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Editorial: Is there Room For Xbox 360 And PS3 After Wii is Done?
By Andrew Groen: 2007-04-30 04:39:34
Okay, it was funny before, but now I’m just plain worried.
For the last 6 months or so nothing has been more popular in gaming’s private circle of friends than to rip on the PS3. It’s been a raucous good time to be sure; I myself in fact have enjoyed taking a few rips into Sony’s vulnerable hide. There’s really nothing more satisfying than watching the brash, cocky champion waltz into the ring without a care in the world and then get his a** knocked out. Now Sony will be the first to jump out and say that they aren’t in fact getting knocked out. They’ll say that their sales are only poor when put up next to the Nintendo Wii. Fair enough, it’s a perfectly reasonable argument. They’ll say that despite the Wii’s run away success, the PS3 is still Sony’s fastest selling console to date. This is all well and good until you consider that the market has doubled since the PS2 launched. So yeah, I should hope it would sell faster, with over twice as many consumers. The fact is though, the nightmare scenario I described in my last editorial is starting to become a reality. Nintendo is the only manufacturer out there who is in a decent position to lead the market going forward. Reports have been coming in lately describing the massive losses Microsoft has been taking in its Interactive Entertainment/Xbox division. MS has always said that they were in this for the long haul, but one has to wonder how long they’re going to want to stay in the console market once it becomes clear that Nintendo will own the market in this generation and most likely the next one as well. Will MS be willing to continue taking hits on the level they are now just so they can maybe have a chance at winning the console market just in time so they can be awarded gold at the 2022 Olympics? If Nintendo runs away with this console race don’t be too surprised if the Xbox 720 is the last we see from MS in the gaming realm. With the departure of Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ken Kutaragi earlier this week we saw a major chink in Sony’s chain. Major shifts are being made internally and it’s a blatant admission that things just aren’t working. Sony does not have deep enough pockets to afford a failure on the part of the PS3. If PS3 fails by any measure, I can see them giving gaming another shot with the next generation and PS4. Beyond that? Probably not unless PS4 is a big success. So that drops yet another console manufacturer from the list. This is all theoretical of course, but remember that time in The Day After Tomorrow when Dennis Quaid had a “theoretical” weather model that predicted rapid climate changes causing the world to end…and then it did…even faster than he predicted? Yeah dude, same deal here. Well, if I am to play the part of Dennis Quaid then it looks like I’m going to have to march from Philadelphia to New York City in the worst snow storm in the history of the world to save my babies. “I will come for you Xbox 360/PS3. Do you hear me? I will come for you.” You know, maybe hindsight is 20/20, but I never really understood the move Sony made when they turned their back on a 100+ million unit installed base with the PS2. Why did they need a third playstation? They had legions (millions upon millions, to be generally specific) of system owners waiting to buy games. When you’ve got a system that popular, it’s practically impossible for a game to have disappointing sales. They could have waited another year, hell maybe even two before they introduced the PS3. By then they really could have outshined the Xbox 360 and made it look like a hunk of junk. But now, the success of the PS3 rests in the hands of some shoddy first-party titles, and fleeting third-party exclusives. If Fall 2007 isn't kind-hearted to the PS3, then it may be the end of the line for the new big black box and Nintendo will once again sit at the top of the throne, unchallenged.
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