I wanted to take a wing at what I think Sony's plans are with their marketing strategy for this product.

The Ipod Strategy

Ipod has, since inception, lived off of it's name and it's level of satisfaction. Ipod is the most expensive, most reliable, most specialized, but not necessarily the most user-friendly piece of equipment out there. Ipod keeps their product selling by introducing qualities before the competitors and constantly uprgrading their product, but not their price. Instead of changing the price they toss the old product and replace it with new and shiny for the same price. The $250 I put down for my 30GB Black Movie-playing Ipod one year ago still retails for the same and Ipod still seems to keep it's sales going. Ipod's strategy seems to be: You know who we are, you know you can trust us, you are paying for that trust. Another strategy is to keep two of each of their product, one slightly better than the other, for people with different needs. This happens to be another strategy that works well, a smaller product for someone with a two-thousand song collection versus a person with a two-thousand song and one-hundred movie clip collection the larger model will more likely appeal to. Variety and trust is what 'The Ipod Strategy' seems to be all about, at least in this writer's opinion.

Sony's PS3 'Strategy'

Playstation 3 (PS3) has been the end of many bad jokes lately but, I can tell you, the PS3 is more of a specialized product than the others out there. In the work-world specialization is much more highly paid for than a general practitioner; Ear nose and throat doctor versus Family Doctor. What you are paying for in their price for the system is specialization. The Playstation 3 specialized in being a media maniac's dream system, it comes with everything you need to make your High-definition media center shine, it makes your 7.1 surround sound speaker system roar with excitement and run chills through your bones. So we have to pay for that specialization, just like the Ipod, and the fact that we're paying for the trust that sony instills in its product. That trust and that specialization are coming out of our pocket like a broken air-conditioning system on a hot summer day. At the end of the day who does Sony disappoint? The people who already own Microsoft's also great, Xbox 360 (I'll cover their strategy later, I think). I feel Sony's only problem was not offering people enough reason to draw those people away from their other system to raise an eyebrow, and maybe a couple hundred dollars, to this new system. Sony's marketing strategy was way too inclined towards it's Sony fanbase that it cost them a slow first year.

Product Strategy

Sony has also followed the Ipod strategy in the sense that, it's product line features two products. Originally the 20GB 'Core' product, missing way too many important features, and the 60GB Premium. Priced at $499, for the 20GB model, and $599, for the 60GB model, Sony had the idea that they could offer the people interested in hardcore gaming the larger model and those interested in media capabilities the smaller one. The 20GB was replaced, price and all, with the banishing 60GB model and the 60GB model, price and all, with the 80GB value package. This is also following Ipods strategy of, replace the old and dusty with the new and shiny. Also the replacement of the controller will more than likely be more of the same, improvements while replacing the old product.

My Predictions

I predict few, but many, things. First, I predict Sony will introduce a third product for the more casual gamer, something very price efficient and keep it on the market as the 'budget' PS3. I also predict after the 60GB model goes bye-bye the 80GB will drop to $499 and a better, and shinier, PS3 will replace the $599 price tag keeping the Ipod strategy intact. I also predict that this push will sell many systems keeping a fresh feel to the PS3. I also believe the upcoming games will help move a ton of games as well as the new PS3 controller, don't even ask me why.

Thanks for your time :)

Even though the title may fool, this blog is all about online play and friends. This particular one being about my online play history. If you want to skip all the boring mid-story scroll down a few clicks.

My first online game ever, Diablo. As many may not know or, maybe know all too well, Diablo was one of the most hacked and illegitimate games I have ever played. This was reflected well online where peopl would replace all of their slots on their body with thinking caps that gave a bonus to spells.

However, this blog has nothing to do with the games but the people and friends that came with them. During Diablo I was in asix person clan on mplayer (now known as gamespy). Diablo had it's charm as a nice little dungeon crawler, the ability to instantly change into pk mode and killall of the people around you to collect their crap was a lot of fun sometimes.Some of my first impressions of what I would do with my life came from playing this online. Our clan leader was an unemployed 25 year-old man, second to him was a 23 year-old female stripper with an attitude, and below her was a 32 year-old alcoholic. Back then I thought this was the most misfit group i'd run into, until Rainbow Six came along.

Rainbow Six, i'd never heard people talk so much smack-talk in my life until this started, I joined the A-Team and help the name Murdock for several months in this clan. This was my first time playing a FPS online, R6 gave quite the experience as far as thatwent.The game was very difficult compared to anything else I had picked up, the guns were incredibly inaccurate andit felt too realitic.Oh the agony, voice chat was not meant to be back then, R6 was good for about 3 months until the next best thing came. I miss Mplayer so much.

Starcraft, oh did I love thee. Starcraft was my first good online gaming experience, you could really put your money where your mouth was and the experience was really diverse. I kept to mostly map-making and UMS map playing but I also developed a good amount of real game skill. I originally played in the clan {SD} which was tons of fun and I moved up that ladder quickly as I showed off what I had. I had my friends Skillz and Savage join the clan right before it broke up, gaming was never so great. ECF (Elite Combat Force) was created by Mjr.Hole and Sgt.Spliff, savage and skillz join incredibly swiftly. ECF becomes a greatly feared clan and all my friends were in the damn thing, I could never get in. Skillz and Lt.savage happened to be some of my best friends at the time (IRL) and this was very depressing. This caused me to recede to Counter-Strike.

Counter-Strike, I hate thee so. Counter-Strike is a great and satisfying game, until you play competitively. I joined a clan, XG, which was doing fairly ok back a long time ago. This game really was the first one I met some real weirdos on. My clan had this guy who was constantly tripping on acid and would call me Jenny and ask me for favors. It was the most fun i'd had with voicechat. I made some new friends, and played this and starcraft for 2 years before switching to Source and playing that exclusively...

Then I got this new game, it's called life-mate. Everyone should try this one, it's where you find a mate of a different, or sometimes the same, sex, spend lots of time with it and quit dedicating yourself to virtual friends and clans. My gaming habits quickly changed from a time-filler to a secondary hobby. Online gaming taught me a few things besides the meaning of 1337 and some other lingo, friends change. I can't stress how many times i've broke up with a friend, online or off, just to forget about them the next day. This is especially important to remember in gaming, friendly competition can lead into fights and arguments. Also the variety of people you meet online is really great, can't tell you how many cannabis addicts play online games.

This whole anecdotal story was really just a way for me to vent my experiences from games long past, some still present. The funny thing about gaming is, friends seem to change as you change games. The only really good ones are the ones that stick with you through the change. My gaming days are limited know, hopefully some people new to it will consider not getting too frustrated over the changes they have during their gaming lifestyle, I left out my MMO days to make this easier on the eyes.

Ok, I have a bone to pick with corporate America, AKA Microsoft.

I don't see how this tyrant, monopoly corporation, Microsoft, can get away with a system in which 45% of the systems break and need repairs. Using the current poll on Gamespot, and a few equations, I've come to the conclusion that 55% of the purchasers of X360 have no problems with their system. Considering X360 owners make up 73% of that poll and 55% of that 73% have never had to get their X360 repaired, I'm confused as to how this could be allowed to happen, but I can relate it to game systems of old. The original Nintendo Entertainment System is my first example.

I don't remember how many pins that connector had, but I remember Nintendo repair stores existing, and making a killing. The main problem with the Nintendo was the way it accumulated dirt and dust as it worked its way into the connector. Also the connector would get banged up from the game cartridge being pushed into it all the time. Anyone remember how much it was to replace that huge connector? Well, I just so happen to know that nowadays I've paid upwards of $10 for the piece, which has, apparently, not rose in price since induction. So, a big, replaceable $10 piece of equipment was bent on making Nintendo repair companies a huge stack of cash.

Not to resurrect the cartridge vs. CD war but, I saw Nintendo fighting a losing battle on this when it first started. Not to gravitate off topic, the cartridges caused major hardware problems if the cartridges were forced into the console, slammed into the console, or dirty upon console insertion. The things also were so much more easily destroyed by shock, heat, cold, static, and your older brother sneezing on them. An accidental nudge while it was in the system could make the whole thing very unhappy and cause an uprising of smoking proportions - this event happened to me once.

I must say that PS3 had so far been the first Sony system to not have one staple problem early on. Playstation had its Laser and Spindle problem, which was fixed later on. The laser would become misaligned, which happened to me at one point and, the laser was not cheap to fix. Another problem was the plastic spindle breaking easily however; this was a $5 fix. PS2 had a laser problem as well, one which I still battle to this day with my release PS2. Blue-bottomed games and standard DVDs won't play all the time. Anyway, what I've been trying to get to is, all gaming companies have their issues.

Although all systems and companies have had their console issues I think 45% of customers having to return their X360s is a bit much and excessive. It just goes to show how much money Microsoft has to muscle the world around. Anyway, just really wanted to put this out there to hear some crazy system breaking stories and hear what people have to say about this blasphemy.

In the last article where Blu-ray was announced to be a blockbuster exclusive, ninety percent of the comments were all very close to, "Hollywood Video can have HD-DVD." I can assure all of you Hollywood Video will not be taking it. In a recent meeting it was decided that Hollywood Video would wait until the format war was over to decide such things however, Hollywood Video is leaning towards Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is overtwenty percentcheaper to buy forvideo stores, is muchmore widely distrubuted, and covers more popular titles. Also, Blu-ray has a strong foothold in the race and it looks like the war may end sooner than was thought. I'm not going to get into the deep discussions about HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray but just know, Hollywood Video will be joining the Blu-ray rally.

Not sure what else to say, I'm an employee at Hollywood Video and used to be one at Blockbuster. They both have their ups and downs, I must say that blockbuster is a lot more laid back and things will sit on to-do shelves for a while. Hollywood Video is a little bit more strict and is chock-full of clean freaks. Both are great establishments to work for.

So there, Hollywood Video isn't a retarded corporation that doesn't know what's going on, they're not really in direct competition with Blockbuster anymore - employees know why. That's it, that's all, now go, run away from my rant.

...I love my PS3, Wii and 360 are cool too, though.