SONY Fans loyalty..

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Another PS3 thread I know but after the media deluge we have been through after E3 this comment from CEO David Reeves really took me aback....

"We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even [if] it didn't have games," .... Source, Computer and Video Games.

Are SONY really THAT confident in their brand? My initial impression of this was "who cares what its like, they'll buy anything we serve them" which seems extremely naive to me. Personally I think SONY produce some complete trash, I think the only piece of SONY kit I own is a CD player from the nineties and thats only because it was free! I loved the PSOne, bought 3 in fact over the lifetime of its games, I missed 2nd gen cos of my PC addiction and now I'm into the 3rd with the 360. None of it is brand loyalty, its the quality and the content that drive the need. Are there really sufficient numbers of people out there who would buy whatever SONY offer up without question?

If I was a SONY loyalist I'd probably take offence to the comment, as I'm not I'd just like to see what others think, SONY loyalists especially. :D
 
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Sony have a reputation for quality that is enough for them to be able to charge premium prices and stay in business.
Don't forget also that the gamers in Japan, Korea etc are very different to those in Europe and so I would say that Sony are right. Shifting 5 million units in the far east should be no problem at all regardless of how good it is.
 
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Tommy B said:
They've made some of the best televisions in the world for the past decade. Games consoles are a different matter.

Are they? Personally I see that they've made not only some of the best but THE best consoles bar none in the past decade.
 
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Zefan said:
Are they? Personally I see that they've made not only some of the best but THE best consoles bar none in the past decade.

I admit I'm a PS3 fan but most of the people on these boards seem to be be die hard, hardcore Xbox fans. It just seems to be the geek console for some reason :)
 
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VIRII said:
Sony have a reputation for quality that is enough for them to be able to charge premium prices and stay in business.
Don't forget also that the gamers in Japan, Korea etc are very different to those in Europe and so I would say that Sony are right. Shifting 5 million units in the far east should be no problem at all regardless of how good it is.

i dont know where they get that reputation from. Consoles - all suffred from laser problems. how many revisions of the ps2 did they go thru before making the slimline? 7 or 8 wasnt it?


cd players/mini systems - lasers. i had 3 sony minisystems, all of the failed with laser problems.

their dvd players - well built, but basic. You could always get better for the money elsewhere

their tv's - average at best. We did we have to send our £1500 trintron back TWICE because of picture problems? the 3rd wasnt right either, it still has convergence problems.

the only thing that sony truly did best was the walkman. Not these cd walkmans they sell now, but proper tape players. they were consistantly ahead of everybody else in better life, build and sound quality. everything else has been quantity and price (or should i say profit) over quality.
 
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Zefan said:
Are they? Personally I see that they've made not only some of the best but THE best consoles bar none in the past decade.
See i'm not against the Playstation brand (had a PS1 & still have a PS2) but I dont think they've made the "best" consoles more the most "popular" consoles bar none of the last decade.

The PS2 is the worst console of the 3 from the last gen in the umph department but does have a lot of good games.

I've never been hit by the reliability issues which is one thing people single them out for (my old chunky monkey PS2 still worked fine up until I sold it and that was a launch model!) but M$ can hardly laugh about that when the 360 has had quite a few issues only months after launch (though those havent affected me either).
 
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james.miller said:
the only thing that sony truly did best was the walkman. Not these cd walkmans they sell now, but proper tape players. they were consistantly ahead of everybody else in better life, build and sound quality. everything else has been quantity and price (or should i say profit) over quality.

I've found their cameras to be high quality without being too expensive and my MP3 player is fine, it does seem to vary from product to product, but they do seem to be (most of the time) more expensive than the competition.

I've also got a 3rd revision PS2 (30003 or something like that) and the laser's been absolutely fine, a friend of mine had a 1st revision launch week console and it's only just failed after thousands of hours use (at least a couple of hours a day DVD/Games)
 
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oh yeah i forgot. sony do make some well specced cameras:)

tbh reliability issues will effect some peopel and not others. what get's me though is that 3 seperate minisystems, a standalone cd player and a ps2 that ive had over the years have all suffered with laser failure. all made by sony :confused:
 
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Tommy B said:
You can't put Sony down as a brand. They've made some of the best televisions in the world for the past decade.

Have they?

In the last decade there have always been better products produced by other companies at lower costs. Sony have been living off of their reputation from the 70s-80s for a long long time. Sony's attitude for the last decade has been. "We make it, slap a price tag on it and they buy it."
They are aware of their brand name and have relied on that for at least a decade. Yet we see that their company is struggling fanatically and has been since the turn of the century. Why is this? Other companies have overtaken Sony in areas that were once Monopolised by Sony. The same will happen in consoles imo. The reason for this is Sony's arrogance, they have not made a top of the line product for a reasonable price in years, because they feel that it will sell regardless. This is shown by the OP's quote.
 
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james.miller said:
i dont know where they get that reputation from.

I have no idea where it comes from either (the only Sony item I have is a second hand PS2 slimline) however they charge a significant premium for their TV's and electronics and people are willing to pay for it.

I am not sure why people are PS3 "fans" either. So far the unit has yet to be released and whilst I can understand people looking forward to it and having high hopes for it until it is actually on the market and in my hands I can't be a fan of it.
I am a fan of the 360 though. I did not expect to be one but it revitalised gaming for me.
 
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Kronologic said:
Have they?

In the last decade there have always been better products produced by other companies at lower costs. Sony have been living off of their reputation from the 70s-80s for a long long time. Sony's attitude for the last decade has been. "We make it, slap a price tag on it and they buy it."
They are aware of their brand name and have relied on that for at least a decade. Yet we see that their company is struggling fanatically and has been since the turn of the century. Why is this? Other companies have overtaken Sony in areas that were once Monopolised by Sony. The same will happen in consoles imo. The reason for this is Sony's arrogance, they have not made a top of the line product for a reasonable price in years, because they feel that it will sell regardless. This is shown by the OP's quote.

There is some truth in what you say. Their new Bravia LCD TVs are awesome, yet the outrageous price tag compared to that of Samsung's LCD TVs just doesn't justify it.
 
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although i like the look of many sony products, its the high price and crippling format support that puts me off buying them, not loyalty to any other manufacturer, as i said before, whichever console came out 1st got my money
 
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Tommy B said:
You can't put Sony down as a brand. They've made some of the best televisions in the world for the past decade. Games consoles are a different matter.

They've made an awful lot of overpriced crap stuff too, including TVs.
 
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UKflames said:
I thgink he is absolutely right, there are a hard core of playstation fans that will by the PS3 regardless of what it is like.
The same could have & has been said of the XBox 360 as well.

Now call me one of the lucky ones, but I've had/have:

An original PlayStation - no problems
A PS2 (from launch day) - no problems
A slimline PS2 (exchanged the chunky one for it) - no problems
A Sony cassette walkman - no problems
2 Sony CD walkmans - no problems
A Sony ES range CD seperate - no problems
A Sony ES range HiFi Amp - no problems
A Sony Mini System - no problems
A Sony VHS recorder - no problems
A Sony TV - no problems
A Sony Digital Camera - no problems
(there's a pattern emerging here!!!) :p

There's probably a few more things that I've forgotten as well!!

The only thing I've had a problem with was some intermittent Laser problems with an old Sony DVD player I had.

I'd have to say I've been perfectly happy with just about all of their products that I've owned, and so just wanted to put the other side of the argument over - and I don't even classify myself as a Sony 'Fan'! (my current TV is Philips, DVD recorder is Panasonic & yes, I do own a 360) :)
 
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Whats wrong with being confident in their own brand - they have every right to be after PlayStation, PSOne and PS2.

They have made astounding discoveries (CD, minidisc) as well as realy pushing tv reception and quality ( they did have one of the first interlacing systems on CRT tv's several years ago that was highly regarded at the time)

Even betamax while not a success from a consumer point of view , was a massive hit with production teams and broadcasters.

General a/v systems , let alone game consoles , wouldnt be where they are today if it wasnt for Sony - so give credit where its due

Dont get me wrong umd (esp for movies) was a big mistake, and minidisc was probably a year or two later than it needed to be, and too small in storage terms - but the idea was still right on. They have made a few other mistakes also but as a brand they are more often than not right on the money

I have a Sony hdd/dvd recorder with integrated freeview (one of the first on the market with DigiTV tuner) and not only was it reasonably priced (under £400) but its got componant out also

They do some of the best TV's (and monitors) , projectors, amps, and general audio gear also - so dont mock what you obviously dont know or dont care to know about. Admittedly most of their speakers arent that good anymore more's to the pity.

The question is would you have got the wii or the X360 so quickly if the PS2 and the PSOne before it hadnt been such a success as they have been. Its highly unlikely. Nintendo hadnt done that much in the market (penetration wise) and so it would be dominated by MS - no market grows at the rate the console one has in the last ten years or so with only one main force in it.

Its quite possible that the PS3 will be a complete dog, and MS will get 80% market share in this generation - however I cant really see that happening.

Sony may be stating big things, but they know they need it to be a success as much as gamers as a whole want it to be a success , if only to drive the whole market forward

Innovation comes from trying new things - only you will lose out if you dont consider ALL the possibilities

/ rant over - but just so you dont get the wrong impression I DO have an X360, as well as assorted other electonics stuff like a Samsung TV, Denon av amp, Dell monitors etc - I just hate ignorance is all
 
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Tommy B said:
You can't put Sony down as a brand. They've made some of the best televisions in the world for the past decade. Games consoles are a different matter.

I totally agree! Sony's highest quality department are their televisions. Their brand loyalty got them through the last console war where, in my opinion, the Dreamcast and the Xbox were both better consoles than the Sony Playstation 2.
 
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