I took a look at some
of the commercials Sony is using to advertise the Play Station 3. Usually when
companies advertise products, they compare them vaguely to what else is on the
market or coming out on the market. Sony’s main competition is Microsoft, with
their XBOX 360. Which console should consumers purchase?
One
of the advertisements that Sony used to send out the PS3 shows a blank white
walled room with their console on one side of the room, and a rubik’s cube on
the other side. Slowly, the rubik’s cube moved closer to the console, starts
hovering up into the air a few feet, then gets solved very quickly, and then
explodes color over each wall including the floor. Then words on the back wall
appear saying “Cell Processor: Smarter”, then a “play b3yond” as their slogan.
Analyzing this ad might help determine which platform to purchase based on the
logic conveyed, the emotions that you could receive, the ethics portrayed by
the company, but also what Sony left out.
Looking
at this advertisement logically, the rubik’s cube is thought to be one of the
most challenging “games” that can be solved. For years it was thought only
mathematicians could solve them, it wasn’t until the last 15-20 years that there
became a contest to see who could finish them in under a minute. Now the
competition times are down to the 5-10 second area. To show that the PS3 could
successfully solve a cube that it pulls into the room and makes float into the
air is a show of power and intelligence. Then their relation to their processor
being “smarter” is a fairly obvious comparison to saying it’s smarter than the
XBOX 360, or even, is for more intelligent consumers. This appeals to the
logical side of people, they might think that in order to play games that are
“smart”, they are therefore intelligent. Their processor being “smarter” is
also backed up by the fact that when XBOX released their new “slim” console
recently they had to upgrade their own chip to compete. As Abhijit Naik, an
author on Buzzle.com, states, “as a result of this addition, the difference in
the two consoles in terms of performance and graphics has reduced to a great
extent.”
Sony is considered one of the best in the business when
it comes to video games; they have a huge following and a lot of high quality
games available. Stamping the “PlayStation” sign at the beginning of the ad is
showing that they are supporting this ad. It’s a very quick flash of their
logo, but users can recognize it instantly. The “play b3yond” is a hit to the
PS3 platform, that it’s beyond what they have done before and even is better
than what is out there on the market. Recently, Sony, however, was majorly
hacked for personal information, which leads consumer to fear what might happen
if they started up with their company and the same thing happened. This hurts
Sony’s ethos a lot, and they are suing people that they believe have hacked it.
On their blog (Sony’s
PS3 blog) they have posted some information regarding this, that it might
take some time, but they didn’t think that the hackers obtained credit card
numbers. In the case that they did access credit card numbers, they state: “out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that
your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have
been obtained.” They then offer thoughts on avoiding scams, and ways to
contact the three major credit bureaus.
The emotions that the advertisement is attempting to
convey, I believe, are that people that are looking to purchase a PS3 should
feel confident that they are selecting the correct choice. With statements like
“play b3yond”, you feel like you are excelling above the norm, they are trying
to make you feel better than other people that aren’t planning on getting a
PS3. The rubik’s cube consists of mostly normal colors, yellow, green, red,
blue, these are all easy colors to visualize and aren’t cluttering. The colors
are very solid and brightened with the lights on the ceiling, which is intended
to make the viewers to feel more accepting. There aren’t any off-colors that
people feel uncomfortable naming, or aren’t used to. It is also meant to show
that the PS3 gives color to a “boring” white-walled room.
Now, when comparing two products, price should be
justified and be made a part of the comparison. They didn’t talk about how for
$299.99 you can receive a 320 GB hard drive with the PS3, while the XBOX 360
has a 250 GB hard drive for the same price. The basic model of the PS3 drops
down to $249.99, while the XBOX 360 drops down to $199.99. It should also be
noted that the PS3 comes with a blu-ray player, while the XBOX doesn’t have
one. Another main point is the online community, according to Abhijit Naik, an
author on buzzle.com, is that the online community for the XBOX “does have an
upper hand over PlayStation Network when it comes to online service”, but then
states that, “many people will opt to go for the free service offered by the
PS3 than paying the $50 subscription fee for XBOX Live.”
So when comparing the fact that the PS3 can solve a
rubik’s cube and declaring that their processer is smarter and faster, it
doesn’t hold that much sway with me. I can solve a rubik’s cube in under a
minute, so that doesn’t impress me. Their logic appears to hold sound in terms
of “smarter”, most people feel that the PS3 is far superior than the XBOX in
terms of graphic rendering. This has changed recently with the addition of the
upgraded processor in the new line of consoles XBOX 360 released, the
difference is not as clear. The XBOX 360 also came out a full year before the
PS3 was released, this gives Microsoft the advantage of being able to get a
large following before Sony was able to release theirs.
All in all, I feel like the XBOX 360 is better suited to
my gaming style. I like pretty graphics and quick loading screens, but not that
much. The XBOX 360 is cheaper, backed by Microsoft, and is able to play most
all of the first person shooter style games on the market. The PS3 is geared
more towards role playing style games, although in today’s world most games get
released on both consoles in order to sell a lot of them. I do like the way the
XBOX 360’s online service works, which I usually use more than the actual
playing of games themselves. The XBOX 360 works just fine for me, and I am a
gaming nerd.
