Sony CEO: Wii is "expensive niche game device"
As PlayStation 3 sales pick up, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer told Bloomberg his opinion of Nintendo's Wii: too pricey and strange!
"I've played a Nintendo Wii," Stringer said last week at the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. "I don't see it as a competitor. It's more of an expensive niche game device."
His thoughts regarding Nintendo's $250 console comes after Microsoft announced a $50 cut to its XBox360, which is now $300. The PlayStation 3 is $400. Sony has no plans to reduce its price.
While there's an obvious amusement to be derived from the idea that the cheapest is actually the most expensive, we can at least see what Sir Howard's getting at: a Wii just does games, but a PS3 does everything. The real insanity in this story is an entirely different claim, from Sony's Peter Dille. Dille believes that the PS3 was initially a flop because "consumers were unable to find machines in stores" and that Sony was unable to meet "demand."
"That's not a formula for success,'' Sony's Peter Dille said. "Once you create the demand and aren't able to deliver, you create a situation where it stalls.''
This sort of soft-headed fantasy is why people make fun of Sony.
Sony's PlayStation 3 Gaining Ground on Xbox With Games, Blu-Ray [Bloomberg]
the latest
latest episodes
That's a great quote. I've only ever seen a single wii on the shelf. The one that is now in my living room.
Conversely, I don't think I've ever not seen a PS3 on a shelf, not that I go looking for them all that often...
I can't believe he's still pushing the notion that PS3 demand outstripped supply. Does he think goldfish beat us on memory tests?
SCEA's Jack Tretton used that spin at the time:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/2/9/
How do you not see Wii as a competitor? It's outselling Xbox 360 and PS3 every month...since launch...almost 2 years ago...
I hate to even slightly jump to Sony's defense, but...
#3 - Though Sony's position is very arrogant and incorrect, there is some point to be made that the Wii's high sales aren't all that harmful to either the PS3 or 360. Not every sale of the Wii means one less sale of the PS3/360, for a couple reasons. The first is many Wii buyers probably wouldn't have bought any console if not for the Wii, I know many family members (grandparents, aunts, non-gaming cousins) who went out of there way to get a Wii but never had a PS2 or Xbox, so these aren't sales that Sony and Microsoft are losing from its target audience, but rather market gains Nintendo is making. It wasn't a choice of Wii or PS3 or 360 for them, it was Wii or nothing. The other factor is that many of the Wii sales are to people who already own one of the other of the two 'hardcore' machine, which is the category I fall into.
That said, Microsoft is trying hard now to make its machine more appealing to the market segment Wii has recently created, and I doubt to much success (I'd be interested to see what the sales are like on its Aracade SKU compared to the Pro and Elite).
Sony, with statements like this, is obviously dismissing the segment entirely. For Sony, that is actually probably a good idea. They lose a lot of money on each console sale which has to be made up with game sales and accessories. This new casual market has a much lower attach rate (how many games people buy after buy after getting the system) than the traditional markets. For Sony, they may well end up being straight up losses. Microsoft, not counting warranty disasters, actually turns slight profit on its console sales and can make money there.
I'm probably as 'target audience' as Sony and MS can find, video games being my primary expenses for discretionary income and making up the majority of my leisure time. I own a 360 and a Wii, I own over 15 retail games, a dozen Live Arcade games and have rented more than 75 on the 360. The Wii I own 2 games, both of which I bought used and rarely play. I view the system as, well, a very expensive niche gaming device that's a lot of fun to play when friends are over.
As for Sony's other comment, about PS3 supply not being able to keep up with demand? That one is a load of crap. Maybe in some parts of Europe it was true, but since its release I've never not seen a couple sitting on the shelves at Best Buy or Circuit City in my area of the States. Even the 360 was sold out more often than it was for a while.
FWIW - when Sony first entered the platform game market with the original Playstation, they were VERY clear that it was a GAME MACHINE. Not a multi-use, multi-media, internet browsing, infotainment device like 3D0 or other failed entrants.
It's interesting to see that in the decade that has passed either the market or Sony has changed enough for them to forget that.