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PS5 and XBox Series should have waited to lauch

Sejan

Member
While I understand that these two companies felt pressure from each other to launch during the 2020 holiday season, I believe that launching in this time frame was the wrong move for a number of reasons.

1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.

2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.

3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.

4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.

Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Yeah probably, I look through my digital stores everyday just out of habit ( Xbox, switch, psn, steam) and there is nothing that interest me .. even in the coming soon besides Mario world 3D on switch. It’s rather sad.
 
Nope. I love my PS5 and have already had a blast with Demon's Souls, Astro's Playroom, Spider-Man, Sackboy and The Pathless.

My Series X hasn't gotten much use yet, but even having that just for BC is better than sticking with my Xbox One.

Plus, shortages always happen anyway. Might as well get that ball rolling before all the big 2021 games like Halo Infinite, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, Returnal, Final Fantasy XVI, etc.
 
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leo-j

Member
Demon’s souls remake ( for a game that sold about 2 million or so on ps3) is an absolute block buster of a launch game. That and Spider-Man miles morales, SACKBOY, and Astro boy. And that’s just first party. This is easily the best launch for any PlayStation coming from first party and arguably third party.
Considering ps4 had a mediocre killzone and knack until infamous in March.
 

Sejan

Member
Probably wouldn't matter much either way considering the stock situation, but I can't see what would have been gained by waiting. For Sony in particular as they had Demon's Souls and Miles Morales ready to go.
Surely if they would have had another million or so units available at launch it would have made a difference. Even a lower going price for scalped consoles would make significant difference due to a decreased incentive for the scalpers.
 
I didn’t manage to get a PS5 at launch and it was a bit frustrating. Now, however, after all the stock/scalper issue I have completely lost interest. Perhaps the situation will change when Sony starts releasing games but, at the moment, I am more curious about the Atari VCS than the PS5 itself.
 
PS5 would have still sold out if they waited. Waiting to launch would have done nothing for especially for Sony. They had games ready to go at launch unlike Xbox.

The stock situation for Sony would have still remained the same because it's not caused because Sony didn't make enough PS5s, it caused by the unprecedented demand of consoles due to COVID. Even if Sony made 10 million PS5s ready to go there would still probably be a worldwide shortage in many countries. Sounds like you're just salty because you weren't able to secure one. As someone who was able to secure a PS5 at launch I'm having the time of my life and I believe the new consoles couldn't have come out sooner. The PS4 is incredibly antiquated and the PS5 completely blows it out of the water. I'm so glad I have one secured in time to take advantage of all the incredible games that will be releasing this year.
 
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Surely if they would have had another million or so units available at launch it would have made a difference. Even a lower going price for scalped consoles would make significant difference due to a decreased incentive for the scalpers.
For Sony it would have made zero difference as they sell everything they produce. What price scalpers set does not matter to them as those consoles are also sold either way.

It only matters to you as you think you'd have a better chance of getting one, but delaying the launch would have no benefit for Sony.
 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
While I understand that these two companies felt pressure from each other to launch during the 2020 holiday season, I believe that launching in this time frame was the wrong move for a number of reasons.

1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.

2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.

3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.

4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.

Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.
1. Holiday season is still huge in terms of big box electronics. The consoles were ready and the manufactures had almost double available in the same time period as last gen.

2. They both had more stock than any previous launch from what I saw. Stock wasn't a problem, demand is unreal.

3. True for MS, but not Sony. Launch titles may be light overall for the PS5, but are solid and both consoles are bolstered by backwards compatibility.

4. Probably not, demand at this level is unprecedented.

Sony and MS don't have to hype at all, they can't keep stock on shelves.
 

Jokerevo

Banned
While I understand that these two companies felt pressure from each other to launch during the 2020 holiday season, I believe that launching in this time frame was the wrong move for a number of reasons.

1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.

2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.

3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.

4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.

Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.
Nope. Are you kidding?wait for what? We are all stuck inside...gaming is booming now more than ever. People who don't normally game are starting to look at gaming....geez it's so obvious.
 

waquzy

Member
Nah, next-gen consoles are perfect at a time when Covid nonsense is going on... in fact it's probably the only good thing that came out of 2020.
 

Great Hair

Banned
CDPR kindly asked them to have them ready FALL2020.

keep on sucking hard candy GIF by Jolly Rancher
 

Aenima

Member
Nop. Im loving my PS5 and even playing PS4 games on it is a massive improvement compared to my base PS4. Also consoles need time to get to the hands of consumers. You cant simply stockpile millions of consoles in warehouses to have enough consoles to meet the demand at release date. Thats unrealistc.
 
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Metnut

Member
No way. I love my PS5. Demons Souls is great and it acts as a super PS4 Pro as well.

They are easy to get right now. Thousands of them on eBay ready to ship right away. Just buy a share or two of GameStop and you’ll have enough money for a free one in a day.
 

Entroyp

Member
Why? I’m having a blast with mine so far. The launch lineup is pretty good.

I will get my XsX this Saturday but I got one one my first try.
 
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Pejo

Member
As somebody with a PS5, I agree OP. Holiday 2021 would have been ideal I think. That's probably not enough time for components to decrease in price enough for them to be able to use better hardware, but at least manufacturing would have been further along, and most importantly we'd have some games that truly take advantage of the hardware.
 
Yes, I agree with you OP. The new game selections were poor and stock has been low compared to demand. Thankfully, they didn’t wait and I was able to make money off of selling several PS5s.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I don't know if their releases were premature - given the pandemic with so many inside and willing to pay for digital entertainment like never before it made business sense.

I do agree that spring launches in general would make more sense though. It's tax season, retailers aren't competing heavily with one another for their various holiday season sales, and it provides manufacturers many months to gear up for the holidays, and consumers to save up for it.
 

iHaunter

Member
Disagree greatly. I'm loving Demon's Souls and the other games as well. Miles with 60 FPS + RT is dope.

There are some games I never purchased that are on PS+ Collection like Days Gone that I've enjoyed. Also, Control + DAS is coming free next month. Strongest launch of any console.
 

Zato

Banned
Yeah, OP is wrong.

Take it you havent got one yet OP?

Hype is easy generated and demand is huge, Sony is selling as fast they can make them and their is plenty of content for this early.
 

Enjay

Banned
from the idiots in this thread gamers are still the dumbest group of consumers next to the cell phone market and sneaker market.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
Worth it to me for 60fps Destiny. Prob didn’t need both but Spider man was fun.
 

Manji Uzuki

Member
I don't see the point of delaying the launch. No one knows how things are going to be in a few months with this bloody pandemic going on, so they couldn't know how much stock they could get.

Also good games always take some time to arrive so the earliest they release the better IMO.

I will wait until there are nore games that I want to play but happy its out there for those who want to have it already!
 

carlosrox

Banned
You should have waited to do a spellcheck before you made the thread. J/K.

Eh, there's plenty to play, especially if you get Gamepass on SX.

I have PS5 and SX but definitely prefer the latter so far.
 

MrA

Banned
1. Holiday season is still huge in terms of big box electronics. The consoles were ready and the manufactures had almost double available in the same time period as last gen.

2. They both had more stock than any previous launch from what I saw. Stock wasn't a problem, demand is unreal.

3. True for MS, but not Sony. Launch titles may be light overall for the PS5, but are solid and both consoles are bolstered by backwards compatibility.

4. Probably not, demand at this level is unprecedented.

Sony and MS don't have to hype at all, they can't keep stock on shelves.
Unprecedented demand? It's basically the exact same demand as ps4 (which everyone seems to forget was extremely high as well), supply and scalping is worse. and total sales seem to be somewhat lower than ps4
Demand is so unprecedented it was outsold by the switch in both November and December in the US (cue hurr durr switch is a handheld, or if the ps5 had more supply!, aka it was more supply-constrained)
and the UK, and everywhere else we have data for. Ps5 seems to have sold 4.2 million units worldwide, guess what the ps4 sold in 2013, that's right 4.2 million units (without Japan) so the us and europe is down a few hundred thousand from the ps4 (the source for these are all on gaf)
plus scalpers have gotten a hold of several hundred thousand (about 100k on ebay from the US only, amazon and facebook market place are both generally larger but have harder to find units sold, so if those 2 are inline with ebay, 300k of the US supply of about 2 million passed through scalpers hands, which is annoying as without them a lot more people would have gotten the console they wanted, please keep in mind this point doesn't touch the total sales, just aftermarket price because it drastically reduced the available stock in stores),
it's in line with a successful console, but it isn't out of this world or anything, if more had been available more would have sold, but the same was true of the switch (which was supply constrained this Christmas and selling for a 20%+ premium on ebay despite being 3 years+ old)
and going back to the ps4s launch it would have also sold more if more was available,
plus you seem to forget the silly demand for the wii and ps2 had at launch, wiis and ps2 were both selling for in the 2k range because the demand was so absurd.
 

Rolla

Banned
3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.

I find it interesting that you single out Playstation for not having games ready especially since they actually launched with IP for their next gen system. Sure you'll have some caveats to inject like "Miles Morales isn't a full game" etc etc but those launch games are helping push PS5's momentum whether you chose to recognize that or not.
 
While I understand that these two companies felt pressure from each other to launch during the 2020 holiday season, I believe that launching in this time frame was the wrong move for a number of reasons.

1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.

2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.

3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.

4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.

Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.
Covid
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For fuck sake, COVID...
 
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ethomaz

Banned
It will be sold out in seconds no matter when it launches.

Moving the launch date won’t chance the production capacity of the semi condutor companies.

People need to understand TSMC doesn’t produce only to Sony/MS... in fact Sony/MS are in the low end of their consumers.
 
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x@3f*oo_e!

Member
1. yes/ok .. but xmas launch is still a good time
2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. - the logistics of this is "where are we going to stockpile 15 million PS5s?"
3. Surprise !! this never happened before /s
4. Nobody cares about scalpers - it's 1%, and free market operating.
 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
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