Latest PS2 Japanese Price Drop == WORLD DOMINATION!

Originally posted by QuDDus
because in the greatest country in the world USA.

[Living-In-Clip]

This price drop if anything is more towards MS, as the GC is still cheaper than the PS2. Not to mention Sony and MS are going for the same audience , unlike Nintendo...

Originally posted by Adan

Strange how one smilie can make me crack up. thx Adan.

in the UK you can get this deal in the high street

PS2
Memory card
4 games (WRC, Rayman M,timesplitters and SSX)
Second official Dual Shock 2
all for £300

thats a SAving of £90

It pretty much comes down to one thing, the games.  If Gamecube and X-Box don\'t get out the games gamers want PS2 will win.

Well.. to a digree Altered is right. Sony can\'t keep selling the PS2 at it\'s current price without the risk of turning away some potential buyers. Expect a US price drop within a few months or sooner depending on how well the competition does. They aren\'t really scared.. but this IS a pre-emptive move to draw buyers back to their side and away from the competition.

It\'s just another common buisness practice that\'s has been, or will be, misconcieved as a move made outta desperation. Sega\'s financial position just led many to believe that they were "Scared" of the competition.

BTW: I think my price drop has just come around. I can get a PS2 for dirt cheap. I just can\'t have it repaired by a licenced dealer..... Ever.

There is SonyFan, making sense. I hope some of you listen up at this, as I have first hand accounting at what REALLY matters in the world of games. Gather round kiddies, for I will tell you a story of Holiday Shopping.

So most, if not all of you know that I work at Best Buy, well I work exclusively in the Fun And Games section, no surprise there. I get moms, dads, grandparents and teenagers in all the time to buy consoles for their respective recipients. They almost always ask me what the advantages of one are to the other. Well, I tell them straight out

"PS2 is the oldest one here. It was released over a year ago and has therefore built up a library of some very good games. Basically, your son or daughter should have no problem finding games they like on PS2 right now. You can also play DVD\'s out of the box with no remote or anything, Your old Playstation games will also play on here."

"What about Gamecube?"

"Gamecube is the newest Nintendo console. If your son is pretty young, he will no doubt get a kick out of many of the games coming out for it. I am a tad older, so I have a lack of interest in it. That also makes it a problem, if your son is about to hit the age where it isn\'t cool to play kiddie games anymore, he is gonna bug you to get something else"

"What about XBox?"

"XBox is the system I feel you are getting the most for your money with. You get a harddrive, ethernet adaptor, and multitap, all for the price of the PS2. It is the newest system and will therefore have the best graphics. There aren\'t very many games out for it, but I can see by next May that it will have better games than PS2, as there are alot of exclusives coming out for it."

"You said what one had the best graphics?"

"XBox will without a doubt, they are all pretty comparable right now."

"Where is the XBox isle located?"

"Sorry, we are all sold out at the moment, we expect a restock next Tuesday but you gotta get here early, otherwise they will just sell out. We have some Gamecubes over here though, and about 200 PS2\'s along the wall over there. "

Class, what have you learned? That the best graphics wins with casuals. A gy came in and aked me what the best football game on XBox was, I said that Madden was a better game, but Fever had better graphics, he picked up Fever and walked away. The hype with XBox is amazing too. I have never seen more old people who know what they are talking about than with XBox, they seem very direct about what they want. Some people really hate XBox, like Bill Gates abused them or something, they will walk buy and say stuff like *Actual Quotes*

"That doesn\'t even look better than PS2."
"I\'m not buying that shit."
"Hahaha, that controller is frickin huge!!"
"I am not joking, that system is bigger than my VCR at my house!"

These people just assume and never actually try the demos we have set up.


Eric Jacob

I agree with most of what you said Altered, but two things kind of stood out that I\'m not so sure of:

There aren\'t very many games out for it, but I can see by next May that it will have better games than PS2, as there are alot of exclusives coming out for it.

What exactly do you mean by this?  If you don\'t mind, would you list those games?

The PS2 is also getting quite a few exclusives next year.  One of them being your favorite fighting game -- VF4.

Class, what have you learned? That the best graphics wins with casuals. A gy came in and aked me what the best football game on XBox was, I said that Madden was a better game, but Fever had better graphics, he picked up Fever and walked away.

Maybe sometimes, but most casuals are smarter than that.

Just last night I was at Toys-R-Us.  A man and his wife were talking to an employee about the next gen consoles, and were asking which one would be best for their kids.  Of course, I was interested in what the employee would say, so I listened in.  The employee said just about the same things you did (except for that "by next May [the Xbox] will have better games than PS2" crap. [no offense, but you are one of the most biased sales people I\'ve ever heard of. ])  In the end, after knowing that the NGC and Xbox were graphically superior, they chose the PS2.  Why?  Because, like you said, the PS2 has tons of great games for all ages right now.  

Lets play pretend.  If you were buying a console for your kid, and you were just a casual gamer, what would you get?  Would you get a system with a lot of great games for all ages, young and old, that has a brand-name you\'ve heard of and trusted for years and years?  Or would you get a system with better graphics and a couple good games, and a brand-name known throughout the world for monopolies and shoddy software?  

To casual gamers, next year does not exist.  Most of them have no idea that Project Ego, Panzer Dragoon, Shenmue II/III, etc are coming to the Xbox.  And none of them know that VF4, Wipeout Fusion, Tekken 4, etc are coming to the PS2 next year.  So most of them are buying the console for what it has on it already.  Casual gamers aren\'t the kind of people who will wait, counting down the days until a great game comes out like a lot of us do.  They buy a system to play games right now.

Yah, that quote about the X-Box in May didn\'t sit well with me either.  No doubt though, you did pitch the rest of the stuff quite properly.  I know you\'re a Sega lover, and by May, you will be in bliss with an X-Box, but having better games than the PS2 by then is debateable and Fisty already provided the reasons why.

I do have a question though: When you tell people you are all sold out, how do they react?  Do they get the competitor\'s console?  I can tell obviously you pitch the x-box moreso then any other console, so when you pitch it, what do they do when you\'re all sold out?  Is it wise to pitch a sold out product?  Isn\'t that kind of counter-productive?

Well Xbox has Korea all to itself, and unlike the shrinking Jap. market, Korea is about to blow up.

I\'ll just say this: the casual gamer doesn\'t care about what was released last year either.  S/He only cares about what is being played on commercials, kiosks and her/his friend\'s house.

Why will XBox games be better by May? Well, for one, I am a Sega gamer, and there are many great ones coming out before then (House of the Dead 3, GUNVALKYRIE, Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon, Crazy Taxi Next, Toe Jam and Earl (heavily rumored), Sega GT 2002 (and SGT2002 online), all by then.

This is also not to mention Project Ego, Morrowind, Max Payne (looks like a competent port), Star Wars Obi-Wan, Raw is War (MANY people are waiting for this game), Blood Omen 2, Ghost Recon, Brute Force, GTA3, Silent Hill 2, Fellowship of the Ring, Wreckless, Medal of Honor: AA. More I could probably name, but don\'t care to.

Sure, some of these games are on PS2 in one form or another, but some are lacking something (Silent Hill 2 has 4 more hours of gameplay), or have more features on Xbox, I can\'t name a list half as long for games on PS2 that will be coming out or that are already out that excite me.

So you get where I am coming from. When I get to talking to people that like Sega, all I have to do is mention Panzer Dragoon and many are sold. Flat out, this system will be huge on Sega\'s games alone, IMO.


Eric Jacob

"Class, what have you learned? That the best graphics wins with casuals." - Altered


Ouch. Looks like I can\'t agree with ya all the time Altered. IMO, from everything I\'ve seen, this comment is flat out wrong. If you look at recent videogame history, it\'s usually the more powerful console that gets beaten by the graphical underdog.

SMS vs. NES?

Genesis vs. SNES? (Even if you feel that the SNES won, you gotta admit that the Genny gave it one helluva run for it\'s money)

PSX vs. Saturn/N64

GameGear vs. Gameboy

Nomad vs. GameBoy Color

See a pattern? It jus dosen\'t end with power either. It\'s the amount of games, regardless of quality, that seem to have made the difference. NES had more, Genesis had a ton if not more, PSX had more, GB had more...

The Sega Dreamcast should be proof positive that good games don\'t = a successful console. The PSX should also be proof positive that less than stellar games don\'t break a console. This war, at the casual gamer lvl, will come down to who has the most games. PERIOD. Hype, Graphics, Options, Astetics, these all help to sway the consumer mind.. but I don\'t see the pattern changing anytime soon. Casual gamers want variety, and since they are casual, they aren\'t really lookin for the cream of the crop.

Weither it\'s Sony\'s massive market muscle, Nintnedo\'s tried an true selling Mascots, or Xbox\'s ease of development which draws the developers predominantly to one side or the other, make no mistake that it will be the one who has the most games who wins this war.

Sonyfan your points are pretty solid, but I disagree on a few key issues.

SMS vs. NES?

Games decided this war as the SMS didn\'t have any of note.

Genesis vs. SNES?

In the early days, the genny had the graphics and the cool factor.  As dev cycles went by the snes out paced it (it was more powerful) and it eventuially out sold the genesis (I had one and loved it--too bad the end was terrible for this system.)  This generation was won by sports games, the Genesis had the better ones and therefore dominated for a time.  Also, the SNES launched a year (?) after the Genesis.  These are all important facts.

PSX vs. Saturn/N64

I don\'t care what you say, the PSX had the best graphics of this generation.  The N64 was foggy low res, blocky and very limited P.O.S IMO.  PSX had the cool factor going with Wipeout and Destruction Derby.  Tomb Raider eventually sealed the deal for the PSX--people don\'t give that game enough credit for what it did for Sony.

GameGear vs. Gameboy

Cost was the deciding factor here.  That\'s pretty much it.

Nomad vs. GameBoy Color

Kids are easy and love their gameboy.  Nothing else stands a chance.

Yes games were a factor, but not the only factor.

______________
The Sega Dreamcast should be proof positive that good games don\'t = a successful console.
______________

The only thing that proves is that Sega had a bad public image and bad marketing.  The best thing Sega could have done is sit out for a generation and come back hungry and huge.  The came back small and went home early.

Graphics do sway casual gamer\'s impressions.  Magazine and media reviews do too--do you think the PS2 would be the phenomenon is was without the media?  You say with games comes people.  I say with people comes games.  Sega didn\'t have people, it didn\'t have games.  

One thing I see in the future of the xbox is a couple new huge franchises.  Final Fantasy was nothing at one time.  Neither was Mario.  The xbox caters to anyone with a garage and a PC.  Counter Strike is only one example.  There are talented people out there with great ideas and their console of choice has to be xbox--there really is no other option for them.

It only gets more interesting from here.  If it sounds like I\'m cheering for the xbox it is because I am.  I have a PS2 and it is starting to shine, but it doesn\'t need to do anything else, it is already a success and will endure this generation with the maximum support.  I also have an xbox and it has so much potential that I don\'t want it to go the way of the DC.  If it ever gets a sizeable userbase, then I will be in gaming bliss--sony will be forced to act and that means only good things for everyone.

Originally posted by Watchdog

do you think the PS2 would be the phenomenon is was without the media?  

The PS2 phenomena should be attributed directly to the success of the PSX. The media seen by the general public was basically limited to covering the launch event and a few pieces here and there shortly afterwards about the high demand during the holiday season. My impression was anyone caught up in the hype before launch had to be looking for it to begin with.  

I think whether a console succeeds or fails is ultimately determined by the low budget gaming masses and has nothing to do with gamers being casual. Looking for a maximum return on an investment dulls the edge of any supposed graphical advantage a console might claim to offer within a single generation of machines.  Console price and extra features are hardly a factor vs the number of good games available for how many dollars, along with solid assurance the console will have a decent life span. Lack of the former kept the N64 in check, desperate want of the latter killed any chance Saturn or DC ever had at being successful.

My point is graphics and power had little if anything to do with the outcome of the past battles and media hype had almost zero to do with the unprecedented success of the PS2. Past performance and backwards compatibility made PS2 a sure thing for the vast majority of consumers who bought one. MS and its cheerleaders think the xbox can mimic that success just by chanting the latest and greatest theme repeatedly. IMO the xbox has a long way to go in order to prove itself and that\'s the only way it can achieve any relative success.

Originally posted by Watchdog
One thing I see in the future of the xbox is a couple new huge franchises.  Final Fantasy was nothing at one time.  Neither was Mario.  The xbox caters to anyone with a garage and a PC.  Counter Strike is only one example.  There are talented people out there with great ideas and their console of choice has to be xbox--there really is no other option for them.

Nice romantic notion. We\'ll see if it ever gets played out. By the same token within a year or two anyone with enough talent,  Linix PS2 kit, PC, and the right middleware could work up a revolutionary game for PS2. Likely? No. But then neither is the xbox/PC/garage scenario.