Michael Pachter: Saying Sony's first-party library is large 'is a stretch'

Game analyst Michael Pachter has something to say nearly every day, and he follows up his bashing of Sony's PlayStation Now but saying that they don't have a large amount of first-party games to make the service successful.

From Game Revolution:

On the latest episode of the Bonus Round, Geoff Keighly responded to Pachter's PlayStation Now bashing by bringing up the fact that the company has plenty of in-house content to put on the service. "But you know, Sony has a lot of first-party content," Keighley explained, to which Pachter replied: "A lot is a stretch. Thirty. They have thirty games."

THIRTY games? Apparently Pachter should at least look his information up on Wikipedia, which lists far more than 30 games on the PlayStation 3 list alone.

In comparison to the competition, Sony takes laps around it with exclusive content. Microsoft doesn't offer the vast library of exclusive games that varies in genre. Nintendo has been remaking the same games since the N64 era.

Also, that number is even more wrong if the entire catalog of PlayStation games dating back to the original PlayStation is in effect.

Of course, Pachter also said that PS4 and Xbox 720 One games would be 70 dollars brand new.

Michael Pachter: "PlayStation Now is a joke"

Games analyst Michael Pachter doesn't believe that Sony's new game streaming service, PlayStation Now, has any chance to succeed.


From Game Informer (via Forbes):

According to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, the entire service has “no prayer of working.”
“PlayStation Now is a joke,” he said in the latest issue of Game Informer (via.) “There is no publisher that is going to license content that’s less than two-years old because they would be concerned that they can’t sell as many copies if they make it available for subscription or rental.
“This has no prayer of working. None.”

Pachter is never shy when it comes to giving his analysis in the video games industry. He's been destroying Nintendo and the Wii U nearly since launch, saying that the company should "get out of the Wii U business" and he doesn't "know why [Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata is still employed."

Of course, Pachter isn't always correct in his predictions (incorrectly predicted retail launch prices for Xbox One, PS4) and some takes are extremely predictable and too harsh (3DS will succeed while the Vita will die a slow death).

File this one under "too harsh." We don't know what Sony has up their sleeve. The focus is to open up a library of games on older platforms to breathe life into them. Pachter may not believe third-party companies will sign up, but publishers like 2K and Capcom have given their games away for free with the PlayStation Plus program. Surely other companies will jump in and get a cut of that monthly subscription.

The question everybody is pondering is whether something this big can work all the time. Netflix has done a tremendous job improving their servers and outputting countless movies and shows in crystal-clear high definition on a wide variety of platforms. But that's just streaming a movie while Sony has to fight numerous issues in a streamed video game.

If PS Now is still able to take off, Spmu could see that kind of success.

Image credit: Flickr

Michael Pachter: PlayStation 4 will out-sell Xbox One by 8.7 million units by 2016

Game business analyst (or whatever cute name Jim Sterling loves to come up with) Michael Pachter believes that Sony's early success with the PlayStation 4 will continue on through 2016.



Pachter gives his figures for all three of the main consoles in a HardwarePal article.

This is how it goes: We expect Sony’s and Microsoft’s new consoles to thrive over the next three years, with cumulative worldwide sales of 37.7 million PS4 and 29 million Xbox One consoles by year-end 2016. We do not expect Nintendo’s Wii U to fare as well, with cumulative sales of under 20 million by 2016.

The analyst basically suggests that there isn't that much of a difference between the two consoles for most consumers to validate the extra $100 needed to purchase an XBO. For those that have done research, nearly all the games on PS4 run at a full 1080p resolution while XBO games are at 720p.

That difference is more notable on bigger televisions, mainly anything above 50 inches.

These numbers, of course, are if everything continues as is. They suggest that the PS4 will eventually drop to a $299.99 retail price by 2016, the XBO to drop to $349.99 by 2016, the new software retail price to stay where it's at, and that the Wii U continues to stay in development.

Currently, according to the latest numbers from VGChartz, the PS4 has exactly one million more units sold (3.4M-2.4M).

Predicting nearly a nine-million unit margin is pretty huge. We already expected Sony to get an early advantage with such a huge difference in opening retail price, but Pachter is expecting millions of Xbox 360 owners to cross-over to a company they may or may not trust.

Leaving a developed eco-system, especially for those that just play certain multiplayer games on their consoles, is incredibly hard unless Sony can show that it's easy to jump from the 360 and get things going on the PS4. That, and the bells and whistles of interactive television will be an interest to some.

Image credit: Flickr

PlayStation 4 Could Debut with Lower Price than Xbox One

One of the highlights won't be what's inside the PlayStation 4, but the potential for a much lower starting price compared to its predecessor over six years ago.

Michael Pachter, analyst for the Wedbush Morgan investment firm, estimated the costs of making each unit of both Sony's and Microsoft's next-generation consoles to Games Industry. He believes the PS4 will have a lower debut price at $349.

[Pachter] estimates that the PlayStation 4 has a bill of materials at around $275, while Microsoft's Xbox One costs around $325. As such, Wedbush is expecting the new Microsoft console to cost $399.

But while Microsoft's new hardware may be priced higher initially, it's also more likely to be available at a subsidised price to the consumer through a subscription contract from a broadcast, cable or ISP provider.

If that's correct, than the price will be about $250 less than where PlayStation 3 debuted at with a steep $599 price tag. That's already an eye-opener even if Microsoft will try to get their machine lower through a bundled package with certain internet and cable providers.

Of course, the estimated price would likely be the 250 GB model, although it wasn't specified in the article. One would assume the price could be $399 or as high as $449 for a 500 GB model.

Those planning on using a lot more storage are hoping to have a simple setup to swap out the hard drive like the PS3's "Super Slim" model.

With the consensus being that Sony's new console is just for gamers while Microsoft's will have more of a focus on being a media center, it's smarter to gauge where the Xbox One will debut at and market the PS4 at a lower price.

[Photo source: Flickr/faseextra]