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 2Â 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. 🙂
Hey guys,
Just to finish off our little Vita debate. I finally understand why Jordan claims what he claims. See, I come to Vita not primarily for AAA, exclusive titles. I can play big titles on my PS3 and I have more than enough of them to last me a very long time. That’s why I don’t want to spend too much time playing PSN titles there if I can play them on the Vita, especially if they are cross-buy. That’s why I play games such as Soundshapes, Zen Pinball, Velocity Ultra or Quell Memento. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy Gravity Rush or Uncharted. I’m trying to Platinum NFS: Most Wanted and I’m also playing Rayman: Origins.
I travel a lot so I use my Vita often when I don’t have access to my PS3 and I’m really rarely bored with it. I agree, however, that if you only want to play big, exclusive titles, you might be disappointed.
P.S. I played the demo for Soul Sacrifice and it seemed neat. What was wrong with the rest of it?
@Android consoles
Meh… I really don’t know who the target for those devices is. If you’re a casual gamer than a 4-5″ smartphone screen is enough to play Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds or some other game. If you want a better experience, get a tablet – at least you will be able to use it for other things as well. I understand that it’s easier to release a game on those platforms than on PS3, Vita or XBox but I don’t think it’s worth it. The install base of the Android boxes won’t be big, people complain about the hardware… I think they’re trying to find a niche where there isn’t any.
@The Walking Dead. Way to spoil the game, guys 😉 I still haven’t played 400 days. I’ll probably get it right before season 2. Anyway, Clementine… I never had any doubt she will be in the second season. I only hope you’re not controlling here and she’s only a supporting character. !!SPOILERS!! It would be nice to come across her and the mysterious figures she saw at the end of the first season. Maybe she reacts according to what Lee taught her int he first season. Maybe she has her hair short, or she tries to shoot you. It’s not a bad idea to bring her back.
@BSG – It was my birthday last weekend and I got the BSG boardgame from my friends. We played it for the first time yesterday and it was a disappointing experience… I’ve heard so much good things about the game so my hopes were really high. I guess we shouldn’t have started playing it at 9pm (the game lasted until after midnight) after a hard day at work with people who have no idea what the game was about. It also probably didn’t help that I was a Cylon and was forced to reveal myself very early in the game. The tension went down rapidly. We’ll give it another go when the circumstances are better.
I never watched the show but I hear it has a significant following so the writer of the series must have done something write. An epic TPP (third-person perspective 😉 ) action-puzzle-RPG game, mixing Uncharted with Mass Effect would be nice.
@QOTW I mentioned FPP last week – I meant first person perspective. I have to stick to the olden goldies. To me, Blood was amazing. The gore, the enemies, the atmosphere. With all those pixels flying around I was able to see past them and immerse myself in the experience. And it was really scary. On top of that, there were tons of easter eggs. I remember one vividly – I was able to get to a room using some ventilation shafts. In the room was a bed stained with blood with air fresheners hanging from the ceiling. On the wall was written the word ‘Sloth’, referencing the movie Se7en. There were many, many more. Based on the immersion and atmosphere of the game, this has to be my favorite.
@First high profile Kickstarter suckage
As nice as budget consoles may sound, I agree with Pavel. No one needs them. It’s better to buy an android phone that plays android
games amongst other things rather than a console that just plays android games. Not to mention that most gamers (i.e. me) believe that
android games are not proper games and are aimed at people who enjoy touching things. Granted that a few android games may be good; most gamers would rather stick to mainstream consoles with their AAA titles.
@To infinity and straight into HD
Never played Star Control. But it sounds pretty good. I would love to play an HD remake. Although I am highly skeptical of HD remakes. The ones I played were pretty crap (God of War HD, Monster Hunter WiiU to name
a few horrible looking HD games). Furthermore, I am not sure how it would go down with modern gamers. An interesting topic to discuss is how games have been simplified over the years. Just compare Elder Scrolls: Morrowind to Skyrim. Or GTA III to GTA 4. I am concerned that a complicated (sounding) game like Star control can’t be released simply as an HD remake without being redone from ground up. On another note, Sega MegaDrive had
an epic Star Trek: Next Generation game which was effectively an Enterprise simulator. Tons of galaxies to explore; you could land on
and explore planets, participate in space battles and tweak every available setting of your ship. A very engrossing game as far as I remember.
@QOTW
I will split this question into two parts. Simply because it is very rare that an FPS has a good single player campaign and multiplayer
component simultaneously. My favourite multiplayer game was Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I have such fond memories of that game. Sunk hours into on-line battles. It’s revolutionary score system could force a group of unrelated people to work together as a team for a common goal. So far it is the only game that I have seen accomplish this. In terms of singleplayer campaign, I will have to go for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And before I am stoned by angry mums and dads, I would
like to remind everyone that I grew up in the post-soviet Perestroika times and had no access to FPS games until 2005. Modern Warfare 2 was
one of the first games I played on a proper HD TV. The graphics was remarkable beyond words and the story was interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was the first contemporary war shooter I ever played, so the genre was still fresh for me. Multiplayer was crap thou. Never really got into it.