Zeus
07-12-2008, 09:11 AM
Former Xbox exec Ed Fries gives us his view on what it is like to look at the console war from the outside. He indicated that the PS3 is in a decent position as all the PS2 owners are poised to switch to the PS3 eventually and that MS need to cause Sony pain by making the 360 more accessible price wise as that price pressure is the only thing MS has going on for them at the moment. He also spotted a 'bad' thing about the Wii in the sense that their demogaphic simply doesn't buy many games.
"I think it's obvious that Sony got off to a slow start; I think they made some pretty big mistakes and they've done a good job in the last year in recovering from those; I think they're putting up a much stronger battle now. They've also done a great job in keeping the PS2 business alive, so you've got a lot of happy PS2 customers who are just waiting for the price of PS3 to be right before they switch over. If Sony can keep those guys brand loyal, they will have a lot of people coming over to the PS3.
"It leaves Microsoft in a kind of awkward position because with Sony winning the Blu-ray battle, it's nice to have a hi-def player as part of your games machine, and now that that's the standard I think it's a big advantage for Sony. It kind of pushes Microsoft into a box where the main the thing that they have [going for them] right now is they can exert price pressure on Sony... I think they can cause Sony some pain by making the 360 a lot more accessible price-wise. So Sony's got the brand on their side and the extra [Blu-ray] capability, but they're always going to be at a price premium versus 360, and a lot of games are available on both, so for many 360 would be the cheaper choice."
While Fries basically acknowledges that Nintendo is "off doing its own thing," it's fairly obvious that both Microsoft and Sony salivate when looking at the cash flowing into Nintendo as a result of the Wii. Both would desperately like a piece of that casual, mass market pie. But Nintendo's approach has its disadvantages, argues Fries. "There's some good and bad about what Nintendo's doing. They've reached out to an audience that isn't [comprised] so much [of] gamers and they don't buy very many games. The tie rate of games per console is pretty important... so that's something from a business model point of view that's going to prevent Microsoft and Sony from being too aggressive in that space," he said. "It's a really interesting battle. I'm glad in a way I'm not part of it. It's fun to watch from the outside and not have to have the stress of being in the middle of it everyday."
News Source: <A href="http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/the-return-of-ed-fries-former-xbox-man-speaks-out/?biz=1&page=1" target="_blank">Gamedaily</a>
"I think it's obvious that Sony got off to a slow start; I think they made some pretty big mistakes and they've done a good job in the last year in recovering from those; I think they're putting up a much stronger battle now. They've also done a great job in keeping the PS2 business alive, so you've got a lot of happy PS2 customers who are just waiting for the price of PS3 to be right before they switch over. If Sony can keep those guys brand loyal, they will have a lot of people coming over to the PS3.
"It leaves Microsoft in a kind of awkward position because with Sony winning the Blu-ray battle, it's nice to have a hi-def player as part of your games machine, and now that that's the standard I think it's a big advantage for Sony. It kind of pushes Microsoft into a box where the main the thing that they have [going for them] right now is they can exert price pressure on Sony... I think they can cause Sony some pain by making the 360 a lot more accessible price-wise. So Sony's got the brand on their side and the extra [Blu-ray] capability, but they're always going to be at a price premium versus 360, and a lot of games are available on both, so for many 360 would be the cheaper choice."
While Fries basically acknowledges that Nintendo is "off doing its own thing," it's fairly obvious that both Microsoft and Sony salivate when looking at the cash flowing into Nintendo as a result of the Wii. Both would desperately like a piece of that casual, mass market pie. But Nintendo's approach has its disadvantages, argues Fries. "There's some good and bad about what Nintendo's doing. They've reached out to an audience that isn't [comprised] so much [of] gamers and they don't buy very many games. The tie rate of games per console is pretty important... so that's something from a business model point of view that's going to prevent Microsoft and Sony from being too aggressive in that space," he said. "It's a really interesting battle. I'm glad in a way I'm not part of it. It's fun to watch from the outside and not have to have the stress of being in the middle of it everyday."
News Source: <A href="http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/the-return-of-ed-fries-former-xbox-man-speaks-out/?biz=1&page=1" target="_blank">Gamedaily</a>