If the sales continue as they have been for Nintendo and their little white Wii, you’ll be looking at the top-dog for overall console says–best selling console ever. This would push Sony’s PlayStation 2 to the second spot of awesome console victories over the last seven generations of gaming hardware.
Before Sony fans unite to comment storm, remember, the PS2 had a lot of great games and continues to have games coming through for its console. People are still debating the life-span of the Wii product line, regardless to overall sales figures while the PS2 no doubt had a long live and still continues to have a long life, heck 30%+ of gamers still play the darn thing. Sony has been able to utilize the PS2 and its profitability to glide through the initial PS3 sales slump and get the momentum growing for their current generation console.
Yet, some folks are comparing the PlayStation 3 to the GameCube in terms of sales performance.
“During the first 26 month period, the PS3 sold 6.79 million units in the U.S., compared to 6.75 million GameCubes during its first 26 months. While the GameCube finished a distant third last generation, the console was profitable for Nintendo.” (Kotaku)
Before you get out your flame pens, this analogy wasn’t constructed by me, I’m merely the messenger. Again, to defend Sony (read: put on my flame retardant outfit) Sony’s console is slowly building momentum, depending on who’s statistics you read anyway, and their product will eventually become a profitable sale. The GameCube was profitable as well but boasted “dozens” of great games to play while the PS3 obviously is pushing to become the hardcore gamers console of choice with top tier graphics, blu-ray playback and a free online service. GameCube was really just a cube that played some games, a one-trick-poney as it where.
It still feels odd to say Nintendo is winning and Sony isn’t winning (I avoid the term losing to yet again to kill the flames) and… Microsoft?
Microsoft, in my opinion, is in the best possible situation. They’re not being targetted as the number one console and being critizised for holding such a position and they’re not dragging near the bottom to be poked fun at by the industry and bloggers around the world (mainly, the United States.) They’re stealthing by with good sales compared to the last generation console by “improving its fortunes.” The Xbox 360 “sells 18 percent faster than its predecessor, according to NPD figures, and even turned a profit, something the original Xbox never did” according to VentureBeat.
The PlayStation 3 has many years ahead of it and we’re sure plenty of gamers will eventually buy into the console because the technology within that black box is designed to last many years. Considering only 30% of the United States is rolling with an HD-TV it’s not surprising they’re not jumping at the opportunity to own a PlayStation 3. Why is the news all over the PlayStation 3 and talking trash about it? Sony was the console to beat when the PlayStation 2 reigned the industry, to see the console go from #1 to #3 in a single generation is shocking but not new; we saw Nintendo suffer the same fate when the PlayStation originally launched.
But, is the PS3 like the GameCube? There are too many factors to make that comparison, especially considering the growth in the game industry, the growth of storage and video technology and the general acceptance of video games. Hell, you can buy video games at convenience stores in the United States now, the industry isn’t the same as it was in 2001.
Please discuss…but don’t shoot the messenger. 🙂
Much better microphone Jonah.
@ RTS’s aren’t dying – just waiting
So scaling down is an issue, apparently … Well, you can always push up the minimum spec, and leave the lower end PC market for indies.
I agree with Jordan, blaming the hardware instead of acknowledging the lack of balls/cojones is not fair.
@UK: Wii U sells just 34,000 pieces of software in January
😛 this is a big surprise indeed, taking into account the huge library of games available for WiiU.
On the other hand, WiiU doesn’t have the market share that other consoles have.
@thatgamecompany had been bankrupt when Journey shipped
Speaking of cojones, these guys had it.
As for a small design doc, well, not entirely bullshit. You can do it the Agile way, with lots of cards, each describing a development story. So yeah, technically you do have just a one page document, but the entire description of the design will take plenty of cards to compensate.
@QOTW:
Not sure, to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of RPGs. Then STALKER came (Steam labels it as an RPG). Warcraft III had RPG elements in it, but it was still an RTS. I also enjoyed Fallout 3, but that was after STALKER.
Some encouraging words for Paul: hope you get a job.
@KOTOR
I loved it. I actually prefer the Old Republic era than the whole Anakin timeline.
@RTS are undead
In my opinion a genre never dies. Few years back people were saying that 2D games were dead. Since then we had some brilliant 2D entries. Terraria. Trine. Same thing will be with RTS. They just need the right conditions for a return. A brave studio that will make a new classic and start an RTS uprising.
@Segsbox 360
I think Microsoft tried to buy everything at some point. I definitely remember Microsoft wanted to buy Nintendo during it’s Gamecube days. If Microsoft would buy Sega, the Dreamcast might have had a chance. Microsoft would flood it with cash and support.
But history chose otherwise. Probably for the best.
@At Wii U sales
If there is one thing I am sure off is that in February there will be at least one Wii U unit sold in UK. Mine. That’s right. I now own 2 Nintendo branded bricks. My £300 Monster Hunter emulator.
@Assassins Creed
Milk the cow while it’s alive and pray it does not turn into a bull.
@QOTW
First RPG I ever played was Phantasy Star 2 on Genesis. It’s funny cause I could never complete it because Russian cartridges shipped without memory and you had to finish the whole game in one sitting. The first RPG I properly enjoyed was Pokemon Emerald. I played a few RPGs before it but they were nothing compared to Emerald. That and Final Fantasy X.
The demo of Journey does not do it justice. I too tried the demo in mid-2012 and was underwhelmed.
Then over winter break, I decided to listen to the great reviews and give the game a shot. Actually bought the disc. It was an amazing experience. The gameplay is very basic, but the immersion and creativity levels are way high.
By the way, you can solo the whole game. It’s only an option to interact with others (who you will not see in the demo). Everyone looks the same, but has unique musical sounds they make. You can only communicate through musical sounds, and so interacting with others becomes this amazing experience, because you are doing most of the interactions in your own imagination!