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Looks like the gap is narrowing between the PS3 and the Wii after Nintendo had major success in June and July, outselling Sony's effort by 6 to 1.
The sales figures for August now show the PS3 catching up, with the Wii now only outselling the PS3 by 3 to 1. With more eagerly awaited titles after a bit of a gaming drought for the PS3's launch, it looks like the Japanese are slowly being swayed back to Sony.
The question is; can the same be done here and in the US? The titles are coming (albiet slowly still) but do Sony need to do some hefty advertising and revert back to the methods they used for the original Playstation? Back then it was all sponsorship, bringing in big names and coming up with new ideas, the last one seemingly most lacking from the PS3 so far. But perhaps Home and Little Big Adventure might answer this, assuming Sony can get word out to the un-initiated.
Sony have to prove themselves this Christmas and if they don't have a larger userbase by the end of next year they could be in big trouble. However, things are starting to look up and all those problems with hardware at Microsoft can't hurt the sales of the PS3 with game shops everywhere I go now seemingly telling new console purchasers to go with the PS3.
The sales figures for August now show the PS3 catching up, with the Wii now only outselling the PS3 by 3 to 1. With more eagerly awaited titles after a bit of a gaming drought for the PS3's launch, it looks like the Japanese are slowly being swayed back to Sony.
The question is; can the same be done here and in the US? The titles are coming (albiet slowly still) but do Sony need to do some hefty advertising and revert back to the methods they used for the original Playstation? Back then it was all sponsorship, bringing in big names and coming up with new ideas, the last one seemingly most lacking from the PS3 so far. But perhaps Home and Little Big Adventure might answer this, assuming Sony can get word out to the un-initiated.
Sony have to prove themselves this Christmas and if they don't have a larger userbase by the end of next year they could be in big trouble. However, things are starting to look up and all those problems with hardware at Microsoft can't hurt the sales of the PS3 with game shops everywhere I go now seemingly telling new console purchasers to go with the PS3.
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Cutting £75 off the price of the 60GB is a step in the right direction. It makes the 40GB version look pointless though. I'd rather pay £50 extra and be able to use my back-catalogue than save £50.
Come to think about it, i can see the 40GB version being popular amongst the masses who dont know crap and are just after a christmas toy. In that way it's probably good marketing by Sony for a console that still doesn't have a AAA title. I dont see any neutral hardcore gamer buying the PS3 for the games at the moment.
As for what was said about the PS2. It nearly killed my interest in gaming. Unoriginal sequel after unoriginal sequel and it really offered very little new after the PSOne. Still i'd rather cut off my hands than buy a console from Microsoft.
Come to think about it, i can see the 40GB version being popular amongst the masses who dont know crap and are just after a christmas toy. In that way it's probably good marketing by Sony for a console that still doesn't have a AAA title. I dont see any neutral hardcore gamer buying the PS3 for the games at the moment.
As for what was said about the PS2. It nearly killed my interest in gaming. Unoriginal sequel after unoriginal sequel and it really offered very little new after the PSOne. Still i'd rather cut off my hands than buy a console from Microsoft.
To the more casual gamer (or atleast the gamer who doesn't follow the industry like most of us do) I reckon this is only going to lead to confusion among consumers.
Atleast for those who don't want the expense of a 60GB HDD but still want backwards compatibility.
After all, are the average Game employees going to be able to advise accurately?
(When I worked in Cardiff, only half the staff seemed to know what they were talking about...and most of those were the part-timers)
What I do find amusing is that Wii's backwards compatibility covers all GameCube games...despite the GameCube not being a popular format in comparison to Xbox and PS2, as well as having the potential to play most of the NES, SNES, N64, MegaDrive, Turbografx and Neo Geo back catalogs.
Atleast for those who don't want the expense of a 60GB HDD but still want backwards compatibility.
After all, are the average Game employees going to be able to advise accurately?
(When I worked in Cardiff, only half the staff seemed to know what they were talking about...and most of those were the part-timers)
What I do find amusing is that Wii's backwards compatibility covers all GameCube games...despite the GameCube not being a popular format in comparison to Xbox and PS2, as well as having the potential to play most of the NES, SNES, N64, MegaDrive, Turbografx and Neo Geo back catalogs.
Nin wrote:
> Personally i like the backwards compatability though.
I think you'll find most gamers will agree. I think it's a major error for Sony to bring out two versions of the PS3 both with majorly different features for gamers.
Microsoft brought out three versions of the 360 but they all have one thing in common, they'll all play the same games, and if you want extras like online funtionality and high definition dvd playback you can pay extra.
Sony have done it butt-backwards and brought out two consoles, neither of which have features that every gamer needs (Blu-ray) and neither of which play the same catalogue of games, and good luck paying extra to get Sony add a backwards compatible add-on.
10 years from now historians will probably look back and say that the PS3 failed to become mainstream due to Sony trying to use it to consolidate their position in the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war and forgetting that it was all about the games.
Think of the major advances in the gameplay experience over the years and three spring to mind: Rumble, Backwards Compatibility and Online.
PS3 shipped without the first one, which was daft, and now they say they're listening to their customers and rectifying that. Now they're shipping a new PS3 without backwards compatibility. Might be wise for Sony to actually ask the marketplace what they'd like before doing these silly things.
I don't know what happened to Sony. PlayStation: fantastic little next-gen console. PS2: same again, did the business, even if online was a little disorganised. PS3: total balls-up from the word go.
> Personally i like the backwards compatability though.
I think you'll find most gamers will agree. I think it's a major error for Sony to bring out two versions of the PS3 both with majorly different features for gamers.
Microsoft brought out three versions of the 360 but they all have one thing in common, they'll all play the same games, and if you want extras like online funtionality and high definition dvd playback you can pay extra.
Sony have done it butt-backwards and brought out two consoles, neither of which have features that every gamer needs (Blu-ray) and neither of which play the same catalogue of games, and good luck paying extra to get Sony add a backwards compatible add-on.
10 years from now historians will probably look back and say that the PS3 failed to become mainstream due to Sony trying to use it to consolidate their position in the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war and forgetting that it was all about the games.
Think of the major advances in the gameplay experience over the years and three spring to mind: Rumble, Backwards Compatibility and Online.
PS3 shipped without the first one, which was daft, and now they say they're listening to their customers and rectifying that. Now they're shipping a new PS3 without backwards compatibility. Might be wise for Sony to actually ask the marketplace what they'd like before doing these silly things.
I don't know what happened to Sony. PlayStation: fantastic little next-gen console. PS2: same again, did the business, even if online was a little disorganised. PS3: total balls-up from the word go.
[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7030164.stm[/URL]
It's starting to look interesting now. Personally i like the backwards compatability though.
It's starting to look interesting now. Personally i like the backwards compatability though.
Everpain wrote:
> Personally, I think it's absolutely essential that PS3 fails to
> take off, a significant step in the so called 'format wars', and
> the return of the right of customers to genuinely choose the
> products that are right for them, rather than having the
> industry dictate the products they are allowed.
I never felt like that at all. Back when PS2 and PS1 dominated, I enjoyed the gaming world just as if not more than I do now.
> Personally, I think it's absolutely essential that PS3 fails to
> take off, a significant step in the so called 'format wars', and
> the return of the right of customers to genuinely choose the
> products that are right for them, rather than having the
> industry dictate the products they are allowed.
I never felt like that at all. Back when PS2 and PS1 dominated, I enjoyed the gaming world just as if not more than I do now.
But at the moment Sony need to squeeze every last drop of positive news they have.
Half the battle to sell consoles comes from media coverage, something Nintendo have done well by this time around due to the family friendly take all the newspapers have latched on to.
Half the battle to sell consoles comes from media coverage, something Nintendo have done well by this time around due to the family friendly take all the newspapers have latched on to.
Not sure you can read to much into these ratios. The reality is that all 3 consoles had sales diminish during the summer. The advantage the PS3 had is that Everybody's Golf came out which is a huge title for the japanese. And it was sold bundled with the console too. So what we've actually had is that the PS3 hasnt suffered the summer sales slump as badly as the other 2 because its had a major title propping up sales. When it gets into Oct and onwards, wouldnt surprise me to see the ratio back to 6 to 1.
Oh, and I'm sure the fact that Nintendo has been shifting units from Japan to NA has nothing to do with this.
Personally, I think it's absolutely essential that PS3 fails to take off, a significant step in the so called 'format wars', and the return of the right of customers to genuinely choose the products that are right for them, rather than having the industry dictate the products they are allowed.
I prefer Sony :)
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