Market share not vital to PS3 success?

posted on June 9th, 2007 | Written By Farmer |

I know this story is an older one that is quoted below but I’ve wanted to come back and chime in on this due to the general thought on the industries “market share”.

When you really step into it and start thinking about Nintendo expanding “their” market and bringing in new customers that doesn’t necessarily correlate to Sony or MS due to the simplicity of the target demographic of the Wii.

So with that in mind how can that reflect on Sony & MS?

First off, these new consumers that Nintendo is bringing in by these simple games can lead to them becoming a more avid gamer in which they could end up being interested in what the PS3 & 360 have to offer. Thus expanding the core gaming market for all three. For the ones that don’t go beyond those simplistic casual games of the Wii they will stand alone until Sony & MS are able to match that of the Wii.

Now the question is how many of these new consumers will covert? The way things look, not that many, given the majority of the games we will see on the Wii will be those simple games. Sure we will see games for the core gamer but no more then the PS3 & 360.

So in essence by Nintendo expanding their market doesn’t mean it will have a big effect on expanding the market for the PS3 & 360. In which the pie is only getting bigger for Nintendo.

Time will only tell if the PS3 will be able to survive on a much smaller market share.

How many people that own a DS own a PSP? They are both great systems but they both span off into two different directions.

What are your thoughts?

Nintendo’s expansion of the market can leave ‘everybody happy’, says Gerhard Florin.
Electronic Arts’ executive VP of international publishing has said that even if Sony loses market share with PS3, the console can still be considered a hit.

Gerhard Florin believes that Nintendo’s continual expansion of the market may leave each platform holder increasing sales – because the “total pie is much bigger”.

“Sony might really increase their numbers, their units, as they’ve expected, and still lose market share, because Nintendo finds so many new consumers,” Florin told GamesIndustry.biz. “If you add that, the total pie is much bigger and everybody’s happy - but the share is much more balanced.”

Florin commented that the current console war is the first time that each of the three leading consoles had unique appeal.

“The rival consoles aren’t offering something the same, they’re offering something different - so the consumer all of a sudden gets a choice,” he said. “You can go for the Wii, the fun, entertainment part, or more for the online part with the Xbox 360 or more for the high tech part with Sony.

“So you have three pretty much distinct positionings and offerings which will definitely grow the market enormously, but of course will create maybe a different split.”

source