GamesIndustry.biz has a thought-provoking editorial up looking at the PS3's European launch through the tech industry marketing concept of FUD -- the creation of fear, uncertainty and doubt around a competitor's product. While Microsoft has done its fair share of FUDing up the air around the PS3, Sony has been contributing to the FUD with questionable executive comments and unclear communication about the system's European pricing and release date. Questions about the fate of Blu-ray and images of PS3's stacked up in North American stores aren't helping Sony's image either.
While all this FUD might not matter once big franchises like Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo finally hit stores, it doesn't change the fact that, currently, "there's a cloud over PS3 whose presence has nothing to do with the system's rivals," as the editorial puts it. In other words, consumers can barely see the PS3 through the Sony-created fog of FUD.



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Na, the source of the FUD is high up in the mountains of the Sony detractors, the spinning and reckless rumour mongering which trickles down into the valley of the average consumer to become a mighty ocean of ropey fanboy folklore lapping at the mainstream press' shores.
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Michael
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fud_%28disambiguation%29
"Fud, a Scottish colloquialism for vagina"
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To those people, tell me, how is it living in that cave or yours?
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"My grandfather proudly owned an Edsel. My parents subscribe us to AOL dial-up and I am a loyal Playstation 3 owner until the end."
"Jim Jones ain't got nothin' on me!"
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joystiq you are getting old. bring something new to the table or dont even report...
ps. $600 is not that much money. its called credit.
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Shouldn't this article say "SPONSORED BY BILL GATES" ?
Micro$oft is splashing out.. they've got two of these anti-sony ads a day on joystiq.
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Want a test? Go into your local EB Games or Wall-Mart, find someone browsing the PS3 section, and scream "Riiiiidge Raaaacer!" or "Giant Enemy Craaaaaab!" and try to gauge their reaction before you get thrown out by security.
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Na, the source of the FUD is high up in the mountains of the Sony detractors, the spinning and reckless rumour mongering which trickles down into the valley of the average consumer to become a mighty ocean of ropey fanboy folklore lapping at the mainstream press' shores."
If you mean the times when Sony underwhelmed fans at E3 with Riiiiidge Racer, giant enemy crabs, real-time weapon change, a $600 console people will work more hours for, taking the consumers out of the gaming ghetto, beating Nintendo by shipping more than Nintendo sold, gaming in the 4th Dimension, and etc. boasts by Sony themselves is fanboy rumor-mongering, then yes.
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"$600 is not that much money. its called credit."
That's pretty silly advice.
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"A lot of these negative views are only common knowledge to those who frequent game forums, and that doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the long run (Snakes on a Plane would've been the highest grossing movie of all time, otherwise).
Want a test? Go into your local EB Games or Wall-Mart, find someone browsing the PS3 section, and scream "Riiiiidge Raaaacer!" or "Giant Enemy Craaaaaab!" and try to gauge their reaction before you get thrown out by security."
Yelling anywhere without context is liable to get you into trouble. What you're looking for is if people have a sense of humor about aformentioned crabs and racers. People sure did about Wii. :)
Sony could have gained a cool streak by making Giant Enemy Crab a mascot and helping the fans take it in stride. Snakes on a Plane wasn't the hightest-grossing film of all time but it did really well for what it was, and only perpetuated the cool of Samuel L. Jackson.
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Just two months after launch you can go just about anywhere and find them just sitting there. In the same time frame, nintendo has basically sold twice as much as sony with more supply and with a demand thats not going away any time soon. Two months after the 360 launched you still couldn't find a 360 any where for sale. Two months after launch the 360 and the wii where bringing well over msrp, right now I can get a ps3 on ebay right at or under msrp(20gb or 60gb).
As of right now I don't even think that the price is the main issue. I think its the fact that, as a video game console, the playstation 3 doesn't bring anything thats worth $600. If you had killer apps. out at launch or in the launch window with killer graphics and killer game play then sony wouldn't be having this problem. In one section you have the Wii that has its own form of gaming and in the other you have your 360. Why would you want to own a playstation 3 right now, not 6 months from now when the good stuff comes out, we are talking about right now.
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Contrary to what you may believe, credit is in no way a fancy way of saying, "Free money".
I'm constantly amazed at how many people don't grasp that concept.
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If you need credit to play video games then you seriously need to re-evaluate your financial priorities.
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For many people (like myself) it’s not just a matter of being a lot of money, but also the principal of it. I’m about as likely to pay $600 for a game console as I am to pay $10 for a can of soda. I can afford it without a problem, but the price is just absurd for what you get. And BluRay is about as attractive as that $10 can of soda having unicorn droppings in it. It doesn’t matter how ‘cheap’ they make it if people don’t want it in the first place. That being said, I’ll get a PS3 when the price comes down to Earth levels.
P.S. Not the same guy as the other slacker that should stop reading joystiq if he doesn’t like it.
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Before the launch the trendy thing was "don't believe the hype!" instead believe in the anti-hype, which everyone seems to have bought into fully. The system is actually pretty solid, it just needs games.
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That's not Sony FUD and it's circular reasoning at best.
The reality is BluRay discs are now outselling HD-DVD, while before December, they were trailing. That's PS3's real effect on BluRay acceptance, not the rabid fanboy reactionaryism.
Face it Joystiq, when it comes to FUDing Sony, gamer blogsites like this are Microsoft's biggest allies.
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But when you're dealing with a mass market culture, you've got to reach the mass market. You can make all the dollar comparisons on here you want (Grunge et. al.) between the 360 and PS3 - the general public doesn't really give a damn about that. If they want a PS3 for $599, they'll buy it. And if they think an Xbox 360 is overpriced at $399 for a game console, then they're NOT going to buy the PS3 for $100 or $200 more - they'll either get a PS2, Wii, or do without.
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As for the FUD - lay it right on Sonys doorstep.
http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/22/sony-ceo-ps3-to-launch-under-400/
I will grant you that the original article here had errors, which were corrected. But look at the comments from 2005:
"1. If the PS3 launches at $299, I'll be in line on launch day with my cash in hand. If it's $399, there will have to be some awesome games before I plunk down the cash."
"13. If it's $299 I'll get one too, and it will sit next to my xbox 360. If its $399, I'll pass. Blu-ray is overrated and easily damaged so t nearly $400 without the harddrive, no thanks"
"32. It's amazing that people in this thread still believe, even after this, that the PS3 will be more than $400. These are the same people who believed the brain dead analysts who were claiming the PSP would be $500.
The PS2 initially had manufacturing costs at about $450 and yet they released it for $300. Why would anyone expect they are suddenly going to change the formula that helped them sell 100 million consoles?!? Why would they raise the price by $200 from one generation to the next?
Answer: obviously they won't"
Rebuttal - obviously they did...
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Hmmm - this was also when the launch was Spring 2006, too.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/01/04/ps3-on-track-for-may-06-launch/
November - the new May...
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And then we have the quite amusing post of original Sony PS3 promises http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/22/the-ps3-in-2005-and-now/
6 x USB ports
2 x HDMI ports
7 x wireless controllers
Coming Spring 2006
The checks in the mail, and objects in the rear view mirror may end up PASSING your butt, Kaz...
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When the Xbox 360 launches back in 2005..it had NO good games...It sucked in the software department. Only a few games game out that were any good..GRAW and Gears Of War...and a few others...GRAW was not a launch title..it came out months after the launch.
The PS3 will probably get a price cut this christmas....and the next batch of good games will come out in March 2007. Sony will once again dominate when the price of the PS3 drops about $200.
All Sony has to do is drop the 20GB PS3 by Q4 2007 to $349.99 and the 60GB PS3 to $449.99....and release some good games....and come out with the March 2007 Firmware update...and its all over for Microsoft and Nintendo....
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""The PS3 will probably get a price cut this christmas....and the next batch of good games will come out in March 2007. Sony will once again dominate when the price of the PS3 drops about $200.""
A $200 price drop after only 1 year of release? Doesn't seem likely
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But while DVD on the PS2 was a big factor for me, cheaper than standalone players when I bought the console, Blu-Ray is no incentive. Like most folk here, I don't have HD TV and won't be buying next-gen movies until I do. Paying over the odds for something that I'm not going to need in the foreseeable future, doesn't sit well.
Grown tired of waiting for PS3, baulking at the price tag, and as so many of my friends were already on Xbox Live, I ended up getting a 360, premium bundled with Gears and Rainbow Six for £300. And I have no regrets, not now, and not likely in the future, as few games look to be platform exclusives. I'm not the only Playstation punter that's jumped ship for the next generation, and even if I do buy another console this year, it will be the Wii, not the PS3.
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