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. 🙂
Nintendo announced the price of the Wii U in New York City today, and to the surprise of some, the Wii U will come in two price SKUs:
🙂 Now that is a nice surprise! Glad to hear the old crew again.
@NOLF:
NOLF was a pretty cool game. The developers also released modding tools and a part of the source code as an SDK, and that created quite a community around it.
The game was geared around comedy; too bad they don’t make any games like that.
Don, it’s LithTech, not LeechTech.
@ Sony could be facing “serious trouble“:
Sony IS in serious trouble. PS3 never selling too well, then getting its root key exposed, then PSN getting hacked, then Vita tanks, then they change the EULA to have users dismiss their rights to class action lawsuits … man! 2011 was not the year for Sony.
@Take Two CEO states “strong become stronger” with next-gen transitions:
What’s a bit weird (and worrisome) is that the company is in a good shape because of its franchises. Really? No new games, just rehashes of the same?
@Developer Starbreeze fears Syndicate may be “too hard“:
Well, the difficulty can ramp up, as long as it ramps up instead of being a vertical wall of a learning curve.
Ninja Gaiden was ok-ish. Contra was also ok-ish. Granted, at the time I was playing those, I had all the time in the world to try again after a failure.
Now, emulators can create saves, so …
@1% violent videogame tax:
Good luck with that. 90% of the games are violent.
@Ubisoft cuts off legit players With DRM server migration:
Something tells me that the backlash they will get for this will not change their mind about this particular DRM system.
The article has said it all: so far, DRM only hampered legit customers.
That was a really nice surprise! I had never listened to a podcast made by them, but I really enjoyed it. Seeing as this was only published on a Sunday, is there still going to be an episode on Thursday?
@Developer Starbreeze fears Syndicate may be “too hard“: I agree. The least they can do is TRY to make an easy mode, or maybe they could implement a quick-save feature which is the only thing that keeps me playing hard games.
@Ubisoft cuts off legit players With DRM server migration: I have no idea why they are still trying with DRM. Can’t they try to find some other system, it’s already evident that DRM drives customers away.
When I heard Don’s voice before the intro music I smiled. Then Jennifer did the intro. Hard to believe that it was almost a year ago when the handover happened and the Episode 200 quiz happened.
I don’t get too much time to post up a comment normally, but I wanted to say thanks to the old crew for gracing my ears once again. As one of the first podcasts I subscribed to, the “married couple and their pal” were part of my weekly routine. I hope they get a moment to see the comments from the old listeners who loved them.
Not to say that the new crew are bad (except Paul – Hate mail!), but I haven’t found things flowing quite so well as you clearly can’t record in the same room like Derrick and Jennifer.
So from someone who has listened to all 250 episodes, thanks.
hahaa. I was right I guessed it right thanks jonah for bringing them back for this episode but I sure do hope they could stay permanently I’m not saying that the new guys suck ,just sayin I miss the old days. Do I get an award for guessing the special happening right? Jk
@sony could be facing big trouble
there’s no doubt that sony is indeed facing a big problem coz the ps3 the vita the issues and almost everything they have done last year was a failure….uhhmm maybe they should consider quitting and make tv’s instead
@ ubisoft drm server migration
This is the main reason I bought a cracked copy of assasins creed revelations.hahaaa advantages
Wish the old guys could really come back and join the new guys
It was great to hear Derrick, Jen, and Don’s voices again. This was a really, really pleasant surprise.
Hope all of you and your families are doing well.
computer specs anyone?,coz I’m still really curious about it
Thanks folks, it took a lot of effort and scheduling to find a date that all three of us could pull off-crazy lives lately.
Too bad it’s so tough to build a career/job out of podcasting otherwise doing these things all day (Leo Laporte style) would be nothing but a gift. Unfortunately, real life and other opportunities struggle to take up time.
I’m overjoyed that many of the original listeners keep going far after the core group of the show has moved on. Jennifer and I created the podcast roughly five years ago and to know there is still a team pushing on with it is pretty crazy.
Perhaps that’s what happens when people do it with a passion over a profit. Granted, profit is always nice too 😉