First off, "hardcore gamer" is thrown around way too often as if its an insult that people who might find a Nintendo game interesting are therefore not "hardcore gamers." A more apropos name for this type person is "graphics snob."
A hardcore gamer is a game player, through and through, so they'll play anything that's good on any system. A hardcore gamer will likely own all three systems by 2008. I'm not necessarily saying the PS3 blows chunks, the Wii rulez all, and 360 is more Microsoft
meh, rather that if I have $600 to spend today, I'm buying a Wii and a 360. The PS3 is not worth $600. Shit, it isn't worth $400, which was the very point of this thread when it was started last summer.
Sony's competition really isn't the 360 or the Wii right now, it's the 110 million PS2s they've already sold. They need to convince game players to upgrade, and so far they haven't. It is costing them. EA all but abandoned the PSP in August 2006 and abruptly switched to the DS. Since then, the DS has outsold the PSP 2:1. A company the size of EA would not undertake such a task lightly; they're the second leading software publisher in the world behind Nintendo. As of last week, EA bought an entire studio, announced that three PS3 titles have been postponed or cancelled, and announced fifteen new titles for the Wii and DS just for 2007, including Fight Night (kick ass control scheme there on Wii), Spore on the DS, and the Wii exclusive SSX Blur that comes out in a few weeks.
As goes EA, so goes the console war. The very thing that knocked Nintendo off their pedestal between the SNES and N64, EA bolting for Sony's PlayStation, is occuring again, only the other direction.
The point I am trying to make here isn't about which system is "better" or which is more powerful, but which one will developers go to and design games for. The overwhelming answer since the PS3 and Wii were introduced side by side at E3 in May 2006 has been that developers are choosing Wii, and it is the best investment you can make today, if planning longterm, because the software will be there and it will depreciate the least.
Tell me, is Resistance soooo good it's worth $700 to play ($600 on the PS3, $60 on the game, plus tax)? Won't you feel foolish when Sony cuts the price of the PS3 to $400 in a month because they can't let Nintendo run away with the market?
Sony is selling more PS2s than PS3s,
right now. The best titles on the horizon for at least the next three months on the Sony systems are also for the PS2.
The $600 price point was a disaster, and it will take over two years for Sony to recover. The problem in this is that Sony is selling the PS3 as a system for the next 10 years. 'It's future proof,' they say. BS. No tech is future proof. By the time Sony gets the production and price down to be competitive, MS will unveil the XBox 720 (or whatever) which will have twice the horsepower of the PS3.
Let's say also that Sony does cut the price to $500 or $400 or whatever, now they'll be losing OVER $500 per unit. Nintendo could cut the price of the Wii to $149 today and they'd still turn a profit on it.
Gaming markets don't support three systems. Either you have the PS2 and the Xbox (with the Gamecube a distant third) or you have the N64 and the PS (with the Saturn a distant third) or you have the Genesis and the SNES (with the NEC/TurboGrafx 16 a distant third).
Sony is a year late and over priced by at least 200%. They are the odd man out this time around. The only way the PS3 would've worked at launch was for the Wii to flop and for Sony to ride the momentum and catch Microsoft's one year head start. Didn't happen. Instead, Nintendo is blowing away both Microsoft and Sony
combined and will be the sole dominant hardware maker by Christmas 2007 in both the console markets and the handheld market.
It doesn't matter how great anyone here thinks the PS3 is today, or whether or not you already bought one. Unless you're going to go out and buy 3 million more of them, it won't sell. Some EB's already have used PS3s available for resale. The speculators supporting the secondary market on eBay are selling new PS3s at a loss, meanwhile the Wiis almost never sell on eBay for under $300, which is a 20% mark-up.
The consumers have spoken. The developers have spoken. They want the 360. They want the Wii. Whatever it is, it ain't the PS3.
Guy Wilday, Sega (Sega Rally)
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=157708&site=psm
There have been loads of grumbles and gripes about Sixaxis - the motion-sensing thing is a bit gimmicky, Wii does it better and that the rumble is hugely missed.
But it's not just gamers that think this - one of Sega's top development men has broken rank to offer his thoughts.
"Tilt control's not difficult to do," says Guy Wilday, head of Sega Racing Studio, on the possibility of tilty-pad gameplay being included in their new version of Sega Rally for PS3. "Fundamentally, though, the whole tilt control thing is rubbish. It's no compensation for rumble."
Dr. Andrew Garrett, EA (Command & Conquer)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1782706/posts?page=1
I make video games, currently working for Electronic Arts on the latest Command & Conquer. Last year, the prediction was that Sony would win the next-gen war, that the PS3 would be the dominant console, just like the PS2 was.
That is no longer the case. The extremely strong performance of the Wii, combined with the miserable performance of Sony has revised pretty much everyone's expectations. Right now, most of us here think the 360 will be on top for this generation, with the battle for second place between Sony and Nintendo (and that's a major shock, as we'd nearly written Nintendo off for the non-handheld market.) Most of us still think Sony will beat off Nintendo, simply due to the older graphics on the Wii, but it's not a sure thing.
My opinion - get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there's a big change in the near future.
Gabe Newell, Valve (Half Life)
http://www.techsmessage.com/2007/01/17/valve-ps3-a-total-disaster/
Gabe Newell, head of Valve software, best known for the Half Life games has labelled the PS3 as a "total disaster".
"The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think It's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted," Newell reportedly said in an interview with Game Informer.
He continued: "I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a do over. Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it'."
It?s a different story with Nintendo, however, Newell revealing he really likes "everything that Nintendo is doing."
"The happy story is the Wii," he said. "I'm betting that by Christmas of next year, the Wii has a larger installed base than the 360. Other people think I'm crazy."
Clint Hocking, Ubisoft (Splinter Cell)
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=16847
Ubisoft Montreal's creative director has spoken of his disappointment with Sony's next-gen offering, claiming the Japanese giant is adopting a "me too" approach by duplicating ideas from other consoles.
He also criticised the industry's drive to significantly boost videogame visuals with each new generation of hardware, arguing that the focus on graphics is a "fundamental problem of approach" that turns game developers into factory workers.
Hocking claims that being forced to spend valuable development time on textures and art shading is detrimental to the creation of entertaining videogames and something that in most cases (referring to the current low adoption of HD televisions) consumers won't even be able to appreciate.
Hocking was full of praise for Nintendo's effort, however, commending the new Wii motion-sensing controller which he believes can offer new inspiration for developers and create emotional experiences more powerfully than enhanced graphics.
Should I go on ... ? There are HUNDREDS of similar articles all over da Interwebs (except at the PS3 sites where the fanbois all say Resistance is teh r0x0rs and Gears of War is da lamerz!!111!!shiftone!).
