Original-Gamer.com: "For those who missed out on last night's announcements during the Tokyo Game Show, Sony unveiled the PS4... or just another redesigned PS3. Looking even ‘slimmer’, the new design for Sony’s hardware seemed to be an 'well known secret' due to the redesign having been leaked back in July. A question that most gamers will have immediately is: why release another PS3 model when we are so close to the release of the PS4?"
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I'll save you a bit of a read and skip to his answer.
"to keep the PS3 viable and profitable"
Phew. A bit long-winded when that's ultimately your point, in my opinion. Not sure what this article has to do with the PS4, but hey - gotta fill the site with something.
Edit below: True, but I think this is probably more about tech. As technology ages it shrinks, becomes cheaper, more efficient and easier to make so it makes sense that from time to time you would adjust your design accordingly to take advantage of that. The PS2 has hardware revisions after the PS3 came out. It's not like the prospect of the next gen is going to make them stop trying to make this gen more cost effective for them. And the article says as much, it just goes about it in a rather lengthy fashion.
Fans "see the new PS3 slim! I want one!"
Media "Sony announced new slim!"
Sony "check out our new PS3 models! Just in time to fiend off WiiU!"
At the end of the day, yes its to save money but its for marketing purposes too. Otherwise they wouldn't re-design the whole thing. And yes they have changed things internally many times without re-designing something.
Yeah it is weird that they didn't release it with a price drop much like they did with the original slim.
This looks like a $199 product. With that price and a new design, it probably would have sold like gangbusters this holiday and taking some of the wind out of the Wii U launch.
But knowing Sony, they have been making weird decisions this whole generation. (Not talking about games quality, that's a non-issue)
If you've been following Sony as a company recently, you'll observe that they're having financial problems. Reducing the manufacturing costs of the PS3 increases its profitability, therefore reducing their financial deficit.
Sony is currently looking to stabilize, not expand, and that's why you're not seeing a price drop along with the new Ps3.
SoldierOne
Most of the cost savings in the new model are directly related to the new design. The mechanical disc tray is the most obvious example of these - they're a lot cheaper than the disc slot used in older versions of the console.
It wasn't for marketing at all, the Marketing department is just trying to make the product as appealing as possible even though it just looks cheaper than the other models.
So, they'll get crushed by Nintendo's new system and X360 price incentives? (plus games: N: Mario / MS: Halo4)
This is only to get more money per unit sold, but if less consoles are sold, what is going to happen?
I was reading some rumors, mostly on Gaf, where people said that these higher prices are pushed to make the old Slim models "look" cheaper (as in affordable) and this way clearing the stock (affordable old slim selling out while new slim replaces) and new slim will get a price reduction, that's kind of a good move in order to get rid of the current models.
Now, if the only purpose of this console is to make more money to Sony while the competition will make an effort to push their consoles, that really sounds bad, but lets see how it turns out.
You misunderstood what I said. Sony is looking to stabilize their business, which is the reason for releasing the new slim console.
This doesn't mean that they don't push the brand at all, it just means that the new slim console isn't built to push the brand, hence why there's no price drop.
When I said expand, I was referring to 'expanding beyond their current rate', not expanding in general. As far as general brand pushing is concerned, Sony is offering value through aspects such as PS+, upcoming exclusives and Vita+PS3 cross play.
As far as Halo 4 is concerned though, I don't think Sony is even going to try to compete with it. Instead, they're pushing Wonderbook this fall and aiming at the younger audience.
As always Internet, you ask for the impossible. Thanks for the comment!
People f*** up now and then. Its human. Instead of making excuses, sometimes its easier and better just to apologise.
The article was supposed to bring about logical discussion for what Sony is planning for the future of the Playstation brand through their consoles.
Just listing it in the correct category isn't enough - you need to make sure the title conveys what the article is about concisely and accurately, whilst your current title is simply inaccurate and misleading.
Misleading title is misleading, and if it's accidental, there's no problem. But as fei-hung says, you come off as kind of a dick with this response.
They will likely stay in the cost cutting phase until they catch wind of any substantial Xbox 720 related whispers. Cold War style waiting game.
And it seems the disagree police has caught wind of my comments
The PSOne(slim PlayStation) was released in North America September 2000, just one month and some change before the PS2 launch.
The PS2 Slim was released in North America October 2004, which was 2 full years before the PS3 launched so they don't do it the year before a new system comes out every time, in fact, they never have.
In any case, waiting 10 years to release the PS4 is a terrible idea. This generation has already dragged on too long. Good thing is, Sony is a lot smarter than you. We'll see the PS4 fairly soon.
720p or less just looks so bad to me, and the jaggies in console games are even harder on the eyes
hopefully the wii u uses 4x msaa or better in all games
just played a bit of borderlands 2 at a co-workers and it looked bloddy awful compared to my pc version, the hard lines of the cell shading made the awful jaggies even more apparent. and the draw distance was significantly shorter.
So maybe a 1or2TB ps4?
considering that the PS4 won't be on the market for a little more than 2 years from now, it's far from being "so close"...
I will say that at least my PS3 was a pretty solid system. I've replaced x2 Xbox 360 consoles, because they over heated and burned out... Thats why I then bought a ps3. But now I find myself looking back over the fence. Microsoft are pro when it comes to marketing, and they are a more cashed up then Sony is right now. I mean they seem to be getting more exclusives, ect. I think the Xbox 720 may be the way to go next gen..
But having said that, I'm also thinking of just hanging on to my current gem consoles, and wait for Valve to release their Steam Box, which could be years and years away and never happen... but still, I can hope. :-)
And those that say the PS3 is almost the same price as Wii-U.....uh, uh, think again, as it's obvious a price drop will come for PS3 just before Wii-U launches, & if Sony think smart, they will include a set of Move controllers along with the standard controller.
My reasoning is the Kinect was effectively a launch. It moved a lot of 360s on its release, consumers who are not looking to buy something new in the next five years. Depending how committed MS is to casuals, I can't see them snubbing that market.
Maybe Kinect 2 should be seen as a separate console, with a life cycle out of step with the 360? I'm not certain, but how will they finagle a console launch so soon in the 360's lifetime.