From Time:Â Â Â 5 Things That Went From Buzz to Bust
PS3 Coverage:
TO PLAY’S THE THING
The big story in computer games this year was HOW TO BLOW A HUGE LEAD, by Sony. Its PlayStation 2 was the champ in the last round of the console wars. This time Sony bet on a chip called the Cell and a disc format called Blu-ray. They’re probably awesome, but how would anybody know? The PS3 is hideously expensive–it goes for up to $600–and Sony manufactured only a piddling few hundred thousand for the U.S., fewer for Japan. Plus it’s hard to write games for; the launch titles were lame. You know you’re in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii.
It is interesting to see the backlash. I am really curious to see how this turns out. If one of the Halo games comes out about the time the PS3 supply loosens up that could be ugly for Sony. I’m also curious to see if they break down and release a non-Blu-Ray PS3 (if they even can, I’m not sure if the PS3 game discs are Blu-Ray).
Another related article from Time:Â Sony’s Playstation 3 is Not Worth the Hype
Anyway, I’m just the messenger and I’ll continue to keep you informed.
This is a good article comparing the two on C|Net. The article market research firm NPD as providing the following numbers for November sales:
- Xbox 360:Â 511,000
- Wii:Â 476,000
- PS3:Â 195,500
Obviously it’s a lot easier to get an XBox 360, but outselling the PS3 by a lot and a one year headstart are a significant advantage. What did they think about the quality:
The problem is that I didn’t agree. I looked at Gears of War and it looked great. But so did Resistance: Fall of Man on the PS3. To my eyes, which are admittedly not trained to see the minute differences that can show up on an HDTV, the two war games seemed about equal in quality.
And his conculsion:
I just hope these guys realize that for all the differences, the similarities in the performance of these two boxes are remarkable.
Given that the Xbox 360 has been out for a year longer, is substantially cheaper ($200 less comparing retail prices of premium versions), readily available, and has sold at least 5-6 million more consoles…. this seems to me a pretty strong endorsement. If I’m Sony with my new technological marvel, the PS3, that I’m trying to sell on the basis of its serious performance enhancements over anything else - this is not a good thing to hear.
