*sigh* Oh, it’s gonna be another long blog again.  Lately, I read some news about what Sony decide for their game direction.  Yes, Sony has mark a phenomenal success with Walkman and Playstation.  But that doesn’t mean they’re invincible.  I have some opinions about several statement made by representative of Sony.

PS3 Price

We heard the news that Koei Tecmo’s CEO, Kenji Matsubara, asked Sony to cut their PS3 price,… … with “please”.  Man, Koei is big developer, and has been one of my favourite company when I consider to buy a game.  I played their game even back to CGA PC based, with their 1^st Romance of Three Kingdom and Nobunaga’s Ambition.  And if this big name is not “big” enough for Sony to really think about their price, then consider this: that’s not the first time a third party developer asking Sony to cut Sony PS3 price.

Who’s the biggest third party developer in game?  Yes, it’s Activision.  We also have heard news here and there, that Activision even threat to STOP their support for PS3 and PSP, IF Sony doesn’t cut PS3 price.  A company ask for price cut, maybe that’s not enough for consideration.  BUT 2 BIG companies, related directly to the life of your product, ask you and even threat you to cut your price, …man, you really have to think about it.

But the response of Sony was, …in short, you can kiss my a*s.  This news can only means one of these 2 things, either Sony really CAN’T cut their price because the price structure is way too high OR they just don’t want to cut it because of their pride or overconfident.  I think this statement was made because of their pride.  Why?  Cuz rumor said that they’ll have PS3 come out soon and cut the price.  Although this is just a rumor, when PS2 slim coming out, they made it as a cash cow, so I believe they already have it for a long time, but just release it for their product portfolio period strategy.  Another reason is I think a company as big as Sony, always do their best to operate in their efficient state.  Want proof?  Last news from Sony Online Entertainment was they lay off 5% of their full-time workers to increase efficieny and REDUCE COST.  They did that despiste the success of Free Realms and Ever Quest franchise.  I believe Sony still have some room to cut their prices.

 VS

In my perspective, Sony really need to consider cut their price, because they are not in the leading position right now.  In 2008, a data (by Ascii) said the top 10 selling games in Japan was dominated by Nintendo (9 out of 10? It’s owning).  Although that data was changing in 2009, and that Sony start to enter the chart again, but Nintendo still strong in dominance.

During my last visitation to Hongkong, me and my friend count how many people that we’ve met, bring portable game console.  And it turns out that, in average, every 7 people who bring portable console, 6 were bringing NDS and only 1 PSP.

So if PS3 Slim is finally coming and they DON’T cut the price, in my opinion, SONY can kiss their past success and game throne goodbye.

PSPGo Games Price

In here, we can see that Sony will set the downloaded game from $20 to $40.  IPhone set their downloaded games very low that sometimes you can get it for 99 cents.  DSi release their downloaded games from $2 to $5.

You don’t own the portable console war, but yet you are so confident to your game price so high???  What’s wrong with you Sony???

Hopefully, by the time they release it (1^st October 2009, I read), they re-consider about the price.

Facial Recognition System

Nintendo really hit hard with their WII concept.  They know, they can’t catch Sony and being chased by Microsoft in terms of pushing the visual technology to the limit.  So they innovate by revolutionizing their controller.  And they captured the flag.  Knowing this, Microsoft comes up with project NATAL.  While Sony, as we get the news, quickly react by saying that their PS Eye will support facial recognition system and even skeleton tracking.  When Microsoft announce project NATAL, many game developers were excited about it, but doubt they can adopt it quickly.  But Microsoft will integrate it with their other product line, because they are the current king of office software and operating systems.  By following their step, I think it’s more like a gambling than a way to overcome WII’s attack.

Business need to anticipate, not just react.

Losing Great Title Exclusivity

They said, they don’t need exclusivity of GTA.  Sony is Sony and GTA is GTA.  Remember Sony, that your past success with PS, was determined also by some exclusivity.  I remember many of my friends buying PS because of one title like FF VII, before it was brought to PC.  Some more buying Nintendo Game Cube because they want to play as Link from Zelda series.

Microsoft recognize this.  That’s why they put effort by helping Hironobu Sakaguchi setting up his own game studio.  Microsoft know they need exclusivity and improvement in their weakness area in the past, RPG.

I still believe, Sony need exclusivity of some great titles.

Some other rumor like Sony Ericsson want to integrate their PSP with their cellphone also get my attention.  But in the end they turn that idea down.

This is just my opinion.  I might be wrong.  We haven’t got the result yet anyway.  But I really concern about Sony.  I don’t want to see another company closing their game division as they were once a great industry player.  We don’t need another “Sega quit console market” similar case anymore.  I still love Sony’s game console.  I just remember that what make Sony’s phenomenal success is open mind to critics and fresh idea.  PS won’t be in our game room without Ken Kutaragi’s idea being produced by open mind about game potential market.  So, why don’t you keep doing that?

What do you guys think about Sony’s recent strategies?