Superboy

The Playstation 3 is not a bust. And the sad thing is, this kind of vitriol has been hurled at all Playstation systems every time they came out by the hardcore gamer community, die hard Nintendo fans, and videogame magazines.

When the PSone came out, everyone was wondering...can Sony do it? break into a market that is dominated by the "big two", a company with little to no experience developing a videogame system, and whose in-house development only churned out mediocre titles for the Super Nintendo and Genesis? And in the end, there was much that the Playstation offered by the end of its lifespan, and ironically, none of those games were the mainstream games that captured massive sales numbers. They were the hardcore games, the games with longevity, and most importantly, the games that, prior to the Playstation and its massive installed base, would NEVER have come to the United States because of the lack of profitability. Tomba, Klonoa, Einhander, the Tales games, Castlevania (unanimously one of the BEST 2D platform games to come out on ANY system in the past 10 years), the list goes on and on. While Nintendo wanted to restrain game development by restricting games to the cartridge format, and Sega wanted to focus on making 2D games only, it was Sony who wanted to push 3D - sometimes to a fault - and saw it as the future of games. And because of Sony's massive installed base and furiously competitive incentive for developers, we saw games like Resident Evil - a modern classic - and Final Fantasy VII, still the best RPG of the last few generations of games.

Then the PS2 came along, and after the deafening hype died down, there was only more and more outcries from the gaming community. The machine didn't work right, it broke, it was a conspiracy to get more installed base numbers, there were no good games, and there were just endless disappointments. But the formula worked again, and through it all, it was the hardcore gamer who benefited. Katamari Damacy wouldn't have come out any earlier than the PS2. Obscure Japanese games had no place in a US market that was finicky and action-oriented. But it was a blessing in disguise, and again, the irony was inescapable: Sony bringing games to the mainstream made life easier for the hardcore, who previously had to deal with expensive imports, or the more heartbreaking ROM format.

Now the PS3 is out and the same comments are being hurled - there aren't any good games, Sony's PR is horrible, the system is overpriced and does to many things, blah blah blah. But with the announcement of HOME, Sony has again proved that it can play this game, and succeed. It's bringing an experience to consoles that was once only reserved for PC users, and in a more solid-state and playable format. To say that this system is a failure is lunacy. How Nintendo fanboys can say that the system does not deliver good games immediately and be failure and yet wait years between Zelda games and say it was worthwhile is beyond me.

taffer

The pre-release skepticism of the PS1 was well-deserved. Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the video game market. Their only real competition was Sega, and Sega was not doing very well at all. Successfully entering a monopolistic market is very very difficult if not impossible. Sony did it, but the odds were highly against them.


I don't remember anyone saying that the PS2 would be a failure. Everyone was looking forward to it being as successful, if not more successful, than the PS1 after Sony's brutal ass-kicking of Nintendo. The only complaints I remember about the PS2 were the DRE issues which didn't start until well after the console launched. The DRE complaints were also well-deserved.

darkside

I think blaming all the problems for the PS3 on Nintendo fanboys is bullshit. If anything it was Nintendo fans that have been crapped on for the past 6 years. They were the ones ridiculed and told Nintendo was going the way of Sega.

Whatever problems Sony is having with the PS3 are fully the fault of Sony and their terrible PR.

Anubis2005X

I'm tired of all this PlayStation ridicule bullcrap. The only consoles I've ever owned have always been Nintendo systems (NES through the Wii). However, once I got an HDTV I wanted to dive into the HD realm. I picked up a PS3 because I wanted something all in one that would play my CDs, SACDs, DVDs, future Blu-ray Discs, and yes, games when some good ones came out. I haven't turned on my Wii in a couple of weeks because I've been having too much fun playing Resistance, trying new demos, watching BDs, etc. Does that mean that I've been converted to be a Sony fanboy now? Hell no! I definitely plan on firing up the Wii and playing more Zelda, etc. I'm just saying, yes the PS3 is expensive, but it's a great system in my opinion...

Ocelot

Nintendo fanboy and Sony fanboy, what's the difference... the numbers are pretty much even. What i do notice that in the fanboy posts, the comments are extremely negative or childish (same for those X360).

I was posting Wii sighting (the rumor thread) back in Jan/Feb, man, i can't believe the way people praise the Wii, it's like a god damn gold machine or something. Yeah yeah, i know it's hard to get one and hahaha PS3s are everywhere... And the "woohoo" whenever PS3 get a negative press (PR). I was listing the reasons to hold off the Wii till March and got "dissed" off the thread.

Anyway, back to this thread. I would rename the thread as "did you regret your PS3 purchase?" Afterall, true appreciation has to come from real owners. For those players only use the PS3, might feel the console under delivered for the cash they spent on it (due to the # of PS3 games and lack of exclusives, especially most PS3 games are avail on the cheaper X360). However, even within that group of players, there are people who understand the fact that the system is pretty new, need to give it some more times till cool games to kick in.

As for gamers who love movies, the PS3 is one cool machine. I, for one, no regret... It meets my needs perfectly. It's more solidly built than the X360, besides, i hate the concept of paying extra to play on-line... See, for people with busy lives, it's hard to come across a moment when friends are avail to play on-line and it's stupid to pay fees for that moment.

vhgong

With Heavenly Sword,Metal Gear,Final Fantasy,Devil May Cry coming soon.....i think its a safe bet to say that there is still hope. I don't care which systems go bust, i just want the games. For now, God of War 2 is kicking ass on the PS2......

spainlinx0

How anyone can say that Sony has the same amount of fanboys as Nintendo does just blows my mind. Sales alone should tell you that can't be the case. I have never, in person, have someone say they prefer Nintendo to Sony. Only on this board have I even met people who don't say that Nintendo is a kiddy system. At work, when I was in school, it was all about Sony. "Nintendo is for kids. They have no games. Sony kicks their ass." I would never even try to bash Sony. I would only try to tell them that both companies have put out good product, but they were so focused on their team that I didn't even bother continuing the conversation. Nintendo has actually been shit on for about 10 years, since the N64 debuted. So please spare me your "Poor Sony, wah wah wah" because Sony fanboys have been extremely obnoxious this last decade, and it's nice to see those people take a little heat.

Now, I like Nintendo, I don't hide that fact. I like them for their first party games. However I owned all three systems last generation, and actually probably split the time equally between all of them. I only own a Wii now, but not because I don't want the systems, but because I feel the other two are much too expensive. I have held off on buying a 360 waiting for a price drop, so there's no way I'm going to buy the PS3 at that price. I would love to own all three systems again, but I'm just not ready to dump $1,000 on two systems when I don't even know how often I'll be able to play them.

DodgingCars

Yeah.. I can definately see myself buying a 360 or PS3 in a year or so. But like I've said before I won't buy either until I can get the premium system for about $300 or less. Which means I'd probably end up with a 360, because I don't see the PS3 dropping $300 in a year. The 360 may very well be $300 (for the premium) or less in a year though.

darkside

I would say no to that. My wife and I have played Flow more than any of the Wii titles I have picked up and I have run the thing daily for movies. Definitely no regrets.

DamingR

I actually bought a PS3 and am very happy with it. Although I prefer my 360 for cross-platform games, F1, Motorstorm, and Resistance are all awesome games that I would not want to miss.

The PS3 is a flawed system, but it's library at 5 months is as good as the 360's was and the exclusive games (those 3) are better than the 360's (Kameo, PD0, PGR3) in aggregate.

To me, Oblivion was fun, but it was not mind-blowing at all.

Michael Corvin

Well you left off, arguably the best launch title, Condemned and to a lesser extent COD2 which was a "next-gen" exclusive since there were no other next-gen systems.

taffer

If you count the PC market, Condemned and Call of Duty 2 were technically not exclusive to the 360 since both games are also on PC.

maxfisher

This is not necessarily because someone is a 'fanboy' of anything. Last generation I had a PS2 and Gamecube and my PS2 got way more play. The generation before that, I only had a PS1 until I picked up an N64 at the very end of it's life cycle, just to check out the games I'd missed. Now I own a Wii and 360 and will probably not pick up a PS3 for a year or two, if at all.

I think Sony has seriously screwed up this generation. They either 1) were completely clueless about what the majority of their customers wanted or 2) chose to ignore what their customers wanted so that they could force Blu-Rays into homes and win an unrelated format war. I happen to think it's the latter and their consistently condescending, 'we're untouchable' attitude has almost totally erased any loyalty I had to their brand. I keep the 'woohoo'ing to a minimum here, because this isn't a forum for bashing consoles, but I honestly do get a small bit of satisfaction whenever I see something that takes Sony down a notch or two. Mainly because I hope it will teach them that it hurts their profits when they ignore the voices of their customers. Hopefully, it also serves as a warning to others in the market to do the same.

Josh H

Totally. There is no fanboyism here. Fuck, pricing aside, I'd rather have a PS3 right now that my Wii as there are at least 3 games I'd probably buy on it (Resistance, VF5 and Motorstorm).

I've been hugely disappointed with the Wii so far as the controls have underwhelmed me and Zelda is still the only game I'd every purchase at any price.

So its clearly not fanboyism when I say the PS3 launch has been a bust thus far, but its to early to write the system off. Sony's arrogance has just killed demand in it. $600 is too much for anyone that doesn't need/want/have use for a Blu-Ray player, so that alienates a ton of gamers--including the casual gamer market which is what was Sony's bread and butter with the PS1 and PS2.

Compound these with all the bullshit hype and just general crap PR and you further alienate gamers. I wouldn't pay $600 anyway, and after all the shit about rumble being a last gen feature and other such comments I'm now more likely to buy a 360 after a price drop for my second console. And this is despite the fact that the PS2 was my most played console last gen and the X-box the least played console I've ever owned.

That's why its a bust at this moment. Sure it's selling about the same as the 360. So fucking what? It's good that they're selling as much as the competitor who had a market base probably less than a quarter of the PS2 base last generation?

All sony had to do was put out a reasonably priced gaming machine, and it would be flying off shelves just like the Wii and they would have won this generation just as easily as last. The market was there's to lose, just like Nintendo with the N64. So far they've done just about everything they possibly could do to lose it. But its a bit too early to say it's lost for good.

Draven

The 360 is pretty established now and the Wii is selling every time it hits the shelf.

I don't know how anyone thinks the $600 Blu-Ray player known as the Playstation 3 will be able to topple either lead. I think the PS2 is still selling better, isn't it?

The consoles will only get cheaper, and I doubt the PS3 will be the same price as the 360 anytime soon. I don't know a single person trying to get a PS3 - they either have 360s or are trying to get Wiis (or are sticking with their PS2s). I cannot see any scenario that would force me to buy a PS3, and I owned all three consoles last generation. The only one I still play is my PS2, but they completely left me behind this generation. I have absolutely no interest in their system, and I've never said that about a major console since I started gaming with the Atari 2600.

GreenMonkey

I also don't want or even care about SACD playback, DVD deinterlacing/upscaling (Faroudja is a must on my projector -> either Faroudja DVD or 480i over HDMI and let my projector scale, which does it much better). Blu-ray is intriguing but I wouldn't pay more than $100 premium for it, tops, and I resent it being shoved in there as non-optional. It doesn't help that it slows down load times and is a possible reliability issue.

If they had launched at $400 without Blu-ray like the 360 I'd likely be a Wii / PS3 owner instead of a Wii / 360 owner.

OK, maybe not. Because there are no games I'm interested in yet. But I would have likely be a Wii/PS3 owner by the end of the year and I definitely wouldn't have gone the 360/Wii route.

Groucho

That's an entirely different question, and far removed from business-themed question posed by the original poster. I would suggest you start a new thread for that discussion. Whether or not a console is a "bust" or not has nothing to do with whether or not people enjoyed it. I'm sure there were plenty of people who enjoyed the Nintendo Virtual Boy, but that product was a "bust" nonetheless.

Michael Corvin

Well from the looks of this thread the folks that bought one and are loving it basically bought it for Blu-Ray and the folks that wanted the next Sony gaming system got hosed. Sounds like Sony is getting their wish.

All solid points. All they had to do was put out a comparable system to the 360 and this gen would have been theirs. Makes you wonder if all the hype around the Wii is a result of bad Sony press as well. The Playstation brand was the everyman's console and by forcing a $600 machine on the everyman, they basically gave Nintendo this gen on a platter(for now). Just turns out that not as many of Sony's loyalists "want to work a little more to afford it" as they thought blindly assumed. Even this thread alone shows many jumping ship to the competitors.

So the N64 analogy holds true as of now. Arrogance and misjudging your fanbase gets you nowhere fast.

pinata242

Maybe they've just been happier with the burger rather than the Kobe steak. After all, it is only lunchtime in the console wars and PS3 is a little heavy for right now.

Michael Corvin

Even funnier picturing the PS3 Grill.

slop101

What's killing Sony, and what they seem to forget (if they ever knew) is that they truly succeeded on cheap, affordable software/hardware. Very few people had a PS1 when it first came out. But as soon as the console's price dropped and games started hitting the $15-$20 range (no doubt helped by being disc-based instead of cartridges), they were selling like mad. IOW, the Playstation brand was built on $20 greatest-hits games, and affordable hardware. Even impoverished families could pick one up and a game here or there if they wanted to. Everyone had a PS1, and since the PS2 wasn't too different in pricing and game-types, it also succeeded.

This new fetish of Sony's for expensive hardware and games is in direct contention with their largest customer base.

jeffdsmith

All I know is that somewhere, right now, Osama is compiling his Linux kernal on his PS3 to launch the WMD's Saddam gave him; and for what? so some dumb kid can watch great hi-def movies and play games? Man we got priority issues...

Ocelot

Err, first, not every console owner is a fanboy (we don't know the ratio). Second, my fault, i wasn't referring to the # of console owners, i was referring to the number of posts i encountered. Actually, come to think of it, there were more Nintendo fanboy posts than Sony fanboy's...

Josh H

To forewarn you, members have been suspended/banned from this forum for calling other members fanboys in the past (myself included ), so you may want to shy away from tossing that label around here.

jeffdsmith

In my experience, the easiest way to spot a fanboy is to find the person(s) accusing others of being a fanboy.

Here's my question, if call myself a fanboy do I get suspended?