How might news articles about the console war affect the general population

Jackie_Fhan

Jackie_Fhan

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Feb 20, 2014
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I don't really want to talk about the article at hand because I think we are all very aware of that.

What I want to talk about is how you think news agencies such as yahoo could or may affect the general outlook on the general population? Are these kind of articles more helpful or hurtful compared to the gaming sites we all attend? Do you ever hear anyone talking about such articles in anyway in your daily life?

I remember in the past I would get a few words from people who would never ever enter gaming websites or study and learn about them, and they would always take every word to heart in these articles.

So, in a nut-shell I do think these snappy articles do have quite a bit of an affect. So, I can kind of understand why Sony and MS word their PR's in the way that they do at times.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrog...icrosoft-has-a-sony-problem/?partner=yahootix

Bonus*

Their sales chart that is technically wrong...

Screenshot-2014-04-18-05.55.09.png

They seem to be using two different kinds of information, pretty poor.
 
I have come to learn that Forbes is a very bad source when it comes to technology related news. They do have a certain agenda of reporting (read: skewed against Microsoft more than they should, both for Xbox and Windows), and lots of their 'articles' are sometimes mixed up with actual blog articles that they run inside their webpage.
 
Jackie_Fhan said:
I don't really want to talk about the article at hand because I think we are all very aware of that.

What I want to talk about is how you think news agencies such as yahoo could or may affect the general outlook on the general population?
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I changed the title of the thread to make it reflect that intention. Using the title of the article is just going to provoke people.
 
To make a post that conforms to the new title, the problem is that the writers of articles like this, something that reaches outside of the gaming community, sound like exactly the type that would post in gaming communities. These are the people that spreads the problem all over and make the general perception very poor.
 
I don't really want to talk about the article at hand because I think we are all very aware of that.
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/thread

What I want to talk about
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sigh...

...is how you think news agencies such as yahoo could or may affect the general outlook on the general population? Are these kind of articles more helpful or hurtful compared to the gaming sites we all attend? Do you ever hear anyone talking about such articles in anyway in your daily life?

I remember in the past I would get a few words from people who would never ever enter gaming websites or study and learn about them, and they would always take every word to heart in these articles.

So, in a nut-shell I do think these snappy articles do have quite a bit of an affect. So, I can kind of understand why Sony and MS word their PR's in the way that they do at times.
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In short, yes. articles like this do hurt them because it damages consumer confidence in the product. The Wii U's launch was drowned in a sea of doom and gloom, and what do you know, a self-fulfilled prophecy. I'm not saying that Nintendo didn't make mistakes, but I think it would be absolutely dishonest to not consider the sea of doubt and negativity to not be a factor.

That said, I think gamers are inadvertently causing the gaming industry serious damage with this ridiculous "console war".
 
Anderson said:
I changed the title of the thread to make it reflect that intention. Using the title of the article is just going to provoke people.
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I like to think of it as an "example" as it is current and examples are usually what most people need to see it more personally, but yes.. people can't handle that as already proven. So, it's fine.
 
He's just a blogger and not even a gaming blogger....most of his stuff is centered around taxis you hail with your smartphone.
 
Soldier Gryphon said:
/thread



sigh...



In short, yes. articles like this do hurt them because it damages consumer confidence in the product. The Wii U's launch was drowned in a sea of doom and gloom, and what do you know, a self-fulfilled prophecy. I'm not saying that Nintendo didn't make mistakes, but I think it would be absolutely dishonest to not consider the sea of doubt and negativity to not be a factor.

That said, I think gamers are inadvertently causing the gaming industry serious damage with this ridiculous "console war".
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Soldier I had expalined the article at hand, and I do think we have already discussed that 10 times over in some form in the other "npd" thread. I know that.. most of us probably don't agree with the article in many ways as it is too early. Maybe there is a chance MS could have a problem but it's better to wait till atleast year one is complete to seriously discuss this. Yes, MS has a small problem but not like they seem to feel. So, unless someone actually believes that article, we probably can't go much further with it.

As I said to Anderson above, the title info is just to represent how they handle it as well. If people do want to discuss the actual article, that is fine too. I'm not going to be strong handing just one very specific idea but being able to discuss how the articles affect people is what I'd rather discuss but both are overall fine to me too. I am not a dictator that much :)
 
I just read the article. The chart is actually favorable to MS (as it charted unit to retailer for MS, vs sales to consumer for Sony) despite what would be considered a negative article on MS.

Despite being sort of negative article, the points he mention are fairly reasonable. Launching in the next 26 territories would probably give a sale boost for MS. But MS, & Sony as well, to a lesser expend, need to convince people to get their shiny new consoles, as the trend of the graphs are flattening.
 
starseeker said:
I just read the article. The chart is actually favorable to MS (as it charted unit to retailer for MS, vs sales to consumer for Sony) despite what would be considered a negative article on MS.

Despite being sort of negative article, the points he mention are fairly reasonable. Launching in the next 26 territories would probably give a sale boost for MS. But MS, & Sony as well, to a lesser expend, need to convince people to get their shiny new consoles, as the trend of the graphs are flattening.
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I agree. This article actually helps MS's case more because it's comparing shipped to sold numbers, thereby inflating what's really sold to consumers for MS. And to answer the OP's question, many casuals don't do intensive research on these new consoles so when they read up on mainstream articles such as these, they will base their decision on them. So they do have a significant influence on the casual market.
 
It helps them more than it should, but still isn't helping them I think. It's overall a negative thing imo, cause of the title whatever.
 
To answer the question, I don't think it has much effect on the general populace, by which I think you mean the casual, non-gaming crowd. At this point, the people buying next-gen consoles are mostly hardcore gamers. They have different sources of info than Forbes, etc. The casual audience may read the article, but since they won't buy until the price drops below $300 or so, it won't make any impact on buying decisions...they will have long forgotten it, by the time they get around to buying. Maybe a similar article several years from now will affect the casual audience, when they're ready to buy. At this point, though, I don't really think the casuals or what they think are much of a factor.
 
Sony is taking advantage of their console being 100 dollars cheaper and more powerful than Xbox One. Sony also took advantage of all the pre release malarky of MS blocking used games and requiring an online connection.

Really, MS did it to themselves.
 
Anderson said:
To answer the question, I don't think it has much effect on the general populace, by which I think you mean the casual, non-gaming crowd. At this point, the people buying next-gen consoles are mostly hardcore gamers. They have different sources of info than Forbes, etc. The casual audience may read the article, but since they won't buy until the price drops below $300 or so, it won't make any impact on buying decisions...they will have long forgotten it, by the time they get around to buying. Maybe a similar article several years from now will affect the casual audience, when they're ready to buy. At this point, though, I don't really think the casuals or what they think are much of a factor.
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I don't agree with all of this

I think it has more of an affect than you think. These are the kind of things average joe's read and talk about to their average joe freinds. A lot of people will game and get a game system (after joe talks about it to them of course) So, I do think it has a bit higher affect than your saying here. I think freinds influencing friends is a much higher percentage though. I think what I believe is that the post above me is filler s*** edit (2 posts above me) and that a lot of these joe's will believe anything in these articles. For some reason, it seems that the news gets these game articles a lot more wrong than they do other type's of entertainment.
 
It's over already? Damn, I missed it.
 
Jackie_Fhan said:
I don't agree with all of this

I think it has more of an affect than you think. These are the kind of things average joe's read and talk about to their average joe freinds. A lot of people will game and get a game system (after joe talks about it to them of course) So, I do think it has a bit higher affect than your saying here. I think freinds influencing friends is a much higher percentage though. I think what I believe is that the post above me is filler s*** edit (2 posts above me) and that a lot of these joe's will believe anything in these articles. For some reason, it seems that the news gets these game articles a lot more wrong than they do other type's of entertainment.
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Maybe, I just don't think the average person is all that interested in this stuff -- not enough to go have a conversation with their friends about it. If they're doing that, they're probably into gaming, not just an average joe.
 
Anderson said:
Maybe, I just don't think the average person is all that interested in this stuff -- not enough to go have a conversation with their friends about it. If they're doing that, they're probably into gaming, not just an average joe.
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We have to remember that people think and do a lot of stuff that we'd never do.

I remember when I was younger and in the lunch room there would be such articles in the paper. I'd often see these 23 to 30 something year olds talking about articles just like this. Things such as "did you know" or they would talk in a way that was like a true believer surprised at something. Wow, can you believe this. Yeah, PS4 is the best game system to get. It's selling a lot better, it's a better machine

That would be such an example that quite a few people will take. Even though we sort of view that as wrong and it is what they think. It is what some people will do of course. In a world where people like to watch 2 girls and 1 cup, we gotta know what is feasible.
 
Probably not a whole lot considering the Xbox One is still doing great despite being the most hated on console in the history of gaming. Still though, the FUD you see online does contribute to some buying purchases. People just follow the herd instead of making decisions for themselves. Word of mouth goes a long way.
 
Jackie_Fhan said:
We have to remember that people think and do a lot of stuff that we'd never do.

I remember when I was younger and in the lunch room there would be such articles in the paper. I'd often see these 23 to 30 something year olds talking about articles just like this. Things such as "did you know" or they would talk in a way that was like a true believer surprised at something. Wow, can you believe this. Yeah, PS4 is the best game system to get. It's selling a lot better, it's a better machine

That would be such an example that quite a few people will take. Even though we sort of view that as wrong and it is what they think. It is what some people will do of course. In a world where people like to watch 2 girls and 1 cup, we gotta know what is feasible.
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I suppose it might happen, I just don't think it's all that common. If you care enough to talk to your friends about it, and if it's important enough to make a $400 or $500 decision based on it, you're probably plugged into gaming news at some level, not just mainstream press articles.
 
Anderson said:
I suppose it might happen, I just don't think it's all that common. If you care enough to talk to your friends about it, and if it's important enough to make a $400 or $500 decision based on it, you're probably plugged into gaming news at some level, not just mainstream press articles.
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I think the biggest culprit would be the parents buying that surprise or hey I got you this gift.
 
Mainstream press has probably been a lot kinder to X1 than most gaming journalists. Remember that Parade article? Gave the X1 some kind of award for best electronic device of the year, something like that. That is a magazine with HUGE circulation, and you could not find an example of a more mainstream outlet than Parade magazine. I remember X1 winning other accolades from mainstream press outlets, too. Most of what I remember happened prior to launch.

Did it affect sales? Who knows. It's hard for me to imagine the average reader of Parade magazine buying an X1 based on the award the magazine gave it, but I guess it's possible. With the bazillion readers that magazine has, I'm sure it moved a few consoles.
 
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