IGN: Whatever Happened to the Year of the PlayStation?

When the year started, the declaration confidently rolled off my tongue like Nathan Drake scaling a crumbling Tibetan wall -- 2011 would be the year of the PlayStation 3. The system's price was reasonable, a PlayStation exclusive dotted nearly every month, and Gears of War 3 seemed to be Microsoft's sole counteroffensive. Everything was in line for Sony to turn the tables in 2011. To finally come from behind, sell more units, and reclaim the core gamer conversation.

[NYC_Gamer]

it's the year of gamers enjoying their consoles/pc.each platform had something to offer us all..

[darthv72]

Was it the media or the fans? I think it got overly used and ultimately tarnished. Sort of like how (insert game) was this game killer or that game killer.

There doesnt need to be a "killer" as in gaming everyone has different preferences and likes. Nothing wrong with diversity. So if the "year of playstation" has gone the wayside, I'd like it to have been replaced with "year of the gamer" instead.

edit: to be fair lava...every year was proclaimed to be the year of playstation if I remember correctly. Each year started off with the same sentiment due to whatever high profile game was coming out that year. I think i remember it most notably around the year of MGS4.

IGN was probably repeating the phrase but it got started long before 2010.

[Lavalamp]

Who came up with the catch phrase? A quick Google search indicates that it was IGN. To quote an article from their site posted almost one year ago:

"Sure, 2010 isn't even cold in its grave yet, but it's time to start talking about 2011 -- the year of the PlayStation."

http://ps3.ign.com/articles...

[Army_of_Darkness]

No one really cares much about that shit no more, so stop trying to get hits by continuing this flame war. Most of us matured and are more focused on which games to get rather than which console sells better.

I only have a ps3 cause I can't afford multi platforms since I got lots of bills to pay, so basically every year is the year of the ps3 for me! And I'm sure xbox owners feel the same with their console. Afterall, most of the games coming out are multiplat anyways

[SilentNegotiator]

@lavalamp
IGN is like a firefighter serial arsonist.

Oh, and is the ps3 still beating its HD competition in worldwide YTD sales and providing both quality and quantity above all others in games?

Yes? Then what's the problem?

[kaveti6616]

Haha.

IGN premeditated this for a whole year.

End of 2010: We write an article talking about how next year is the year of the playstation.

End of 2011: We write an article talking about how everyone else thought this was the year of the playstation.

Muwhahahahah.

[Razmossis]

The year of the playstation began midway through 2008 with the release of MGS4, and has continued ever since, with its frequent releasing of consistently better exclusives (than its rivals).

Tell me one bad gaming year for playstation since 2008.... you can't.

[Bereaver]

I think the better question is.... what happened to IGN? They've become nothing but a flamebait website. WTF

[Skip_Bayless]

The year of the PlayStation in this generation was 2009. Uncharted 2 was so good. Having experienced Uncharted 2 when it first came out, it defeats multiple games when you stack them up against it. I will take an "Uncharted 2" over three games not named COD4.

Uncharted 2 and COD4 are the best two games this generation. Not only were they amazing but the majority of games since those two games came out have copied many elements from those two games. You can't argue this and I dare anyone to challenge me.

[Tommykrem]

Sony came up with the phrase. Don't remember if it was Phil Harrison or someone else but it was first used considering 2007. It's been used by media each year ever since - and to be honest it wasn't that wrong this year either. Sure, there wasn't any domination by the PS3, but exclusives each month is impressive

[humbleopinion]

The "year of the playstation" phrase probably already made up by some fanboyish outlet back in 2006.
2007 was supposed to be the "year of the playstation": They year where it will crush the Xbox and Wii opposition, have a hundred exclusives in the lineup, and win back the king status from the PS2 era.

Yet every year sales didn't take, some exclusives were post-ponded and some others tanked. Since then we hear every year that next year will be the year of the PS3: analysts predicting it will finally catch up with the X360 globally (still didn't happen in 2011. at they already gave up on the idea of catching up with the Wii), fanboys listing exclusive games with no release date and sometimes without even an announcement made (I think that The Last Guardian contribute to "year of the PS3" articles circa 2007, when it was still codenamed "project trico"), and so forth.

Hey, but perhaps in 2012. Right? RIGHT!?

[DonaldBeck]

IGN: Whatever Happened to the Year of the PlayStation?

Ah, nothing, its just been recieving a 10/10 score for a certain ps3 exclusives from you guys is all.

Its just been sticking to its roots, giving hardcore/casual gamers what they want.

[kikizoo]

Greg miller : stealth xtrolls... "if i write that ps3 is my console of choice, people probably will never see that i'm worst than some xfanboyz on n4g"

[doctorstrange]

According to the article, whether it's the YoPS3 depends on software sales.

Personally, I believe it depends on software quality and quantity.

[_Aarix_]

sorry to break it to you but that uncharted 3 review was bias. Greg miller is a giant ps3 fanboy and his reviews made it quite obvious to someone with even a hint of sense.

[cyborg6971]

It started in 06 and hasn't stopped.

[Jazz4108]

Your right as I heard everyyears is ps3s year and it never happens.

[BuffMordecai]

I don't know, those first couple years were rough, but in 2009 and forward, it completely kicked everyone's ass.

[metsgaming]

Whatever happened to professional journalism is the real question.

[SuperNerd]

yea its been gone 4 a while

[Boody-Bandit]

That died since the birth of blogosphere where anyone with webspace has a voice and it gets published on sites like this. IGN, Gamespot, Game Informer, etc and so on joined in on the trash trolling for hits nonsense and now IGN is leading the charge.

Coining their own phrase that they started to get more hits. This shit is beyond sad now. Journalism is dead. It's all about what ever shit we can stir up to get attention because that = hits and hits = cash / advertising dollars and $$$ rules the world.

[Legion]

N4G killed off all the real journalists.

[Voxelman]

Well it's been doing it's best to stay as far away from gaming as possible.

[Persistantthug]

PS3 has outsold XBOX 360 worldwide in

2009
2010
2011

Come this time next year, 2012, there isn't any reason to think anything will change.

So, it's been the year of the Playstation for 3 years in a row from what I see.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

2011 ended? Holy Crap!... I must have over slept!

[MilkEmHard]

I believe the Xbox is outselling the Ps3 in 2011.

[Legion]

Makes you wonder why they haven't caught up yet then? Every year... (Since PS3 came out) they have said that PS3 will cap the total sales of Xbox 360 in the coming year. And yet once again we are going into another year. 2012 will finally be the year that PS3 overcomes the Xbox 360 lead and take them over! (Or 2013 if that doesn't pan out)

[Persistantthug]

Worldwide, PS3 outsells XBOX 360 every year since 2009.

You probably misunderstood alot of the articles, as they are referring to NPD, which is the American region.

@Dlacy13g....no 2011 isn't ended, but it's pretty much over. Both will sell well but their "places" are pretty much set.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

Just wondering does IGN ever make a negative article about 360 or by saying the lack of exclusives.

[sikbeta]

They can't even think about it, go there, lots of xbox fanboys that troll every PS3 news + the guys that are neutral counter them and that only makes the site get more hits = profit! -__-

[Rageanitus]

Hey have alot of exclusive games.... KINECT

[showtimefolks]

Gin has Ben doing these articles over the las month. One week it's how ps3 will outsell xbox360 next it's how ps3 didn't achieve what it should have or could have.

Look Sony had the roughest year that any company could have and to come out on the other side and still do better than expected. 9.0 earthquake and the psn outage.

And correct me if I am wrong but since launch hasn't ps3 outsold xbox360 every year world wide and now sitting around 2millions behind which in my opinion will be erased by fall 2013.

But why does it matter so much to so many people. Instead of ps3 selling 100 million by now we actually have Competetion which is why Sony has dine so much to regain what they thought they could never loose their FANS. I can like a blind fanboy but instead let's look at it this way xbox 360 has done well so has wii so each company could learn something from each other and each company has things they need to improve

Xbox360: MS early on we all about we are hardcore and over the last 24 months have gone soft on us in a major way. Just wat h their last 2 E3 conferences. So while I respect that they want xbox name brand to be bigger and more than gaming and want xbox to be the main attraction in the living room, they simply can not forget who actually helped them even though they launched a broken machine.

Xblive is the reason people buy xbox so they have a huge advantage
They only have few exclusives but they advertise well but moving forward they need more exclusives from MS gaming studios.
Epic is done with MS most likely so don't expect more gears to be exclusives on a permanent bases, if anything maybe timed exclusives but I even doubt that

They need to improve on their MS owned studios and I know some will reply and say exclusives are not everything but fact is in long term business sense you need to build studios just look at nintendo and Sony. It's a marathon not a race

And don't rush a system make sure it works please we don't want another RROD. I believe MS has learned from it's earlier mistake just look at the slim models they are much better machines.

Sony:

Sony has everything but need to improve their online services. If you can not beat other companies offering at least match it and not offering cross game chat is a big deal to a lot of gamers.

Make your next system developers friendly which Believe Sony is since they have asked a lot of devs to help them with ps4 specs and stuff.

Oth than that a system tahat should cost around 400 and launches with games maybe not 10 of AAA titles but it would be nice to have a few atleast.

And I believe Sony has learned in that case too they are launching VITA with many games I think if anything Sony has learned from their own arrogance.

Other than that I like competition so having xbox720 means Sony has to push harder and having ps4 means MS has to work harder. So enjoy both they both offer great games. And IGN stop this just becau your site isn't #1 visited anymore doesn't mean you want to get hts.

[Legion]

"...sitting around 2millions behind which in my opinion will be erased by fall 2013." Well no [email protected] MS will have the Xbox Next out by 2013 and sales of Xbox 360 will rotate over to the new console. Finally PS3 will overcome Xbox 360 sales!DUH. (due to MS buyers having a new option and Sony still carrying on their fruitless war of the last generation at this time)

Does it really matter at this point, once the new generation comes out?

[showtimefolks]

Legion MS will bring out their console in fall 2013 so if ps3 passes it in fall 2012 that one full year before MS's next console. Unless MS is again tying to be the first one out just to get early sales.

Ps3 is one full year newer than xbox360 since it came one full year after xbox360 so in reality Sony can carry on for one extra year. And I don't want to see ps4 or xbox360 just because wii-u is coming. If you want to release a console move the tech forward. I rather Sony wait and extra year and wait to see what works and wwhat does not than improve and release ps4 in fall 2014.

And if you take out the one year head start ps3 has outsold the xbox360, but you are too blind to see that.

Is ps3 ccame out a year ahead of xbox360 back than the would be no xox360 now since so many of ps fans would have adopted on to ps3 and not bought a xbox360 like they did because it was the 1st console out on the market next gen wise.

Sorry to everyone else not trying to sound like a fanboy but some people act on these gami sites like Sony has failed or something. My question remains why can we have more than one successful home consoles. Moving forward I can see 3. Wii-u,xbox720 and ps4

So I guess these fanboy wars will only get worst when nintendo fans join us in next few year lol

[insomnium2]

@legion

Ahhhh... you are relying on the x360 safetynet here. So after the next console comes out we don't care about the previous console anymore? Is that it?

You are banking entirely on the belief that PS3 won't catch up on x360 by the time next gen consoles launch. I'd like to see your face if PS3 passes x360 by that time.

Nevertheless if it does you can say "look at mighty MS for destroying Sony's domination by selling almost as many consoles. Next gen MS is sure to win by this trend". Rely on this and you are safe from losing face for atleast 6-8 years and then all you have to do is come up with another spin to continue being a winner.

Every single console sold counts no matter how long it takes. This safetynet these x360 fanboys bring up is so pathetic I almost puke while laughing. We will wait and see how many consoles PS3 sells as long as it is in production just like we do with PS2. Noone said PS2 is the most successfull console ever until it sold more than PS1 right? We still count PS2 as it has not stopped selling and is still in production and a great source of income for Sony. It's still relevant to millions. Only a fanboy would count it out cause of PS3.

PS3 is not the most successfull console ever until it sells more than PS2. I'm not even going to guess if that ever happens (irrelevent to me) but I do know that PS3 will sell over 100 million in it's lifetime. It has a good chance (and it most likely will) of overselling Wii. All you need to do is wait for about 6-10 yers for this to happen and guess what? PS3 will still be relevant after all those years. Are we clear on this?

[jack_burt0n]

<sicks up all over IGN crap and N4G>

good to see the decent users of N4G still fighting the bile of gaming journalism.

enjoy your games friends.

[Kurt Russell]

Game on my handsome friend. Game on!

[Tony999Montana]

I don't understand, PS3 outsold everything this year so what are they trying to say?

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Brands rise and fall. Sometimes they rise even after a crushing defeat. Just ask Nintendo. They went from 3rd place last gen to 1st place this gen. Ironically Sony went from 1st place last gen to last place this gen.

You never know what next gen is going to bring.

[Parapraxis]

saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaales.
*yawn*

PS3 had the best games this year. Period.
It was, like the last few years, Year of the Playstation.
People can take the sales and play them all they want, in the meantime, I'll be playing games.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Best games period? It's a sad state of affairs if I can't think of what any of those games are. But maybe it's just me, I see people's list of games and I yawn...

[JRobes]

"saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaales. *yawn*"

lets not mention profit by respective companies at all....

[andibandit]

*yaaaaaaawn*

Turn on PS3....noone online......back to 360

[wicko]

@andibandit

It helps to have people in your friends list

[Majin-vegeta]

Well time to get the popcorn ready.

Well it was the year of ps3 for me anyway never had a shortage of quality titles to play.

[TheBlackMask]

It's called nit picking....they think that the PSN hack is somehow Sonys fault

Greg just changes his tune when ever he feels like it, lets be honest he's a 360 fanboy at heart

Those things don't even count, it's always been about games, not sales or problems which Sony have no control over....oh and marketing REALLY....Kevin Butler is hillarious.

At one time it used to be about games but now that Sony has outdone Microsoft in terms of quality exclusive titles and third party support for some of there games....it dosen't count because 360 fanboys have changed the rules where it's all about sales, profits and how much money the company makes now.

[Bladesfist]

What? they even stated that some of the things were not sonys fault. They are saying these bad things effected sony. I still belive that sony did best this year but it is clear that these things did effect sony.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

@ Majin-Vegeta: I feel the same way.

IGN acts as if we should all let our enjoyment of a particular system be effected by how much it sells.

Oh well, IGN is known for trolling their own readers for hits, and generally being wrong about everything. Make of that what you will...

[Dark360]

Best quote of the article:

The real question is how does Sony fix this for the next battle? I mean other than not hawking the PlayStation 4 by putting Kevin Butler on a horse...HAHAHAHA

[sikbeta]

Simply, PS4 @ an affordable price like PS1 and PS2, Price was the only thing holding the PS3 back...

[SuperNerd]

yea man i whould have picked up the ps3 day one if it dednt cost so much

[Legion]

The only thing holding back PS3 wasn't as much the price as it was the upper management who decided they could rape the consumer and then spout out verbiage that people didn't wan't cheap and would basically need to sale personal valuables to buy their product.

Basically the Japanese way of thinking that if it is expensive then people will want it more. A marketing plan that fails outside of Japan.

[andibandit]

@sikbeta

It was not just price, but i agree that the price was enough to put most people into the:
"Hold on, lets just wait and see how this PS3 thing fares" mode.

[SilverSlug]

I forgot that PSN was hacked... and I follow gaming news.

Year of Insert Something Here is stupid. Its an opinion and to me, it has been year of Playstation since 2008, when I purchased my PS3.

[Aussiegamer]

What ever happened to well written pieces?

Their gone also.

[e-p-ayeaH]

long gone.

[MaideninBlack]

IGN needs hits badly.

[Silly gameAr]

It has been a rough year for Sony with all that's happened, but imo, this was the year of The Playstation for me as a gamer.

[Prcko]

best console yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[metsgaming]

Umad ign?

[CoryHG]

I guess IGN needed to garner some hits. Complaining about skyrim, it's a port. Maybe if these third party vendors would start programming for ps3 and porting over to the xbox, it'd run better, but the xbox couldn't handle that. And yeah, Uncharted 3 got a 10 from IGN, you just rated them the game of the year. That's all.

[spacedelete]

what i want to know is why these great ps3 exclusives don't sell as much as they deserve to. most sell around 2 million on average which is okay but halo 3 sold 11 million with both gears of war games selling 5 million each.

its strange as this gen sony has upped their game with first party exclusives.

i really think this all comes down to the ps3 launch were alot of ps2 owners upgraded to 360 instead of the ps3 which is haunting sony to this day.

[thebudgetgamer]

You can pick two or three xbox games that sell crazy numbers then the rest sell comparable to the ps3 games.

[smashcrashbash]

That's what they always do. Point out the two or three exclusives that do well and ignore the other games that underperformed. 'How did Alan Wake or Splinter Cell or Crackdown 2 do?' You never see anyone boasting about those games or the games that Rare made that stunk up the place .

Sony has more exclusives AND many of the third party games the 360 has. Like I have said a million times we can't buy EVERYTHING. Some games will get less sales and get lost in the shuffle just like with the PS2. And yet we STILL hear the same $hit everytime about 'PS3 owners don't buy games. All 360 games sell a lot'. When I could list quite a few games that didn't sell a lot on the 360. Lets get something straight here to all system owners. If you support a few of the mainstream stream games on you console and leave the others out to dry, that isn't support, that's being close minded. You think a game like Heavy Rain would have sold as well ln anything but the PS3? Nope.

[MaideninBlack]

Little Big Planet 1 has sold 4.5 million. Gran Turismo 5 6 million. Uncharted 2 4.9m. Metal Gear Solid 4 5 million.

Craptastic stinkers like Sony's fps line up are the worst of the bunch, saleswise.

[spacedelete]

almost all of LBP1's sales were when the prices dropped. i remember LBP1 prices dropping 2 months after release to $20.

Uncharted 2 sold well based on word of mouth but should have sold more. its the halo of the ps3.

i agree that sony should stop making the exclusive fps games as people buy Playstation for unique games like Heavy Rain or God of war not a cheap halo wannabe.

[P_Bomb]

Not true, MaideninBlack.

The Resistance and Killzone games have sold more and scored higher than various other PS3 exclusives including Warhawk, Heavy Rain, inFamous, Yakuza, ModNation, MAG, Ratchet, Socom, Motorstorm.

@Spacedelete

Halo stopped being the defacto, go-to FPS a long time ago. How many games have copied the 'no iron sites' thing lately? It's all about COD this gen'. I offer both Killzone games and all 3 Resistance games this gen' as examples that have garnered better critical reception than Halo Anniversary, Halo 3 ODST and Halo Wars. Arguably the best Halo game this gen', Halo Reach, has the same 91% as KZ2.

[turnerdc]

Errrr...P_Bomb. Halo 3 has a metacritic of 94, higher than any of those other games you listed.

[P_Bomb]

@tunerdc
Nothing to 'errr' about, I'm well aware. That's the same year that COD4 scored the same 94%. I'm not talking about Halo 3 though but rather everything contemporary that followed. It's not a one clone world anymore, ol' faithful can't carry the ball forever.

I'll reiterate. COD4 matched Halo3 in '07. In the years that followed, Halo 3:ODST, Halo Wars and Halo Anniversary scored meta' averages in the low 80's...being surpassed by various FarCry, Crysis, L4D, BF, KZ, Resistance games. Halo Reach had the same 91 as Killzone 2 but less than MW2. That was my point. Unfair to write off every FPS as a Halo clone when every Halo release this gen' has had solid if not varied competition. Let's give credit where it's due every year, not just 2007.

@Edonus
It could be argued that Uncharted fits the defacto TPS bill just as much where awards and critical avg are concerned. Uncharted 2's avg beat out all three Gears while Uncharted 3 eeked past Gears3 just this year. The rest boils down to personal taste.

[DigitalRaptor]

"Halo is still king FPS. If it was multiplat it would outsell the others. Halo3 was great Reach was Halo3 times 5."

A lot has actually changed since 2007. I'll just promote what P_Bomb has said, since it's the most logical of this conversation.

"And speaking of defacto Gears is the defacto TPS. MS shoots to make genre defining games."

According to who? Gears fans? Xbox fans? And as far as I can tell Bungie and Epic shoot to make those games, not Microsoft.