2015-01-30 14:36:36
Competition for PlayStation From Its 2 Biggest Rivals
Not so fast, Sony. Your two biggest rivals in the game console business, Microsoft and Nintendo, are showing signs of life.
After the 2013 holiday season, Sony looked as if it might gain an unassailable lead in the console market with its PlayStation 4. Nintendo was losing money, and Microsoft — which released the Xbox One system around the same time as the PlayStation 4 — lagged behind Sony’s sales, a gulf that widened during the year.
索尼，別這麼快就下定論，你在電玩主機領域的兩大勁敵微軟和任天堂正露出一線生機。
2013年美國假日季節過後，索尼看似可藉PlayStation 4（以下簡稱PS4）在主機市場取得無法撼動的領導地位。任天堂正在賠錢，微軟約在PS4推出同時發表Xbox One系統，銷售表現不如索尼，而且差距在那一年拉得更大。
But during the recent holiday season Nintendo releas ed a series of hit games for its Wii U system that underscored the unwavering loyalty of its fan base. And Microsoft, Sony’s most direct competitor in the games market, temporarily cut the starting price of the Xbox One to $349, $50 cheaper than the PlayStation 4. The move helped it regain a sales lead in the United States, the most important market for the product.
The discount highlighted a sharp turn in strategy by Microsoft. When the Xbox One was first released, it included the Kinect motion-sensing device, and the package was $499 — $100 more than the PlayStation 4. In June, Microsoft began selling an Xbox One without the Kinect, for $399.
不過在去年假日季節，任天堂發表一系列為自家Wii U主機系統設計的熱門遊戲，讓粉絲本已堅定的忠誠度更鞏固。索尼在電玩市場最直接的競爭者微軟，暫時把Xbox One的開價調降為349美元，比PS4便宜50美元，這招讓微軟在美國奪回銷售寶座，而美國正是Xbox One最重要的市場。
降價凸顯微軟策略大改變。Xbox One剛上市時包含Kinect體感裝置，整套售價499美元，比PS4貴100美元。去年6月，微軟開始販售不含Kinect的Xbox One，售價399美元。
It is a safe bet that the PlayStation 4 still has an overall sales edge on Xbox One. In mid-November, Microsoft said it was on the verge of shipping its 10 millionth Xbox One, while the previous month Sony said it had shipped 13.5 million PlayStation 4s.
The United States and Britain continue to be strongholds for Microsoft’s Xbox business, but it is weaker outside those markets. The company’s games business is especially feeble in Japan, where Sony and Nintendo are homegrown favorites.
總體來說PS4銷量無疑仍超越Xbox One。去年11月中，微軟表示第1000萬台Xbox One即將出貨，索尼則在10月就說，PS4計已出貨1350萬台。
美英兩國仍是微軟Xbox的天下，不過在其他市場Xbox就弱了。微軟的電玩業務在日本特別低迷，因為索尼和任天堂都是日本人偏愛的本土企業。
Nintendo’s fortunes have improved, too, though the company has not come close to repeating the success of the Wii, the motion- sensing console that became a breakout hit during the last generation of games hardware. The company said it had sold 7.29 million Wii U consoles as of September 30, even though it went on sale a year before the Microsoft and Sony offerings.
Even though its hardware sales are lagging, Nintendo makes the most popular games for its systems, including longtime game franchises like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. Those games give the company another big source of income. Nintendo is forecasting a profit for its current fiscal year, which ends March 31.
任天堂雖未重演Wii的成功，財富卻也增加了。Wii是體感主機，在上一代電玩硬體中暴紅。任天堂說，到去年9月30日止賣出729萬台Wii U主機，不過Wii U比微軟和索尼機種早一年上市。
雖然任天堂硬體銷量不如人，但任天堂為自家系統創造出最受歡迎的電玩，包括長青電玩系列如瑪利歐、薩爾達和神奇寶貝。那些電玩成為任天堂另一重大財源。任天堂預計，到今年3月31日止的會計年度會有盈餘。
Children today are increasingly playing games on tablets and smartphones, where Nintendo has no real presence, rather than on Nintendo handhelds .
“That’s the biggest concern with Nintendo is that they lose out on that audience,” said David Cole, an industry analyst.
That is also a worry for Microsoft, which partly explains why it paid $2.5 billion last year to acquire the developer of Minecraft, an enormously popular game for mobile devices, consoles and computers.
時下小孩越來越習慣在平板電腦和智慧手機上打電玩，而不是用任天堂手持裝置，任天堂卻沒有致力為這兩樣裝置開發遊戲。
產業分析師柯爾說：「任天堂最大的問題就是失去這個客戶群。」
這也是微軟擔心的問題，微軟去年花25億美元併購可在行動裝置、遊戲主機和電腦上玩的超高人氣電玩「當個創世神」的開發商，這是部分原因。
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