PS5 or XBox Series X

[Polymathic]

Huh? WTF are you going on about?

Looks like another strange post from the supposedly impartial Poly.

Right now whether gamers or scalpers get most of the PS5 units won't affect Sony's bottomline much. So there's no real insensitive for them to stop scalpers.

If Sony continue their strategy of a slow trickle of consoles made available to retailers as soon as they are produced only will benefit scalpers, they may need to do a massive dump of units into the market to kill the scalping market, the sooner the better for the consumer.

Hopefully this can be done before the Average Joe sees PS5 scalping as a get rich scheme and a tiny little PS5 bubble is created.

 

[AlphaJohn]

The problem with the scalpers is that Sony isn't getting financially hurt by them because most of the people getting the PS5 are currently PS4 owners and are already paying/paid for their PS Plus subscription and there are next no PS5 exclusive games out. They are getting the money from the sales

If anything allowing scalpers buy up all their consoles is a PR win for them. Sucks for the PS gamer but Sony can't keep doing this trickle strategy would out alienating their customer base for much longer .

One thing I know scalping is helping its Microsoft. I know personally of at least 4 PlayStation owners that bought Xbox Series systems because they could not get their hands on PS5's. 1 of those never owned a Xbox before in his life.

FOMO is a strange beast

If Sony continue their strategy of a slow trickle of consoles made available to retailers as soon as they are produced only will benefit scalpers, they may need to do a massive dump of units into the market to kill the scalping market, the sooner the better for the consumer.

If the articles I have read the problem is on Chip maker side more than Sony... something about chip yeld not being so great... will see if I can find it again.

Edit: Can only find the old link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ut-ps5-forecast-by-4-million-due-to-chip-woes

But I do recall seeing something else more recent as well...

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Let me understand this - you are basically saying they should have ignored 114 million (PS) consoles in an attempt to target 10 million consoles. By the 10 million, I am guessing you mean both of the new generation consoles?

As an accountant, this does not compute.

Anyway, apparently this game has been at least about 6 years in the making. Which means at least 4 of those years were developing for last gen consoles.

They have stuffed up, obviously.

And this is why been counters make for terrible managers of tech companies

I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that depending on where you are on your dev timeline, you can't release a game on everything. You will always have to choose. If you had started dev in the past year, it wouldn't make sense to release for previous gen. Because by the time you release it, growth in next gen would have caught up or exceeded previous gen.

Even ignoring the Cyberpunk issue, this happens every generation. Previous gen will eventually no longer be supported, no matter how many owners there are. The first to jump ship to next gen only are usually third party studios. The first party ones have a more vested interest in keeping existing owners happy.

This usually happens when growth in next gen starts exceeding growth in previous gen. Studios want to showcase their work more impressively, and the best way to do that is on new hardware.

Even halfway through last gen, there were probably more PS3/360 consoles out there than PS4/X1. There probably still are. But they ran the numbers and it would still be profitable if they didn't have to support old hardware.

Also being in IT, the dev timeline and roadmap is important. You know what's in store for the future, and you will start shifting your focus towards that. Why would you want to keep supporting old hardware, instead of encouraging people to upgrade so you can sell a more copies of a more impressive product?

Now back to Cyberpunk - dev didn't actually start 8 years ago, that's only when it was announced. Dev only started about 4 years ago. This put CDPR in a tricky position in terms of their dev timeline. They knew that by the time it would be ready, it would be towards the end of the current gen. But they also knew that it would coincide with the next gen, and therefore put a lot of focus into the PC version to make a next gen port easier. Their issue is they tried to kill too many birds.

Rockstar faced exactly the same issue with GTA V. Their solution? Initial release was for PS3/360 only, followed by PS4/X1 remaster a year later, followed by PC a few months after that (their initial plan was to release PC alongside the next gen systems). This allowed for a more focused and polished product.

If CDPR followed Rockstar's approach, I believe they would have been in the clear even if they would have faced some criticism from impatient PC owners.

The point I was making about chasing 10 million instead of 114 million, is if you had to start now (or even the past year or two), you would rather target a faster growing base than a slower one. By the time your product is ready, your target base would be larger, and you have a better product to draw more sales. But depending on where you are on your timeline, you need to make a choice. You can't simply go after the numbers and release it on everything to try and satisfy everyone. You need to focus on doing one thing right. Then you can shift focus to the next. This is what everyone would have learnt from Cyberpunk...

 

[Splinter]

Right now whether gamers or scalpers get most of the PS5 units won't affect Sony's bottomline much. So there's no real insensitive for them to stop scalpers.

If Sony continue their strategy of a slow trickle of consoles made available to retailers as soon as they are produced only will benefit scalpers, they may need to do a massive dump of units into the market to kill the scalping market, the sooner the better for the consumer.

Hopefully this can be done before the Average Joe sees PS5 scalping as a get rich scheme and a tiny little PS5 bubble is created.

Ok, lets get real, Poly.

As you well know, Sony doesn't sell directly to consumers. It's the retailers that do such. And it's "incentive", not "insensitive".

You also are using emotive terminology as to the "trickle feed". Trying to release as many consoles as you can produce is what manufacturers do. Conversely, them "holding them back for a massive dump" would be ridiculous. What websites do you visit to get such strange economic viewpoints?

 

[Splinter]

One thing I know scalping is helping its Microsoft. I know personally of at least 4 PlayStation owners that bought Xbox Series systems because they could not get their hands on PS5's. 1 of those never owned a Xbox before in his life.

Who are these 4 that you know personally?

 

[Splinter]

And this is why been counters make for terrible managers of tech companies

I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that depending on where you are on your dev timeline, you can't release a game on everything. You will always have to choose. If you had started dev in the past year, it wouldn't make sense to release for previous gen. Because by the time you release it, growth in next gen would have caught up or exceeded previous gen.

Even ignoring the Cyberpunk issue, this happens every generation. Previous gen will eventually no longer be supported, no matter how many owners there are. The first to jump ship to next gen only are usually third party studios. The first party ones have a more vested interest in keeping existing owners happy.

This usually happens when growth in next gen starts exceeding growth in previous gen. Studios want to showcase their work more impressively, and the best way to do that is on new hardware.

Even halfway through last gen, there were probably more PS3/360 consoles out there than PS4/X1. There probably still are. But they ran the numbers and it would still be profitable if they didn't have to support old hardware.

Also being in IT, the dev timeline and roadmap is important. You know what's in store for the future, and you will start shifting your focus towards that. Why would you want to keep supporting old hardware, instead of encouraging people to upgrade so you can sell a more copies of a more impressive product?

Now back to Cyberpunk - dev didn't actually start 8 years ago, that's only when it was announced. Dev only started about 4 years ago. This put CDPR in a tricky position in terms of their dev timeline. They knew that by the time it would be ready, it would be towards the end of the current gen. But they also knew that it would coincide with the next gen, and therefore put a lot of focus into the PC version to make a next gen port easier. Their issue is they tried to kill too many birds.

Rockstar faced exactly the same issue with GTA V. Their solution? Initial release was for PS3/360 only, followed by PS4/X1 remaster a year later, followed by PC a few months after that (their initial plan was to release PC alongside the next gen systems). This allowed for a more focused and polished product.

If CDPR followed Rockstar's approach, I believe they would have been in the clear even if they would have faced some criticism from impatient PC owners.

The point I was making about chasing 10 million instead of 114 million, is if you had to start now (or even the past year or two), you would rather target a faster growing base than a slower one. By the time your product is ready, your target base would be larger, and you have a better product to draw more sales. But depending on where you are on your timeline, you need to make a choice. You can't simply go after the numbers and release it on everything to try and satisfy everyone. You need to focus on doing one thing right. Then you can shift focus to the next. This is what everyone would have learnt from Cyberpunk...

What a deluge. Edit: sorry man, that came across harsh. My apologies.


Anyway, your entire post is basically saying that MS's backwards compatibility strategy was a fail.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Who are these 4 that you know personally?

2 Friends in NZ, one in Pretoria and a coworker... do you want their names and phone numbers as well?

Also I'm sure if you scour the forum/xbox thread you might find 1 or 2 people here that did the same, if not more

 

[Splinter]

2 Friends in NZ, one in Pretoria and a coworker... do you want their names and phone numbers as well?

Also I'm sure if you scour the forum/xbox thread you might find 1 or 2 people here that did the same

So basically internet friends for the most part

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

What a deluge.

Anyway, your entire post is basically saying that MS's backwards compatibility strategy was a fail.

How so? If anything it helps address these cross gen issues. You buy a game now and if you have a next gen system you get the next gen upgrade for free when it's released thanks to smart delivery.

If you're on current gen and a studio doesn't release it on your platform, you need to upgrade, as it's always been...

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

do you want their names and phone numbers as well?

Bad idea given who you're talking to...

 

[AlphaJohn]

So basically internet friends for the most part

If have to include those numbers as well, the tally would be a lot higher...

 

[Polymathic]

Ok, lets get real, Poly.

As you well know, Sony doesn't sell directly to consumers. It's the retailers that do such. And it's "incentive", not "insensitive".

You also are using emotive terminology as to the "trickle feed". Trying to release as many consoles as you can produce is what manufacturers do. Conversely, them "holding them back for a massive dump" would be ridiculous. What websites do you visit to get such strange economic viewpoints?

Lol stupid gboard.

People are susceptible to get rich quick schemes, it happens all the time. Something like that happened with one of the Nintendo Classic consoles on a smaller scale, there were a few non-gamers who got burnt buying multiple units hoping to resell them at a profitj just before Nintendo dumped a massive number of units into the market.

So it has happened before on a smaller scale.

One thing I know scalping is helping its Microsoft. I know personally of at least 4 PlayStation owners that bought Xbox Series systems because they could not get their hands on PS5's. 1 of those never owned a Xbox before in his life.

FOMO is a strange beast



If the articles I have read the problem is on Chip maker side more than Sony... something about chip yeld not being so great... will see if I can find it again.

Edit: Can only find the old link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ut-ps5-forecast-by-4-million-due-to-chip-woes

But I do recall seeing something else more recent as well...

MS basically sold almost all their consoles they brought to market but they only bring to market less half the number of units that Sony did. Sony had a 6 month head start manufacturing their console.

MS may also have a chip yeild issue with their SC consoles but luckily for them if this is the case some of the lower yeilding chips will be used in the SS.

It would be funny if the entire reason the SS exists is because of low chip yields in the manufacturing process of these new AMD chips

 

[AlphaJohn]

It would be funny if the entire reason the SS exists is because of low chip yields in the manufacturing process of these new AMD chips

You not the 1st to mention that. Think Spawn Wave also said something along those lines in one of his vlogs

 

[Splinter]

How so? If anything it helps address these cross gen issues. You buy a game now and if you have a next gen system you get the next gen upgrade for free when it's released thanks to smart delivery.

If you're on current gen and a studio doesn't release it on your platform, you need to upgrade, as it's always been...

Ok. I'm a bit confused about what seem to be completely contradictory posts from you...

But I will answer later.

 

[Splinter]

Lol stupid gboard.

People are susceptible to get rich quick schemes, it happens all the time. Something like that happened with one of the Nintendo Classic consoles on a smaller scale, there were a few non-gamers who got burnt buying multiple units hoping to resell them at a profitj just before Nintendo dumped a massive number of units into the market.

So it has happened before on a smaller scale.


MS basically sold almost all their consoles they brought to market but they only bring to market less half the number of units that Sony did. Sony had a 6 month head start manufacturing their console.

MS may also have a chip yeild issue with their SC consoles but luckily for them if this is the case some of the lower yeilding chips will be used in the SS.

It would be funny if the entire reason the SS exists is because of low chip yields in the manufacturing process of these new AMD chips

Ok, so Sony had a 6 month start but yet they are totally sold out.

And MS has "basically" sold most of their consoles. Which means they haven't sold out their consoles.

There is a reason for this.

 

[Polymathic]

Ok, so Sony had a 6 month start but yet they are totally sold out.

And MS has "basically" sold most of their consoles. Which means they haven't sold out their consoles.

There is a reason for this.

The Xbox is sold out in all their major markets but still available I'm SA that's why I used the qualifier

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

Ok so Sony now suddenly have a slow trickle strategy? Then probably Amd and Nvidia also have the same strategy?
Because people don't want Xbox in the same numbers than Ps5, Amd and Nvidia products, doesn't mean you can now come accuse them of having some strange strategies.

 

[Polymathic]

Ok so Sony now suddenly have a slow trickle strategy? Then probably Amd and Nvidia also have the same strategy?
Because people don't want Xbox in the same numbers than Ps5, Amd and Nvidia products, doesn't mean you can now come accuse them of having some strange strategies.

Lol not a strange strategy, they are releasing consoles into the market as soon as they manufactured, this results in a slow trickle of units into the market.

This strategy can easily be exploited by scalpers, holding back units to flood the market with a massive number consoles at once could be a viable way to destroy the scalping market.

 

[Spizz]

If have to include those numbers as well, the tally would be a lot higher...

Indeed. You can include me in that. I’ve had PS 1, 2, 3 and 4, bought a Series S and will not be looking at getting a 5. Sold my 4 already and bought another controller and a couple of battery packs. Loaded up a 3 year ultimate games pass and I’m good for the foreseeable. This thing k@ks all over PS IMO.

 

[s0lar]

Backward compatibility is great for the first couple of months until titles start steaming out on the next gen. Speaking from experience here, nostalgia is short lived compared to the new and shiny.

And Xbox is dumb, PS for the win!