Playstation 4

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Benoit

Considering the Wii's massive sales numbers, I find that hard believe.

Da fuck you on?

Europe

Wii - 33.33 million
PS3 - 31.59 million
360 - 24.56 million

Wii stop selling like it was a fad or something, doesn't matter if it was on pace to outsell the Ps2, it won't get anywhere near it.

Ps2 da king - 55.28 million

Ps3 aint even hit mass market price yet and is getting FIFA 14, COD Ghosts, Gran Turismo 6 and Grand Theft Auto 5 this year.

The only market the Wii will end up winning is Japan, and only by a million or whatever in the end. If the ps3 sells anything like the ps2 and psx did after their successors hit the market it will go past the Wii for worldwide figures.

[Drkz]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Da fuck you on?

Ps2 da king - 55.28 million

PS2 Still has the best games!

[Mars Mode]

Originally Posted by Drkz

PS2 Still has the best games!

I dont know if I find this sentence something to rejoice myself with, or something pretty sad.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Drkz

The one underlying problem I've seen with playstation is the games people who own a playstation want to play NEVER GET A NA PUBLISHER. Meaning this will overtime kill your fanbase aboard. Than you have those publisher who only sell specific things to specific regions in Europe.

Because despite what you may think, Japanese games are sill niche as hell in the west. Sure they might be a strong and loyal fanbase, but short of the few REALLY iconic franchises, everything is nichest of niche in comparison.

[Drkz]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Because despite what you may think, Japanese games are sill niche as hell in the west. Sure they might be a strong and loyal fanbase, but short of the few REALLY iconic franchises, everything is nichest of niche in comparison.

Well Jap games on the PS3 weren't region blocked. So for the most die-hard of them they imported. I already know. In the end its all about money. If you don't make money no one will do it. Its rather Ironic if you think about. SE from both Jap and America are owned by the same boss, but they work completely differently. In order for the western to port a game they'd still need to buy it from the east .

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Benoit

I see. That's very interesting. Thanks.

Doesn't change the core of my argument, though, which is that Europe isn't PlayStation territory.

I would still call Europe PS territory based on historic reasons. The PS2 completely dominated the market with the original XBox and Gamecube being but blips in the radar and the PSP actually got a decent share in some European markets. Also: Sony usually treats the smaller European markets (like my own Portugal) with at least some respect unlike Microsoft so that tends to give it another edge. For example the latest GT Academy winner was actually Portuguese. If this were a Microsoft sponsored event I'm pretty sure we wouldn't even be allowed to enter the competition (based on personal experience of owning both XBoxes).

NOTE: Nintendo also doesn't do that bad but they are such an outlier that I believe they created their own market. There's people who buy games consoles and people who buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games but the groups aren't mutually exclusive.

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Because despite what you may think, Japanese games are sill niche as hell in the west. Sure they might be a strong and loyal fanbase, but short of the few REALLY iconic franchises, everything is nichest of niche in comparison.

On the other hand the growth of digital distribution is creating a way for these games to actually show up in the west. It's already begun with the Black Rock Shooter game, Fate/Unlimited Codes and Project Diva F showing up digitally on western shores for example. If you take away the expensive step of packaging and distributing those boxes to retailers around the world you can justify to target a lot more niches than you could otherwise.

It's the same thing that happened in PC gaming with the advent of Steam. One such example is Paradox Interactive, a PC publisher known for it's hardcore historical strategy games that are as niche as they come. They were nearly bankrupt a few years ago and there's even a story going around on how one of their last games published on disc ended up being packaged and taken to the post-office to be sent to the US market by the CEO and another employee a couple of days before the release date because they couldn't afford to pay anyone to do it. Now they are thriving and each release makes more money than the previous one.

What did they change? They started going digital-only. Niche markets are already pretty used to going through highly complex hoops to get their games so going digital is actually an improvement unlike what happens with the casual crowd.

I for one hope that more publishers realise this and start localizing more niche Japanese games for the west taking advantage of the lower costs of digital distribution. Remember that you can make money off of strong and loyal fanbases since they usually tend to spend a lot more money per person than any casual fan ever would.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Drkz

PS2 Still has the best games!

Ps2 is like the God Emperor of consoles.



Y'all gotta learn to respect the king.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Ps2 is like the God Emperor of consoles.



Y'all gotta learn to respect the king.

You know what makes me sad? It's that the Dreamcast, even with just over a single year in the market at an expensive price, sold about half as much as the Gamecube!

That console could have been profitable. If only Sega had the means to keep it going for just a while longer

[Hoaviet]

The PS2 kinda destroyed DreamCast, if PS2 didn't get released until one year later then it probably would of done well.

[defki]

Sega destroyed the Dreamcast. PS2 only finished what Sega's incompetence started. Yes I am bitter about DC untimely death and Sega is to blame for it.

[Benoit]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Ps2 is like the God Emperor of consoles.

(large GIF image)

Y'all gotta learn to respect the king.

For fuck's sake, please don't post large GIF images that swallow more than a hundred MB of RAM!

Originally Posted by Vigo

Sega destroyed the Dreamcast. PS2 only finished what Sega's incompetence started.

It can't be underestimated how Sony's sleazy PR and bag of lies made the PlayStation 2 more attractive than it actually was.

Sony made it seem like the PlayStation 2 was a graphical powerhouse when in reality it was a joke. Most PlayStation 2 games don't even use the full framebuffer because it's too weak. Games were pretty bad until 3 years after the console's release when Sony finally provided a decent development kit that worked around the backwards graphics subsystem.

[defki]

I know that. Everyone knows that. Sony overpromised and underdelivered. PR BS. They are not the only ones doing that. But the PS2 hype was big enough without Sony talk. Saying the PS2 is responsible for the death of DC is stupid to put it lightly. Sega is fully responsible starting long before the DC with releasing stupid add-ons, the entire Saturn fiasco, pissing contest with EA and last but not least posting losses and more losses until they simply could no longer sustain the DC even if they wanted to. The PS2 was just the final nail on a coffin Sega created themselves.

Anyway we are going off-topic.

------

Sony Announces PlayStation Livestream Schedule and Links For Tokyo Game Show

So with the Sony TGS stages this is how Sonys schedule should look like now:

18th: Second pre TGS press conference
19th: Sony TGS opening keynote + Stage event
21st: Stage event
22nd: Stage event + PlayStation x Playism: Indie Stream

Quite busy. Hopefully we will get a few good new announcements for PS4 (and Vita).

[4Tran]

The way I see it, there are currently four main regions for gaming consoles. Here's how I see them stacking up for the new systems:

1. North America - Currently, it's Xbox territory, but the PS4 has grabbed hardcore gamers and early adopters more than the Xbone has. This should be the most important and closest battleground. If Sony wins here (as it seems will be the case), then Microsoft's position will be in big trouble.

2. Europe - This is, and has been Sony territory, and the only thing that's going to change is that Sony's strength here will grow. Microsoft's inability to release the Xbone in the Low Countries and Scandinavia basically gifts these territories to the competition. Even the UK that was dominated by the 360 looks increasingly PS4-friendly.

3. Japan - Microsoft and the Xbone are irrelevant here.

4. Developing countries - Most of these countries aren't going to be a major factor in terms of new console sales. Instead, they're more likely to pick up older consoles like the 360 or PS3. Overall, these countries aren't important for sales early in a console's life, but they can help give a console a big tail. Sony is the main player here, and it's the reason why PS2 games are still being made.


The sort-of fifth region is China. Since about 2000, game consoles have been banned from sale, but that policy is changing. It's an extremely competitive market, but it's also potentially very lucrative. I don't think that any console manufacturer is ready to compete in China, but who knows?

Originally Posted by Westlo

At the end of the day the PS3 has outsold the 360 in Europe and will outsell the Wii when all is said and done, probably by next x-mas, Gt6, plus 2 more CODs and 2 more FIFAs and another price drop will do that. (And the 360 will go past the Wii this xmas in America)

To be fair, FIFA 14 is going to be available on all relevant consoles. A new* PS2 game in Twenty-Fourteen!

* For a given definition of new.

I suspect that the PS3 will get a long tail - the PS2 sold some 50 million units after the PS3 launched. While the PS3 will certainly not match that, I imagine another 20-25 million units is doable.

Originally Posted by Westlo

And yeah once again this gen it's going to be much easier to multiplat just xbone and ps4 and ignore the far weaker and differently designed/architect on the Wii U. And the Wii U's sales are an absolute joke, worse than the Dreamcast before it got discontinued.

Given the architectural similarity between the Xbone and PS4, I wonder how rare third-party exclusives are going to be. If making Xbone versions is relatively trivial, then I'd imagine that even niche Japanese developers will release on both platforms. If anything, this will hurt the likelihood of Wii U versions.

[Drkz]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

The way I see it, there are currently four main regions for gaming consoles. Here's how I see them stacking up for the new systems:

1. North America - Currently, it's Xbox territory, but the PS4 has grabbed hardcore gamers and early adopters more than the Xbone has. This should be the most important and closest battleground. If Sony wins here (as it seems will be the case), then Microsoft's position will be in big trouble.

Actually I'd correct you on china. Sure its banned, but they still can buy it. China has one of the world's biggest black markets not to mention almost everything is made in china. I'm pretty sure people sneak consoles off the production line time to time to sell them off book.

From what I've see in NA. People either only have a xbox or they have both. Rarely you only see someone with only a playstation. I hugely doubt even with all the random bs microsoft has been pulling that people wouldn't buy a xbox. Xbox equates to majority of all the FPS games. Most people who buy a xbox play COD, Battlefield or Halo. Sonys main strength is its eastern library of JRPGS unless they find a way to let developers port these over cheaply they'll never fully succeed in the west. I mean when you had exclusives like FF and Metal Gear go to the Xbox you know sony is on shaky water.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Drkz

Actually I'd correct you on china. Sure its banned, but they still can buy it. China has one of the world's biggest black markets not to mention almost everything is made in china. I'm pretty sure people sneak consoles off the production line time to time to sell them off book.

Yeah, it is always a paradox that China was banning something that they are the chief exporter of. It was simply impossible to prevent the consoles from being sold when they are home-made.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Drkz

I mean when you had exclusives like FF and Metal Gear go to the Xbox you know sony is on shaky water.

Actually it just meant that budgets ballooned so much that it's no longer feasible to ignore half the market. That's what happened to Metal Gear and Final Fantasy.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Drkz

Actually I'd correct you on china. Sure its banned, but they still can buy it. China has one of the world's biggest black markets not to mention almost everything is made in china. I'm pretty sure people sneak consoles off the production line time to time to sell them off book.

Being available on the black market is a farcry from being an actual retail product. We're looking at a potential 100 million unit market as opposed to one that barely exists. The only reason why I wouldn't posit this as an automatic game changer is because I don't know if game consoles can gain any traction at all in the face of competition from PC-gaming and the like.

Originally Posted by Drkz

From what I've see in NA. People either only have a xbox or they have both. Rarely you only see someone with only a playstation. I hugely doubt even with all the random bs microsoft has been pulling that people wouldn't buy a xbox. Xbox equates to majority of all the FPS games. Most people who buy a xbox play COD, Battlefield or Halo. Sonys main strength is its eastern library of JRPGS unless they find a way to let developers port these over cheaply they'll never fully succeed in the west. I mean when you had exclusives like FF and Metal Gear go to the Xbox you know sony is on shaky water.

That may have been true of the PS360 era, but new consoles means that it's a new ballgame. Right now, word on the street is that pre-orders for the new consoles are anywhere from even to the PS4 having a 3:2 to 2:1 advantage in North America. Moreover, the PS4 is likely to have more stock from launch to Christmas, so it's going to have a lot more momentum than the Xbone for the near future.

Originally Posted by Dextro

Actually it just meant that budgets ballooned so much that it's no longer feasible to ignore half the market. That's what happened to Metal Gear and Final Fantasy.

Right now, gaining exclusive titles is either a matter of funding or development support or paying for exclusivity. Sony's current strategy is to spend this money and effort on either smaller titles or new IPs. The lack of exclusivity for Final Fantasy and the like isn't all that important anyways - fans of the series were going to gravitate towards the Playstation platform anyways, and that's where the bulk of the sales would be.

[Duo Maxwell]

Note that even before the pre-E3 announcement, PS4 actually have leading pre-order number.

Originally Posted by Drkz

From what I've see in NA. People either only have a xbox or they have both. Rarely you only see someone with only a playstation. I hugely doubt even with all the random bs microsoft has been pulling that people wouldn't buy a xbox. Xbox equates to majority of all the FPS games. Most people who buy a xbox play COD, Battlefield or Halo. Sonys main strength is its eastern library of JRPGS unless they find a way to let developers port these over cheaply they'll never fully succeed in the west. I mean when you had exclusives like FF and Metal Gear go to the Xbox you know sony is on shaky water.

Sony spent its entire PS3 lifetime to build up the 1st party studios, and it pay off now. With the increasing in games developing budget, no one would bother with paying for exclusive big titles. Even with MS, you can see people have learned about the timed exclusive and many are holding off with the Titanfall temptation. Remember the backlash regarding Tales of Vesperia? People keep calling every JRPG appears on the 360 is "beta version" after that.

Currently, they are working on 2 big JRPG projects, and one of them are stated as "Final Fantasy rival scale". If it's success, then it will be another big franchise for Sony.

[Drkz]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Sony spent its entire PS3 lifetime to build up the 1st party studios, and it pay off now. With the increasing in games developing budget, no one would bother with paying for exclusive big titles. Even with MS, you can see people have learned about the timed exclusive and many are holding off with the Titanfall temptation. Remember the backlash regarding Tales of Vesperia? People keep calling every JRPG appears on the 360 is "beta version" after that.

Currently, they are working on 2 big JRPG projects, and one of them are stated as "Final Fantasy rival scale". If it's success, then it will be another big franchise for Sony.

You don't play a eastern title on a xbox. The same way you wouldn't want to play a western title on a playstation. You don't need to be console biased to realize this. Game developer themselves are extremely biased. There is a difference between a JRPG and a JRPG oriented for western markets. Square Enix has ended up being the butt end of many jokes in the east. The ever failing series of mmos. More than anything they come out with disappointment after disappointment. They stopped making games for fans. They are trying to dictate what the fans want. This is what bit nintendo in the ass. PR wise this is what bit xbox in the ass. But in the case of microsoft we won't know til the sales. The north american audience has never cared of jrpgs, they mainly prefer sand boxes and shooters. Yes, we are more oriented to blood and gore than fantasy and grinding. So unless Sony decides to cough up money to brainwash future generation of gamers, the ongoing trend will remain.

The only problem I see with Titanfall is these type of games need a threshold of a certain amount of players. Especially when consoles become a option. Once these thresholds are no longer met the servers get axed. Titanfall is a very big ambition. If they can kick it off good for them, but it competes with other well known shooters like Halo, CoD & Battlefield. Too bad its a PC/Xbox exclusive. Half of me would would think Titanfall could do pretty well in japan even though its a shooter. I mean Japs are always crazy for mechs. But the other half is skeptical, since Microsoft probably signed a death license, and japan is not really known as the land of shooters, theres always the possibility of the PSN being down for months on end again.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Currently, they are working on 2 big JRPG projects, and one of them are stated as "Final Fantasy rival scale". If it's success, then it will be another big franchise for Sony.

I thought that that was still just a rumor. Has these games been confirmed?

Originally Posted by Drkz

You don't play a eastern title on a xbox. The same way you wouldn't want to play a western title on a playstation. You don't need to be console biased to realize this.

People do both, especially shooters and the like on the PS3. Microsoft consoles aren't any more predisposed to playing Western games than are Sony consoles for Japanese games. The most that you can say is that Western companies tended to use the 360 as the lead platform because it was easier to design for. And that Japanese developers prefer the PS3 because the 360 is dead in Japan. With new consoles, these rules of thumb no longer need apply.

Originally Posted by Drkz

Half of me would would think Titanfall could do pretty well in japan even though its a shooter. I mean Japs are always crazy for mechs. But the other half is skeptical, since Microsoft probably signed a death license, and japan is not really known as the land of shooters, theres always the possibility of the PSN being down for months on end again.

This isn't entirely true. Call of Duty is actually fairly popular in Japan, just not to the same degree as the West. Microsoft's problem in Japan is that their gaming reputation is mud, and they currently only sell about a thousand 360s per month.