May console sales #'s

[Eaglesfan27]

Sony's execs are saying they don't buy exclusivity. They better change their tune with FF XIII or we may still see it go MP:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/gag-order/s...ity-274862.php

With a recent batch of exclusives that were traditionally on the PlayStation family of platforms making for greener Xbox 360 pastures—Fatal Inertia, Beautiful Katamari, Ace Combat 6, Devil May Cry 4, et al.—some might wonder how Microsoft is pulling it off. The answer? Money and lots of it. From the funding of development to co-marketing dollars to advances on future episodic content, it may be costing Microsoft a pretty penny to secure titles from the Sony stable. How will SCEA counter? We're not... sure. But according to SCEA president Jack Tretton, we can sleep soundly knowing that Sony will never lower themselves to outright paying for exclusivity like some kind of desperate john.

In an interview with PSM, Tretton revealed that "We have a very different approach to exclusives than some of our competitors. We don't buy exclusivity. We don't fund development. We don't, for lack of a better term, bribe somebody to only do a game on our platform. We earn it." It's like respect, I suppose, but for publishers and hardware manufacturer executives. A rare breed of respect.

Tretton also evaluated the third and first party health of the Big Three, stating that "Microsoft is too dependent on the third-party community, and Nintendo is too [dependent] on first-party. We like to feel that we got a pretty good mix." You know what's a better mix, Jack? Those Planters party peanuts with the pistachios. Man, those are good.
Look for the full interview in the latest issue of PSM

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Yep. You're gonna give probably half of that back in shipping, but...

Actually, the deal right now is free shipping, so that's not an issue.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Sony's execs are saying they don't buy exclusivity. They better change their tune with FF XIII or we may still see it go MP:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/gag-order/s...ity-274862.php

That's just as dumb as any other statement he's made thus far. They'll pay for exclusives and Stratton will end up having another sore-thumb statement in print. Don't kid yourself.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

That's just as dumb as any other statement he's made thus far. They'll pay for exclusives and Stratton will end up having another sore-thumb statement in print. Don't kid yourself.

What's stunning about that quote is how it goes against pretty much everything they did for the PS2. If you had to point to a single factor in the PS2's success (and there are a lot of them, so it isn't easy), it would be getting EA to not make games for the Dreamcast.

That isn't even counting how many people purchased PS2's because they couldn't get GTAIII anywhere but on that system.

It continues the unbelievable lack of judgement they continue to use with this launch. It's almost as if they are saying "WE ARE THE KING, YOU WILL BOW TO US" as their empire is falling in shambles all around them. No, Sony, you aren't the king anymore. Your install base is MILLIONS less than the other consoles. You want exclusitivity, you will pay and you will pay big.

If I'm Squaresoft, I'm asking for a complete ransom to keep FF exclusive to the PS3 now. I mean, a ransom like nobody has ever seen before. They hold all the cards here and if they do release FF on only the PS3, it's showing a loyalty far greater than I could ever muster up.

[CraigSca]

Even from a business point of view - Squaresoft has to be compensated by Sony for the lost profits by making it an exclusive.

Makes sense to me that to make it an exclusive the console maker will have to pay...

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Even from a business point of view - Squaresoft has to be compensated by Sony for the lost profits by making it an exclusive.

Makes sense to me that to make it an exclusive the console maker will have to pay...

Agreed. I'm not anyone should read too much into these comments. Sony is still going to pay for several exclusives. The only thing you learn from this is that Sony has execs that need to be quiet. In that sense, they should learn from the MS execs and just say nothing at all.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Agreed. I'm not anyone should read too much into these comments. Sony is still going to pay for several exclusives. The only thing you learn from this is that Sony has execs that need to be quiet. In that sense, they should learn from the MS execs and just say nothing at all.

"What's your stance on paying for the exclusivity of games for your console?"

"I think that the opinion of Sony is that we have a dominant product out there, and people are happy with it."

That would be the Microsoft response.

[TroyF]

A couple of more thoughts about the quote above:

MS too dependant on third party developers? Ummm, if you get them to make exclusive games for your system alone, they are third party in name only. You have their rights and they are an extension of your branch with that contract.

Wii too reliant on first party games? Yeah, until the developers realize that TEN MILLION PEOPLE OWN THE DAMNED CONSOLE. Don't think the Wii is gonna have to worry about third party support there Jack.

You may want to STFU.

[spleen1015]

It is funny to me that the Sony exec says the 360 is too dependant on 3rd party developers when the 2 biggest games on the system are MS games, Halo 3 and Gears of War.

[TroyF]

Looking at software sales figures from last week. Sony had a huge jump in software sales this week.

360 - 622,994
Wii - 580,147 (inflated a tad because Wii Sports is included, that's close to 90k of the software)
PS3 - 220,218

The other guys did too. The PS3 did get two titles in the top 10 for the first time. Darkness and Rainbow Six Vegas. 360 had 16 of the top 39 titles.

As for the consoles, the 360 doubled up the PS3 every week in the US again. Not sure what it'll be worldwide.

The Wii? See ya. This is becoming a very easy trend to follow. Wii doubles the 360, 360 doubles the PS3 and the Wii adn 360 both 3.5-4x the PS3 in software sales. I'm really interested to see the software sales numbers at the end of July. I have a feeling with NCAA thrown in, the 360 is going to be crushing the PS3 in software sales at about 8 to 1 next month.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Looking at software sales figures from last week. Sony had a huge jump in software sales this week.

360 - 622,994
Wii - 580,147 (inflated a tad because Wii Sports is included, that's close to 90k of the software)
PS3 - 220,218

Thought the first: PS3 software sales spike is due to Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Thought the second: good Lord, the first "OMG" game of any kind for the PS3, and that's the best they can do?

Thought the third: hope that $100 price cut is the real McCoy, or July's sales numbers are gonna look ugly.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by TroyF

This fall/winter has the potential to fall into complete devastation for the PS3. MS has at least 5 A+++ titles that are going to be released, and at least 3 of those are exclusives.

Love the enthusiasm, but shenanigans. There are roughly 5 A+ titles per generation and probably that many per year per platform of A titles. I'm curious which are these 5 titles that are all going to set the world on its edge for the X360 this upcoming season.

SI

[DeToxRox]

One is Halo 3, which is a given. I can think of GTA 4 and Assassins Creed, but neither are exclusive, so the other two I dunno.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

One is Halo 3, which is a given. I can think of GTA 4 and Assassins Creed, but neither are exclusive, so the other two I dunno.

One of the exclusives would probably be Mass Effect.

[TroyF]

The 3 A++ Exclusives are going to be Bioshock, Mass Effect and Halo 3.

Bioshock is sliding under the radar a bit, but it's going to be a HUGE seller. Mark it down now.

Assasins Creed and GTAIV are obvious A listers as well to round out the five.

I didn't even count the football games (which will outsell their PS3 counterparts by 3 or 4x), Project Gotham Racing 4, Too Human (which may slip), or any of the other 360 titles that could be sleepers in there. (the 360 is on track to release close to double the amount of titles the PS3 will)

One note: Bioshock isn't going to be an exclusive forever. . . but it isn't goin to be released on the PS3 until well after Christmas. The development time has been put into the 360. It's going to be a FEAR, Rainbow Six Vegas type of thing.

[TroyF]

One other quick note. . .

I hope the PS3 proves me wrong and releases 40 hits. I have all three systems. The more games, the happier I am.

But I see a ton of 360 time in my near future, with the PS3 only a review/blu ray box.

[Daimyo]

I found this parts of this article interesting as a way to put this whole thing in perspective, particularly the quoted bit below.

http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/40770

Video game revenue at Microsoft and Sony represents only about 10% of their total revenue. Most of that revenue came from sale of their new video game hardware systems at prices below their production costs. Reportedly, Sony is selling the PlayStation 3 at a loss of $250 per console.

The expertise of these two industrial giants obviously did not extend to their video game business. Microsoft had an operating loss of $1.3 billion in 2006, which followed losses in each of the preceding four years. Microsoft’s combined losses in video games for its five fiscal years ending 2006 were $4.9 billion on sales of $15.3 billion. Similarly, Sony reported an operating loss on its video game business of $1.97 billion for its 2007 fiscal year. Sony’s combined profit since it entered the video game industry is $3.3 billion on combined sales of about $72 billion.

Sony’s most profitable video game years were 1998 and 1999 when it reported profits of $950 million and $1.1 billion, respectively. On a relative basis, the video game segment of Sony’s business reached its zenith in 1999 when it accounted for 40.3% of Sony’s profit. For the last eight fiscal years ending in March 2007, however, the income earned by Sony on its video game business has been less than stellar. In fact, from 2000 through 2007 Sony’s video game business combined profit was only $920 million on combined sales of $57.3 billion, a gross margin of only 1.6%.

It's hard to believe that Sony only made $920M profit during the whole run of the PS2. If that's true, no wonder they were willing to sacrifice the console war to win the high-def format war -- gaming just isn't that profitable for them. It's also interesting that as poor as the past year as been for Sony ($2B in losses), it's been nearly as bad for Microsoft ($1.3B in losses).

[sterlingice]

If you want to compare this with Nintendo, they are a gaming only company (pretty much). They had their first ever quarterly loss in company history last year towards the end of the Gamecube's life and before the DS had started really ramping up. They can't afford to sell at huge crazy losses or else the company gets dissolved. Instead, they have a pretty substantial warchest of excess cash from something like 25 years of crazy profits but it's nothing like the deep pockets of Sony or Microsoft.

SI