14 DAY TRIAL // Sony is definitely an optimistic company, as the Japanese console maker has some very high financial expectations in the upcoming year. Although sales charts for 2008 haven't really showed good results for the PlayStation 3 console, having lost to the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, things will look up in 2009, at least according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president, David Reeves.
The PS3 didn't achieve the huge rate of popularity that its predecessor, the PlayStation 2, had, but, because the company will take its time with this console, it will dominate sales in the near future. Reeves went on to say that, since, in terms of games, Sony was going to continue to invest in emerging countries, like India, Russia or South America, a new demographic would be created for the PS3, one that would guarantee big sales.
But, as an interesting tidbit of information, Reeves further stated that his company was committed to releasing quality and high performance hardware, as opposed to other names in the industry. The SCEE president then showcased the very low failure rates of the PS3, which make it a very reliable console for its users.
“We also grow the market through new products – some work, some don’t, that’s just the Sony way. And on that point, another thing we have committed to for supporting market growth is putting out quality hardware – you don’t grow the market by putting out shoddy machines. So we try to make sure that PS3s have a failure rate of just two to three per cent, which is very low by industry standards.”
This statement is quite a subtle remark aimed at Microsoft, which hasn't released the most reliable console, in the form of the Xbox 360 – the Red Ring of Death, or RROD, which showed up when the console broke down, brought it quite a bad reputation amongst gamers. But, even though the North American console isn't as reliable as the PS3, customers are still attracted to it because of its very low price tag, which, in these troubled financial times, makes the biggest difference.