I'm still unsure why that's the lesson? How does Sony make money from me using their device to watch Netflix? If I no longer want to play games on your system, is that a good thing? I'm not sure if that's a good lesson to teach your users.
Gee, I dunno. How does Apple make money off people who use their iPads to watch Youtube and post on Facebook? Heck, how does my posting this message on my iPad earn Apple money? It's about the 'ecosystem'. If the PS3 has Netflix, then that's another reason to buy a PS3. Once you have a PS3, you will probably make use of other services on it and maybe even buy games. iOS is an 'ecosystem' same as Android, Xbox Live, PSN and Steam. Of course, if Sony wanted to make money they'd have their own integrated VOD service like Xbox Live has.
FTFY It's a terrible example because Apple makes very little money from the app store, the vast majority of their profits comes from the hardware.
What? No, they still make a lot on software. They may make more in hardware, but software profits are miles away from "very little".
I dunno, I just see game sales dropping, I'm wondering if folks won't be like, "Hmm, you know, we only ever use our gaming console for non-game things, why don't we just buy an <Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TV with those features built-in> instead?", or, not upgrade to the next console, or put it off for a while. I understand the point you're putting forward, that someone who buys a PS3 for blu-ray is more likely to buy a PS3 game then someone who doesn't own a PS3, I'm just not sure we aren't training folks to stop playing games on our game consoles, much like Steam is training people to not buy games on release.
I'm basing my comment on things like this: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-07-11/tech/29964545_1_app-store-gene-munster-apple They have I believe about a 30% margin on hardware. I'm not sure they're making more on apps than they're investing in the infrastructure to support them. As a company their software exists to push their hardware, not the other way around. I just want to clarify that I said app store. I have no idea how much they make on their own software for example.
Yes, but why would they bother to buy a PS4 or Xbox 960 (or whatever it will be called -- that is a fake name I pulled out of a hat)
That is a good question that the console makers have so far failed to answer. I imagine that's part of why we haven't actually heard anything about the PS4 or Xbox Next: they don't have any particularly strong selling points yet, and are desperately trying to figure out something.
The problem they have is that they're trying to force a game console that happens to include the same features as an all-in-one-minus-games box to a set of people who don't really want or need the "games" part. Those features are available for $69 from Roku. The "it does everything in my living room" box is already here. It doesn't cost $300 (or, when the new consoles come out, $500+) and it's not made by Microsoft. Hell, it's not even a box anymore if you buy a fairly new TV. It's an extra button on your remote. They missed their window on that, aside from some novel functionality like smartglass.
Just to flip-flop completely, one rumor that floats around is having your xbox/ console/ whatever be your cablebox, as in provided to you by the cable company. Though that would be a serious bit of collusion, and would cannibalize from the cable companies own pay-per-view / instant watching junk that they have.
Sure, that'll be awesome. MS and Sony just have to figure out how to make their consoles into always-on machines that make very little noise and don't overheat from the constant use. Nah gu ha pen.
Valve offering the Steambox means they have greater control over their future. They're looking at a market where mobile platforms are eating into traditional PC gaming revenue and if they don't expand their options, Valve risks being tied to a declining platform. As others said above, it's about owning the ecosystem. The Steambox might be a more successful console than some of its competitors because it won't be afraid to heavily discount all their titles and will launch on day 1 with a hell of a back catalogue.
That and vendor lock-in making sure you'll stay with them for the next-gen platform or lose all your precious apps. If your hardware is overpriced then you need a good reason for people to buy it. But you're right in that for Valve the Steambox needs to drive software sales instead of the other way around. Fortunately they're in a good position to bring 'Steam exclusives'.
