Founder of Atari forecasts PS3 failure

T2k

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Jun 5, 2004
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Atari Founder Forecasts PlayStation 3 Failure

Creator of Pong and the man behind Chuck E. Cheese gives thumbs up to Wii and Xbox 360, but thumbs down for PlayStation 3


Nolan Bushnell, founder of all things at one point joyous to children, is featured in an interview with Red Herring where he is asked for his opinion on the state of the video game industry today.

Bushnell, who started Atari, is one of the grandfathers of the video game industry. When asked about about which areas he still follows of his former industry, he said, "I’m very curious and interested in the Nintendo Wii. I think it may expand the market beyond the hardcore [18- to 24-year old]."

He also expressed fondness for Microsoft's online strategy, saying, "Xbox Live is interesting because it potentially becomes the platform for the living room."

But the tuned changed to a less positive note when it came to PlayStation 3.

"I think Sony shot themselves in the foot… there is a high probability [they] will fail. The price point is probably unsustainable. For years and years Sony has been a very difficult company to deal with from a developer standpoint. They could get away with their arrogance and capriciousness because they had an installed base," Bushnell said.

Bushnell explained that ease of software development could be a deciding factor: "They have also historically had horrible software tools. You compare that to the Xbox 360 with really great authoring tools [and] additional revenue streams from Xbox live… a first party developer would be an idiot to develop for Sony first and not the 360. People don’t buy hardware, they buy software."

The interviewer then gave a counterpoint, stating that Sony must have been doing something right in order to sell over 100 million units of each PlayStation generation.

"It wasn’t anything brilliant that they did. With the PS and PS2 it was timing. They had the right pricing at the right time [and were] almost the accidental winner," answered Bushnell. "It would not surprise me if a year from now they’ll be struggling to sell 1 million units. [Factoring in the PS3’s price], I think in the U.S. the number of early adopters you have is actually around 300,000."

Sony is targeting to ship 400,000 PlayStation 3 consoles to the U.S. for its launch window, and a considerable portion of the allotment already sold out via pre-orders.


Source: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4880
 
Analyzing the comment about the cost of the units, my opinion is that he's right. For the average Joe $500-$600 is a ton of money. People might say that a Blue Ray DVD is worth more than $700, but does average Joe's son need one? :confused:
I'll love to get one, I bought the PS and the PS2 and my oponion is that both consoles revolutionized the gaming world, but basically can spend that kind of money when specially when my Dodge Ram need new shoes, and Holiday or spending season around tthe corner.

The mid budget market will be served by the Wii and until Sony decides to keep the Ps2 alive.
 
Analyzing the comment about the cost of the units, my opinion is that he's right. For the average Joe $500-$600 is a ton of money. People might say that a Blue Ray DVD is worth more than $700, but does average Joe's son need one? :confused:
I'll love to get one, I bought the PS and the PS2 and my oponion is that both consoles revolutionized the gaming world, but basically can spend that kind of money when specially when my Dodge Ram need new shoes, and Holiday or spending season around tthe corner.

The mid budget market will be served by the Wii and until Sony decides to keep the Ps2 alive.

$600 is not a lot of money for a console. And this is a college student talking. And I must say that the dumbest thing I have heard said in a long while is that the PS3 will have trouble selling 1 mil units by next year. There goes a laugh. They won't cath M$ in the next year but i'd expect they will be within 1.5-3 million units of what the 360 has sold
 
$600 is not a lot of money for a console.

:eek:

And this is a college student talking.

Which makes his money with hard work, right? :rolleyes:

And I must say that the dumbest thing I have heard said in a long while is that the PS3 will have trouble selling 1 mil units by next year. There goes a laugh. They won't cath M$ in the next year but i'd expect they will be within 1.5-3 million units of what the 360 has sold

He said he wouldn't be surprised if that would be the case a year from now - he didn't say it will happen.

Stop with your pathetic Sony spin, please.
 
Which makes his money with hard work, right? :rolleyes:

Nope. Moms money. But, ain't nothing wrong with that. And even if I did work for it, I'd still spend it. I've worked before, and I spent it NO PROBLEM.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if that would be the case a year from now - he didn't say it will happen.


He made an assumption and I stated that was the dumbest thing I have heard in a long while.

Stop with your pathetic Sony spin, please.
I'm not the one with the pathetic spin
 
The price is a major factor.... I make a pretty darn good salary... and flat out can't consider PS3.... $600 + another $200 or so for the extra 3 controllers, and a game... plus 8% tax... .that adds up... and fast.

Sure the XBOX360 was expensive too... and it is a factor in it's adoption.

Sony's own past success is going to be a problem for them.... "Your PS2 is good enough".... Until there comes some blockbuster game that is only available on the PS3.
And missing this Holiday season the way they are, is not going to help.... only 400k? "Little Johnny" is not going to be happy with getting an IOU as a present during the holidays. And this is "hoping" there are no issues with the unit... could you imagine if they have even remotely the same issues as XBOX360 had during it's launch.....

One thing Sony had going for them over the past year, where exclusive titles... well Nintendo has always had that (and one of the things that got me to buy GameCube)... now XBOX is getting their's.... Just as popular as GT ... HALO

I think this time around... the "playing" field is now going to be a 3 horse race, with them all with in a length of one another.... It is the "next" generation of units where you are going to see a shift in dominance.
 
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$600 is not a lot of money for a console
WHAT!!! Men I have a pretty good salary too, but 600 is for me in Puerto Rico more that my montly mortgage payment, for a Concrete 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathroom house(remember that housing is less expensive here). I can name many may things, but when you have kids and have to support a house you'll understand..

I'm 35 and I've been playing video games on consoles for as long as I remember. I think I had them all from the Tele-games before Atari, Turbo Graphix 16, Jaguar, Coleco Vission, Arcadia 2001, all the nintendos and Segas, Ps, Xboxs.
So my point is that people like me that actually want the PS3, it will be hard.
A good point to mention is that the PS3 is driven to the mature players, a mistake that maybe Sony is not considering, here the Wii will benefit the most.
 
Nope. Moms money. But, ain't nothing wrong with that. And even if I did work for it, I'd still spend it. I've worked before, and I spent it NO PROBLEM.

Which proves nothing else than the fact that you have zero idea how much money is $600.

Living on Mom/Pop credit cards is OK (at least for some) but it doesn't change the fact that you are clueless about the value of $600.

He made an assumption and I stated that was the dumbest thing I have heard in a long while.

No, you stated he said it will which is completely rubbish:

"the dumbest thing I have heard said in a long while is that the PS3 will have trouble selling 1 mil units by next year. "

On the contrary he only said he wouldn't be suprised if it happens a year from now.

I'm not the one with the pathetic spin

Fine - then just imprecise, ignorant? :)
 
Bushnell is the guy that doomed ATARI. He had the market going then when he brought out the Jaguar he did not try to get third party support. He made several bluders and basically helped ATARI out of the console business. As a matter of fact ATARI is about dead as a company so I am going to listen to him? Please!

As for $600 dollars for a console how about we start at $499. That gives you everthing you would need to enjoy gaming on the PS3. Gutcheck time 360 guys. Any of you big boys out there really want to post how much in hardware on the 360 you have spent to date? I want real XBOX360 owners to post on this one. I want to know how much money you spent to date on hardware and accessories for your 360. Please step up? And T2k, if you don't own a 360 don't post any drivel -- I would really like to get to the bottom of how much people are spending in hardware and accessories on the 360.
 
Bushnell is the guy that doomed ATARI. He had the market going then when he brought out the Jaguar he did not try to get third party support. He made several bluders and basically helped ATARI out of the console business. As a matter of fact ATARI is about dead as a company so I am going to listen to him? Please!

As for $600 dollars for a console how about we start at $499. That gives you everthing you would need to enjoy gaming on the PS3. Gutcheck time 360 guys. Any of you big boys out there really want to post how much in hardware on the 360 you have spent to date? I want real XBOX360 owners to post on this one. I want to know how much money you spent to date on hardware and accessories for your 360. Please step up? And T2k, if you don't own a 360 don't post any drivel -- I would really like to get to the bottom of how much people are spending in hardware and accessories on the 360.

Joe you might want to delete this post, as its not good for you...remember the ps3 has NO hd cables out of the box (any box pick or choose). and you cant upgrade the 499 ps3, so if you want to get the higher ps3 you will have to buy 599 dollars worth of hardware...also with the 360 you just buy the equipment spread it out over time, so lets not compare accessories.
 
Bushnell is the guy that doomed ATARI. He had the market going then when he brought out the Jaguar he did not try to get third party support. He made several bluders and basically helped ATARI out of the console business. As a matter of fact ATARI is about dead as a company so I am going to listen to him? Please!

As for $600 dollars for a console how about we start at $499. That gives you everthing you would need to enjoy gaming on the PS3. Gutcheck time 360 guys. Any of you big boys out there really want to post how much in hardware on the 360 you have spent to date? I want real XBOX360 owners to post on this one. I want to know how much money you spent to date on hardware and accessories for your 360. Please step up? And T2k, if you don't own a 360 don't post any drivel -- I would really like to get to the bottom of how much people are spending in hardware and accessories on the 360.

I'll bite:

XBOX360 Premium: 399.99
Play and charge adaptor: 19.99
Wired Controller: 29.99

Total: 449.97

Not having to pay 600.00 for a next gen console: PRICELESS
 
Bushnell is the guy that doomed ATARI. He had the market going then when he brought out the Jaguar he did not try to get third party support. He made several bluders and basically helped ATARI out of the console business. As a matter of fact ATARI is about dead as a company so I am going to listen to him? Please!
Bushnell was gone many years before the Jaguar - He sold Atari to Warner Bros. in the late 70' or early 80's. The Tramiel family owned Atari in the ST and Jaguar days. There was also a fair amount of third party support for the Jaguar, but not as much as we would all have liked. What was missing was a good marketing program. Writing Breakout 2000 for the Jaguar was the most fun I ever had on a contract programming project.

Mario
 
Gutcheck time 360 guys. Any of you big boys out there really want to post how much in hardware on the 360 you have spent to date?

Sure... $399 for the premium system. That is all I needed to play games, in High Definition. I think I spent maybe $5 on an optical audio cable too. And $5 tops for a quality network cable.

Over the last year, I have added 3 additional controls at an average of about $40 each (usually pick them up when I have a coupon or find a good deal).

So I now have the ability to play 4 players.
Throw in maybe the $10 for a 48 pack of AA's batteries, that I an not even half way through yet.

So that is $520

So now I am looking at possible adding the HD-DVD.
One thing that will be intresting to see.. will the HD-DVD add-on be considered a game counsole or an accessory... Hence will it be eligible for the fairly regular 10% or 12% coupons from Best Buy...

The PS3 with it's built in Blu-Ray most likely won't, since it is a game counsole after all.
 
X-Box Premium: $399
Wireless Controller: $40
-$100 rebate
Total: $339

Also works with the rechargeable batteries I already owned. X360 will also play HD movies with no HD-DVD drive via the new xbox live service so don't just lump that $199 on top.

There is a money is no object crowd that needs to realize their opinions are very subjective. Of course you love the PS3 if money is no object. But don't use that towards your argument. If you seriously think kids should ask parents to put $600+ on their credit cards then the ps3 really is doomed to fail....or America is doomed.
 
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I'll bite:

XBOX360 Premium: 399.99
Play and charge adaptor: 19.99
Wired Controller: 29.99

Total: 449.97

Not having to pay 600.00 for a next gen console: PRICELESS


Ill bite too!!

360 Premium $434.89
Play and Charge adaptor $21.73
Quick Charge Kit $32.61

Total: $489.23 INCLUDING 8.75% sales tax.

So Joe, What was the point of your post? We still aren't forced into buying something we may not need or want. Too difficult for you to understand? Let's break it down. Do I NEED HD DVD now? No, I have an upconverting DVD player that has HDCP is disabled so puts 1080i though component which cost me $120. Not to mention AGAIN... CURRENTLY there are NO GAMES that break DVD9. Actually MOST of them FIT on DVD4.7.

Probably won't need HDDVD for games for another 4 years when the next xbox comes out. Lets see how I got 4 years and give you a history lesson.

Multi CD games really started back in '95 with a game called Mission Critical for the PC. If I remember right it was 4 CDs at the time because the game was mostly Mpeg movies. The rest of those games were all less than 650 MB. Then in 2000 we had 700 MB cds which and most games are STILL on 1 disc. Then came the invention of DVD. It gave developers more space to put their games on BUT was too cost prohibitive because most people didn't want to pay a couple hundred dollars for it. Multi disc games didnt really explode until about 2002. So there was no use nor need to put games on DVD because alot of the people still didnt have DVD drives in the computers at the time. If you want to take a poll most people won't mind switching discs. Now, today you STILL have games on Multi CDs (2-9) with Everquest II being the one that is on 9 CDs, which fits on DVD4.7. I know mathmatically (9) 700 MB discs is 6300 MB but all those discs arent full to capacity. SO its been about 4 years since the explosion of multi CD games and most STILL arent using anywhere near the sapce of DVD9.
 
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Joe you might want to delete this post, as its not good for you...remember the ps3 has NO hd cables out of the box (any box pick or choose). and you cant upgrade the 499 ps3, so if you want to get the higher ps3 you will have to buy 599 dollars worth of hardware...also with the 360 you just buy the equipment spread it out over time, so lets not compare accessories.

You can upgrade the HDD and add wifi ;)
 
You can upgrade the HDD and add wifi ;)

your right, it was a rumor I guess, but the Ps3 comes with a standard one year warrenty, so they are really starting to combat microsoft! I think people should add that into their Hardware costs to be fair as I had to pay 30 bucks for a year warrenty, and its included with the sony! by the way I still stand by my post of Joe should have deleted his, it got ugly quick! :)
 
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4Jump it up!Big Microsoft announcements coming up?

Ok I got the HD DVD add on and

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