Activision threatening to drop PS3/PSP

[justjohn]

Sony should beware — Activision chief is not simply playing games - Times Online

Bobby Kotick and a partner bought the once-struggling Activision for $440,000 in 1991, at a time when it was losing $30 million on $10 million in revenues. Now the world's biggest independent computer games company, it has a market value of $16 billion (£10 billion) and operating profits of $179 million in the first quarter on sales of $981 million.

The target is Sony, the once-dominant hardware maker. “I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation,” he says.

“They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony.” Ask when and he says: “When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP [portable] too.” Sounds like Sir Howard Stringer, Sony's chief executive, is going to have to call Mr Kotick pretty fast.

Your talking Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises being pulled from the console. That would be absolutely game ending for Sony if they don't bend to the will of the market.

Sony needs to decide how bad they want to be in gaming and lower their prices for developers as well as the console.

[sir clinksalot]

Absolutely right. Go Activision.

[elly]

wait...i do something besides watch blu-ray movies on my PS3????


/sarcasm

[Coast21]

Originally Posted by elly

wait...i do something besides watch blu-ray movies on my PS3????


/sarcasm

[justjohn]

I've had mine fir over a year. I just bought my first game for it last week. My 360 gets a game every few weeks. Most multiplats work better on the 360 and except for KZ2, there haven't been any exclusives I can't live without. Now that there is a new batch of greatest hits, I will pick up Ratchet & Clank. When Uncharted gets a price drop, I'll pick that one up too.

[sailerm]

Originally Posted by elly

wait...i do something besides watch blu-ray movies on my PS3???

This has been Sony's (misguided) plan all along, they figured to piggy back the Blu Ray on the strong backs of gamers, but like I've said in the past videophiles and gamers tend to be two very different demographics. The use the Blue ray drive as an excuse to keep the pricing high, but it is becoming the Albatross around the neck of the PS3

[justjohn]

At this point, they've painted themselves into a corner with BR though. Some games are too big to fit on a single disc now.

[brand42]

From within the safe confines of Xbox land, I can say "Go Activision!!!"

[justjohn]

Multiplats get bought on 360 for me too.

[sailerm]

Originally Posted by justjohn

At this point, they've painted themselves into a corner with BR though. Some games are too big to fit on a single disc now.

Then Sony has to suck it up and cut the price of the PS3 (and by default Blu Ray) the problem is that there are so many license fee holders with there hand in the Blu Ray cookie jar, that I'm sure have been promised 'x' amount of dollars for units sold, that it may be cheaper for Sony to just let it wither on the vine rather than pay any guaranteed minumuns that might be in place.

[Skip]

Lots of unwarranted Sony hate on these boards... I proudly own a PS3 and buy at least one game a month, if not more, because it's a high quality game system with free online, better exclusives, and blu-ray support... I mean what more can you want? $400 isn't really that bad, and you can get it for much less if you know what you're doing... I got mine for $250, brand new, 80 gb, legally...

Now as for Activision... this guy's bluffing out of his ***, he isn't about to drop PS3 now that it has so many consoles out on the market. Sure, it might not offer as much of a user base as the 360 or Wii, but it still has a large, respectable base that buys Activision's products - 4 million PS3 owners purchased the latest Call of Duty... I don't care how "badly" you guys are doing, that's a large profit. All they're doing is attempting to do is pressure Sony into lowering the price of the console so that there user base will grow even more, thus more people buying Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, and thus more profit for Activision... if they just drop Sony, they're losing profits. Not gonna happen.

*shrug*

[mainstreetcm]

If they just made a damn Blu Ray add on for my 360 I would be perfectly set. lol. Actually in all honesty most of my entertainment is totally digital and can be wireless broadcasted to almost any device in my house (thank you TVersity!)

Sony is losing money hand over fist. Lowering the price of the PS3 is not really in their "best case scenario" right now.

And everyone complains about the 360 and its Pay to Play format online, but I'm not really sure why. I will tell you that I gladly pay my $50 a year to play online, to have a simplified and RELIABLE service to get my game on with. It's cheaper than a damn PC MMORPG game for crying out loud (and you get to play however many games you wish on top of that!)

I have several friends with a PS3 and I can tell you first hand everything about PSN sucks! Its slow, takes forever, and we can never get through a gaming session without being dropped from the service completely. But its FREE, so I guess you PS3'ers just have to suck it up.

[sailerm]

Originally Posted by Skip

Lots of unwarranted Sony hate on these boards...

I don't think it's unwarranted, I think it's completely justified. Sony has been riding great PR for years, but the truth is they have lost there way. Putting out mediocre product, at uncompetitive prices with noted poor reliability record, and horrible customer service.

It's the number 3 gaming system, Activision could drop them and not lose as much as you think because they would make up the difference in R&R cost of the PS3 platform that they would no longer have to invest in.

The truth again is that Sony cares less about a gaming system (and gamers) than protecting and advancing it's money losing Blu Ray format

[larasound]

My PS3 never broke on me. I've had to send my Xbox in 6 times. I'm just sayin.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by sailerm

I don't think it's unwarranted, I think it's completely justified. Sony has been riding great PR for years, but the truth is they have lost there way. Putting out mediocre product, at uncompetitive prices with noted poor reliability record, and horrible customer service.

It's the number 3 gaming system, Activision could drop them and not lose as much as you think because they would make up the difference in R&R cost of the PS3 platform that they would no longer have to invest in.

The truth again is that Sony cares less about a gaming system (and gamers) than protecting and advancing it's money losing Blu Ray format

I think for some reason you have some grudge against Sony. The PS3 is not a mediocre product, it's the most powerful and (from my experience) the most reliable system out there... it's an uncompetitive price? You get what you pay for... in most households the full experience on an XBox 360 is even greater than the PS3's initial cost! Poor reliability? Are you serious? Microsoft nearly got sued because they knowingly put out faulty hardware, aka the 360 - red ring of death ring any bells? I mean sure you now have that 3 year warranty or whatever, but if my system fails and I have to wait a few weeks without my games, I'm going to be pissed regardless. Microsoft has the bad reliability record, so... I really don't know what you're talking about. I've only had to use it twice, but Sony's customer service for me has always been courteous and quick... so again... not sure what you're talking about. Tell me, have you actually owned a PS3 before?

What's up with all of the PSN dissing by the way? I've only been dropped from a game ONCE. One time. Otherwise I've had ZERO lag with plenty of games to join and good players to compete with. Download times have been fine. I really don't see where it's coming from unless you have a really crappy internet connection and are taking it out on the PSN.

Now as for the Blu-Ray argument - PS2 was revolutionary in that it was also a DVD player, which sold systems. PS3 does the same thing, just with the next generation of formats... where is the problem? Sony's been churning out excellent first party games left and right with a whole lot more on the way, and I'm enjoying my blu-rays, so you can have fun with your red ring of death and Halo I guess.