A new TV ad is set to hit the airwaves, this time focusing on the PlayStation Store. The Video Deliver Service now offers films like The Dark Knight and Hancock, and SCEA is more than eager to let people know. The commercial will debut on Monday Night Football. We're wondering if the ad will convince any consumers to buy a PS3. Probably not. However, it should educate PS3 owners about this feature.
Reader Comments (67)
Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:15PM (Unverified) said
good commercial, but your right, if they showed what resistance 2 and motorstorm was, then it would be good, but sony is screwed in the head right now. how about a commercial that has games, blu-ray feature, online movie place, and home all in one commercial. i hope they get it right, now back to playing cod5
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 6:48AM (Unverified) said
adverts can only take you so far.
price of the console may not be so important (as all hardware prices come down over time), but its the difference in price of the competitor's consoles which really counts.
here in the uk xbox 360 arcade is £120, and ps3 is around £300. with that sort of price, it is little wonder why microsoft are selling so well. for a console that matches ps3's graphics but selling for less than half the price, it holds a strong selling point.
im hearing now that people are buying xbox 360 arcade (£120) and xbox 360 normal (£150) together, which works out cheaper than ps3. and using one for xbox live and one for running backups.
i have been enjoying my 60gb ps3 and its features for the last 1.5 years and would never have seen myself by xbox 360. but at that price, i just purchased one.
consumers look for best value. ps3 has the best value, however xbox 360 meets the basic gamer needs at a very cheap price. this was the thing sony feared most, their millions of ps2 owners are turning into xbox 360 owners unfortunatly.
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price of the console may not be so important (as all hardware prices come down over time), but its the difference in price of the competitor's consoles which really counts.
here in the uk xbox 360 arcade is £120, and ps3 is around £300. with that sort of price, it is little wonder why microsoft are selling so well. for a console that matches ps3's graphics but selling for less than half the price, it holds a strong selling point.
im hearing now that people are buying xbox 360 arcade (£120) and xbox 360 normal (£150) together, which works out cheaper than ps3. and using one for xbox live and one for running backups.
i have been enjoying my 60gb ps3 and its features for the last 1.5 years and would never have seen myself by xbox 360. but at that price, i just purchased one.
consumers look for best value. ps3 has the best value, however xbox 360 meets the basic gamer needs at a very cheap price. this was the thing sony feared most, their millions of ps2 owners are turning into xbox 360 owners unfortunatly.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 8:37AM Grauw said
Um, Don, you’re comparing the price of a console without harddisk and no games, to the price of a console that has a harddisk and comes with two games?
I mean, yes the Arcade is cheap, and it’s probably smart marketing from Microsoft to sell this Arcade unit. However if you look at the price you’re eventually paying (y’know, buy a couple of games, and a hard disk for the movie and game demo downloads), the price difference isn’t so big as it seems initially.
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I mean, yes the Arcade is cheap, and it’s probably smart marketing from Microsoft to sell this Arcade unit. However if you look at the price you’re eventually paying (y’know, buy a couple of games, and a hard disk for the movie and game demo downloads), the price difference isn’t so big as it seems initially.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:57PM (Unverified) said
yes i am comparing the xbox 360 arcade and the ps3... in the eyes of the consumers.
my recent purchase was from amazon uk, £150, i got xbox 360 arcade, 4 games (pgr4, kung pu panda, sonic tennis, lego indiana jones), extra official controller and a 2m hdmi cable. I dont need a hard drive because i have ps3 for all multimedia needs.
I would rather have the ps3 anyday, it looks good, it plays good, has amazing features and meets my needs. The sad thing is, the market does not agree with me.
Maybe sony should educate the public with these new adverts? For e.g. the wii is a rubbish console, (spec wise) it is a last generation console with a new controller, however nintendo marketed it so well and thats why its selling.
I am a great fan of playstation, it has always been been the number 1 brand associated with gaming. in the holidays, the playstation consoles were always the most sought after. This, at the moment, is not the case anymore.
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my recent purchase was from amazon uk, £150, i got xbox 360 arcade, 4 games (pgr4, kung pu panda, sonic tennis, lego indiana jones), extra official controller and a 2m hdmi cable. I dont need a hard drive because i have ps3 for all multimedia needs.
I would rather have the ps3 anyday, it looks good, it plays good, has amazing features and meets my needs. The sad thing is, the market does not agree with me.
Maybe sony should educate the public with these new adverts? For e.g. the wii is a rubbish console, (spec wise) it is a last generation console with a new controller, however nintendo marketed it so well and thats why its selling.
I am a great fan of playstation, it has always been been the number 1 brand associated with gaming. in the holidays, the playstation consoles were always the most sought after. This, at the moment, is not the case anymore.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 7:15AM (Unverified) said
to bad it didnt work in canada,,, sony do nothing for us up here,, again
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 9:31AM (Unverified) said
C'mon guy, smarten up. Do some research - this has nothing to do with SCEA.
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:20PM (Unverified) said
The commercial in itself is great but Sony needs to take it one step further for this Holiday season.
This isn't my idea but they should have an TV ad that showcases ALL of the features on the PS3 like the TV ad for the iPhone when it first came out.
That would definitely get more people interested... at least enough to make it through the season without suffering too badly.
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This isn't my idea but they should have an TV ad that showcases ALL of the features on the PS3 like the TV ad for the iPhone when it first came out.
That would definitely get more people interested... at least enough to make it through the season without suffering too badly.
Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:21PM ColorMeEvil said
Good way to convince guys with wifes to get a ps3...
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 11:06PM kentuckyfried said
It's funny...that's how my co-worker sold the idea to his wife. As a blu-ray player and media center. We're of course trying to get him to join us on the COD bandwagon.
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:24PM Jack Tretton said
"The Video Deliver Service now offers films like The Dark Knight and Hancock..."
You can haz Blooray.
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You can haz Blooray.
Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:28PM (Unverified) said
"Video downloading machine" my ass. Only in America and Europe.
Not Canada :P
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Not Canada :P
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:26AM (Unverified) said
Europe? Are you kidding? No Movies on PS3 or Xbox. The only service I'm aware of is the iTunes store and rentals on my Apple TV and that came out a year later than when Mr. Jobs announced it.
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 9:52AM (Unverified) said
ummmmmm.......ur mistaken i live in the uk (london) and we dont have this movie downloading feature here yet!!! which SUCKS MAJOY BALLS!!!!!! :(
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:35PM linebeginstoblur said
I don't like it. Probably because Internet trolls already have been ranting that, because of Blu-ray, the PS3 is primarily a movie player that just happens to play games.
Which is exactly what this commercial wants you to believe.
Also, why bother promoting movies like The Dark Knight when you can only buy it and for SD when you SHOULD be able to rent it AND be able to rent it. Sony's Video Download Service isn't horrible, but man, it needs some work if it wants to compete with NXE's Netflix.
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Which is exactly what this commercial wants you to believe.
Also, why bother promoting movies like The Dark Knight when you can only buy it and for SD when you SHOULD be able to rent it AND be able to rent it. Sony's Video Download Service isn't horrible, but man, it needs some work if it wants to compete with NXE's Netflix.
Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:36PM linebeginstoblur said
I didn't mean to say rent it twice. The second one was supposed to say "and in HD".
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 11:04PM (Unverified) said
I agree with you on the rental part. I wont be shocked if we dont see HD downloads as common place for a while. Im sure sony would rather you go buy the bluray if you want HD, they need to increase that market share.
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:38PM patboy2008 said
Yea sure did educate the part were Sony has the right to not give a rat's @ss if your hard drive fails and not let you redownload the movie. Or how about that part about the DRM or the movies being only in SD to buy, but if you want it in HD you got to rent it. Might as well be better off with pay-per-view, Netfliex's, or just buying the DVD or Bul-ray.
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 9:43AM patboy2008 said
BUT you can't take that copy that is on the PSP and copy it back on to the PS3.
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 10:52PM vask said
nice but they need start marketting the games now. and they need to rethink their policies with the video download service. the concept is nice to get whatever movie u want without leaving your couch but if i lose my hd data for whatever reason then the $10-$15 movie i payed for is gone forever. might as well just buy the dvd or blu-ray version.....
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 11:02PM (Unverified) said
I saw the commercial during Monday Night Raw as well. Good commercial. But they need something at the end like, "One of the many features of the Playstation 3" And show some clips of music, Home, pictures, PS Eye, PSN games, and of course DISC BASED GAMES! They're starting to go the way of the PSP...it's main focus should be GAMES and only GAMES...that's why Xbox 360 is on top right now. (Not including Wii of course).
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 11:21PM (Unverified) said
haha...well only reason I exclude Wii is because it's too far gone for anyone to catch it especially Sony. They'd have to do something truly innovative or lower their price to like 49.99 a unit LMAO or something extreme like that...so why include the Wii?
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Posted: Dec 15th 2008 11:03PM Canefan said
I think this is a good commercial for the PS3. They need to start showing features of the PS3 instead of showing off the games that they have.. The PS1 and PS2 had tons of games. Without commercials like this, the average gamer only thinks of the PS3 as a PS2 with better graphics.
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:36PM Carney said
I'm tired of complaints about stereotypes.
Stereotypes reflect reality. They come from real people interacting in the real world over the course of time.
For a stereotype to exist, it doesn't have to be always true, or even more often true than false.
It just has to be...
[read carefully - this is a key concept ....]
more often true / more likely to be true for the group it is about, than it is for other groups or everyone else.
Got it?
Thus, a higher percentage of women than men care about romantic comedies. A higher percentage of women than men are indifferent to video games, especially hardcore first person shooters.
Objecting to pointing out or assuming such facts of life is SILLY.
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Stereotypes reflect reality. They come from real people interacting in the real world over the course of time.
For a stereotype to exist, it doesn't have to be always true, or even more often true than false.
It just has to be...
[read carefully - this is a key concept ....]
more often true / more likely to be true for the group it is about, than it is for other groups or everyone else.
Got it?
Thus, a higher percentage of women than men care about romantic comedies. A higher percentage of women than men are indifferent to video games, especially hardcore first person shooters.
Objecting to pointing out or assuming such facts of life is SILLY.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:32PM Carney said
But in the real world, women ARE more likely to care about romantic comedy movies than about first person shooter video games.
Why complain about an effective marketing technique designed to broaden the PS3's appeal, or at least remove sales obstacles within households?
What would you prefer, an ad campaign trying to sell teenage guys, and ONLY teenage guys, on rom-coms? Or females on shooter games, bristling with big guns and exploding heads?
Just to feel the smug moral satisfaction that at least you weren't following stereotypes?
Just when I thought Sony's ads (prior to this one, which is OK) were the worst possible, I realize that they, and Sony's market position, could have been even worse.
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Why complain about an effective marketing technique designed to broaden the PS3's appeal, or at least remove sales obstacles within households?
What would you prefer, an ad campaign trying to sell teenage guys, and ONLY teenage guys, on rom-coms? Or females on shooter games, bristling with big guns and exploding heads?
Just to feel the smug moral satisfaction that at least you weren't following stereotypes?
Just when I thought Sony's ads (prior to this one, which is OK) were the worst possible, I realize that they, and Sony's market position, could have been even worse.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:42PM Carney said
Also, where do you think that stereotypes, like "women disapprove of videogames", come from?
Choice 1: Dr. Evil style boardroom, with white males in suits. "Let's arbitrarily slap labels and ideas to groups that have zero bearing on reality, and use our media muscle to drill it into people's heads!"
Choice 2: The collective mass of ordinary people interacting with other ordinary people in the real world, over time.
I'll give you a little hint: CHOICE TWO.
And by the way, it is so tiresome to say that "well I know plenty of women that are big fans of video games, including blood-drenched shooters, and plenty of guys that just adore cute rom-coms!"
Examples that go against the trend don't disprove the trend. You can't refute a stereotype with anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
Stereotypes don't have to be ALWAYS true to be true, so pointing out an exception doesn't make it go away.
In fact, stereotypes don't even have to be true a majority of the time about the groups they're attached to.
They just have to be ... KEY CONCEPT COMING UP ...
more likely to be true about the group they're attached to than they are about other groups or everyone else.
So if stereotype X is true about Group 1 10% of the time, and only true about all other groups 5% of the time, then eventually stereotype X is going to be associated with Group 1.
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Choice 1: Dr. Evil style boardroom, with white males in suits. "Let's arbitrarily slap labels and ideas to groups that have zero bearing on reality, and use our media muscle to drill it into people's heads!"
Choice 2: The collective mass of ordinary people interacting with other ordinary people in the real world, over time.
I'll give you a little hint: CHOICE TWO.
And by the way, it is so tiresome to say that "well I know plenty of women that are big fans of video games, including blood-drenched shooters, and plenty of guys that just adore cute rom-coms!"
Examples that go against the trend don't disprove the trend. You can't refute a stereotype with anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
Stereotypes don't have to be ALWAYS true to be true, so pointing out an exception doesn't make it go away.
In fact, stereotypes don't even have to be true a majority of the time about the groups they're attached to.
They just have to be ... KEY CONCEPT COMING UP ...
more likely to be true about the group they're attached to than they are about other groups or everyone else.
So if stereotype X is true about Group 1 10% of the time, and only true about all other groups 5% of the time, then eventually stereotype X is going to be associated with Group 1.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 12:01AM (Unverified) said
To make sure everyone is clear, the reason SCEA has this commercial for the U.S. is to tell people the PS3 is NOT just a game console. The entire reason SOME won't buy a PS3 because they feel for $400, they are only getting a machine that plays games. People see the 360 and the Wii as machines that can play games, and that's it. Since PS3 is the most expensive, that's why it gets ignored. By advertising the movie store (I guarantee pretty much everyone who doesn't read the internet constantly and doesn't log their PS3 online has no idea about the video store), you are telling people that's one of many features the PS3 has. If they show them remote play features and many other things, people will learn that PS3 is NOT just a game console and has many features, making $400 look like a steal.
The thing is, Sony can continue to advertise PS3 games, but that can only get them so far (mostly it will sell to the userbase, not new consumers) because not many are willing to pay $400 for a device they think only plays video games. The $400 pricetag is still too much for some, and they have to see the overall value in the PS3 before spending the money.
People in Canada/Europe NEED to stop complaining about lack of Video Store. How long did it take MS to bring the Video Store to those regions? 1 year. The difficultly with the video store in Canada and various European countries is that various TV programs are owned by different people. For an example, one TV program may be distributed by X company in the U.S., but Y company in Canada. If Y company (who I could see being a Universal), who does not support the PS Video Store denies allowing their download in the region, that's what makes things hard. The U.S. got it first because it's 80%+ of the U.S. market. Europe doesn't have it yet because NO region takes up a very large share, and it will take a long time to work out agreements with TV programs in each region (and like between U.S. and Canada, some movies/TV programs are distributed by different companies, making licensing difficult). If you want a video store quicker, why not higher extra staff for Sony yourself to handle all the licensing and working out deals with companies in each region.
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The thing is, Sony can continue to advertise PS3 games, but that can only get them so far (mostly it will sell to the userbase, not new consumers) because not many are willing to pay $400 for a device they think only plays video games. The $400 pricetag is still too much for some, and they have to see the overall value in the PS3 before spending the money.
People in Canada/Europe NEED to stop complaining about lack of Video Store. How long did it take MS to bring the Video Store to those regions? 1 year. The difficultly with the video store in Canada and various European countries is that various TV programs are owned by different people. For an example, one TV program may be distributed by X company in the U.S., but Y company in Canada. If Y company (who I could see being a Universal), who does not support the PS Video Store denies allowing their download in the region, that's what makes things hard. The U.S. got it first because it's 80%+ of the U.S. market. Europe doesn't have it yet because NO region takes up a very large share, and it will take a long time to work out agreements with TV programs in each region (and like between U.S. and Canada, some movies/TV programs are distributed by different companies, making licensing difficult). If you want a video store quicker, why not higher extra staff for Sony yourself to handle all the licensing and working out deals with companies in each region.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 8:49AM (Unverified) said
Very good post that everyone should read and understand.
also, I would say that you only want to focus on one thing at a time. Going back to the black blob commercials would be horrible, even if it advertised all the features. having multiple commercials out, each one saying something different taht the Ps3 can do well, will put it in peoples minds better I think.
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also, I would say that you only want to focus on one thing at a time. Going back to the black blob commercials would be horrible, even if it advertised all the features. having multiple commercials out, each one saying something different taht the Ps3 can do well, will put it in peoples minds better I think.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:54AM (Unverified) said
This is good for me because I live in Japan and most American movies don't get released here for up to 6 months after their American release. It will be on PSN before it hits Japanese theatres....so instead of paying 1800 yen for a ticket, I'll just pay whatever it costs to rent from PSN........or free from bit torrent. >=)
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 12:15AM (Unverified) said
More commercials like this less commercials with catchy soundtracks and images of games that people who don't own a PS3 have no idea wtf they are looking at.
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:20AM (Unverified) said
That's a great comment! I think this is one of the reasons the Wii is so successful. When I see a Wii commercial I think fun. When I see a Ps3 commercial I think , meh, I don't play games on my computer. I don't neccessarily think this personally but I feel people would. A Wii commercial focuses on the game but also how you play it. A great commercial is the WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 Commercial. It incorporates the game, the real life counterparts and a couple of players playing it...it really shows you, you can play together and have a lot of fun re-enacting your favorite wrestling show. It works perfectly IMO. Commercials like the Motorstorm ones don't really show that. It's disheartening because the commercial for Buzz Master Quiz on PSP was perfectly doing what I'm talking about so I know Sony can do it. The other thing they need is more media exposure. The news the other day in my area (Fox) did a story about the lower price of Blu-Ray machines. A perfect time to slip in the option of getting an all in one machine (PS3) but they didn't even mention it. Either because A) They don't know much about it due to lack of ads or B) Sony doesn't do a good job getting the media to show off their system. I've seen the Wii on the news several times (and it had nothing to do with them not being able to be found) and it works obviously.
The other thing is....Sony needs to lower the price.
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The other thing is....Sony needs to lower the price.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 9:12AM (Unverified) said
if only there are videos available for sg PSN...
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 1:10AM (Unverified) said
Sony's video service is as overrated as it is expensive. $5 to rent something that will take an hour to download, I can only watch it for 24 hours. If I eff up and accidentally start it, my 24 hours starts. It eats my rather ample 250 gig harddrive space, you dont actually own anything and netflix/xbox has it beat by a mile with their service just in cost effectiveness alone. Or my cable service with HD on demand. 4.99, also only 24 hour rental, but did I mention hd with no download time?
Dont get me wrong, i am ps3 only guy, I just find it insulting and not just a little bit delusional that sony thinks they have something over their competitors and that a commercial is going to change this.
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Dont get me wrong, i am ps3 only guy, I just find it insulting and not just a little bit delusional that sony thinks they have something over their competitors and that a commercial is going to change this.
Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:56AM Extinction said
You don't like renting? PS3's service lets you buy movies. 360s doesn't. That puts PS3's ahead by a long shot. Plus you can use Remote Play and stream it to PSP, or even back it up to PSP via USB. 360 doesn't do that either
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Posted: Dec 16th 2008 2:32AM (Unverified) said
How about this for a commercial:
Stick with the same opening scenario, where the wife asks why he bought the ps3 because he already has a ps2. Then, the ad could cut to shots of him displaying various features of the ps3 with good explanations and descriptions of what it can do. At the end, it could fade out with gameplay footage. Maybe Sony is trying to go one feature at a time, but the iPhone did a great job of presenting numerous features at once, so maybe Sony needs another "universe of entertainment" type ads.
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Stick with the same opening scenario, where the wife asks why he bought the ps3 because he already has a ps2. Then, the ad could cut to shots of him displaying various features of the ps3 with good explanations and descriptions of what it can do. At the end, it could fade out with gameplay footage. Maybe Sony is trying to go one feature at a time, but the iPhone did a great job of presenting numerous features at once, so maybe Sony needs another "universe of entertainment" type ads.
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