Poll: Has Sony already won?

[CriticalMiss]

I don't see how Microsoft can come out of the gates ahead of Sony without consumer stupidity or slashing the launch price. Nintendo might manage to crawl back once they have some games for the WiiU so I wouldn't consider them out of the running, but they've managed to be in a race all of their own recently.

Sony will probably get a lot of sales just on account of not being Microsoft and having the nuts to mock them at a press conference.

 

[HippySteve]

Still a lot to uncover about Sony but goddamnit if the PS4 will be the first console I buy on launch week.

Online gaming is no longer free on PS4, and that bothers me. I hate that. Then I have to listen to idiots trying to tell me I should be grateful to have to pay for PS Plus if I want to play online now. It's pathetic.

For the foreseeable future, I think I will stick to with my new PC and my PS3 (which I mainly use as a bluray player now).

See, here's the thing, I don't think we should be grateful so much as we should be willing- they could have gone all Microsoft-draconian on us, but they didn't, and if they want to charge 5$ a month for me to pay online so as to increase revenue, so be it, it's a concession I'm willing to make, especially considering the intrinsic value Playstation Plus already has.

 

[tangoprime]

But in all seriousness I think one thing alone shows who OBJECTIVELY won the generation. (yes I know what "objectively" means, you'll see what I mean in a second)
http://www.amazon.com/Thief-4-playstation/dp/B00C27SCC2/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_text_z
Let us review...
Brand new game
Xbox One: $100
Playstation 4: $100
Computer: $50

I'm just going to go ahead and quote from the page you linked:

Pricing and Release Date not Final:
Official pricing and release date have not been announced by the publisher. These are estimates only and subject to change. Pre-orders will be covered by the pre-order price guarantee and only be charged at the lowest price available between the date the order was placed and the final release

Just like the Xbox One and PS4 had crazy high unconfirmed prices previous to the announcement. It's so that people don't preorder and the price they preordered at was lower than the final cost- they set an arbitrarily high price, and you don't pay until it ships anyway, and you pay the lower price that it ships at. Reading is fun!

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

They've yet to clarify their policy on DRM or address any of the rumours about second-hand sales beyond "We're leaving it up to publishers". They've yet to announce price. There are still plenty of ways Sony could fuck this up.

And what say you now that we have the info to say that there's no DRM, trouble with second hand sales, and its priced only $50 more than the Wii U Deluxe?

Honestly, I'm surprised. Sony addressed nearly ever fear I had about the console. They put on one hell of a conference, and have left Microsoft looking utterly stupid.

Wii U price-drop inbound. I think even Nintendo will recognise that's necessary at this point. Possibly an Ambassador program similar to 3DS. They're announcing some mega-games today, so I think they'll making some heavy punches of their own (3D Mario, Mario Kart and Smash Bros is every bit as big a deal as FFXV and KH3). At this point, I'd say it's a two-way scrap between Sony and Nintendo. Nintendo have still got some advantages in that they can price themselves cheaper, are now the only console offering free multiplayer, and will have probably the best holiday lineup of any console this year. But they need to get their claws out now, as its going to be a dirty scrap.

Iwata already stated that there won't be a price drop back in January. I know that's a while ago, but with the money Nintendo isn't making right now, I don't think they can afford to do a price drop until after this holiday season, you know, when their good IPs come out.

And to be frank, the price drop maneuver has failed legendary companies before. The Sega Saturn's price drop didn't help it. Neither did the Dreamcast's price drop. I think we'll see the Wii U stay above the Xbox this gen on the negative reaction to the Xbone alone, but it won't be gangbusters like the Wii.


Edit: Just found out Iwata also repeated the no price drop philosophy in April. He's being real stubborn with this console.

 

[DANEgerous]

Here is the thing I am a PC gamer I likely will always be focused on PC but I would not mind saving up for a PS4 I have no desire to buy an XB1 whatsoever. So far they have impressed me with 3 games (Sunset overdrive, Project Spark and Titanfall) and the fact the Killer Instinct did not make that list is a damn shame beacuse i was more hyped for it untill they had it's demo and Dead Rising 3 just look kind of horrible.

Then you have Microsoft tying their phones and tablets to the damn XB1 and yes i see that Sony tablet plans but Microsoft at least appear to make them far more integral to the system Sony showed of things like maps and how to make plans things that are just hard to so with a controller with theirs Microsoft appears want to use it for game functions and thing easy to do with a controller.

Add their piss pour attitude toward consumers and independent studios and yeah just no XB1 for me and I may not buy my PS4 at full price but I have a PS3 and like 40-50 games if i can trade that in and get me some credit for a PS4 I just may I will only miss Injustice and hell that may come to PS4.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I don't know if Sony's "won" that round already, but they do have a pretty massive head start. Now, it's up to the games library to round up the system's sales pitch.

All I know is I'm seriously hoping Microsoft is taking notes - as well as docking someone's pay something fierce. They've completely forgotten about the one thing a company really needs to foster, that being goodwill. Profitability and corporate ties have their uses, yeah, but when capitalizing them and hiding that behind shitty Live TV solutions turns you into a huge dick, then there's a problem.

 

[aba1]

I don't think they will win but they won't lose either. Much like how this gen doesn't have a clear winner, neither will the next. I think the PS4 will sell more, but this gen also proved having more sales doesn't make you a winner in the gamer's eyes.

I kinda agree even though I want the XBone to crash and burn sadly I don't think it will. I also hope the WiiU does well.

 

[Logester]

My cousin is manager of an EB Games; according to his Facebook update on day one sales of the Xbox1 vs PS4, Xbox is winning by a large amount of pre orders as of his last update. But 13 hours before this post (was 11am my time)

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I'll be with the crowd that's waiting to see actual results, because it's still a bit early to tell, and consumers are just too damn hard to read. MS knows what they're doing, they're still going to do pretty well, there's a lot of brand loyalty there and franchises that people hang onto like baby koalas, so the race is still on.

What I can do without speculation though is give my opinion, which is that XBONE can go fall in an endless pit and be forgotten, in fact that's what I wished would happen, but won't. I guess if it affects their sales that bad they might turn around and actually stop dicking their consumers around, but the 'average', 'non-discerning' consumers love the mistreatment so that won't happen either.

I'm still going to give it a few months to a year before getting one anyways, I also still have a PC and PS3 so I'm happy to wait to see how the policies pan out and the bugs get ironed.

 

[tilmoph]

With the lower price point and more open game ownership policy, PS4 definitely has a huge edge. Paying for Playstation online would hurt it, but Xbox already does that, so that's a push at worst. I don't think Xbox1 is going to actually fail, however. Brand loyalty is a hell of a thing, so it'll probably do alright.

Having said that, I do think the Xbox1 is going to see a market share drop compared to the 360, since loyalty only goes so far. The 24-hour check-in, always on Kinect, and higher price point, when added with the DRM issues, will heavily alienate less devoted 360 owners.

Of course, at this stage, this is all speculation. I see the holiday sales as being the real deciding point. I really don't see MS changing any of its current policies unless it falls a distant third during Christmas. I personally believe that it will, as I can't see a reason for 1 to even really beat the WiiU (MS's decision to try and create an all in one living room system as opposed to a straight gaming console means it's trying to grab casual and non-gamer cash, an area that Nintendo has a very strong hold on).

Of course, I'm a PC guy through and through, so I don't directly have a dog in this race. I do kinda hope Xbox1 suffers a big enough defeat to maybe cause the major publishers to pause and reconsider their current trend of ever increasing control and intrusive DRM, so I guess I indirectly do (or at least have a dog I wanna see get shot).