them."

Rather don't flaunt the term like it means something... it doesn't. Back in the day hardcore ment "cool" or "fun" and that is relative.
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I would tend to think that XBox 360 and PS3 are hardcore gamer consoles with a lot of bloody shoot-em-ups. The Wii is for a more "casual" kinda gamer, almost a non-gamer in some instances!

Unfortunately "hardcore" gamers are in the minority, they play online, keep stats, etc, etc.

The other point is that the Wii is a cheaper console (than the XBox 360) in most countries, which is also why it was quick on the uptake.

Left choiceless many would have purchased the XBox 360 merely because of the price point, if nothing else. As such, Sony's sales would not have changed but they would be even further behind the 360.

Is this a bit of pointless guessing because either way Sony is the worst selling console? Wii sales may have actually decreased Sony's sales. But it has definitely cut into Microsoft sales and this has put the Sony a little closer than it may have been, but at the end of the day it is still in last place.
 
I wasn't trying to give you a definition... read it again, I was trying to tell you its realative.

I know what demographics are, i'm saying you have no data/interpretation on the demographics, you sucked that lot out your thumb.
 
timgaul said:
I would tend to think that XBox 360 and PS3 are hardcore gamer consoles with a lot of bloody shoot-em-ups. The Wii is for a more "casual" kinda gamer, almost a non-gamer in some instances!

Unfortunately "hardcore" gamers are in the minority, they play online, keep stats, etc, etc.

The other point is that the Wii is a cheaper console (than the XBox 360) in most countries, which is also why it was quick on the uptake.

Left choiceless many would have purchased the XBox 360 merely because of the price point, if nothing else. As such, Sony's sales would not have changed but they would be even further behind the 360.

Is this a bit of pointless guessing because either way Sony is the worst selling console? Wii sales may have actually decreased Sony's sales. But it has definitely cut into Microsoft sales and this has put the Sony a little closer than it may have been, but at the end of the day it is still in last place.
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Still trying to define hardcore.... :rolleyes:

I agree with you on the rest though, pricepoint is important. The Wii dropped the price and sales moved up again, people do choose according to price... even if they are choosing their second or third console.
The price of the Wii dropped after the PS3 meaning that Nintendo know that the two consoles are linked in terms of sales.
God knows what Xbox think...
 
Nerf : Everything is relative...that's why through communication we try to reach concensus...a collective agreement...and hardcore definitely has an industry definition and segmentation to the gaming community. It was like you were almost suggesting the word should not be used.

Can you provide contrary data to the demographics ? Or you just sucking it out of your thumb that it's different ?

lastly, my point is that the Wii appealed to a different market segment...I definitely believe Wii made a huge impact, what it is, no one knows ! Which was the reason that i started out with "Not sure which sony would have chosen" in regards to having Wii this gen or not...
 
timgaul said:
Is this a bit of pointless guessing because either way Sony is the worst selling console? Wii sales may have actually decreased Sony's sales. But it has definitely cut into Microsoft sales and this has put the Sony a little closer than it may have been, but at the end of the day it is still in last place.
Click to expand...

As Nerf said...relative to what ? Relative to 360 and Wii, September month the PS3 was teh best selling console globally, outselling the wii in japan and the 360 in the US....relative to the year lead 360 had, well, then PS3 has still outsold the 360 in similar periods (first 3 years and 5 months)...relative to just overall global sales, then yes....October figures look like the PS3 has outsold the other consoles as well...

With gamers having full systems to choose from at competitive prices, they choosing PS3...THAT MUST SCARE YOU!
 
RPG_Fan said:
Interesting article but only has a single point of view. The introduction of the Wii also brought forth people that were looking for something different from the PS2/PS3/Xbox360. We can also argue that if the Wii were not around, most of the Wii owners would not be playing games. Gamers playing games for a long time bought the Wii to try out something different and not really to replace their PS2. PS2 replacments came either from PS3/Xbox360.

Although I do admit that Sony has lost quite a bit of market share because the PS1/PS2 was the predominant console, times have changed and the future generation of consoles will definitely be something to look forward to, whether you are a Sony or M$ fanboi. Both companies made mistakes and both will defintely up the ante in the next round.
Click to expand...

A balanced viewpoint? In the gaming subsection? Heresy! Burn him I say!

;)
 
timgaul said:
The other point is that the Wii is a cheaper console (than the XBox 360) in most countries, which is also why it was quick on the uptake.
Click to expand...
I assume you mean cheaper than the HDD derivative of the xbox because it is definitely not cheaper than the Arcade.

Left choiceless many would have purchased the XBox 360 merely because of the price point, if nothing else. As such, Sony's sales would not have changed but they would be even further behind the 360.
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If what you saying is true regarding the price point, then PS3 would not sell a single unit. Remember that even before the Slim or the $100 price reduction was announced, the PS3 still sold 23mil. Price does matter, but only to the gamers that cannot afford to pay for the console.

Is this a bit of pointless guessing because either way Sony is the worst selling console? Wii sales may have actually decreased Sony's sales. But it has definitely cut into Microsoft sales and this has put the Sony a little closer than it may have been, but at the end of the day it is still in last place.
Click to expand...
If consumers bought the Wii, it was definitely not because of the price. They still had the choice between the PS3 and xbox. I would say if the Wii was not introduced, the ratio split between the PS3 & xbox will be the same as current. The unexpected Wii has slaughtered both Sony & M$ due to innovation.
 
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