Sony calls out Xbox and Wii as flea market peddlers

[Ironman273]

Sony calls out Xbox and Wii as flea market peddlers

Posted by Dave Rosenberg

Finally, we're seeing a bit of a fight from the Sony PR team in response to the brutal lambasting the PlayStation 3 has been taking for its poor showing against Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Wii, as well as the fact that it costs more to make than it sells for.

Edge Online reports on a Sony press release called "Keeping Gaming and Entertainment Simple," in which the Japanese consumer electronics giant emphasizes out-of-the-box features of the game console:

• Blu-ray functionality
  
• Built-in Wi-Fi
  
• Huge hard drives
  
• Free online gaming
  
• "Ten years of value with a future-proof system via firmware updates that offer new services and features."
  

It's good to see Sony finally saying something about the competition, but this is fairly weak stuff--not all that compelling. It's effectively saying, "don't forget about us" instead of showing why the PS3 is a great platform.

From the release:

"The Xbox 360 requires additional money, multiple upgrades, and additional external devices, putting a burden on the wallet, and (it) adds clutter to the entertainment center.

"And the Wii's lack of enhanced features comes at the expense of a comprehensive entertainment solution."

Wow. Harsh stuff! Seriously though, the PS3 is a really good gaming platform. It's pretty bizarre that Sony hasn't figured out a better marketing strategy over the last few months, including reducing the price to gain market momentum.

Source: C|Net News

:no:

[thealexweb]

This is coming from the company that makes the console that's been in last place since day 1 and is unlikely to make it to even second place.

[Guest]

Back to old tactics eh, Sony?

[thealexweb]

Back to old tactics eh, Sony?

Pretty much.

[BajiRav]

The Xbox 360 requires additional money, multiple upgrades, and additional external devices, putting a burden on the wallet, and (it) adds clutter to the entertainment center.

Let's see with my Xbox 360 elite (will be same for Pro),

additional money - I bought extra controllers and the media remote. The HDMI cable was in the box.

multiple upgrades - of what? software? that is free. hardware? didn't need anything

additional external devices - like what?

putting burden on the wallet - may be with XBL but what else?

[bangbang023 Veteran]

Some of their points are hilariously wrong, but they do have a few points. Namely, with the built in wifi. The 60GB 360 turns out to be the same price as an 80GB PS3 if you factor in the cost of the official wifi solution. Then, you also have to consider the subscription cost of Live, though many will argue (me, included) that the experience is well worth the small charge.

Sony's problem, in my eyes, is two fold. First of all, they need to do more to show why the PS3 is more. Saying "we have blu-ray" doesn't cut it for most people. Start bragging about the built in wifi and built in controller batteries. Secondly, they need to figure out what they want the PS3 to be. When I look at it, it just seems so unfocused. Some commercials trump the gaming aspect and others brag about the multimedia experience. They never tie it together like the 360 advertisements tend to do.

[Corris Veteran]

Well the title is wrong, not once is any flea market mentioned. :p

And secondly, who cares?

Has anyone heard that aaron greenberg? all he does is talk about Sony etc, so what if they says something about each other?

Welcome to competition, and trying to advertise and show your own stuff better than anyone else.

There essentially as bad as each other, this topic will bring the usual hate on Sony I assume.

The only company who doesn't seem to b*** as much as Microsoft and Sony at each other is Nintendo, but their too busy rolling around in cash to care. :p

[Ironman273]

Well the title is wrong, not once is any flea market mentioned. :p

And secondly, who cares?

Has anyone heard that aaron greenberg? all he does is talk about Sony etc, so what if they says something about each other?

Welcome to competition, and trying to advertise and show your own stuff better than anyone else.

There essentially as bad as each other, this topic will bring the usual hate on Sony I assume.

The only company who doesn't seem to b*** as much as Microsoft and Sony at each other is Nintendo, but their too busy rolling around in cash to care. :p

I guess you wanted to get in and start cheerleading instead of reading the Sony press release from the Edge source where it says:

"So as PS3 continues to evolve without the need for additional parts or expenses, expect the competition to continue peddling add-ons in an effort to keep up with the Jones'."

I find it difficult to fathom that some people are so in love with a brand they will completely ignore something like this with a "who cares?"

[afusion]

I have to somewhat agree with the 360 putting a burden on the wallet. It does, somehow I regret buying the 360, I try not to think about it though and just play w/ what I can.

[Budious]

I find it difficult to fathom that some people are so in love with a brand they will completely ignore something like this with a "who cares?"

I quite like it as I'm amused by the frenzy stirred up among the xbox fanboys coming to immediately bash the competitor on Microsoft's behalf. If there is no truth in the argument why get your panties in such a twist?

[FlibbyFlobby]

It's called PR. They all do it, and funnily enough its always BS.

If there is one thing Sony have shown this generation with the PS3 (sort of illustrated by this PR), it's that ripping people of with expensive proprietary HD's and memory cards doesn't cut the mustard. Hopefully others will follow suit in the next gen.

More importantly why do these non-articles keep appearing here anyway? They're all the same, someone takes something out of context about Sony and spins some controversy around it for website hits. It's getting old.

[sn00pie]

This is coming from the company that makes the console that's been in last place since day 1 and is unlikely to make it to even second place.

Well the Xbox 360 did come out over a year before the PS3...The Wii came out at the same time, but it was half the price. :whistle:

Ironman273, and you can call it what you want, I don't care. But it's obvious you've got hate against Sony, so would it really hurt you not to post useless threads like this one? Most of your threads that have to do with Sony, are always negative and basically fuel to feed into the 'console war' fire.

As a matter of fact, your no different then the people you call out as Sony fanboys.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I find it difficult to fathom that some people are so in love with a brand they will completely ignore something like this with a "who cares?"

I find it difficult to fathom that some people are so in love with a brand they get shocked by PR speak everytime, and still manage to get annoyed by it

:p

Every week there's something Sony are saying to MS, or MS saying to Sony.

Few weeks ago it was MS saying Home is 2005 technology. That topic ignited and blew up as you'd of expected.

I don't approve of any of it, it's dirty tactics, not good straight forward competition.

However every single time PR like this comes along, nearly everyone on this board acts like it's never happened before, or it's somehow exclusive to one company, or even one sector (happens outside gaming as well).

Yet another prime article to make headlines though. As long as everyone carries on reacting like they do to things like this, companies will keep at it, and journalists keep writing about it. Gamers just seem to be some of the most viciously vocal about this kind of PR.

It's immediately seen as somehow a threat to 360 or Wii gamers, and the idiot PS3 fans that run along with it start gloating. Of course some PS3 fans start damage control of dismissing the article, all it's going to do from the angry 360 gamers is spawn an argument on the board and give people an excuse to bitchfest/troll.

I mean, Ironman, you've already starting saying people are blindly in love with brands for playing this down. That's gonna start an argument in itself...

I genuinely think we as a collective in the GH should try to ignore these articles the best we can, unless they hold something of a new ground for conversation. I mean how is this topic destined to end up? We all know... I posted a mockery of it earlier (popcorn.gif) that the mods clearly didn't like, fair enough I do agree it would've caused unnecessary hassle, but so do topics like this in general.

Some PR cockups are destined to be posted and trashed, can't help it, if someone doesn't post it, someone else will. However I really don't think we need articles like this nearly every day :/ They don't bring the community together, just cause divides and arguments.

But oh well, just my thoughts.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Audioboxer

[soniqstylz]

[HawkMan]

Built in WiFi is great, when you're tryign to pass of your gaming console as a media center that can stream HD content... or.. yeah...

I prefer not paying for something I wouldn't use. Then whoever wants to use WiFi cna pay the premium for it.

and yeah, the whoel forcing you to buy addons suck, kind of like how the majority of PS3 owenrs had to buy a new gamepad to get rumble... but I guess that doesn't count :p

and at least my extra clutter doens't look like a foreman :p

Seriusly this stuff is weak and mostly wrong. but I guess when you still can't peddle your stuff, then talk crap about the competition, because it's worked soooo well for them so far... :rolleyes:

though I do like the way they think the hardcore gamers who actually paid $400+ for the PS3 in it's first year is going to be playing their consoles for 10 years :)

Also they have some guts talkign about how "their" consoles is allways fresh and new and continually updateable to keep up with the even new generation consoels, considering what just launched on th e360 this fall though :)

[sharp65]

You would expect that from a company that's struggling to keep afloat in that market.

[Ryster]

I agree.... all this negative marketing is really annoying. They should be trumpeting the positives of their particular offerings not highlighting the negatives of the competition. Then consumers can make a choice without all the name calling getting in the way.

[soniqstylz]

and yeah, the whoel forcing you to buy addons suck, kind of like how the majority of PS3 owenrs had to buy a new gamepad to get rumble... but I guess that doesn't count :p

No, it doesn't count. Rumble is rarely a necessary part of the game. It's nice for some games, but much of the time doesn't even matter.

For those of us with routers in different rooms than our gaming consoles, wi-fi is a necessity. Not having to buy a wi-fi addon, or a 2nd router to use as a wired access point just to download demos, play the (supposedly) necessary online add-ons for games, or even download other games is a nice bonus.

I would make some sort of comment about "just like how lots of XBox 360 owners had to buy a whole new console just to get HDMI or a console that didn't melt", but that well has been dipped into way too many times on here and goes nowhere.

[HawkMan]

No, it doesn't count. Rumble is rarely a necessary part of the game. It's nice for some games, but much of the time doesn't even matter.

For those of us with routers in different rooms than our gaming consoles, wi-fi is a necessity. Not having to buy a wi-fi addon, or a 2nd router to use as a wired access point just to download demos, play the (supposedly) necessary online add-ons for games, or even download other games is a nice bonus.

I would make some sort of comment about "just like how lots of XBox 360 owners had to buy a whole new console just to get HDMI or a console that didn't melt", but that well has been dipped into way too many times on here and goes nowhere.

Actually, I'm pretty sure, Wifi router or not, you're still perfectly cable of stretching a cable and hooking up through that.... so it's not a necessity, peopel where actually capable of networkign before WiFi, and it's still a better option, especially if you're going to use it for anything other than gaming, even for gaming wired is a slightly better option.

Much like HDMI isn't necessary, still get 1080p with component, still get full surround on my optical wich I still use anyway.

you're doign the same thing as Sony, randomly slapping "necessary" onto stuff that isn't.

And again, even if WiFi was necessary for you, it wasn't for me, so why should I have to pay for a WiFi I'm not going to use, when instead YOU who actually are the one needing it, ould pay to have it....

personally I upgraded to a elite from my first gen xbox, but that was solely because I wanted the HDD upgrade and black would be nice with my black Receiver, back TV, Black MEdiaCenter, Black Center speaker, black Front tower speakers.... you know... HDMI was merely a bonus, and not really a necessay one, I havn't really noticed a giant leap in PQ.

[LTD]

Sony needs to really step up the negative marketing, and the others as well.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I genuinely think we as a collective in the GH should try to ignore these articles the best we can, unless they hold something of a new ground for conversation.

I've actually felt like making a topic just like that on so many occassions, but you know there is some people who just enjoy all the b****ing that goes on and will continue to post them anyway.

Plus I don't wanna look like a lame ass hippy :p

[Snakehn]

bring down the F*** PS3 to $200 and i'll buy one ;)

[ToneKnee]

Sony needs to really step up the negative marketing, and the others as well.

No they shouldn't, this is what got Sony into trouble in the first place: Lies.

[Ironman273]

Well the Xbox 360 did come out over a year before the PS3...The Wii came out at the same time, but it was half the price. :whistle:

Ironman273, and you can call it what you want, I don't care. But it's obvious you've got hate against Sony, so would it really hurt you not to post useless threads like this one? Most of your threads that have to do with Sony, are always negative and basically fuel to feed into the 'console war' fire.

As a matter of fact, your no different then the people you call out as Sony fanboys.

So it's OK to post positive news but not OK to post negative news? Are you going to tell Audio to stop posting news like Sony's sales growing? Yes, you see generally the same people posting the same type of news. That's what allows you to see ALL the news, positive and negative.

The difference between me and "fanboys" is that I used to like, possibly even love, Sony products. It's this precise tactic (as well as the lying) that has made my confidence in the company fail. Yes, I'm a happy 360 owner, but I would never minimize the pain and stupidity that was the RROD or any other MS tactics that would lie to the public. Yes, MS has done that and I don't think it's right for them to do it. This thread is about Sony doing it, again. They've done it so many times. It's not an "everyone does it" type of thing. That's like defending Madoff by saying "well, everyone does it. Everyone has taken a sugar packet from a restaurant and it's stealing so it's the same thing." It reaches a point where it's ridiculous that people will step up to defend a company that treats us, the consumers, this way.

Plus I don't wanna look like a lame ass hippy :p

et tu, DrunknHippy?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Are you going to tell Audio to stop posting news like Sony's sales growing?

I think I'm gonna stop doing that myself.

Did you see how the PS3 sales growing topic ended up? It might as well have been a negative article :laugh:

And yeah, I do try to post more positive topics than negative, negative topics 9 times out of 10 just serve as a cesspool for fighting, arguing and people ending up with warnings/bans around here.

We ain't a news website trying to run every article possible, we're a gaming community on a forum. I just try to post what's best for the forum and members, not saying that always has to be sugar coated topics, but unless the negative article is treading new ground I'm always dubious about posting something that's gonna reign in the same 200 arguments we've been having since E32005.

Everyone can do what they want, that's just how I plan on conducting my article creating from now on.