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Was "The Road to PS5" a marketing blunder?
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
The only people taking the information released so far and drawing definitive predictions for either console are indeed engaging in console wars. I stand by that. Same for people under the impression they have a clear vision of both company's full marketing strategy and how it'll affect the launch performance of either console.
"Casuals" in the sense of the mass market that will make or break either console are not tuning into this livestream, most won't even read the news coming from it. People are taking a technical talk geared towards a technical crowd and misrepresenting it as some core part of Sony's consumer marketing strategy for PS5. It's not.
deep tech dive wasn't clear enough I guess
quite frankly, other people's expectations aren't my responsibility
Pretty much, talked to some of my friends that are mainstream gamers. They thought that this was a waste time. I had to explain that this was primarily for developers, but it's not like they are now suddenly buying a Xbox.
It was just weird. The timing is weird.
For PS4 they did the same thing, but AFTER they've showed us the console and some games even. In February we saw the console with all the fanfare and then Road to PS4 was in June. So it was okay. Like, Microsoft showed us the console and then made info dump after couple of months.
Sony gave us technical info dump first just after showing a freaking logo :D I don't really care that much but I understand why your average consumer may be confused.
For PS4 they did the same thing, but AFTER they've showed us the console and some games even. In February we saw the console with all the fanfare and then Road to PS4 was in June. So it was okay. Like, Microsoft showed us the console and then made info dump after couple of months.
Sony gave us technical info dump first just after showing a freaking logo :D I don't really care that much but I understand why your average consumer may be confused.
I know that a lot of people here had mixed views about the Switch Presentation but looking at how the general public liked it Sony should have done something similar
User warned: derogatory language
its a GDC talk. Not youtuber Dj Spaz showing you the totally awesome far out features of next gen. It's. a.GDC talk, that's what they look like. Im sure dj spaz will show up in later ps5 videos
That was not how the first PS4 reveal went. That was a Feb event, consumer focused.
well they should have promoted it that way. Or not promoted it at all.
The bar is set way too high for "events" like this now, it's reached a point where they all receive negative reactions unless they have an incredible surprise.
Between this, the Nintendo indie showcase, the Byleth reveal, the last State of Play and The Game Awards, I think that's the last 5 scheduled announcement type streams I've watched which have all been received poorly by the games community.
Personally, I thought it was what I expected but they probably should have just dumped the video unexpectedly at a random time rather than letting excitement and expectation build.
Between this, the Nintendo indie showcase, the Byleth reveal, the last State of Play and The Game Awards, I think that's the last 5 scheduled announcement type streams I've watched which have all been received poorly by the games community.
Personally, I thought it was what I expected but they probably should have just dumped the video unexpectedly at a random time rather than letting excitement and expectation build.
this. the way they have handled this is really poor. they went literally 2 days after MS blew away everyone with the console power and features with demos and a teardown.
the fact that they revealed the logo at CES showed me how out of touch they were. This is simply a continuation. they dont understand their own playerbase.
Indeed, but Nintendo don't play the same ball as Sony and Microsoft. I don't mean that the difference is gonna be noticable in real life and I'm sure games for both platforms will be pretty much the same. However, only from a communication perspective this looks abysmal and I am openly pro-Sony but this mismanagement truly annoys me.
Didn't they have the PSMeeting prior to this? A more consumer focused event and then the GDC style event? That scenario seems like a better way to go about it then what they did today.It is exactly how the ps4 did it so no it was fine
The Road to PS4 | Mark Cerny talks at Gamelab 2013
Mark Cerny talks about The Road to the PS4 at Gamelab 2013www.youtube.com
Was it a marketing blunder? Yes.
Does it matter? No.
As long as the price is competitive and there is no disaster like microsoft's xbox one reveal the Playstation brand and content will let sony win next gen anyway.
Does it matter? No.
As long as the price is competitive and there is no disaster like microsoft's xbox one reveal the Playstation brand and content will let sony win next gen anyway.
There's definitely more structure to what Microsoft is doing. In terms of big public events we've had:
1) Initial tease at E3 with reveal of Halo Infinite and a release period
2) Surprise bombastic reveal trailer at the Game Awards with reveal of Hellblade 2
3) Hardware information and tech demos led by highly-popular Youtubers
4) Inevitable E3-like conference which announces more games, the price, and release date
They have, so far, been slowly revealing what the console is about and what games we can expect from it.
If you believe they're engaging in console wars then report them. That's a bannable offence on Era, after all.
And who says they know both company's entire marketing strategy? Do you think that people simply commenting on what they think about what they've seen so far believe that? do you think some people are somehow less deserving of talking about marketing than you are?
It definitely was a miscommunication on their part, but it's not going to matter in the end. The games do.
It's mostly what I wanted but what I want is not what most people want. My friends were pretty disappointed with it and I'd say they are closer to a typical customer than me. They likely felt pressure to promote after the Xbox stuff earlier in the week so they made this out to be something similar. I think not showing off the hardware here was a mistake given how they hyped it up, regardless of if this was originally a GDC talk or not.
I don't see people jumping ship over something like this this far out though. Too many beloved franchises on PS at the moment.
I don't see people jumping ship over something like this this far out though. Too many beloved franchises on PS at the moment.
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I agree that "casual" is too broad, I meant people that follow PS5 news but are not really deeply interested in technical parts of a console. I think they should've added it was for devs though.
Even though I knew what was expected, I'll admit it was pretty boring and the casual viewer were going to be disappointed. It's not going to slow down a titan like Sony, they could release a picture of the PS5 console tomorrow and the internet would shut down, but this is about today's presentation and today was a blunder.
If it wasn't meant for the general public, Sony shouldn't have advertised it on Twitter and streamed it for everyone to watch.
Even something as simple as a tech demo or short in-engine launch game announcement would have made the whole thing a lot better. As it stands, they really did just announce a weaker system and a piss poor BC solution.
Even something as simple as a tech demo or short in-engine launch game announcement would have made the whole thing a lot better. As it stands, they really did just announce a weaker system and a piss poor BC solution.
Yep, I'd say it was. Felt like it was promoted to be something it wasn't, so for your average consumer who doesn't really know it wasn't meant to be a big reveal and has no idea what the numbers mean, only that bigger usually means better, that wasn't a good advertisement for PS5.
It'll be forgotten about once an actual full reveal happens with some games and features being demoed, but was definitely a bit of a blunder on Sony's part.
It'll be forgotten about once an actual full reveal happens with some games and features being demoed, but was definitely a bit of a blunder on Sony's part.
It was a misstep for sure but at the end of the day it's going to mean very little once the PS5 is on shelves. It's certainly not "$599 US dollars" territory
Then don't be surprised when the vast majority of people react differently to you.
Era really needs to decide what the term casual means. The folks getting hype for a 9am system architecture stream is such a drop in the bucket compared to the general public that sees a console reveal trailer + a game and buys it at launch.
Like this is the same place that says that casual audiences doesn't pay attention to any press conferences/gaming media to know that FF7 Remake isn't the full game yet this 54 minute tech talk is a serious blunder for Sony.
Everyone ( who isn't a console war historian/enthusiast) will forget about this in 3 days and the only thing that will matter is the price/games for each console.
Is it the presentation they meant to show? Yeah, it's not like they lied or anything. Was it the presentation people expected? Debatable I guess, some knew what it would be and some didn't. Was it what consumers wanted? No, I don't think so, and I think fulfilling consumer demand is the most important part.
I dunno. For the mainstream crowd this was the wrong message. On the other hand: everyone is talking about it. I remember just a few months ago that people were complaning for days that Sony only unveiled the PS5 logo at CES (? i think).
Probably too soon to say. Shit was too detailed and rather shabby in the graphics, but it's got the world talking and intrigued or curious. The Internet memes have also been hilarious too, with so many acting like Cerny is some mad genius and people are either too stupid to understand or are now much wiser and more knowledgeable lol.
At the very least the presentation made Sony/Cerny seem like they're really competent and/or on the ball tech wise, and that all their decisions with the hardware were well motivated or intentioned, but on the other hand, the presentation itself just wasn't sexy, easily digestible or fun to watch, whereas all the Microsoft stuff was.
At the very least the presentation made Sony/Cerny seem like they're really competent and/or on the ball tech wise, and that all their decisions with the hardware were well motivated or intentioned, but on the other hand, the presentation itself just wasn't sexy, easily digestible or fun to watch, whereas all the Microsoft stuff was.
Eh, it was exactly what I thought it would be. Although I do think that they spent a significant chunk of their APU real estate on a custom in/out module that seems neat but over indulgent, and ultimately pointless because Xbox and PC SSD speeds will be baseline for 90% of developers. That might bite them more than any marketing blunder this presentation might have been.
Even though I really disliked what they did today I think it is far, very far from something like the XBO reveal. I think the majority of people just took it as Sony being weird today. The hype for PS5 is still there. It takes a lot more to kill or even just hurt that. Sony generated a lot of trust and good will from their fans because of their amazing game line up, which is only getting more amazing, and I am pretty sure in their next presentation that's exactly what they will give their fans even more of.
