Microsoft may have reversed some of its policies over the past couple of weeks, but it’s still hard to forget the series of sucker punches that Sony landed on its competitor during E3. It got consumers on its side by announcing that the PlayStation 4 will support used games, and then landed a killer blow by pricing its next generation platform $100 cheaper than the Xbox One.
Unsurprisingly, though, that price was not decided as a direct response to its counterpart’s console. “A multi-billion dollar publicly traded corporation makes those decisions months and months in advance,” SCEA president Jack Tretton told IGN in an episode of Up at Noon. “We felt that we had a great value proposition that people would respond to, but you don’t know how you’re going to be positioned against your competition. We felt good about it regardless of where our competition came in, but lower is better than higher, we learned that with the PlayStation 3.”
Apparently, Tretton didn’t even watch Microsoft’s press conference. “We were doing rehearsals and I was going through my stuff,” he said. “I heard a little bit of applause, and I figured that if there was applause and it was in our arena that it was probably good news.”
Despite the positivity surrounding the PS4 at the present, Tretton refuses to even flirt with the idea that Sony’s in the driving seat heading into the next generation. “I really had to allow myself to enjoy the moment for a couple of minutes after the press conference finished, and then you kind of have to shake it off and say, ‘Ok, day one of a ten year battle.’ We have to win the consumer’s support one consumer at a time, so it’s back in the trenches,” he concluded.
Some best-sellers charts put PS4 pre-orders ahead of the Xbox One at the moment, but it’s hard to happen upon solid figures. Regardless, the start of the next generation is going to be much more closely contested than the current one.
[source youtube.com, via polygon.com, vg247.com]
Comments 9
Hah, sucker punches... punpunpunpunpun
@sajoey Because Sony owns a studio named Sucker Punch? Or because Microsoft founded Sucker Punch?
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that Sony didn't make any E3 decisions between the MS and Sony conference, but I'ld also bet Sony way planning on bundling in the Eye at $499 but decided to take it out and go with $399. There was just too much use of the Eye in the Feb. reveal - and the light topped DS4, and the PS4 ad photos w/ the Eye in it next to the DS4 - for it not to be a planned part of the package. So the decision was probably made a few weeks before E3 to go w/ no Eye and $399 from the original plan of Eye and $499.
And that was a reaction to MS, just not to the MS E3 event.
@rjejr From what I've read, Sony made the decision a few weeks before E3 - like you said. They informed their partners of the change but kept the lower price a secret in order to keep Microsoft in the dark. So when MS revealed the price of the Xbone, Andrew House stated "there was running up and down the aisle".
At this point i don't even think that question matters anymore. One thing we know for a fact is the PS4 retails at $399. Whatever decisions had to be made in that process is between Sony. They are a business and have to exercise every option. Perhaps at one point they did think about bundling the PS Eye with the console and maybe they still will have a bundle like that for those that are interested. But to see that as a negative now is meaningless.
If they had 2 presentations one with and without the eye included and they picked the cheaper one after xbox named their price sounds suspecious to me
@LampShade
I suppose it might, but where did you hear that they had two presentations? I mean, even if they did that it would be easier to just change the 4 in 499 to a 3. I don't think they did that--again, Sony's a huge company with some serious partners. You can't just make big decisions like that on the fly without causing some serious chaos.
Even if they did undercut Microsoft on purpose, EVERY business seeks to do that. Except maybe for Apple.
I have to say he did gain some respect from me when he stated that they learned from their mistakes with the PS3 pricing and then they made sure not to repeat them.
There's a lot more politics, sign-offs, and legal crap involved with setting a final price for something that could earn a major company, millions. So I don't believe they could throw out a price, on the fly like that.
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