We din’t want yer ol’ sour console sales, anyway.
It looks like the Wii is the clear winner this holiday. For those of you keeping score, here’s the death rattle.
Sony’s response? “We feel very confident that the PlayStation fan is going to wait until they can get a PlayStation 3…If they do pick up a Wii, it’s as more of a novelty,” says Sony spokesman Dave Karraker.
Sony has been mercilessly mocked – and rightfully so – for the way they’ve handled the entire PS3 roll-out. Beyond anti-consumer tactics that included crippling DRM, they’ve been skewered in comics for their idea that under-production was a fast track to popularity, this very blog (which, I should point out, is usually not a gaming blog) has commented on the way they seemed unprepared for their own system’s launch, and this none-too-subtle article at I-Mockery includes at least one comment on Sony’s decision not to bundle any games with the system (while Nintendo includes a selection of sports games with the Wii).
Here’s another Christmas morning scenario for you: “Timmy, Santa worked very hard scouring eBay to bring you this Playstation 3, but unfortunately he couldn’t bring you any games to play on it. I know what you’re thinking. That’s okay, because you’ll be able to play your old PS2 games on it in the meantime, except that Mommy—I mean, Santa sold, uhh, stole them when he dropped this off! The bastard! And I know you’re feeling weak now, dear, but Santa had to take your blood too. Santa has habits. Bad habits.”
Apparently, there’s a limit to how far you can push consumers as a whole – and Sony has found it. Golly. It’s almost… inspiring.
December 13th, 2006 at 1:13 am
I don’t know if it was Sony’s ‘tude, or their DRM, or their price-point that finally did it, though. But I hear sales of HD television have been depressed, too, so maybe all the DRM crap has gutted the early-adopter market.