What Sells A Platform?

I'd probably say it's a balance of the middle three; Quality and availability of games, and mustn't ever rule out the power of brand loyalty - I would have never had an Atari ST in my house!

Agree with config, access to quality games, plus brand.

There are people who won't buy anything but Sony, those who won't buy anything but Nintnedo and the same for Microsoft. Plus the will by anything except Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft crowds of course!

what sells a platform? innovation - better known as - stupid gimmicky wavey waggly motion controlers, going by nintendos sales figures

I'd say its timing, correct quality games, good advertising and marketing (plus the brand).

If I take advertising as an example, if you look at the ads for Nintendo DS to the complex hokum of Sony's PS3 ads, you see one that's straight forward, showing all the family playing the games, whereas the other needs to try make a confusing epic ad out of selling its product.

Sony have strong marketing, but is it enough to get people buying PS3s. Don't think people are biting this time. In contrast MS ads have been great in getting across the Xbox Live aspect of 360 gaming to the public.

I think Nintendo have the simpler approach, and its working. The fact they actually show people playing the games plus screen vids, helps the viewer connect with the games and console more. Now you'll understand why Wii's and DSs are in such high demand.

this might seem strange but it sort of works in a strange way
console wars work in threes
if you look at it
sega hardware
Master System Units sold 13 million
Sega Mega Drive Units sold 29 million
Sega Saturn Units sold 10 million

Nintendo
Nintendo Entertainment System Units sold 60 million
Super Nintendo Entertainment System Units sold 49 milion
Nintendo 64 Units sold 32.93 million


Sony
PlayStation Units sold 102.49 million
PlayStation 2 Units sold 115.36 million units
PlayStation 3 Units sold 3.15 million+ so far but i dont tink that it will beet the
ps2


Microsoft Corporation
Xbox Units sold 24 million
Xbox 360 units sold Worldwide: 10.4 million sold as of January, 2007.
United States: 4.5 million consumer sales as of December 31, 2006.
Japan: 330,091 consumer sales as of March 4, 2007.
and still growing at a big rate


as you can see by the numbers the 3rd dose not do as well in most cases if you look at all companies the 2nd dose the beast sales but the 3rd dose not
but nintendo seems to be biffrent on that eg thay own the handheld world all ways have and all way will when thay start to go down thay pull something out of there hat and make a killing on it eg virtual boy/ n64 eara thay had and still have pokemon
im sorry if you think that im buming nintendo but look at people like snk thay went down hil with hardware when things got bad so did atri and sega but nintendo pull throw

games are not about this - really - none of these options - what sells a platform is what you can afford and then you sticj with it

so f**k you all

If this were correct, we'd all still have Spectra or C64s.

i do (virutally) and i still play them (emulated of coures)

if so why did the dreamcast die
you could get a DC plus 4 games etc for under £100
why as the ps2 was 299.99 with no games
make no logic

You missed the obvious one. Marketing.

Hype sells platforms. Hype sells watches, cars, jewellery, cosmetics.

Make the masses feel bad enough about what they have, jealous enough about what others have. Then stack it high and watch them buy.

It's a combination of factors offcourse. As said, you got games, quality, marketing and brandpower. Then you also have price, functionality, innovation, quantity, accesibility and very important in understanding this console ware in peculiar, perception. Perception is created by many things, internal and external and involves all the named properties.

Perception is also the only factor that really affects all of the consumers, from hardcore to non-gamer albeit different. Example, the Xbox-brand relies for 75% on one thing: Halo, it is it's greatest strenght but also it's greatest weakness because in the eyes of many mainstream and newii-gamers it makes the Xbox360 a non-buy. Result: every attempt of Microsoft to pull in these consumers (Kameo, Viva Pinata and so forth) tanked and will continue to tank unless MS steps off from its Haloliness or innovates it's ass off, both will not happen anyday soon, or later...or in a few decades...On the other side, this Halo-perception makes the Xbox360 a very good console for more traditional gamers...except hard-core arcade FPS-gamers who fall asleep just playing Halo because of the enormous slow movement due to dual-analog aiming (just read your random tfc-inspired forum and look for a Halo tread or the enormous concern among Unreal fans that Unreal Tournament 2007 will be enormously watered down on the PC because the PS3 and XBox360 versions are made simaltaneous.)

If there was a thing like a perceptionwar...Nintendo won that one before the Wii launched and Sony lost it and Microsoft is just watching from the sidelines making sure it wins those battles to esure it's target audiences are safe.

In short, perception is all the other factors coming togheter and it is vital as a platform maker to nudge that coming togheter in the right direction because after it you can't really change it even if you are better in some factors then your competitors.

had most of this answer written when the original post was put up but was on a mates computer and she came back...cudnt finish it.....cut paste email to me etc etc,.

any way here is the answer

So many things sell a console. i will break my answer down and relate it to an advance procduct life cycle and give a good and bad example of both.

the advances product life cycle(p.l.c) satrts with the ideas/devolpment phase. In this phase it is important to generate excitement and desire of a product. Good execution-Ninteno wii/revolution-only showing off small pieces of info at a time an very effectively teasing us-remember all that?Bad example-Sony's PS3,so much bad press and "disasters" leading up to launch

next phase, introduction to the market, D-day. Companies are guaranteed sales from fan boys and mothers who want the latest and greatest for little timmy. What is very important in this phase is is "buzz",no not the PS2 quiz game but the excitment it generates. Most consoles wont have anymore than 2killer apps at launch,so they need to relay on hype(sumtimes unethically generated)that a console creates to sell well. The sales figures and thusly market penentration are important here,the higher the better(Im going to ignore the pursposful stock shortages,pricing strategies etc cuz it throws up a complete other side to this)

sorry guys,the other day when i wrote this my head was buzzing with ideas,yoday my brian is dead and im tired,mite update it at later date but most of u have an idea were i was going with this.

Lol.

majin out