By now we all know that the 40GB PS3 is on its way for the price of $399 USD, just in time for the holiday season, you know, that time of the year when people spend a lot of money on gifts for giving. There is also that rumor that the PlayStation 2 will get a price drop and sell for around $99 USD and I'm sure for that price a lot of people will be buying it if they don't already have it.
Right now the Nintendo Wii is crushing its competitors, the true next gen consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, down to the ground, and it's mainly due to the lower price and the promise of games that will be better experienced more interactively with the motion controls of the Wii-mote. Right now the Wii's biggest competitor is actually the PS2 both in sales and graphics, some would argue of the latter. Some would also argue that the PS2 is last gen and consumers should skip it for what's being offered now.
The PS2 has sold well over 120 Million units sold and it's still getting bigger because the PS2 is still selling quite decently, especially in Japan where it's outselling the Xbox 360 as well as its very own successor, the PS3. The president and CEO of Nintendo,
Satoru Iwata, has clearly stated that the Wii is aiming to break the PS2's worldwide sales record and they want reach the goal much quicker than the 7 years it took for the PS2 to reach that number. If I was at Sony and I heard that statement then I would most likely plan on keeping that magic number for years and years.
I'm sure a lot gamers, myself included, as well as industry journalists, developers and analysts were really baffled by the news that the new 40GB PS3 model would not include backward compatibility with all PS2 titles but would do so with PS1 titles. This made no sense since the 80GB model, the one without the built-in PS2 chip, already plays PS2 games through software emulation even though the numbers of compatible PS2 titles are limited compared to the 20GB and 60GB units. This also made no sense since the PS2 has a huge library of games and that Sony had promised backwards compatibility from the very start. It didn't make sense before but now I'm seeing things much differently. I'm sure some of you reading this already know which direction I'm going next.
Sony will do whatever it takes to keep their hard earned worldwide
sales record from getting in the hand of the Wii and that means taking out
backwards compatibility from the new PS3's and marketing the PS2 again
in order to make a bigger profit. With upcoming AAA titles like Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band and Sony's very own popular franchise, SingStar, I'm sure they will attract a lot of new gamers or non-gamers to their affordable console with a vast library of stellar games that is still getting bigger
and better and also the ability to play CDs and DVDs for the price of $99 (or less if you're in the UK or Europe) and that's not a bad deal at all.
Let's not forget that the Wii will still sell for $250 USD and they are still expecting a shortage of units for the holidays even though some analysts think that's all bullsh!t PR by Nintendo who are actually holding back a lot of units to sell it all for the holidays and have a huge fourth quarter earnings. When all is said and done, the PS2 and the Wii will sell a sh!t load of units therefore making a lot of money for their parent companies. Sony's PS2 worldwide sales will probably grow larger and may stay that way for a long time unless the Wii is not really a fad like most analysts speculate especially with the recent announcement of acquiring the very popular Japanese franchise, Monster Hunter 3, that helped sell a lot of Sony's PSP hardware.
By next year I'm sure that the PS2 will finally retire and then we will hear someone at Sony say that they have reached a breakthrough in technology and that the next firmware update (possibly 3.00l) will allow the 40GB PS3 users to play PS2 titles after all. I might sound like I'm bashing Sony even though I'm a Sony fan but I must say that the business aspect of gaming sure takes out a lot of fun and it ends up hurting us in our wallets. Please keep in mind that all I've said is my own opinion and speculation. You can agree or disagree all you want and I wouldn't give a flying fcuk but thanks for taking the time to read.
Mountains can be moved, opinions too… paradise has never been so presidential in Tropico 7.
Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month. PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month. Prices may vary by region.
Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.
Its nice there is some kind of drop... but is that all they really value CoD to be, a lousy $7 a month?
I was hoping it would drop by $10.
That $7 equates to $84 per year - which is more than COD new ($69.99 + tax).
So - you can get the exact same thing - and save a few bucks - or you can skip COD and pocket the savings or use toward another game - or games if on sale.
That’s how I’m taking it - and is enough for me to sign back up after canceling the day it went to $29.99.
It's unlikely that COD is going to be the only title they stop offering day one, but we'll see how they play their hand.
Can’t wait to hear how this will be spun extremely positive. 🤣
I wonder why knowing Microsoft thick head something must has happened in the background in the levels of Xbox one and Kinect 🤷🏿
Any price cut is a good thing in this day and age, but it also reveals a flaw in GamePass' design that we've all been calling out for years... it's unsustainable, especially with day and date releases on new games. COD won't be the only game they exclude, they're setting a precedent with it that they'll likely expand upon in the future.
At least they're being realistic about it now. I bet in the future we're going to start seeing them try to subsidize the high price of new consoles by making you buy 2-3 years of gamepass with it to get the console cheaper. I'm still not sure that'll be enough to save either the hardware or gamepass, but we'll see.
Well, they're removing their biggest game from being Day 1 on the service so GamePass users can buy it instead. That's the intention.
They increased the price to $30, then removed COD and dropped it to still be above the old price.
It's an understandable compromise but the consumer Ultimately is getting less.
Think the calculation is that *most* COD users don't play that many games and aren't interested in GamePass. The GamePass users who do like COD would just buy it anyway. MS reportedly lost out a lot of money last year putting COD on GamePass.
Well Call of duty could just be the beginning. What other games can they trim from the service to get the price down? How long before it's just the Xbox core first party studio games and not the one to everquired?
Create an interesting scenario with Call of duty as well. Will people wait a year to play it? Does that split the fan base? Will it hurt to Call of duty more than a benefits Game pass? These are all legitimate questions which we will find the answers to in the coming years
And I don't consider my post negative spin just realistic observation. At the very least this backtracking can be seen as an admittance that the previous strategy of gamepass was not sustainable as most of us said.
I'd get rid of the EA and Ubisoft+ too. That should bring the price down more. The only game from either of those parts of the service i played was jedi Fallen order / survivor. both of which i also bought on disc so it was more of a convenience i didnt have to put the disc in to play when i was playing them via remote play. And really that is why i still use GPU and PS+. its the convenience of having the games ready to play from a remote location. I havent picked up my consoles controllers in at least a few years. I guess that makes me a bad gamer, but so what. i'm still playing the games, just not physically on the machines themselves. GCloud and Portal are my go to now.
They’ll say no one is buying game pass so they had to drop the price , even though it’s been extremely profitable.
In my region, it’s still more expensive than it was before the last price hike, but it’s a far more viable price point.
Losing Call of Duty from the service, honestly, has zero effect on me, and given they chose to make it so, it’s probably not the big seller they originally thought. Overall, it’s really good news, but I still think they have work to do on the tier structure, having Premium and PC at the same price point with different features feels odd.
Yep take COD out. Them waiting a year is interesting but it make sense. They don't want certain ppl waiting 4 to 6 months they want fomo and maximum sales. Wait a year while the new one releases.
Ok so far so good.
Today, Team Coreupt officially announced its next title in development, an action and hack-and-slash game called Kirk Mephisto.
Wow. Never thought of it that way. Maybe you should be an analyst :)
so 178 sales increase in UKWOW!!!
Also a proof that Sony really listen their costumers like they pretends, also about BC that people where mad at. Numbers show that people from UK REALLY DO NOT CARE ABOUT BC.
The question is: what is the servey say about USA. In UK PS3 have the lead I think. As Sony listen costumers, and I notice Sony act differently between regions there is chances we see BC in US if people want it.
I hope they keep the PS2 price like that it will help PS3 sales.
Ya excellent blog, no one talking about the PS2 sales that beat Wii.
They should get some mote for the PS2 to compete wii, but that is my way of seeing it.
Also to mention that Wii usual price for games are 50$ compare to 60$ for PS3. But PS2 games are still cheaper. They should keep the PS2 until 2010 on shelves.