Playstation 4 Or Xbox One? (See mod warning in the first post)

cherryghost

If anything I think PS4 marketing was the best of the 3.

Retr0gamer

They have a lot of ads but its all rather dull. It's like they know all they have to do is not **** up.

Compare that to the ps1 and 2 campaigns. The ps2 campaign was god awful muck but at least it was different.

Sarky

cherryghost wrote: »

If anything I think PS4 marketing was the best of the 3.

Least awful would be a better term than best. It was adequate, only looking good because everything else was done worse.

ShadowHearth

Retr0gamer wrote: »

They have a lot of ads but its all rather dull. It's like they know all they have to do is not **** up.

Compare that to the ps1 and 2 campaigns. The ps2 campaign was god awful muck but at least it was different.

The campaign of ps2 was aweful, but better. Ps4 campaign made ps4 outsell wii u and Xbox by **** truck loads and it was bad one. I don't get it.

As cherry said, it was the best one from all 3. Wii u just did not do any and Xbox just doing 180 and throwing ghost ads on TV with " only on Xbox one ".

Ps4 campaign was good and had cool bits like that PlayStation evolution video and play station button symbol art on landmarks .

CiDeRmAn

Such a dull campaign from both Sony and MS, games that just scream m'eh or would do if they were bothered.
Neither console offering squat above the last gen aside from some visual improvements.
As Edge said, the best next gen game this Christmas is Super Mario 3D World.
Never write off a Nintendo console as done for, it only proved true once. Otherwise they have always had some measure of success with their machines.

johnny_ultimate

I have to say the Sony marketing campaign was a coup de grace. Remember it wasn't aimed at us savvy Internet cynics. Instead, it was a concise, clear and lengthy campaign that constantly played up the machine's strengths (for the players - three simple, catchy words summarising their whole campaign) and expertly toyed with ideas of loyalty and brand conflict. They played it safe, but safety was needed (if the build up to this gen change proved anything, it's that gamers will reject major change vocally and aggressively). From its knockout E3 performance to the PS3 Rooms in Dublin, they did a damn good job winning over undecideds and securing fans for another generation. They made the launch an event, and Xbox One's arrival couldn't help but feel like a whimper in comparison. The first skirmish had a clear victor.

Marketing by its very nature is cynical, dull and unpleasant, but really Sony would have struggled to do a better job in this most ignorable of 'creative industries'. They knew what their message was, and they just stuck to it. The initial sales at least partially reflected their success there: just look at the insane rushes in Germany. Sony certainly convinced those lunatics.

So Nintendo ey?

NTMK

ShadowHearth wrote: »

The campaign of ps2 was aweful, but better. Ps4 campaign made ps4 outsell wii u and Xbox by **** truck loads and it was bad one. I don't get it.

Sonys marketing had **** all to do with it. the do nothing approach works when your competition is 1) MS who figure out what the **** they were doing and 2) nintendo who dont know the meaning of marketing.

the ps4 was already out of stock almost everywhere before their ad campaign actually started

the later ps2 and ps3 stuff was garbage but they didnt **** the ps4 campaign with some good ads but there was no risk taken which taken which is a bit of a shame as the cool ps1 and ps2 ones were where they took the risk

Retr0gamer

ShadowHearth wrote: »

The campaign of ps2 was aweful, but better. Ps4 campaign made ps4 outsell wii u and Xbox by **** truck loads and it was bad one. I don't get it.

Again just because sales are good it doesn't mean the marketing is good. Sony is in a very enviable position were its two competitors are s rewing up so much it doesn't have to try so isn't really bothering.

Corholio

In fairness, MS messed up more in this campaign than any mess ups by all the other companies combined in all launches, it was that bad. They rowed back pretty quick and saved a bit of face, but a lot of damage already done. Sony had a decent, solid campaign for PS4 -nothing more. The record sales certainly aren't the result of a brilliant campaign.

RoyalCelt

Have the PS4 since day 1. My god it's amazing. Killzone/BF4 and resogun. Next gen is here at last. Can't wait for the next wave of games like watch dogs and infamous second son.

Pushtrak

You know the point that Sony started getting lots of pre orders? When they said no drm. Maybe that's marketing, maybe it's not, but essentially winning most people over by merely staying the course of the status quo while the competition jumps off a cliff isn't exactly that noteworthy.

ShadowHearth

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Again just because sales are good it doesn't mean the marketing is good. Sony is in a very enviable position were its two competitors are s rewing up so much it doesn't have to try so isn't really bothering.

You personally liking/disliking is not the same as good/bad campaign.

Sony had great campaign even before MS train wreck:

"For the gamers by the gamers" - best slogan you could make to please a gamer.
"Developer friendly architecture and admitting their own feck up with ps3" - Pleases everyone and gets respect points for admitting being wrong.
"Indy friendly and open for all small developers" - Indy is a hot thing these days and Sony gave it thumbs up, not pushing them in to publishers concentration camps!

Then MS did a complete fool out of it self. Sony marketing Did a great job and kicked MS in a teeth while it was on its knees:
"no online"
"trading games video"
"under cutting MS in price"

While MS was trying collect its teeth and darting out ads with call of duty, Sony just sealed the deal:
"play rooms" so public can try it out for themselves before launch.
"demo units"
"PlayStation art on major landmarks"
" heavy presense in media


Sony did a great job from beginning and ITS NOT just MS feck up. Great at marketing.

Edit:

"just because sales good, does not mean marketing was good" - what a complete nonsense. Marketing is a huge part of any product. There are a lot of ways how marketing works. In Sonys case they did the right things that customer wanted. It got trust from gamers and lured them in for a sale. Marketing is a lot more then just an ad on to for 20 seconds.

CiDeRmAn

Quick question regarding the sales numbers of the non Nintendo next gen consoles, although this thread has been completely derailed.
Haven't both the Xbox One and PS4 sold out in the territories they launched in?
Does that account for the disparity in asked numbers or are they including preorders as well?
Again, Nintendo are going to make a fortune with the 3ds series, thru can afford to allow the WiiU to take its time, though we may see it replaced within 3 years if it's seem to drastically underperform, not compared to the PS4 and Xbox One, but to the Wii.

COYVB

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Marketing is a huge part of any product. There are a lot of ways how marketing works. In Sonys case they did the right things that customer wanted. It got trust from gamers and lured them in for a sale. Marketing is a lot more then just an ad on to for 20 seconds.

Sony actually spent waaaaaaaaay less on marketing than anyone expected them to for the PS4. Compared to the traditional launch spends, they barely register. It was brilliant PR, not brilliant marketing that won this for them

Otacon

Pushtrak wrote: »

You know the point that Sony started getting lots of pre orders? When they said no drm. Maybe that's marketing, maybe it's not, but essentially winning most people over by merely staying the course of the status quo while the competition jumps off a cliff isn't exactly that noteworthy.

When every industry head outside of Sony thought they were going to follow suit, it is noteworthy that they didn't.

As COYVB says, it was brilliant PR. Inversely, almost everything Microsoft did fed into Sony's message then.

MadYaker

I think the internet hype machine played a much bigger part this time around. There was huge speculation all over the web for months before any pictures were even released nevermind specs. All it takes is a few people on forums or popular gaming websites to start saying things like "wow, I think demand could be through the roof this year, I better get in early to make sure I get one" and the fever sets in resulting in scenes like we saw in germany. Also this time around there was a clear favourite in the PS4 so the market wasn't split evenly at all.

ShadowHearth

COYVB wrote: »

Sony actually spent waaaaaaaaay less on marketing than anyone expected them to for the PS4. Compared to the traditional launch spends, they barely register. It was brilliant PR, not brilliant marketing that won this for them

Hmmmm good PR is part of marketing strategy, so I don't really know where you going with this. You can't have one without other one.

As for cost, you don't need to spend mmuch to have good marketing. Look at minecraft, minecraft marketing was brilliant, because it costed feck all. Forums, YouTube and gaming media did the whole marketing for them. They did not spent a penny.

CiDeRmAn

Is it not a mistake to declare who is the winner in the next gen when they are only launched, the next year or two will prove which is the better of the two, but more likely is that their individuality will be diluted by the cross platform releases that will use common middleware in their creation.
Only the console exclusives will matter, with the proof of the pudding being in the eating, and that information will take time.

r0ckst4r

With Microsoft so intent on shooting themselves in the foot with their abysmal pre launch campaign Sony could have brought water pistols to the gunfight...and won.

Sony simply had to capitalise on what Microsoft was doing wrong...which to be honest wasn't difficult.

Penn

r0ckst4r wrote: »

With Microsoft so intent on shooting themselves in the foot with their abysmal pre launch campaign Sony could have brought water pistols to the gunfight...and won.

Sony simply had to capitalise on what Microsoft was doing wrong...which to be honest wasn't difficult.

Exactly. Sony's marketing/PR wasn't necessarily that great, but Microsoft's was just so bad that Sony could almost do nothing wrong. I think Microsoft had some good ideas for the Xbox One but they were so badly explained (their online game sharing plan), were incredibly restrictive (always-on internet required, Kinect had to be always plugged in), then the Adam Orth disaster (being dismissive of people's concerns), and then the backtracking on some of their features... It was just one disaster after another.

Hawkeye1

I dont care about marketing campains or other nerd BS, I looked at both consoles games and saw the xbox had the better games, and into the new year aswell. Ill pick up a ps4 next year when there is a few good exclusives on it. Right now im enjoying forza and looking forward to titanfall!

ShadowHearth

r0ckst4r wrote: »

With Microsoft so intent on shooting themselves in the foot with their abysmal pre launch campaign Sony could have brought water pistols to the gunfight...and won.

Sony simply had to capitalise on what Microsoft was doing wrong...which to be honest wasn't difficult.

Exploiting your opponents weaknesses is a proper and right marketing tactic.

I think a lot of people here a bit deluded and mixing good marketing with "hey you, why you did not spent another 10billion dollars to prove me that the product I am already buying is better then others?!"

_Puma_

Marketing, the art of getting somebody to buy something they don't actually need.

The fact that the PS3 and PC have some excellent games out and coming out in the near future, while the PS4 has relatively few at the moment is proof enough that Sony's marketing team did an excellent job at convincing the current userbase to migrate to the next generation, all the while taking a massive chunk out of the 360's userbase. Dunno what standards that could be considered bad marketing?

What Microsoft tried to do is push their vision of the future of the consoles being an all in one entertainment centre(much to the dismay of their core userbase), while current industry trends lead to a divergence in consumer home technology. They also did a very good job at alienating their core gamer userbase, which is unforgivable for the launch of any follow up of a brand.

All Sony had to do to cannibalise the 360 userbase was to highlight this change in policy by Microsoft and emphasise their machines advantages as a gaming machine. Price advantage was their weapon in convincing the more causal userbase and people not interested in loyalties. It was game over for the Xbox one before it even started.

r0ckst4r

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Exploiting your opponents weaknesses is a proper and right marketing tactic.

I think a lot of people here a bit deluded and mixing good marketing with "hey you, why you did not spent another 10billion dollars to prove me that the product I am already buying is better then others?!"

No that would have simply been unnecessary money down the drain. Point is, with MS tripping itself up one declaration after another sony simply didnt need the aggressive marketing campaign of the ps2/3.

Knowing this was clever. They chose their words efficiently with at one stage MS seemingly buried pre launch....

...Its just that Microsoft handed them the shovel

MiskyBoyy

Who said they'd bring out an Xbox media player first :P

ShadowHearth

r0ckst4r wrote: »

No that would have simply been unnecessary money down the drain. Point is, with MS tripping itself up one declaration after another sony simply didnt need the aggressive marketing campaign of the ps2/3.

Knowing this was clever. They chose their words efficiently with at one stage MS seemingly buried pre launch....

...Its just that Microsoft handed them the shovel

Clever marketing is good marketing. Fair play to Sony using it for advantage. If they would not, then they would have been idiots.

People are forgetting that Sony were the first ome to show their cards. MS could have used that advantage, but they completely fecked up.

To say that Sony only used MS **** up is wrong though. Sony announced a lor of positiv. Stuff back then. As I mentioned already they had gamers ego nicely buttered up even before MS droped the ball.

CiDeRmAn

Actually, thats a Sony machine I'd really like, my PSN+ Vita game collection is getting big now!

Grayditch

I think it's very early to say that Sony haven't done a good job at marketing the PS4. Very early indeed.

I'd be genuinely interested in hearing the argument from someone in marketing, without 'MS were worse'. To hear what they have actually done incorrectly, from a marketing stanpoint.

CiDeRmAn

There is feck all between the two consoles, it's all largely academic, most consoles will be sold over the rest of the machines lifespan so why get hung up on the first 2 weeks or so.
Or is it just folk who spent money on them trying to justify their purchase, they're hardly likely to say they just wasted their money.

Grayditch

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

There is feck all between the two consoles, it's all largely academic, most consoles will be sold over the rest of the machines lifespan so why get hung up on the first 2 weeks or so.
Or is it just folk who spent money on them trying to justify their purchase, they're hardly likely to say they just wasted their money.

In what way are people getting hung up, though? This is as good a place as any to discuss the merits of the consoles, and compare them.

On a side note, it has been impressively civil, considering some of the threads I've seen.