Sony Will Be "The Biggest Losers"? No
60 days 6 hours ago
| by:
Isaac
The blog post was dead but I had something to say in reply to Meus Renaissance.
Sony the biggest losers? PS3 has been outselling Xbox 360 since October 2007, it sold a lot more last year, it is more expensive, harder to develop for, got sh1tty ports, its PSN has less content than XBL, and the OS has had less features (until 2.4 comes out at least).
The reason people assumed this would be a year with lots of discrepancies between PS3 and 360 is because people thought all of the killer games were coming this year on PS3 and that there was nothing on 360. And while there could be more on 360, Microsoft announced a few more games and bought japanese timed exclusives which is not bad. On the other hand Sony delayed some games and cancelled others, not to mention Microsoft might drop the price and Sony might not. However, we're still halfway through 2008 and both Microsoft and Sony can make a lot of moves.
However, another reason people said 2008 is Sony's year is not because people think PS3 will outsell Xbox 360 2:1, but because this is the turnaround year and it has showed. Disregarding the specs like resolution, GTAIV was, according to many press outlets including IGN, a better game on PS3, whether because it had no pop-in or because they preferred the look of it.
Aside from GTAIV, PS3 got great ports unlike last year, including COD4, DMC4 and Burnout. Blu-ray won the format war. The Firmware updates on PS3 have gotten great and there are way more games to look forward to, even more than the ones that came out the last holiday season which were only a minor showcase of what PS3 can do yet they were great for the most part (except Lair). PS3 is getting a lot of games that were previously 360 exclusive, including Eternal Sonata and Bioshock among others, and now it appears that Bioshock PS3 will become the definitive version, with Home features, more content and perhaps an enhanced experience.
To top the year off there is still E3 and there will be a lot of announcements regarding Sony and Microsoft. And while Nintendo is outselling both, 3rd parties are not doing well with Nintendo. And while Nintendo might be making money now, who knows how much time will the Wii last for them. After all, their gamers aren't spending as much on the Wii, and third parties are getting tired of supporting the Wii. Check how EA is doing on a per company and per platform basis:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080514-eas-sales-figures-paint-a-rosy-picture-for-sony.html
As you can see, there are no big winners or big losers here. Nintendo might be selling a lot of consoles and their games, but without the support of the core gamer and third parties, who knows how much can the Wii last. Microsoft and Sony have very solid 3rd party support, and IMHO, while Microsoft and Sony have kinda gotten better and worse respectively for the rest of 2008 as it goes now, I think Sony is still gonna have a better end of the year, both in matter of quality games and console sales; Microsoft might just sell more software overall but the difference won't be as big as last year.
I think we can make a better judgment once all shots are fired and the smoke clears after the holiday season. There are plenty of price drops, game announcements and innovations to be seen, but your judgment on the entire console war is very shortsighted, especially considering that the outlook for 2009 and on seems very different for every contender.
With the uptake of HDTV, Blu-ray and tons of AAA games coming out in 2009 for PS3, it might just be true that PS3 will outsell 360 by a very significant margin. And while they may not catch up next year (360 will also have something, duh), the outlook seems better than that of the Analysts who predicted that would happen by 2012. Things are changing slowly, I don't even remember when the massive hate for the PS3 stopped, and while it still exists, there is a very positive outlook from people towards it, unlike the attitude towards Xbox 360, which reflects that its future might be bleaker than you can imagine now.
If Sony makes a profit, it won't really matter for them if they ended up in "third place". If we gamers get more games on 360 and PS3 than on Wii, we shouldn't care if the Wii was in "first place". It seems that this generation everyone will make a profit in different ways and all gamers will be satisfied. PS3 and 360 have yet to drop their prices to admissible levels, so perhaps that is what is holding them back and what is holding "next-gen" back, and perhaps the reason for why GTAIV and MGS4 didn't have huge effects on demand, since with those prices, people can still be on the fence. If the price becomes right, and the value too, Nintendo might have to react if people realize what the other consoles offer for just a little more. So again, it is still too early to tell the final outcome, except for the fact that there will not be a "BIGGEST LOSER".
And IMO, your statement " I think that's quite deserved so far from their overall performance in regards to the gamers and what we've lacked from them" can't be further from the truth, since Sony is the one that has made the most improvements ever since the console was unveiled, from the controller to the firmware updates; its only problem now is price and delays, all of which can be fixed with a little time.
Has Microsoft fixed their console? Will they ever? Has Microsoft gotten not only lots of variety of indie games, but quality games too? Has Nintendo even tried to appeal to the hardcore gamer? reduced the price of its console to meet its actual value? When will they meet demand? Will they ever make a remotely acceptable online service? Considering all of these, it is likely that the average gamer is still on the fence because no console can yet claim ultimate superiority on all fronts the way the PS2 did. So it is doubtful that there will be a "biggest loser", perhaps there won't be. In fact, Sony might just be a winner by now with the Blu-ray victory, Microsoft might be a winner by establishing Xbox LIVE as a leading edge online service and arriving at the profit line already, and Nintendo by reviving its console business, though all of them still have problems.
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