Console flame wars and why they wont end.

[indieinsd]

Below is interview with Aaron Greenburg of MS where he needles Sony about the poor year over year sales of the PS3 and PS2.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=22833

Obviously taking pride in your company is great but who benefits from the console wars? Most of the fanboys have made up their mind. Why bother throwing out flame bait? Do press releases like this influence your customers from branching out and buying the competitors hardware/software?

Video Game blogs are another story. I totally understand why they throw out flame bait daily. Talking shi*t about each console drives traffic and page refreshes. You can almost count on it daily that Kotaku and Joystiq will throw a story like this out. But where does that end? Are places like 1up/IGN/etc going to start handing out sh*tty reviews just to drive traffic?

Hell I remember on the last episode of 1up Yours where Shane Bettenhausen (or someone else) was calling out Garnett Lee for always playing the devil's advocate to keep there conversations 'interesting'.

I think we are beginning to see a push back from the video game 'journalism' aspect by embracing all gaming no matter which console by the likes of Robert Ashley's 'A life well wasted' podcast and others. Even the PS Nation podcast regularly addresses their affinity for the Xbox360 without hesistation.

But I can't see the corporations stop fueling the fire. With the economy the way it is there is even more competition for our money and they don't want to share it.

Who do you blame for the console wars? The Companies? The Fanboys? Kotaku and Joystiq?

[cataclismic]

To be brutally honest, as long as there's 2 or more different options that are on vaguely level footing, you'll get fanboyism. So really, I blame choice for console wars. We just need to accept that with different consoles will come their respective fanboys, and therefore flame wars.

[masherscf]

Fan-kid console flame wars is the result of branding. Branding markets goods an services on a level where the consumer identifies so heavily with something that they can't imagine someone else not identifying with the brand. Sony is probably not the least guilty of marketing things in this manner. Market branding is as old as Coke and Pepsi. Marketing soft drinks that are chemically 99.9% identical is a tricky think. The beer sales of the major US breweries is entirely branding. Major US beers are all nearly identical in character. The only thing that makes you grab a Budweiser over a Miller is which brand you identify most with. How about Burger King and Mcdonald's? Let's not forget Apple vs. PC. Branding, branding, branding... It's big business.

[dolson]

Wow, what a fucking idiot.

$20 GTAIV DLC would have outsold $60 Killzone 2 - GEE, REALLY? GTA is a huge franchise that didn't have the weight of a shitty last-gen debut on its shoulders, and besides that, the 360 installed base is still much higher than the PS3's... This guy's a tool.

The PS3 may be down year-over-year, but they're up from last month by 33% - the highest month-to-month jump of all of the consoles - which is good considering the economic climate right now.

His pointing out that PS2 is down 62% is just fucking bananas. Really? A console into its what, 9th, 10th year? How many more units does he expect PS2 to move, this far along in its life??? Holy shit... Let's compare it to last month's Xbox 1 sales - oh yeah, Microsoft killed that console years ago, leaving that userbase (MYSELF included) with no more games to play.

I wonder why he didn't tout how impressive the 360 sales of SFIV were, in comparison to the PS3 sales? OH, because the 360 should have done a hell of a lot better than it did, that's why.

This shit pisses me off to no end. And it's not because I hate Microsoft and the 360, because I'm sure Sony would be saying the same kind of shit right now. It's just spin, and it's retarded.

[indieinsd]

Originally Posted by masherscf

Fan-kid console flame wars is the result of branding. Branding markets goods an services on a level where the consumer identifies so heavily with something that they can't imagine someone else not identifying with the brand. Sony is probably not the least guilty of marketing things in this manner. Market branding is as old as Coke and Pepsi. Marketing soft drinks that are chemically 99.9% identical is a tricky think. The beer sales of the major US breweries is entirely branding. Major US beers are all nearly identical in character. The only thing that makes you grab a Budweiser over a Miller is which brand you identify most with. How about Burger King and Mcdonald's? Let's not forget Apple vs. PC. Branding, branding, branding... It's big business.

Totally makes sense but does that branding extend to a new customer? Or is just locking down existing customers?

[scoobydiesel]

Why are we talking about this still? of course it will be around.

I'm not a fanboy really cause i own all 3 but i still kindly bash PS3 around dolson

[masherscf]

Originally Posted by indieinsd

Totally makes sense but does that branding extend to a new customer? Or is just locking down existing customers?

I think with cars, consoles, computers or cameras...anything with a big ticket price, you adopt a brand awareness as part of justifying the expense. This gives a leg-up to new purchasers.

[scoobydiesel]

Sony is all over....I know im fond of their cameras.

But when it comes to video games i just cant be in love with one company i wanna hug them all.