Will Playstation 3 Sink or Swim Post Activision
The latest buzz from Activision is that the company is planning to cut off ties to the Playstation 3 if Sony is unable to make a sizable dent in the gaming market. Activision's claim is that they are losing money on developing games for the PS3 and there aren't enough consumers out there interested in buying games for the console. The Activision CEO even went so far as to demand that Sony cut it's price tag for the PS3.
The news has to come as a kick in the face to Sony for more reasons than one. The PS3 grew sales because Sony edged out in the war for HD video over HD DVD. As movie production houses/distributers slowly bailed on Toshiba's brand of HD DVD, Blu-ray took center stage, until Blu-ray finally dominated the market.
Now Sony is facing a similar battle in the console gaming wars, and this time they're the underdog. Sure the PS3 may be the best console technology wise, but the Wii was the worst console and sales statistics deliver slam dunks year over year just - due to the unique marketing campaign and design. The Xbox remains the number one elite console because it was first to market, and the Xbox Live community became an overnight sensation with Halo. Sony has failed time and time again to really make a dent in the gaming market. They deliver 1 or 2 proprietary games a year, that most gamers vote to pass on. In this market, why buy a new console if you've got one already that can play 90% of the games.
The PS3's saving grace is Blu-ray. But, if Activision jumps ship, who will follow? The Grand Theft Auto Franchise chose to go 360 before PS3 this time around.
Activision may be the David of Sony's Goliath tale. The tide is shifting and Sony needs to step up their game by slashing prices and creating more buying incentives for consumers. If they don't the PS3 will end up as tomorrow's Neo Geo. Well it won't be that bad, but they'll definitely get a rude awakening.
Ok first off I really want to see these apparent claims that activision is "losing money" for developing for the ps3 as that makes no sense at all. Both notable COD games sold well on both platforms. Secondly the CEO never demanded they lower the price. He wants its and has stated that he was hoping for a ps3 price cut but never demanded it.
Secondly Activision could never cut ties with the ps3 just for the simple fact they'd be losing too much of their fanbase for all their games. Thirdly the lead between the ps3 and the 360 is slowly closing...ps3 at 23-24 mil while 360 is at 29-30 mil...Secondly its not just bluray its sonies First Party Support that have been keeping them alive...Blu ray is just a bonus.
Last, the GTA franchise never jumped ship they only went multiplatform. They never were really exclusive to sony. Its just that at the time the ps2 was the only viable gaming system to dev for. Even when the xbox came out they made GTA:SA for it so they never were biased toward Sony.
Make no mistake losing the worlds #1 publisher would be a massive blow to the ps3
I would be most worried for a domino effect should this take place. All those devs that b1tched about how tough the ps3 is to work with might follow activisions lead and that would be leave it basically Dead in the water. Even sega had a good first party line up back in the day but that didnt save it.
Activision is a public company with shareholders to answer to. If their ps3 skus are continually underperforming it would be irresponsible for their CEO to not do something like this.
Hopefully this will light a fire under sonys behind and they will work to adjust their pricing to a more mass market level and bother to market their products properly so this discussion would be moot