Where the PS3 Stands Now 293
Phil Harrison and 1up's Luke Smith had a chat about the current positioning of the PlayStation 3, and it makes for some interesting reading. A quietly confident Harrison discusses the future of game distribution online, their attitude towards competition in the console market, and clarifies a few things about the potential for PS3 price cuts. The previous discussion about price cuts was apparently a big misunderstanding. "PH: Well, do you know what [Takao Yuhara] said was, cost reduction, not price drop, and there's a big difference between cost reduction and price drop. So, that I believe is where the confusion came from. Obviously, we are investing our money in making PlayStation 3s cheaper to manufacture -- that's part of our business plan. 1UP: You're not going to pass the savings along? PH: When we can, when there are savings to pass along to the consumer, we would obviously choose to do that. That's the business model. 1UP: Wait? You guys are doing this to make money? Really? PH: That's videogame hardware 101."
Cost reduction (Score:5, Informative)
A risky strategy, when you consider the deep pockets of Microsoft (also selling their console at a loss), and that Nintendo is actually making a profit on their consoles. But it's still early in the cycle for this generation of consoles. Personally, I'm cheering for Nintendo. But it's MUCH to early to count Sony out of the game.
Re:PS3 Kicking Ass On All Fronts (Score:3, Informative)
Absolutely silent operation - bravo Sony engineering!
Ah, yes...Sony engineering, which also gave us the Square button on the PSP and told us that we were wrong for not liking it. Also, the analog nub on the PSP freaking sucks. I'm glad there's only one, because the one that's there isn't very sensitive at all. You try making a circular motion with it sometime - it doesn't work. There are two speeds possible with it (all the way out and part of the way out), and the angular refinement is pretty shoddy. It's very hard to go from, for example, W to WNW to NW. You'll generally skip straight over WNW. Ever try web-browsing on the thing?
BluRay has won the format war with only a couple months after the PS3 release BluRay already outselling the dying HD-DVD format 3-1. And one of the remaining HD-DVD studios just jumped ship to BluRay today. Pretty much all that remains is for Universal to throw in the towel.
Nice for you not to provide a link here where you did everywhere else. Also, describing this as a format war is like calling the Falkland Islands War a war. The remaining 99.99% of the world didn't even notice it was happening. Also, Sony dumping its crappy back-catalog of movies into Blu-Ray, causing a large chunk of new titles to be made available, is not what I call winning - it's what I call "stacking the deck". Despite it's apparent capacity advantage, Blu-Ray is getting lower marks in the picture quality department, which, if you weren't keeping track, is kind of important to the people willing to drop $2000+ on a TV and $500+ on a high-def DVD player.
PS3 has the top selling game in Japan now - Japan will be a fierce battle between Sony and Nintendo. Nintendo really needs to work on their release schedule. Wii owners are getting restless as the novelty of games like Wii Sports is wearing off.
"Top-selling" is hardly the way to put it. With over double the install base of the 360, it hasn't managed to come close to outselling Blue Dragon. Watch next week, as Virtua Fighter 5 drops back to the mid-20's, while Wii Sports and Wii Play continues to sell the same amount each week (which proves that the novelty isn't exactly wearing off).
Early previews are going gaga over Motorstorm with another online win for Sony with another completely lagfree game.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1103341 [hardforum.com] [hardforum.com]
No...RECENT previews are saying "Hey, this doesn't suck anymore". Early previews said it was complete and utter shit. Oh, and hey - that's the one the Japanese got! I'm sure they love the PS3!
The Playstation Network is cranking out all sorts of very cool indy games like Flow and GripShift and we are only a couple months into adding content.
No...the PlayStation Network is releasing a port of a Flash game that's been out for over a year, and another not-so-great Sony-first-party junker. Oh yeah - and the rubber ducky game.
The one issue with HD tvs and PS2/PS1 games has been fixed and PS3 owners have rock solid 99 percent backwards compatibility with the giant library of PS2 and PS1 games.
It's not 99%. Closer to 90%. Music games are still broken. Also, the "one issue" is actually two issues, one of which has been fixed. Ask a 720p-set owner if they're happy that they can't play in 1080i anymore.
Virtua Fighter just about to hit the shelves.
It did hit the shelves in Japan. It landed with a thud. See above.
GDC sounds like Sony is going to have some pretty big announcements with even more
Re:PS3 Kicking Ass On All Fronts (Score:3, Informative)
1) Everytime I try the PS3 in a department store, it freezes or is already froze due to overheating.
2) Silent operation? Not sure about that. But, have you seen the insides of a PS3? It's 50% heatsink. Sure, it might run quiet, but even with the massive heatsink, it still overheats...and the trade off is the size of the system. It's absolutely massive.
3) Last I checked, my local target had 5 PS3's, the EB across the street actually has a unit they've had since the first of the year, most stores I go to have "PS3 now in stock" signs (coincidentally right next to the "Wii currently unavailable signs"). Face, it, the PS3 is in stock everywhere. People who say otherwise live in an area that's having a spike in sales/popularity or an area that's getting below average allocations. FUD.
4) BlueRay has far from won the format war. HD DVD was winning the war by a long shot until recently. It's yet to be seen whether the current spike in BlueRay sales has anything to do with the free movie Sony was giving away with PS3's or any of the current buy one get one free BlueRay DVD incentives that have been going on (most definitely Sony throwing fuel on the fire to hype their format...they're dead in the water if it fails).
5) Virtua Fight 5 is already out in Japan. While it did top the charts with 48,346 in sales, It was only 3000 units ahead of Wii Sports, a game that's been on the market for over 2 months. Opening week big sellers typically always go to the 100k sales range the first week.
6) Europe is not going crazy with preorders. This is FUD. If you want a UK news site's opinion on this, try this article: http://news.spong.com/article/11800 [spong.com]
7) You say "PS3 has the top selling game in Japan now " and then you say "Virtua Fighter is almost out." Are you just making things up, because Virtua Fighter IS out and IS the top selling game in Japan. Again, however, only by 3k units, being trailed closely by a game that's been out for months.
FUD FUD FUD
The PS3 will have it's heyday in the future when the price comes down and there's compelling titles. Until then, I suggest that you don't fall for Sony marketing FUD and live up to the reality that it's underperforming in the marketplace right now, even by it's skeptics predictions.
Re:The price is killing it (Score:2, Informative)
Well, that might be your problem. Twilight Princess is very much a last-gen game in terms of everything but the Wiimote control (it spent years in development on the GC before a last-minute switch to Wii), and Dead Rising has ... problems with non-HDTVs that can severely hamper your enjoyment of the game. Neither is a graphical powerhouse (though Dead Rising is deceptive -- the non-cut-scene graphics aren't stunning like Gears of War, but then you realize you can have a thousand zombies on screen along with all of the breakable environment bits without any slowdown). I definitely enjoyed both (I actually enjoyed Dead Rising more than TP, since I got bored with TP about a 3rd of the way into the game), but I wouldn't really hold up either as the pinnacle of next gen game design for either console.
For the 360, I recommend you pick up Gears of War, Viva Pinata, and Oblivion (if you haven't played it on PC, of course). Those three games are some of the most graphically impressive (even on an SDTV), and the gameplay is diverse enough (stop-and-pop shooter, pokemon-like Sims game, open-ended action/rpg) to satisfy different gaming desires. If you're into racing, I'd also recommend you keep an eye out for Forza 2 in the next couple months (I think the release date is May something?), which should blow away anything Gran Turismo has to offer on the PS3.
For the Wii, there's really only one choice, and it's not about graphics. Since the Wii is all about the Wiimote, any representative game will have to do something innovative with it. I've been told Rayman: Raving Rabbids is excellent in that respect, but I haven't gotten around to picking that up because I already have the definitive Wii game -- Warioware: Smooth Moves. This is the game that will show you what is possible with the Wiimote (some obvious methods are obvious, others seem completely nuts, but all work beautifully). The game is a series of 5-second minigames, so that may not float your boat. I enjoy it because I can play for a couple minutes and then go do something else. But you must own this game if only to satisfy yourself that yes, somebody out there understands the Wiimote and can do great and innovative things with it.
Last I checked, both Sony and Microsoft had in-house game development divisions. While you're right that the rep who is doing the interview doesn't make games, that rep doesn't sell hardware either. They're just spokespeople (sometimes bad like Kutaragi, sometimes good like Reggie, and sometimes neutral like Peter Moore).
Re:PS3 Kicking Ass On All Fronts (Score:4, Informative)
*please mod informative, please mod informative*
Re:Landed with a thud? At number 1 (Score:2, Informative)
You should research a little before making patently FALSE statements.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/15/japanese-softwa
One wonders why you care so much about all the consoles doing OK?
Re:Must be doing something right (Score:3, Informative)
Where the 20GB XBox 360 has a (pretty constant) sales rank of 5 and the Nintendo Wii has a sales rank of 4 according to eproduct wars [eproductwars.com].
No, it demonstrates how stupid people are because you can get a 60GB [gamestop.com] or 20GB [gamestop.com] PS3 from Gamestop.com for the regular price.
Re:Landed with a thud? At number 1 (Score:5, Informative)
Last week Lets Make a J-League Pro Soccer Club 5 sold 108,250 and Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On sold 81,000 in their first week
The week before Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sold 220,750 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms Wars DS sold 81,750 in their first week
And the week before that hack G.U. Vol. 3 sold 132,750 and Wario: Master of Disguise sold 94,000 in their first week
These are very 'average' games in Japan selling 2 to 4 times as much as Virtual Fighter 5 did
Re:First game is here (Score:5, Informative)
http://xboxyde.com/news_3903_en.html [xboxyde.com]
Re:PS3 Kicking Ass On All Fronts (Score:4, Informative)
The hidden contradiction here is that the top selling game in Japan this past week was Virtua Fighter, it's not just about to hit the shelves.
More importantly, it only sold ~3000 more copies than Wii Sports. Wii Sports has been on the market for 11 weeks now, and on its release week sold slighly most than three times as many copies as Virtua Fighter did. If the novelty of Wii Sports is dying, we can only assume that the novelty of the first four incarnations of Virtua Fighter is as well.
I will grant you the point that Nintendo does need to work hard to keep their release schedule flowing smoothly, but this is true of any system with or without a special controller.
Re:PS3 Kicking Ass On All Fronts (Score:2, Informative)
last week. There was 1 PS3 game, 0 Xbox games, and 3 Wii games. Meanwhile there
were tons of DS games in the top 30.
It is sad when a "console's big name title" can barely take the top spot from a
game that has been out for 2 months.
PS2 - 2
PSP - 1
PS3 - 1
NDS - 23
WII - 3
Top 10:
01. (PS3, Sega) Virtua Fighter 5 - 48,346 / NEW
02. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 45,897 / 1,004,555
03. (WII, Nintendo) Wii Play - 36,090 / 879,432
04. (NDS, Nintendo) More Brain Age - 32,800 / 3,963,712
05. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 29,026 / 4,118,078
06. (PS2, Capcom) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 27,519 / 304,113
07. (NDS, Nintendo) Wario: Master of Disguise - 26,815 / 185,695
08. (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On - 26,804 / 106,212
09. (NDS, Marvelous Interactive) Luminous Arc - 25,676 / NEW
10. (PS2, Sega) J-League Pro Soccer 5 - 24,468 / 131,541
Next 20:
11. (NDS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World
12. (NDS, Nintendo) Picross DS
13. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training
14. (NDS, Nintendo) Mario Kart DS
15. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age
16. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Diamond
17. (NDS, Nintendo) English Training
18. (NDS, IE Institute) Kanji Brain Test 2M
19. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokémon Pearl
20. (NDS, Sega) Sangokushi Taisen DS
21. (NDS, Sega) Love+Berry
22. (PSP, Capcom) Monster Hunter Portable
23. (NDS, Square-Enix) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker
24. (NDS, Nintendo) Hotel Dusk: Room 215
25. (NDS, Rocket Co.) Kanji Test
26. (NDS, Bandai-Namco) Heisei Board of Education DS
27. (WII, Nintendo) Wario Ware Smooth Moves
28. (NDS, Nintendo) 1000 Recipes
29. (NDS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad
30. (NDS, Sega) Puyo-Puyo!
(borrowed from http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1425
original sources include http://www.m-create.com/jpn/s_ranking.html [m-create.com] and http://eg.nttpub.co.jp/ranking.html [nttpub.co.jp])
I have played the PS3 and I am not impressed. I wanted to like it... But after
trying it I am more likely to get an Xbox360 for my HD needs. Resistance Fall of Man
was a huge disappointment. Decent graphics, awful plot... I preferred Red Steel (Wii)
which is not even a great shooter. Heck I was playing Wii sports non-stop for a week.
So far I would have to say Wii has won first round hands down. Microsoft has a chance
to do well with the 360 if they keep the games coming, and Sony is in a world of hurt
unless they somehow get everyone and their mother to buy their $600 clunker. Even a
couple of really stellar games would have trouble selling the platform to me now.
I never wanted to get a Xbox but Sony really didn't give me much of a choice.
Re:The PS3 stands proudly (Score:2, Informative)
US
X360: 5,470,000
Wii: 1,810,000
PS3: 1,160.000
What's interesting to note there is that in the US, the PS3 and the Wii aren't really that far apart.
Japan
X360: 350,000
Wii: 1,610,000
PS3: 700,000
In Japan there's almost a million more Wiis sold. Japan loves themselves some Nintendo. Of course they also love Tentacle Porn and soiled panty dispensers.
Others
X360: 3,220,000
Wii: 1,290,000
PS3: Not Available Yet
It'll be interesting to see how the PS3 does in Europe/Australia/The UK. My guess is that it would match the US sales.