tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9611352.post115832752763318650..comments2024-02-19T19:53:01.688-08:00Comments on Cathode Tan: I'm Not Very RationalJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04260309971152360156noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9611352.post-1158362945754953702006-09-15T16:29:00.000-07:002006-09-15T16:29:00.000-07:00Well, right, which is why Sony is so damn annoying...Well, right, which is why Sony is so damn annoying with their lousy PR.<BR/><BR/>I read something online today about someone detailing the reasons they'd get a Wii over a PS3.<BR/><BR/>Half of the reasons were actually present on the PS3 and the person was completely unaware of the fact.<BR/><BR/>Apparently Sony is betting on "rational" gamers who will just spend $600 in the hopes that they are actually getting $900 worth of hardware.Joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04260309971152360156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9611352.post-1158361452045036972006-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:002006-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:00This isn't about asset acquisition, where we theor...This isn't about asset acquisition, where we theoretically want the machine with the beefiest stats because we're going to use it in our spare time to break Russian military cyphers. It's about entertainment.<BR/><BR/>Joystiq's argument is akin to this: You walk into a movie theatre. There's two movies on. One is a special effects action blockbuster that cost $250 million to make but is getting reviews that suggest it's the worst thing since unsliced bread. The other is a low budget gem along the lines of Memento, Cube, or Primer, produced on a shoestring but brilliant beyond belief. The tickets to each film cost the same price.<BR/><BR/>According to Joystiq, your duty as a rational consumer is to ignore the good film and go and see the rubbish, because you're getting more production budget input per dollar of ticket price.<BR/><BR/>Ultimately, it doesn't matter how much money has been input into the product you're purchasing. It only matters what value it's outputting.Greg Tannahillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00823898295759037081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9611352.post-1158338435952846912006-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:002006-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:00Exactly. If the Wii did nothing but emulate pong,...Exactly. If the Wii did nothing but emulate pong, I wouldn't care how subsidized it is. Also, the 360 might be $200 under it's manufacturing costs - but it's not viable for my SDTV ... so it doesn't matter.<BR/><BR/>But I also wanted to point out that simply thinking "I want the most hardware at the lowest price" isn't necessarily as straightforward as it sounds. Plus, no company is going to give anythign away for free without an expectation of a return, and probably a ROI. Sony most certainly overpriced things like memory and controllers to recoup costs and I'm sure Microsoft has some similar strategies.Joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04260309971152360156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9611352.post-1158337700500872622006-09-15T09:28:00.000-07:002006-09-15T09:28:00.000-07:00Cole's argument is completely insane. Leaving asid...Cole's argument is completely insane. Leaving aside the ceteris paribus thing, no "rational buyer" (if there is such a thing) would buy a gaming machine for the sake of the hardware. Gaming machines are for games.<BR/><BR/>A rational buyer simply tries to get the best value for their money, and it is certainly questionable whether gaming hardware has an economic value that can simply be assessed by how much loss the company is eating.Troy Goodfellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02891972271809557897noreply@blogger.com