PS3, Dead Already?

[KhaOZ]

With all the insane amounts of news about how the PS3 is hurting here and there, and how analysts expect the PS3 to take the route of the Dreamcast come 2008, many people are shrugging it off cause they have faith that Sony will find their way through this struggle. But even if you can shrug off the mountains of bad news for the PS3 from the loss of almost all of their exclusives, to the low sales, to the proof that the 360 has the better hardware, to Valve coming out and saying Sony needs to scrap the PS3 and start over. Now, today a strong left jab comes at the PS3 followed on the same day with an insane right hook. What?

PS3 isn't selling in Japan. The Market Sony thought they had in the bag. PS3s are stacking up on store shelves in Japan, and no one wants them. They are commencing with a temporary price reduction to help motivate more initial buyers and get the flow going. A price drop this early? And only temporarily? PS3s stacking up on store shelves in the US AND Japan?

If that wasn't enough, here is that insane right hook:
"If I say too much, Mr. Kutaragi might get really upset. I think that the PS3 is difficult to work with, but so was the PS2... Frankly speaking, I want to create something on the PC. It's a multi-platform [format]. I've been regularly studying work on the PC anyways, and I want to provide something as a world-wide platform..." -Hideo Kojima

The man behind the game all PS3 fanboys hide behind. The Creator of Metal Gear Solid. They are saying that he is going Xbox 360, but since he can't just come out and say that, it's easier to claim the PC, and then release the game on the PC and 360 at the same time, as many other companies do since the making games for the 360 is pretty much the same as making PC games.

Will Sony survive? They have all but fired the top 2 guys in charge of the PS3s development and management. This is a move in the right direction. Those idiots seriously put Sony in the hot seat. If Sony can get someone who is quick and good at cleaning up messes, they could very well pull it off with some luck. It's a long hard road ahead for Sony on this one. The Fanboys have made their PS3 purchases, and beyond them, no one is buying PS3s. Can Sony get others to catch on? Time will tell.

[BearAssJoe]

Somehow I remember XBOX sales sucking ass at first too. Than as the libriary grew, console price dropped, and PS2 graphics became outdatted people slowly started buying XBOXs.......

[KhaOZ]

Originally Posted by BearAssJoe

Somehow I remember XBOX sales sucking ass at first too. Than as the libriary grew, console price dropped, and PS2 graphics became outdatted people slowly started buying XBOXs.......

The Xbox1 sold amazing at first remember? Halo 1 launched with the Xbox1, and people, like me, were buying 2 xboxs just to lan 2 halo1s, heh. Another reason for it's success right off was cause of the PS2 having almost no good games till the Xbox1 launched. Sony did come out with a bunch of good games all at once right around the time of the Xbox1 release. I had a PS2 for that first year, I remember how much of a waste of money I felt it was till then. After Halo1 slowed down though, Xbox sales dropped hard till Halo2 came out. Xbox1 never got even close to the sales of the PS2 in total though.

The Xbox 360 though, you couldn't find one on a store shelf after their 2005 launch till late March 2006. People were still ebaying them for decent money till February. Sort of like how the Wii is doing now. The Wii sales are through the roof. PS3 is hurting though, there's no denying it. They need a God of War 3 now, or MGS4 to hurry up, and for Sony to pay Kojima to stop porting MGS4 to the 360. They need to refocus and stop with the "the PS3 is a PC, and will replace your PC" campaign. Get back to being a Videogame machine. That's my opinion anyway.

[Beyonder]

Yeah, just had this conversation with my roommate. He bought a wii before Christmas, and on Sunday we were going to a bunch of stores before noon just trying to find 2 sets of remotes and nun chucks in the new shipment but everyone was sold out. He commented how he has seen PS3s online (best buy's site) for over a day before they sold out.

Sony really screwed up thinking that just their name will sell. The technology market is highly user savvy, and people are just not willing to shell out this type of investment with out proven games and I think just as importantly proven hardware in the Blue Ray. Sony was thinking it could gain an edge in the blue ray vs HD game, but it might end up killing both its high def and gaming hardware.

[MegamanEXE]

I agree with Xbox not selling well at first. I remember the long conversations at our LAN parties back in the day where we were all in agreement that "A Microsoft Console would never take off." Obviously, it did eventually.

PS2 also had a slowdown after Halo 2 came out. They also had a slowdown after they came out with their Broadband adapter. There were a few games here and there that supported it, but in the end few games today still used it. They managed to phase it out instead of making people feel like they wasted $40 on it.

[Ghostex]

Sony fails at life.

[IceBlade]

Originally Posted by Ghostex

Sony fails at life.

I agree .

[KhaOZ]

I've been pretty heavy into the Game industry since about 1989, reading every scrap of videogame news I could get my hands on. I've just always LOVED to read about games and hardware and who's backing what, and what isn't selling well, etc etc. When Microsoft first announced they were doing a Console and said one of their primary focuses would be the ability to play games online, I knew the Software giant would create a hit. I do admit though, that I thought the xbox1 would do better than it did at first, but it did well enough. I knew that Microsoft had the required money to get into the game industry against Sony. The only way any company could compete with Sony was if they could buy back some of the exclusives Sony was snatching up. Microsoft set out and started buying up video game companies and exclusives. HUGE ones. Lionhead, Bungie, Rare, Bioware etc etc.

At the time when MS announced the Xbox, I owned and ran the most popular Halo website on the internet, HaloHQ.com(it's long gone now and under new ownership). The community for Halo, which was originally a MAC only game, then a Mac/PC game, was HUGE. Halo had a mass amount of fans from the start. When Microsoft bought out Bungie and said Halo would be an Xbox Exclusive, I had to respect what they were doing. It was a smart move. By buying bungie alone, they guaranteed themselves a cult following from launch, and as we all know now, the Halo Heads are a bunch of freaks.

I knew MS would do great in the gaming industry, what I never expected though, is that they'd have to struggle this hard to get this far. I expected it to come to them a little easier, them having the superior console hardware, great online play system and good games, but you can't put a value on Brand Loyalty, and there are an ass-ton of Sony Loyalists/Fanboys out there.

My biggest surprise though is Nintendo. I grew up a hardcore Sega fan. I had em all. Master System, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn(on day 1 and spent $400 :`( ), and Dreamcast. If it said Sega on it, I bought it. I even owned near 200 games for my Genesis alone. When Sega consoles went the way of the dinosaurs, I expected Nintendo to follow soon after, and they almost did. They had entered negotiations with Microsoft to be absorbed by MS, which I believe eventually lead to the deal of MS getting Rare but not all of Nintendo. I figured it was just a matter of time before Nintendo went belly up against these 2 giants. Nintendo just doesn't have the money to throw around that MS and Sony do. Nintendo was smart though. Instead of trying to compete with the money Sony and MS had to poor into new hardware development, Nintendo stuck to what they knew. Innovation. They came out with a system that barely has any better graphics than the GameCube, but seems to be sooo much fun. Is it just a fad? A gimmick? Time will tell, but for now, Nintendo is kicking some ass.

I'm happy to see Nintendo doing as well as they are though. I just wish Sony would get their act together and keep up with Microsoft. Without Sony pushing MS, they'll slack off, and things wont advance as well as they could. This means bad things for the consumer. We need Sony to get their Online plan together and force MS to even further enhance their XB LIVE. We need Sony to continue to pump our pretty games, forcing MS to keep pushing their guys to pump out just as good if not better games. We need Sony to lower their Prices to get Microsoft to keep their prices within reason.

Competition is good for the consumer all around. I'd rather see a near 50/50 divide between Sony and MS so they can push each other to greater heights like back in the Nintendo VS Sega days.

[MegamanEXE]

I dont think PS3 will fail, yet anyway. Yes they are starting to walk down the Dreamcast road, but I think that in time, when more people are able to afford PS3 and the developers start learning how to correctly code games, they may get back on track. They could end up being the Gamecube of this console war, only selling to select audiences and not having much success. Right now Sony has at least 1 saving grace, and it is their exclusives, and even that like Khaoz said is on shaky ground.

[KhaOZ]

Yeah. I hope and don't think they will go down the road of the Dreamcast all the way. I believe they'll pull up before hitting the ground.

As for exclusives though, they lost MGS4 now from recent reports, they lost GTA4, they lost Tekken, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, etc etc. I believe their only real 3rd party exclusive anymore is Final Fantasy, but Square is making 360 games, they just can't release any game with the Final Fantasy name on the 360 for a bit. Articles i've been reading talk about how the Final Fantasy games have gone down hill though. Not selling like they once did. And with the creator of the Final Fantasy series working for MS now, making huge hits like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, it does seem even FF is on shaky ground.

They need more God of Wars. God of War is a first party, so MS has no chance of stealing that from them. And even Resistance. While Resistance wasn't the greatest game ever, or even close, it did lay a nice foundation for a new series. They could improve on it and possibly turn it into something great. They have to do something here, heh. Oh, and they still have Gran Turismo as well. Warhawk on the original PS was a blast for me. They could do well with that series.

They need to bank on their sure deals though. A God of War 3 with amazing graphics on the PS3 could help a lot.