Leo Laporte and the PS3

If you don’t know who Leo Laporte is, you better surf around tech related sites more. Some would argue that the Call for Help and the ScreenSavers old tech guy is the tech guy. Such is his reputation, that despite gaming not being his primary point of interest, people still look to his opinion for guidance regarding the console war between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

Now his interview at XBL Radio is quite dated already (Sept 4, when we checked) but, the tidbits in this interview is quite amusing.

Most of the info involves Leo’s opinions on podcasts, why people don’t like video phones, the DS lite, Brain Age and him being an old fart (he likes calling himself that), laptops, mp3 players, and how well will each console do now that the console wars are heating up.

Notice that when old farts are cool, they’re really really cool. I guess it’s because they have to have extra amounts of cool just to make up for the fact that they’re old already. We like listening to the opinions of cool old farts.

Since the interview isn’t exactly new, we won’t go into it in detail. Instead we’ll just lift the part in there that us gamers are quite interested in. To be specific, the cool old guy’s take on what sony needs to do to make the PS3, as those verse in net-speak would put it, “teh winz.”

Here are some of his statements (loosely transcribed):

I think what’s happened, which is good is that the marked has been broken up, it’s been bifurcated. The Wii market is different from the PS3 market. Very clearly so. SO people will know going into the stores this christmas: are you a Wii buyer or a PS3 buyer? And there really won’t be much question for those people.

Read the rest of his statements and the rest of this article after the Jump!

If you don’t know who Leo Laporte is, you better surf around tech related sites more. Some would argue that the Call for Help and the ScreenSavers old tech guy is the tech guy. Such is his reputation, that despite gaming not being his primary point of interest, people still look to his opinion for guidance regarding the console war between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

Now his interview at XBL Radio is quite outdated (Sept 4, when we checked) but, the tidbits in this interview is quite amusing.

Most of the info involves Leo’s opinions on podcasts, why people don’t like video phones, the DS lite, Brain Age and him being an old fart (he likes calling himself that), laptops, mp3 players, and how well will each console do now that the console wars are heating up.

Notice that when old farts are cool, they’re really really cool. We guess it’s because they have to have extra amounts of cool just to make up for the fact that they’re old already. We like listening to the opinions of cool old farts.

Since the interview isn’t exactly new, we won’t go into it in detail. Instead we’ll just lift the part in there that us gamers are quite interested in. To be specific, the cool old guy’s take on what sony needs to do to make the PS3, as those verse in net-speak would put it, “teh winz.”

Here are some of his statements (loosely transcribed):

I think what’s happened, which is good is that the marked has been broken up, it’s been bifurcated. The Wii market is different from the PS3 market. Very clearly so. SO people will know going into the stores this christmas: are you a Wii buyer or a PS3 buyer? And there really won’t be much question for those people.

I’d probably be a Wii buyer. I mean, I like high-end hardware but 800 dollars is expensive. It might be worth it if you get a blu-ray player and you wanna watch HD movies. I think there’s going to be a lot of wait-and-see on the PS3. Of course the hardcore PlayStation guys are going to buy it, because they don’t care, they’re just going to buy it. I think the rest of the world are probably going to say lets see what the games are going to look like, how many games come out.

The PSP taught people a lesson. I bought a PSP. I spent a lot of money on the PSP and the games have been dribbling out. The UMD movie format is a bust. The PSP turned out to be a really great hacker machine, and then Sony said, “we’re not gonna really let you do it…” The PSP has been a great disappointment I think for a lot of people. It’s always hard to be the leader you know?

I’m an Xbox guy. I have a heavily hacked Xbox, an original Xbox, I have a lot of games on it. They look good. I have it hooked up to my HDTV. I think a lot of people will choose the Xbox 360, the high end gamer will choose the Xbox 360. I think that the Nintendo Wii will attract the value consumers. There’ll be some really neat games using that Wii controller. It’s going to be inexpensive. I think that the unknown is the PS3. It’s so expensive, it really isn’t JUST a gaming machine. They’re not positioning it that way. I think the PS3 stands to be a huge bust Unless they come out with something really good–some spectacular, mind blowingly good games that are just unique to the platform– I think the PS3 may be a really big bust for Sony.

Now before you guys all go, well he obviously said he’s an Xbox guy, of course he’s going to “diss” on Sony, take some time think about his statements.

If you listen to the interview itself (you can get to it via our source link) you’ll see that Leo is really trying to see things from a consumers perspective. From a gamer-dad’s perspective. Say you want to buy your son a new console, or your son is bugging you for a new console, what will you really do? You’ll obviously look at things like value, price, and history right?

Well, the Xbox 360 has been out already and it already has a community and a library of games, hence, as Leo says it’s a safe bet. The Wii is a family console at an inexpensive price, and it has a control scheme that is interesting enough to get parents hooked into it. So the Wii is also another safe bet.

The PS3 is really the big unknown. We know it’s powerful. We know it will rock. But will the great “2007 dated” games for it be out on time for it to make it “safe?” Will the PS3 really have something to make the content in it stand out.

I mean, other than superior graphics, and exclusive PS3 only content?

In light of all of this, is Sony’s action of releasing limited numbers of PS3’s during launch really a tactical decision? Maybe it really isn’t all because of delays and component problems? They do know that the Hardcore will buy their consoles period, so perhaps they’re buying time. Maybe they’re giving themselves some breathing room and they’re hoping to survive through the holidays just in time for the “delayed” 2007 games like Lair and White Knight to come in and declare their console “safe.”

Whether you agree or not with Leo’s perspective, the points he raised does make sense. If you notice, he really wasn’t hitting on Sony at the level that say a Wii fanboy would, and he did commend Sony for trying to take the PSP in a direction that is different from the Gameboy, that is a handheld that is cross-media instead of games only.

Personally, we agree fully with Leo Laporte’s “bifurcated” view of the gaming market. Sony shouldn’t really be working hard to win over Wii fans and Xbox fans. They should be doing their best to keep Sony fans loyal.

“A lot of people were disappointed with the PSP.” Sony should think about that. They should figure out what Sony fans like and don’t like about what they’re doing with the PSP and then listen. There’s a reason why the PSP sales numbers are dropping and they should take note of it. Then they should apply that to the PS3.

Listen Sony. Listen.

Via XBL Radio