Today’s “Are you for Real?” moment comes from none other than Sony Corporation itself. It appears the venerable electronics company is in denial about the disappointment that is its new video gaming console, the Playstation 3. You see, according to a Sony statement this week, the PS3 is in short supply everywhere:
“April or May is when we feel like we’re going to catch up to demand and have product fully in stock across North America and stay there,” said Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Sony’s shipment target is 2 Million PS3s by the end of March. Myself and just about every other human being with eyes will contend that there are literally stacks of unsold PS3 at most Best Buys, Targets, and Gamestops that you go to.
Get real, Sony. It was you that was pompous enough to think that you could exploit your existing fan base by force-feeding them a BluRay DVD player into the console while simultaneously failing to release any exciting launch titles AND charging $600. It’s this same pompousness that caused Sony to hand over the portable music player reigns to Apple (from their Walkman product). It’s also caused their Vaio laptops and Wega TVs to be commonly regarded as overpriced. But that’s another gripe for another day.
Now if you want to talk about a rare find, that’s the Nintendo Wii.. which is genuinely out of stock in most retail outlets. Anyway…back to my XBOX 360!
Sony smells like a lier, eh? Dont think we’ll see anything really cool till FF13. Back to Gears too ;)))
GEARS FOREVER. BRING IT ONNNNN!!!!
Almost a year later and all this remains true. The Wii is still hard to find but 360 and PS3 units are plentiful everywhere. As much as the Microsoft and Sony fanboys may scoff a Nintendo, the Wii is truly a next-gen system. It has created all-new mechanics and a fresh new approach at social gaming whereas Microsoft and Sony is just rehashing what they’ve done before and have seen in the PC gaming market.
Microsoft finally has another TRUE killer franchise on it’s hands with “Gears of War”. Meanwhile, Sony is losing exclusive titles. Things do not look good for Sony.
I think Sony’s suits are not in denial as much as they are just arrogant. They think their branding is enough to carry the platform. Notice how they are marketing PS3 more and more as an affordable Blu-Ray player. Call me crazy but, if I buy a gaming platform, I want to play games and the rest is just gravy. If you can’t accomplish your core function exceedingly well, I don’t care if you can make me the best cup of coffee ever. =oX
Microsoft has messed up on many levels but they did a good job by making the HD-DVD player an option rather than inflating the price of the “core unit”. Sony is notorious for forcing proprietary crap on people. They’re good about using strong-armed tactics. They need to focus on gaming content and pull their heads out of their arses.
Oh well, it’s nice to see the new underdogs, Nintendo, doing really well. ;o)