
GameSpot recently had a chat with Sony Computer Entertainment American President Kaz Hirai and the status of the PlayStation 3 as it nears launch three months from now. While Kaz didn't necessarily come out and say anything that wasn't already known, there were a few interesting notes to be taken away from the piece. Here are the golden nuggets, so to speak, of the long-winded interview:
- My plan basically is to make sure that we keep at least as much market share as we have had with the PS1 and the PS2.
- ... I'd like to think that our market share will be as good -- if not better -- than what we've accomplished with the PS2 in the same kind of time frame since launch.
- ... we're internally really getting geared up to go to market with this beautiful console in three months' time, and at this point in time all signs are good to go.
- ... we've always talked about shipping 2 million units worldwide within the calendar year. Since we're going with three territories, we haven't really come up with an allocation just yet.
- ... I think it's going to be very much of a challenge to be able to meet every single unit demand that's out there in the market.
- We haven't started manufacturing yet.
- I think it's too early to say at this point in time which games definitively are going to be launch titles, and I certainly can't speak for the third parties.
- We definitely plan, and will leverage a lot -- if not most -- of the entertainment content that Sony brings. Having said that though, we want to make sure that we're not just suddenly becoming a vehicle for delivering Sony entertainment content only.
- Between PlayStation, PS2 and PSP, the PSP happens to be the fastest-growing product we've ever launched. I think we cleared 20 million units worldwide within the first what, about 18 months or so. And in the US, we've already cleared 5.2 million.
- Again, [there are] no adjustments on the horizon as far as PSP [pricing] goes. We're happy with the pricing, we're happy with the value proposition ...
Even after all the bad press and poor E3 showing, Kaz and Sony still feel very comfortable with what direction the PS3 will be going. What is your ultimate (non-fanboy) prediction now that we're three months away from launch?
[Update: SCEA contacted us to let us know that Kaz's statements were "misunderstood." They issued the following statement:
"Unfortunately Kaz Hirai's comments in the recent GameSpot interview regarding PLAYSTATION 3 production were misunderstood. We are still on schedule to ship 2 million units for our mid-November 2006 launch and additional 2 million units by the end of the year for a total of 4 million units."
Damage control? Perhaps (we're still having trouble rectifying how his statements regarding "2 million units worldwide within the calendar year" could be misunderstood). We don't think anyone (at Sony, Joystiq, or elsewhere) is under the impression there won't be any PS3 shortages, but Sony appears confidant they'll have 4 million of these puppies out the door by end of year.]













(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Refusing to drop the PSP's price at this point is absolute suicide. Not only is their console going to be twice the price of Nintendo's, their handheld will, too!
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And Kaz is laying on some bullshit. He didn't promise 2 milltion before the end of the year, he promised 2 million at LAUNCH with an ADDITIONAL 2 million before the end of the year.
Here's the source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4752895.stm
And here's the quote:
In order to satisfy gamers wanting a PS3 for Christmas, Sony said it planned to have two million units available at launch worldwide, with a further two million by the end of the year.
If Kaz is right, and they haven't even started production yet / only planning on 2 million total before the end of the year, then Sony better break out the KY cause they are about to take it up the a**.
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Of COURSE they'll sell out at launch, they are cutting back number of promised units between now and Jan 1 from 4 million to 2 million. Meanwhile Nintendo has INCREASED their production of Wii by 5 million more units.
Both Microsoft and Nintendo will be available this fall when consumers walk into the store. Every Nintendo or 360 sold increases their market share.
Sony, welcome to 3rd place.
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This is bad for sony. Coming out of the gates with shipping shortages is only ok when other consoles are struggling (PS2, w/Xbox and Gamecube not out yet, and Dreamcast having issues), or nonexistant (Xbox360, with Wii and PS3 still in development). Having too-few consoles at the holiday season, with X360 and Wii easily available will be an issue.
Then again, Kaz points out that Sony aims to meet the marketshare of last generation "in the same kind of timeframe" as the PS2... meaning that they expect to dominate in several years (but given the shortages, not immediately?). That's possible.
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David Reeves (head of Sony Europe) - "The name of the game is not market share...Whether we have 40, 50, or 60 per cent market share is not that important"
http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/03/sony-not-so-concerned-with-market-share-ah-that-explains-it/
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But who knows, maybe that all changes and we have 1. Xbox, 2. Wii and 3. PS3.
Oh and here a little piece of useless info: PS3 is officially written PLAYSTATION 3. All caps :|
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If he and Sony gave a damn about gamers, (ie the ones supplying their investors with money) then at some point along their disastrous PR trail they would have said "yea, we screwed up here, here, and here--we are working on it."---I would have respected that.
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So sticking to topic I say that the PS3 will be really really hard to find at launch. there isn't going to be 2 million PS3's at launch so I say this launch will be worse than the xbox 360 launch. But I think nintendo will be okay and will have a good amount at launch available to rival the 360's availablity at Christmas time.
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As for predictions on this post, yes I smell the potential for flames.
Hopefully it won't be as bad as the Avatar Airbender post got.
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a) Sony's marketing
b) the cards MicroSoft and Nintendo decide to play.
Sony doesn't have the initiative anymore so it'll be very hard maintaining their current position. Not impossible, but not very likely to happen.
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and that is who is going to buy them come NOV17
the price isn't going to chnage until they stop selling out.
then the 20gb PS3 is going to cost the same as the 360s 20gb 399, and then ps3 will start to own xbox360
but its still going to take sony a long ass time to get their market share back from M$
and happy about the PSP? HA!
DS owns PSP so bad...
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Wii owns the holiday shopping season; Sony left out of stock before Christmas shopping and Wii already hugely popular capitalizes on that to sell out a vast number of units.
So Q1 2007 it's 360, Wii, then PS3
I don't predict PS3 to mkae up its market share to become the #1 console but I think it will be close behind the 360.
The Wii, however, will end up outselling both the 360 and PS3 by the end of the 2007 fiscal year but the other consoles order will depend on which HD format cathes one.
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That's funny. On some other topic a few Sony fanboys were trying to convince me they had already manufactured 50+ mil units. Ahh, fanboys.
"Between PlayStation, PS2 and PSP, the PSP happens to be the fastest-growing product we've ever launched. I think we cleared 20 million units worldwide within the first what, about 18 months or so. And in the US, we've already cleared 5.2 million."
I /think/? What, doesn't he know? And those numbers have me confused. If the US has only moved 5.2 mil (and from my understanding, PSP sells better over here than in Japan), then where the hell are the other 15 mil units? Somehow I doubt the UK + Japan = 15 mil units.
"Again, [there are] no adjustments on the horizon as far as PSP [pricing] goes. We're happy with the pricing, we're happy with the value proposition ... "
That's a shame, because I might have bought it at $150.
I think Sony is really gonna fall behind MS and Nintendo this holiday. They may be able to pick it back up in the next few years, but I'm doubtful. The $600 pricetag is going to lose a lot of their formerly loyal supporters.
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You do realize that Sony won't be able to keep up with MicroSoft's production cost cuts for at least a year? PS3 is a very expensive and complex machine and they'll be taking a tremendous hit on every unit sold from the very beginning. On the other hand, MS is already negotiating lowering the production costs of Xbox 360 so if PS3 starts taking up too much market share, the price will easily go down. Thanks to their megalomaniac ambition, Sony will have to play catch up in that area.
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1.PS3 2.Wii 3.360
ps3 is first becuase of the ps2s success
wii is second becuase of the innovation and DS's success
360 is third becuase of no support in japan and only fps games
thats my (non-fanboy) prediction so if you dont like it kiss my shiny metal ass
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The real question is how much developer mindshare can Nintendo steal?
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Total Sales by Jan 2007
Microsoft XBOX360 - 9.5 million
Nintendo Wii - 6 million
Sony PlayStation 3 - 2.5 million
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The PSP is the second fastest selling system in Japan,
selling double what the PS2 sells.
And are you even counting the rest of Euroupe?
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Another Sony Intreview another chance of promise being wipped out from under the Sony fans feet.
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IMHO, I can see the PS3 being dead 3rd in the first or second year of launch. Then, maybe they'll pick up.
Then again, PS3 could suck all the way through the 7th generation of gaming.
Wii and 360 look just about the same. The Wii makes up for what it lacks w/ its controller, and that seems fun. It also picks up with what it lacks with the pricing.
I also thing 360 pricing is just in the middle. It's got awesome as hell games coming out, and the graphics are perfect. It's in the middle, and usually in the middle is what everyone likes.
PS3 games- I needed a bag to vomit it was so horrible.
Wii games- So fun-looking i needed a bag to vomit
360 games- So beutiful, so precious, I vomited.
I'm looking forward to Dead Rising, Halo 3, Gears of War, Splinter Cell Double Agent, and so many more, I think my head popped off.
Anyway, you can see that I'm going with the 360(I need more time to play these games. Hey, you can't fire me, I QUIT!), then the Wii(Sorry, didn't mean to hit you in the face =)), then the PS3(LET'S GET READY TO... NOT... Rumble...)
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1.Wii the hype for that thing is incredible, and it has completely different games on it.
2.XBOX 360 the price on it is not much more than what people are used to paying. It has good brand recognition (except in japan but who cares I'm talking US). The games are what good old Americans want, action and racing.
3.PS3 is not going to get near the sales the PS2 did because it's so expencive. You can rant and rave about value all you want, and you'd be right, but at the end of the day $500 - $600 is way to much for someone to pay for 0 to little improvement over 360 games and Metal Gear/Final Fantasy.
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No doubt in my mind 5 years down the road Sony will again lead the market. With a few price drops and Hi-Def cathching up PS3 will appeal to more people. All the extra features will be incentives for consumers to want to buy a PS3.
I couldn't care less about the bad press for PS3 since E3. I believe id is going to support PS3 now despite John Carmack was really not impressed on developing on game consoles.
The reality is that PS3 will be a "entertainment platform" for different people to put their products on there. Nobody is going to turn away from develpoing or using a platform that has so much market potential.
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Everything's pretty much on track. I just came back from Las Vegas where we we're still actually having our internal sales and merchandisers gather for basically four or five days of intense meetings. Everything from retail strategy to talking about the interactives, and [b]how you can reboot it if your power goes out[/b], so everything from nuts to bolts all the way up to the retail strategy.
Does it scare anyone that this is even an issue?
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"Hey, that Nintendo controller looks awesome"
"duuuude! I've got the greatest most original idea EVER!"
"What?"
"Let's take the PS2 controller, and like, put the motion sensore thingy in there!"
"That's not original..."
"But removing Rumble is!"
"Nice...."
360 Execs-
"We have execs?"
"Where is everyone?"
"Working on Vista."
Wii Execs-
"Video gaming is a hard business..."
"Should we go back to making cards?"
"..."
"Who's up for Mario?"
"MEE!!!"
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lol, I was going to rant about your post until i realized you were joking. well done :)
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I mean the whole PS3 thing isn't bad, MGS4 is coming out and...maybe the future does look a little bleak. I am sure that Sony can get the systems out to consumers, but with a lot of ad space already bought by Microsoft for Gears and Nintendo has all their ad space in order for the Wii. Sony is going to have a hard time pushing out units.
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The DS has sold over 20 million units. PSP software sales are in the toilet same with movies. If Sony didn't pay retailers you wouldn't be seeing any shelf space for umd movies or psp games.
The DS outsells the PSP by a six to one or more margin each week. It's starting to match that ratio in America and Europe. Look at the software charts on a week to basis it's becoming filled with DS titles.
The PSP is dirt cheap in Japan. Heck you can often find stores having sales where the psp is just nine dollars more then the DS lite.
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Sure... it was from the Sony E3 Pre-show press conference. There were other memorable moments too. But, the joke is pretty much stale right about now anyway. It has been 3 months after all.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eaBUeINW_3s
As for this interview, I sincerly hope Kaz just misspoke when he said 2 million units worldwide by the end of the year. I really hope so...
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He'd have to be joking. No one could possibly write that and believe it ;)
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I hope your right...
@ 31 Pc
I hope he's right...
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NO, HE DIDN'T SAY THAT!!!.. DID HE??? ... REALLY???
With ONLY 2 million consoles spread between Japan, US, Europe???
A Console 50% more expensive than it's direct competition???
This PS3 thing will be launching against software like Gears of War which graphically beats ANYTHING Sony Can offer.
This denial disease is spreading from Sony Fanboys to Kaz. Or is it the other round.
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Not to mention that they haven't started manufaturing PS3s yet. And I happen to remember when they said that, Kamalot, thanks for pointing that out.
And yet the PS3 taunts those with tight wallets with games like MGS4 and Assasin's Creed, both of which look absolutely fantastic. Of course, those with tight wallets probably don't own HD TVs.
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In the long run, MS is probably going to find that they hit their boundary a lot sooner than Sony. High definition graphics are going to eventually want high definition textures, which are hard to deliver with only 2-4GB of storage media. And don't try and retort back that they are fixing that with the HD-DVD drive, everyone knows they don't plan to make games for it. A lot of people are saying "Why would I care if it has a Blu-Ray player, I don't want to play Blu-Ray disks," but you do, because of the 15GB storage capacity.
Sony will easily sell out at launch(not saying much) but more importantly, I think they will continue to garner more and more support as 360 hits it's computing limits and PS3 completely outstrips the 360's performance.
And that's my 2c
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