What Sony needs to do to continue to gain ground on Microsoft and Nintendo

So the wildly rumoured Playstation 3 Slim and price drop to $299.99 was finally announced in late August. We saw the August NPD sales figures show that the Xbox 360 only sold just more than 5000 hardware unit’s compared to the Playstation 3. This is a small victory for Sony who faces an uphill battle to regain the glory they had with the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2. Could Sony finally outsell the Xbox 360 in September 2009? I think so.

Top 5 things Sony needs to do to continue to drive sales and regain its glory.

1. Improve online services – First and foremost Sony needs to improve the download time for system updates and game updates.  Next they need to improve the in game XMB currently when I press the PS button on my controller I have to literally count to 5 before anything loads and viewing my friends list? I need to wait for it to populate.  Next on the hit list would be a little featured called parties or even the ability to voice to chat with other people who are in different games than you.  These features sound simple and easy to implement for Playstation network users. I feel that Sony is always going to lag behind on Microsoft in terms of Online service because Playstation network is Free and Xbox Live is $60 dollars a year. Yes developers, programmers, servers and an operations team cost money how can Sony invest the amount of money and personnel required to bring the Playstation network up to speed? Simple answer is I don’t think they can.  Would you pay a premium for an Xbox live type of service on the Playstation network? Simple answer is yes I would
2. Community – Can someone direct me to where I can find the PlayStation Community? After 2 and half years as PlayStation 3 owner I still can’t them.  If they are out there, they aren’t as publicly visible and noticeable as Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, Trixie360 and Jadelive. Is it the podcasts? The blogs? Major’s minute on Xbox Live? The gamer spot lights? Or is it the outstanding community events Jadelive organizes for the Canadian community. Or how about a strictly mature Canadian community for Playstation 3 owners? Maybe that’s the golden idea, Start up a Playstation Canadian community. These simple factors are key for someone like myself and Sony needs to do something quickly about it.
3. Quicker turn around on game development – It just seems that Sony’s Japenese go to developers are slower than Microsoft’s go to developers in North America. Were several years into this generation and we still haven’t seen a Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo title.  However North American developers like Naughty Dog and Insomniac are producing quality triple a titles in a 2 to 3 year development cycle.If I think of either title I think of the PlayStation brand. When I think of Microsoft I think of Halo, Gears of War and Forza.
4. Gran Turismo 5 needs to come out this fall – 5 years in development by Polyphony Digital studios and we still don’t have a release date. Gran Turismo is icon in terms of driving simulation games in the video game business. I still remember Gran Turismo on the Playstation 1 that contained 3 or 4 discs. Simple fact is this far into the console generation we haven’t had a Gran Turismo but we’ve had Forza 2 and Forza 3 is coming out in October 2009. That’s just over 2 years to develop a new game and most importantly what will be a quality triple A title. When I think of Playstation I think of Gran Turismo.
5. Improved online site functionality, features and user experience – Navigating to playstation.ca and I don’t see a link to sign into my profile.  That is just completely wrong and a really bad user experience. I can’t view my friends list or send messages to my friends list. Also the Playstation network store is completely separated from my online profile and I have to download a separate application? Can you say horrible user experience. Someone in Sony HQ needs to take control of the PlayStation brand and ensure the right arm talks to the left arm.

So there you have it those are the 5 key things Sony needs to do in order to regain the glory of the Playstation brand across the world. Can Sony invest enough in these tough economic times to get the Playstation Network up to par? Time will tell.