What exactly happened to the Playstation 3? - Page 6

This is where HDTV becomes useful

With 1080p and 6 players, each player gets 640 x 540 resolution. That's more resolution than the Wii can output total.

(I don't know how 7 players will be laid out, each player will get either 360 x 540 or more likely 640 x 320).

However, because any good HDTV is progressive, the Wii WILL still look a lot better on an HDTV. I played Mario Kart 64 on a 720p HDTV, and while it was funny how blocky everything looked, it was much easier to play on than an interlaced SDTV.


Oh man, don't get me started on how much I hate Oblivion

While we're all arguing about console sales, I cam across this list.

Wow, I knew the DS was selling well, but not that well! More units sold than all the other consoles and the PSP combined, including the Wii!

It's not even close to the PS2.

That's true, but the current disagreement was over the 'new' generation IIRC.

Hmmm, I would have though the NES sold the most...

Then why would you bring up the DS? It's three years old. It got to where it is slowly and steadily—3 million its first Christmas, 12 million its second, 20 million its third.

The Wii and the PS3 are already beating it.

I was just surprised that Nintendo has sold ~40 million DS systems. The chart was for the current generation of hardware; hence the PS2, Gamecube and GBA were not on it, even though they are still available.

I thought it was somewhat relevant, in that the graphically inferior system that had innovative game play mechanics (ie, dual screens, touch screen, shake, etc.) won out over the technologically superior but higher priced hardware (PSP). I realized there is a difference between hand helds and consoles, and Nintendo already had the hand held market dominated with the GBA, (why buy a PSP when all your existing GBA games will work in the DS?) and the PSP's movie format was a bust, which probably lost sales.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a big fan of Sony since the PS. But neither of their new offerings (PSP or PS3) have much attraction for me. Everyone has their own opinion of what they want from a game system.

Well, the main reason is that the DS has excellent games on it. I don't have it, but I'm really anxious to play the New Super Mario Bros., Yoshi's Island DS, Super Princess Peach, Phantom Hourglass, etc.

The only game on the PSP I'm interested in is GTA Vice City Stories, which, sadly, doesn't look like it's going to get a PS2 port like Liberty City Stories did.

Keep in mind that it's ALWAYS the games that decide which system wins, which is why this generation is so exciting: because there's so many fewer exclusives, I expect, 6 years from now, for the PS3 and the 360 to pretty much split things 40-40, with the Wii keeping a solid 20%, mainly from it's excellent launch. The industry is getting much more fractured, which hopefully will be good for competition.

Yah but how many people have 1080p screens? Yes, you can argue that in a 5 years many more people will have it but if the PS3 does bad now why would someone develop a game for it when they could develop of the Wii or 360 instead? Then, as someone said later, it doesn't have as many good games and games decide who wins.

Also while 640 x 540 resolution is nice and all my friend has a very small screen with 1080i (not sure about p, but res. is the same anyways). So you still need a good sized screen....6 4x4 inch screens doesn't sound very appealing no matter how good those screens look.

Then again I have a friend with the largest TV i've ever seen...even in stores. So it would be great with his tv.

Haha yah Oblivion is hard to get into it and hard to like for a while. I've learned that if I play about 2 hours a week at the most it stays fun but anymore and I end up hating it. Can't deny it's a good game even if you do hate it

XBOX sales haven't budged in two months and PS3 sales are still growing strong, particularly from a surprisingly successful European launch that just moved half a million units. The PS3 will probably catch up to the XBOX sometime in 2008.

Besides, as per usual, it's trouncing XBOX sales in Japan, where half the good games get made anyway, so I'm not worried about games not getting made for it.

I don't think there'll be as many exclusives this round, though, the PS3 won't be the success the PS2 was.


I really don't think your friend has a 14 inch HDTV.

But anyway, the point remains that HD is infinitely superior for multiplayer games, which is my number one disappointment with the Wii since I love Mario Kart so much.


There you go. Play at his house.


Nope, I can easily deny it's a good game. The plot's the stupidest thing I've ever heard and makes no attempt to suspend your disbelief; the battle system is incredibly awkward, slow, and has no strategy; and the graphics, while alright, completely lack any kind of imagination or art direction.

Eh? Anyone and everyone into RPG has been more or less recommending Oblivion to me... I'm more racing and FPS though, only played StarWars:KnightsOldRepublic2 because the RPG element would make sense: force "spells" and weapons (light saber, blaster, etc.), plot that I would kinda give a damn about... (not knocking RPG but Fantasy as a genre is not my thing. Sci Fi-ish, yes, but more RTS or FPS if sci-fi or sci-fi/horror.

So I haven't touched the Oblivion thing so far. You no recommend? Is no good? Ya? Why? People say teh graphics are teh beautiful -- that's why you need some serious hardware for outdoor scenes even 2xAA and stuff.........

Are we talking about the Xbox now or the 360? lol By not budging do you mean the rate that people are buying them aren't growing or that the amount that they have sold isn't moving much? Because the in the past 2 weeks 2 of my friends bought 360's and another is planning on getting on soon.

Of course the 360 will be trounced in Japan. And yes they make many good games there for the PS3. Many of which have counterparts on the 360 which are nearly as good, just as good, or better. And then how many of those others come to the States or even Europe?

Hahaha yah I didn't bother doing the math so I just made up a number. But the point is the same. I think it's a 23inch Samsung. Hard enough to play with 2 people and we go to a different non-hdtv to play with any more.

Of course HD is superior for MP. It is for SP too.

Yah we would go to his house except for a few reasons...
1) Hes always doing something somewhere and is never home
2) He doesn't have a 360 or ps3
3) If there was a third reason I would put it here.

Shadow

Oh btw I used to be a huge fan of the PS but was heavily disappointed by the PS2 and saw potential in the Xbox so waited it out for that.

Now heres a question. We are always talking about which system will win the console war but which one do you prefer personally?

Lots of people love Oblivion.

But I'm not sure how many of these people will accept any type of terribly made filler as long as it's hyped well enough. Oblivion falls too far into the realm of games that aren't really fun but kind of addictive anyway, for me.

I would not recommend it, but I haven't gotten very far, so don't take my word for it. Instead, Google it. ;D

I'm playing through FF12 right now, kind of weird for a Final Fantasy and not as good as I was expecting, since it was from the guy that did the amazing Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's ok. I just played Jade Empire, which is a little old, but I never had an XBOX, so I just got it not too long ago. Jade Empire is made by BioWare, who made KotoR I (KotoR II just wasn't as good), and they make awesome games. Shorter and a little more restrictive than Oblivion, but so much more interesting.

I loved Oblivion - I still might start it up again one day to finish the assassin quests, and to buy the new expansion. I thought that the graphics were awesome - you can make a lot more realistic and varied (ugly even) players than you can in Wow, for example.

I wish that I played the PC version instead of the 360 version, because on the PC version you can become a Lich or Werewolf via DIY plugins. The main storyline was kind of dull, so I skipped it on my 2nd run through though.

Sorry, the 360. By not budging, I mean they've been stuck at around 9.5 million units while the PS3 and Wii are zooming towards them. My point is that they have a huge install base right now, but less growth potentialmost of the people who want an XBOX at it's current price already have one.


According to Wikipedia, 10 of the top 15 PS2 games are Japanese.


I like the Wii and the PS3 the best personally But I only have an XBOX 360.

I think the Wii is a bit expensive right now, so I'm going to wait and see if there's any must have games for it. I haven't played it, but I'm excited about the direction they're taking with the controller. And as mentioned, I'm pretty pissed off by just _how bad_ the graphics are.

Then the PS3 wins on the graphics front, and because it's not as loud as my XBOX 360 is. Last generation, I bought multi-platform games for the GameCube, and later the XBOX 360, because the graphics were much better versus the PS2. That's switched this time around.

Hmm that's interesting. Just gives me the feeling that the Wii will win overall and the 360 and PS3 will be split. Why will the Wii win? Because many people will buy both a PS3 and 360 (when prices drop) and then the amount of people who buy one will be nearly even. Not really a "winner" but the then later at a $150 price tag how many of those people will buy one of those too for the heck of it? I know I'm considering buying a PS2 now that it is so cheap.



Oh yah I wasn't disagreeing with you at all, but how many of those games come to the US?



Personally I would probably like the PS3 except it's games don't appeal to me and XBL is amazing. I can spend an hour just looking for things and talking to friends over XBL while watching clips or DLing demos.

The Wii is something I plan on getting later as well. Seems a thing that would be much more fun with the family.

I don't know how much it wins by on the graphics front...I havn't really seen two side-by-side comparisons of the same game that is on all systems at the same place with the same tv's (and having me set them up to make sure they are set up correctly). I think the graphics card isn't quite as good but the processor is great...but not so much for games. So who really knows. The 360 has more general processing power I know while the PS3 has more of those floating point thingys.


Regarding Oblivion, most of the appeal comes from the fact that it is so open-ended. It's like "Well I just feel like being a hunter and hunting deer for a while. And RP as if I needed to eat and sleep and such." Or you can follow the questlines exactly.

What is RP ? You mean role play? Oh okay, cool.
Yeah, Kotor2 was a good RPG, I never RPG... I missed out on Kotor1.

Now on NFS:MostWanted[Blacklist climbing!!] and GhostRecon:AdvancedWarfighter[extra realistic, with still FPS fun elements]

Yup RP=Role PLayer lol. I never played KOTOR2...only KOTOR1

I can't stand the NFS games, I'm more of a Forza guy. GRAW is a great game...and GRAW2 came out about a week or so ago.

See on the PS3 I just can't find games like Forza or GRAW (and don't say GT...as soon as you have cars that can fly it isn't a simulator racing game anymore. And SOCOM or w/e isn't anywhere near as fun as GRAW) which is why I think the 360 will win this round.

Sony news...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aiP0oocLk1KY
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6202106....s&subj=6202106

C.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/ps3-sales-double-japan
http://kotaku.com/5102223/weekly-ps3...holds-top-spot

http://www.edge-online.com/news/dest...-cancelled-ps3
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/29/ps...elopment-cost/

C.

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons...9418&end=39782

The 360 and the PS3 were selling roughly the same number of units until this November, when the 360 jumped to roughly double the PS3.

The Playstation workers were not impacted by the Sony layoffs.

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=2648

They'll probably wait for Killzone 2 before the knives come out for the games people.

If Sony is an unsinkable ship, the PS3 is the iceberg that is causing the a huge leak down the side.
Cash is leaking out through the PS3 hole faster than anyone expected.

In Summer, the PS3 project had cost the company $3B which works out at about $150 per customer. To pick up pace, Sony needs to slash the cost of the hardware. But it literally cannot afford to do that. You can't dig your way out of a hole.

There were many many mistakes by Sony that led to this point, but the two most important are:
1) The adoption of the Cell processor
2) The linking of Blu Ray to the console.

Cell caused the console to be expensive to manufacture.
BluRay caused the console to be expensive and was shipped late
Cell increased the cost of games development on the console.
The high retail cost of the console impacted on sales of the console.
For developers, the high cost of development combined with the smaller audience meant fewer games were created.

To counter this,
Sony has subsidized the console at retail, and paid subsidies to key developers to create exclusive high profile titles. This has allowed it to buy market share, but driven up the debt.


C.

I recently made the choice between the XBOX 360 and PS3 and opted for the PS3.

While the XBOX 360 has more games, all the games I really cared about were on both platforms so that wasn't really an issue. I also heard through the grapevine that Sony will be sunsetting the PS2 which will free up game developers to focus solely on the PS3 - which is bound to expand their selection. The benefit of the PS3 being a BlueRay player was also factored in. When it came down to it, I could really see no compelling reason for me to buy a 360.

I don't think that Sony has it as bad as all that - Microsoft started with a lead of 8 million consoles due to its early launch, and Sony has sold on par with Microsoft since then (i.e. Microsoft still has that 8 million lead).

Also Microsoft losses on its game division dwarf Sony's losses, and Sony is still making a profit on the PS2. The PS3 is a much better piece of hardware than the junky 360 is - I have both.

Microsoft certainly made some bad decisions too. Not least the choice to save a dollar on a certain chip resulting in the spectacular red ring of death.

On the hardware the 360 is neutral. Sometimes making a profit, sometimes making a loss. - Something similar with the entertainment division as a whole.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/25/th...-profit-again/
http://www.totalvideogames.com/Xbox-...fit-12974.html

The PS3, on the other hand, has lost 3 billion. PS2 revenues are irrelevant now.

http://kotaku.com/5018899/sony-lost-...cing-imbalance

C.

They didn't start making a profit until they first lost $8 billion - they have a ways to go before they shave that down to match Sony's $3 billion. In fact, comparing apples to apples, Sony's loss would be less because of the enormous profit they made on the PS2 (that $8 billion is first gen xbox + 360. Sony is still in the black when you add PS2+PS3).

Microsoft has a lot more safety due to its cash horde, and its other businesses that kick off cash, but I doubt that Sony will ever lose as much money as Microsoft has so far in the games business.

The first XBox was an unmitigated disaster. So many stupid decisions.
But MS could afford to make that mistake. And they did learn some lessons.

I am not sure Sony *can* afford to lose so much cash.
Projecting forwards, it looks unlikely that the PS3 will ever go into profit.

C.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/sony...lanet-has-legs

These all came out about the same time.

Gears 2 (360) = 3.3m
COD5 (360) = 2.4m
Fable 2 (360) = 1.8m
Little Big Planet. 0.9M - which is a pity because it's a great game.


C.

Which is a pity because it's the greatest game! This will changed though. This game is going unnoticed by a lot of folks, but they are missing out. Unlike basically every other game to come out this year, this one is genuinely something 'new'.

I think the sole reason to the failure of the PS3 compared to the PS2 is its BUTT-UGLY design.

I think everybody here underestimates the cool factor of a nice console. The wii is awsome. The xbox 360 is at least not ugly. But the PS3 is the nastiest thing ever to come out of the sony labs.....

Not true. How many other consoles Knock out the Fat?

C.

This PS3 is far from a failure. It's currently outselling the 360 and costs more. And besides, it's sweet looking hardware. I own one, and love it.

The PS3 is not "nearly", anywhere near as fat as most people think. And unlike the 360 it doesn't have a large Borg-like (ship) external power brick, with WiFi standard (built-in). It's slick looking in person, and works very well with any modern (black) TV set-up. Yo!

What are you smoking?

The PS3 is very slick looking:



Compare that to this awful looking thing:



Which comes with this?!! (below):

YUCK!



A real world example:

I'd almost rather the PS3 power supply was a brick... i think it's the source of most of the heat the PS3 gerates... and that's a LOT of heat! Forces you to leave the PS3 all by itself on the shelf... constantly getting after the kids about leaning the game boxes up against the ventilation of the PS3.

Looks?... I'm not real impressed there... the front of the PS# is the ONLY chrome in the whole electronics stack.

Otherwise, I'm pleased with the PS3... GREAT games... doubles as a BluRay player... set your coffee mug on top and it stays warm!

I think it is beautiful. Plus it does not need that ugly wireless adapter for an extra $100 that you plug in the back of the 360. And they made the hard drive easy to replace on the PS3...

It is a way better unit overall - you can even run it 48 hours straight in a 130 degree sauna. Try that with a 360.

No, what are you smoking? It amazes me that someone who can appreciate the aesthetics of Macs could ever refer to the PS3 as "very slick" They are seriously, seriously ugly.

And what's the Xbox 360 got to do with whether or not the PS3 is ugly? Going by pictures and as long as the brick is out of sight, I'd say the 360 is better looking than a PS3 (but still ugly), but I've never seen a 360 in the flesh so I can't be sure.

Whatever it is, it's clearly not as strong as what you're smoking. Own one, and then make an informed opinion, please.

Thank God you don't work for them. No offence. We PS3 fans often tout this as a bonues, I prefer it all-in-one, and I "mega-hate" power-bricks!

If you want to leave the PS3 under the TV the secret is to keep it about 2" away from the right side wall. And the power-brick is not the main reason for the heat, removing it wouldn't have a huge impact on that. That would merely annoy every new PS3 owner.

The PS3 always reminds me of the Spiderman films. Seems like a marketing thing. I'm not impressed with the appearance much, it's pretty bulky. Here's a random guy holding one:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...ps3holding.jpg

Given that the power brick from the XBox is external and massive, it's not bad by comparison but compared to the PS2 slim and the Wii, it's pretty big.

I think Sony made a lot of mistakes and they may not recover. A $3 billion loss is very bad and the consoles are still double the price of the 360 and that's without PS2 compatibility, which reduces the game library dramatically.

I think Blu-Ray was one of the biggest problem. Considering how much the drives cost, using standard DVD would have pushed the PS3 much closer to the XBox. They had to do it though or they may have lost the format war to HD-DVD.

DVD titles on Amazon still outnumber Blu-Ray 100 to 1. It's not surprising that's the case but it highlights how insignificant Blu-Ray is at present.

The PS3 sales have gained some ground and as the prices continue to drop, they will increase but I think it will take at least another year and a sub-£200 price point to overtake Microsoft:

http://www.vgchartz.com/