Ether
Sep 11, 2006, 10:44 PM
It seems a lot of people are fed up or frustrated with Sony not releasing enough information to make us drool for the PS3 right now. Rest assured, there are reasons for Sony’s madness. Some of which is for your own protection, others are for their business edge, and the rest are just because it wouldn’t change much in terms of the PS3’s success. Sony isn’t out there just to make you happy personally.
Market Edge:
Sony has a lot of features they can bring to consumers through the PS3 in terms of media functionality and networking functionality. A lot of them are very useful and marketable. However, Sony also doesn’t have the money and manpower to simply go out and provide all of those features out of the box with the PS3. If they made exactly what they were going to do known to competitors, they are pretty much opening themselves up to their competitors doing the exact same thing and Sony would lose its lead with respect to the feature that the competition may have not even considered. Sony has been in the consumer entertainment electronics business and entertainment industry for a long time now. They know what consumers want out of their devices for entertainment better than what some people on these forums think. If Sony announced everything they were planning on including in the PS3, competitors would use it as a jumpstart without having spent nearly as much time looking at how the idea is received or how well it does on the market.
I’m not calling Microsoft outright bad for copying anything, as it goes both ways, but Sony has to watch out primarily for Microsoft as they have the most money to use to match any features unique to the PS3. They could also possibly add more functionality on top of the original idea to their console and follow through with enough marketing to make things seem equal or better for them in the end. This was probably the motivation behind Kaz Hirai’s statement of “we just can’t shake these guys!” I’m sure companies that compete with Microsoft in other industries would say the same thing if they ever developed a unique idea that brought them considerable sums of money.
Supply-Demand:
How many PS3s will be available this holiday season? How many of us are ready to purchase it even if Sony didn’t put out a single TV commercial or magazine ad about it? How many more people would be able to get their hands on a PS3 if they wanted it this holiday season due to increased marketing from Sony? The answer is 1.2 million, 1.2 million, and 0 in order. It’s the last number that pretty much illustrates why marketing now matters very little compared to marketing efforts done in mid to late 2007 when it could actually benefit sales.
It also gets a bit more involved than that too. If Sony marketed the PS3 strongly now, they’d have to market it better or stronger in the future to actually increase interest again. They can’t use the same news twice to generate interest.
Anti-hype:
The more information Sony releases to its fans just to make them happy and want it more, the more the fans get hyped about it and set unreasonable expectations for what it will deliver on. On some level, Sony has to play it safe so you are still pleasantly surprised or satisfied with how the machine turns out when you get it. Consumer happiness in that form is what causes people to rely on Sony, and purchase their next console again.
Actions speak louder than words:
Anytime Sony says something about their machine’s capabilities, it is technically marketing. They have to consider how they say it carefully. They also have to output the information in a reasonable manner as to make sure it withstands the test of time(i.e. 1080p support in $500 PS3 may drop so they have to mention the issue with playing 1080p blu-ray movies). At the end of the day, Sony would have spent quite a bit of money paying for someone to figure out how to best say something that may or may not matter in the end.
When the console hits the market, all of the information will be known, and people will be believers not just riding on Sony’s words. Instead of trying to say something, the user experiencing it has more weight.
Conferences
This one is probably one of the weakest reasons for Sony’s silence, but they need to withhold outputting information and wait for the opportunities that will reach the most people. Conferences are a good way to do this as it typically stirs a lot of press, and other relevant parties that should be listening to what Sony has to say. That way, people won’t miss the information and end up costing Sony more money to reach a more widespread audience. Additionally, it helps to keep news silent before a conference so the news has the big impact all at once. If leaks of information occur, the reaction to it at a big event will be much smaller and less effective.
Anyways, I hope I shed some light on Sony being quiet. These things don't apply to just Sony though and isn't even limited to just the video games industry. Feel free to add any ideas you have of your own or discuss the ones I brought up more in depth.
Patience is a virtue.
Market Edge:
Sony has a lot of features they can bring to consumers through the PS3 in terms of media functionality and networking functionality. A lot of them are very useful and marketable. However, Sony also doesn’t have the money and manpower to simply go out and provide all of those features out of the box with the PS3. If they made exactly what they were going to do known to competitors, they are pretty much opening themselves up to their competitors doing the exact same thing and Sony would lose its lead with respect to the feature that the competition may have not even considered. Sony has been in the consumer entertainment electronics business and entertainment industry for a long time now. They know what consumers want out of their devices for entertainment better than what some people on these forums think. If Sony announced everything they were planning on including in the PS3, competitors would use it as a jumpstart without having spent nearly as much time looking at how the idea is received or how well it does on the market.
I’m not calling Microsoft outright bad for copying anything, as it goes both ways, but Sony has to watch out primarily for Microsoft as they have the most money to use to match any features unique to the PS3. They could also possibly add more functionality on top of the original idea to their console and follow through with enough marketing to make things seem equal or better for them in the end. This was probably the motivation behind Kaz Hirai’s statement of “we just can’t shake these guys!” I’m sure companies that compete with Microsoft in other industries would say the same thing if they ever developed a unique idea that brought them considerable sums of money.
Supply-Demand:
How many PS3s will be available this holiday season? How many of us are ready to purchase it even if Sony didn’t put out a single TV commercial or magazine ad about it? How many more people would be able to get their hands on a PS3 if they wanted it this holiday season due to increased marketing from Sony? The answer is 1.2 million, 1.2 million, and 0 in order. It’s the last number that pretty much illustrates why marketing now matters very little compared to marketing efforts done in mid to late 2007 when it could actually benefit sales.
It also gets a bit more involved than that too. If Sony marketed the PS3 strongly now, they’d have to market it better or stronger in the future to actually increase interest again. They can’t use the same news twice to generate interest.
Anti-hype:
The more information Sony releases to its fans just to make them happy and want it more, the more the fans get hyped about it and set unreasonable expectations for what it will deliver on. On some level, Sony has to play it safe so you are still pleasantly surprised or satisfied with how the machine turns out when you get it. Consumer happiness in that form is what causes people to rely on Sony, and purchase their next console again.
Actions speak louder than words:
Anytime Sony says something about their machine’s capabilities, it is technically marketing. They have to consider how they say it carefully. They also have to output the information in a reasonable manner as to make sure it withstands the test of time(i.e. 1080p support in $500 PS3 may drop so they have to mention the issue with playing 1080p blu-ray movies). At the end of the day, Sony would have spent quite a bit of money paying for someone to figure out how to best say something that may or may not matter in the end.
When the console hits the market, all of the information will be known, and people will be believers not just riding on Sony’s words. Instead of trying to say something, the user experiencing it has more weight.
Conferences
This one is probably one of the weakest reasons for Sony’s silence, but they need to withhold outputting information and wait for the opportunities that will reach the most people. Conferences are a good way to do this as it typically stirs a lot of press, and other relevant parties that should be listening to what Sony has to say. That way, people won’t miss the information and end up costing Sony more money to reach a more widespread audience. Additionally, it helps to keep news silent before a conference so the news has the big impact all at once. If leaks of information occur, the reaction to it at a big event will be much smaller and less effective.
Anyways, I hope I shed some light on Sony being quiet. These things don't apply to just Sony though and isn't even limited to just the video games industry. Feel free to add any ideas you have of your own or discuss the ones I brought up more in depth.
Patience is a virtue.