That's Sony's VP of marketing Scott Steinberg whipping the waters and dissing Microsoft's '08 lineup. But will 2008 be the year of the PlayStation 3? Let's analyze what Steinberg's saying and see for ourselves.
Claim #1: The Blu-ray format's recent victory has lent the PS3 enormous momentum. True? Probably. Relevance? Very.
For at least the past two months, despite the PS3's unit sales surge, Sony's been losing the software war, with only a single title making the top ten sales list in January and February. Implications? People are buying the PS3 as a Blu-ray player first (or even only). No one's buy the Wii or Xbox 360 at this point as anything other than a video game machine. As long as the high-def market keeps a-growin', that's a built-in stealth delivery system for long term PS3 game sales.
Claim #2: The PS3 has "entertainment leverage" as a media hub, e.g. for "music and movies" playback. True? Not really. Relevance? Not very.
Except for Blu-ray playback (something easily remediable if Microsoft ever opts to sell an add-on player) the Xbox 360 is every bit as capable as the PS3 of being a media hub for "anything" playback. Microsoft may seem a little out of touch with its "no Blu-ray, all downloadable content" angle given current broadband speed and access issues, but up-selling the PS3 as having "entertainment leverage" over the Xbox 360 simply doesn't add up.
Claim #3: Sony has a back-library of PS1 and PS2 games it can release for download. True? Absolutely. Relevance? Prove it.
We're over a year into the PS3's life and the PlayStation Store's downloadable games library boasts mostly unglamorous yawners like Warhawk, Wild Arms, Crash Bandicoot, Gauntlet 2, Mortal Kombat 2, Destruction Derby, and Wipeout. Where's the FinalFantasyGodOfWarJakandDaxterGrandTheftAuto beef, Sony? Stop with the trickle and turn on the faucet already, s'il vous plait.
Claim #4: Sony's 2008 IP lineup is going to result in "a monster year" for the PS3. True: Looking more and more likely. Relevance? Huge.
Sony's 2008 lineup includes...
...Metal Gear Solid 4. The Metal Gear Solid series has cumulatively sold somewhere in the 17+ million range worldwide. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty alone broke 5.6 million. Metal Gear Solid 4, with its epically hyped story, visuals, and interface makeover (on the order of what Shinji Mikami did to Resident Evil 4) could easily sell more than any game in the series to date. Want a number? Try at least six million copies worldwide.
...Gran Turismo 5. Gran Turismo's a no-brainer, a series with nearly 50 million in total worldwide sales. If anything stands a chance of beating Grand Theft Auto IV (in PS3 sales, anyway), it's GT5 Prologue and GT5 itself.
...Resistance 2. The sequel to first-person alien shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, which sold a respectable 2.6 million copies worldwide, and that was back when Sony had far fewer consoles in circulation.
By comparison, Microsoft has...
...Ninja Gaiden 2. Should do well, but it's worth remembering that Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was more of a critical than a commercial success. This complex overtly difficult fighter is definitely more of a niche property, not the sort of game everyone rallies around like a Halo, Mario, or Gran Turismo.
...Halo Wars. A console RTS born of a joint collaboration between Halo developer Bungie and the guys behind the bestselling Age of Empires RTS series on the PC. Unless they somehow louse it up (and since it's a console RTS, they very well could) this should sell well on name recognition alone given the Halo series' 23 million in worldwide sales to date.
...Fable 2. Fable was all sorts of good, bad, and so-so. Still, the original sold 2.6 million worldwide, and Xbox 360 owners could really use a great new RPG.
...Gears of War 2, which if it makes its rumored November 2008 release should counter Metal Gear Solid 4's numbers nicely. The original Gears of War sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
Replay
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I'm always a little frustrated when Sony opts to use the resistance sale figures, and a little confused when media goes a long with it, this title was packaged with a lot of consoles at first, so I don't really consider it to have sold 2.3million copies, more like it was glued to 2.3million PS3s.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a sony guy, and in the long term Sony have a good future, but the 360 is getting so affordable and the PS3 is still in the expensive ball park. I just hope they cut the price for the holiday season, as I really don't like the price tag.
Matt, when you tell me " that Sony Says Microsoft "Has Already Leveraged All Their Big Assets"," and without regard to their financials (which could probably support that statement somewhat) MM$' corporate behavior and image certainly are not those of a confident, reputable growing concern. Mr. Gates took a particular time to receed from the day-to -day activities of His company. He's taken such an asset hit from his ownership stock that Fortune had to demote him from the king of the Riches" Mountain to tumbling down the slipprey slope about one-half dozen notches. Mr. Ballmer's news-topping Yahoo Ultimatum fiasco certainly seems a little desperate and frenzied. Look at the resources it took attempting to bully its XP users into a position of buy Vista...or else.Yet seven year old, ancient, XP still commands. higher sales prices than Vista. Despite being nearly 2 years old now,iMS had to cut prices more on Vista Not an indicator of high demand like XP's increasing worth. Oh well. Dis.
More hot air from Sony. Sony is certainly not short of trumpet-blowing this year with regards to 2008 being the 'year of the PS3' - but again, I just don't see that happening. This article hit it bang on by saying that PS3 sales are being propped by buyers looking for an inexpensive, well-rounded blu-ray player with game capability - I believe that wholeheartedly. However, there's two problems for Sony in the near future if that's the case: 1. Standalone players are falling and will eventually be cheaper than the somewhat ungainly looking console (home videophiles like clean lines not flash) 2. Who wants to burn 125w of power watching a movie when you can do it on a standalone for 20w? -Mind you, this would only be relevant if we were in an energy crisis - oh wait! We ARE! PS3: "not the BD player of choice if you already own a power-saving light bulb"
Besides, GTA4 is the uncontested top game for this year and the inexpensive way to enjoy it is with an Xbox 360 and its DLC
More hot air from Sony. Sony is certainly not short of trumpet-blowing this year with regards to 2008 being the 'year of the PS3' - but again, I just don't see that happening. This article hit it bang on by saying that PS3 sales are being propped by buyers looking for an inexpensive, well-rounded blu-ray player with game capability - I believe that wholeheartedly. However, there's two problems for Sony in the near future if that's the case: 1. Standalone players are falling and will eventually be cheaper than the somewhat ungainly looking console (home videophiles like clean lines not flash) 2. Who wants to burn 125w of power watching a movie when you can do it on a standalone for 20w? -Mind you, this would only be relevant if we were in an energy crisis - oh wait! We ARE! PS3: "not the BD player of choice if you already own a power-saving light bulb"
Besides, GTA4 is the uncontested top game for this year and the inexpensive way to enjoy it is with an Xbox 360 and its DLC
Sony is just bad mouthing like they always do. Although M$ has made some poor judgements lately, it is still on top of and will remain on top of the software sales. people are talking record sales for the PS3 once all of 3 good (or overly hyped you could say) games come out. I have lost all hope for the Final Fantasy series because the story is the same over and over and over.... so i dont expect it to be any different this time around. Gran Turismo is just another driving sim and its time will pass quickly. Metal Gear 4 will be a great game im sure (if it lives up to its hype) for a while, but unless millions more people buy the PS3, then the games most redeeming feature, its multiplayer, will not hold. in the long run, the Xbox 360 with its outstanding lineup will last longer due to greater replayability (cept fable). all in all, i cant wait for Little Big Planet and Halo Wars and GOW 2!
its funny to think that people will continue to use the ps3 as blu-ray prices continue to fall though if i wanted tosave $400 dollars yeah but but with up convert dvd players for under $100. people will probably just buy one of those till blu-ray prices fall further.
of course stimulis packages coming out will probably drive ps3 like it did for ps2! in 01