Ever since the so-called “next-gen” video game console wars kicked in with the release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in November 2005 Sony has had to watch its console champ PlayStation be usurped not only by the US-based software giant, but by country-mate Nintendo, which has famously competed with both power punchers by moving to a lighter weight class with its family-and-friends-focused Wii (pronounced, as its bent would suggest, “we”). The thriftily equipped Wii has sold 30% more than either of the two cutting-edge consoles.
After four years on the market, the PS3 has made up a commendable amount of ground, but it still trails the 360 in total units sold. But being third in a race of, at best, three, and some would even argue two, is nothing short of an astonishing fall from grace on the heels of the greatest-selling console of all time, the PS2. It’s like a Bizarro World Rocky movie, with behemoth Sony as Balboa taking the beating instead.
Proprietary games have long been a prime competitive advantage for console makers, and even here Sony couldn’t keep its grip, losing one of its greatest (some would say the greatest) exclusive franchises when in 2008 it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII would launch on the 360 and PS3 on the same day. And its industry-leading car racing franchise Gran Turismo has been lapped by the new pole position franchise, Microsft’s Forza Motorsport.
There have been some victories along the way. Avoiding a repeat of its loss in the war between Betamax and VHS, Sony pursued the high-definition video disc format Blu-ray while Microsoft banked on HD-DVD. When Blu-ray finally won in early 2008 it may have given the PS3 some traction, but Microsoft has been able to shrug it off, particularly with the advent of online HD movie rentals, purchases, and Netflix streaming.
Which brings us to the first sign that the veteran from Tokyo might be pulling itself up off the mat. Having been late to the party on most everything, including Netflix streaming, Sony has finally made what can be considered the first offering on which it has been able to beat Microsoft to the punch: a recent deal with HD movie streaming service VUDU which brought the service exclusively to the PS3 on November 23.
While Netfilx was Blockbuster by mail, and, more recently, HULU on steroids, Wal-Mart-owned VUDU is akin to Blockbuster online but in full, 1080p high definition and 5.1 surround sound, making HD movies available for rent or purchase the day they become available on DVD or Blu-ray.
It’s more of a wake-up punch than a knockout, but it’s a sign of life, something the PlayStation has been lacking for a bewilderingly long time.
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Sounds like a sour 360 owner wrote this article… You should just buy a PS3 and be done with it, that way you won’t have to be jealous anymore.
PS3 is far superior hardware, has been selling better and more than 360 for quite some time, only 360′s 1-2 year head start on the market allows it to have total sales higher still. We all know that nearly half of the 360′s sales figures are replacement machines anyways. 360 sales are a joke compared to the PS3 in reality.
I guess “sounds” can be deceiving. Aside from having owned a PS3 since it launched, I’m more of a sour (or rather soured) PS2/Sony fan. That console was a shining example of how superior hardware (which that Xbox had) isn’t necessarily a winning advantage.
For my money, the PS2 was a better system than the Xbox, despite being the distinctly underpowered one of that face-off. For cross-platform games, Xbox’s vaunted power ended up being negligible, and sometimes the PS2 versions would even have the *better* graphics (e.g. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit). What soured me at that time was the Xbox getting all the press as the “better” console, when it only did a few things better, but didn’t match the PS2 overall. Even the Xbox’s controller was so much more touted, but I felt it was still overshadowed by the PS2′s.
I had high hopes for the PS3 and was decidedly rooting for them over Microsoft. That was quite a bias for the Xbox to overcome, but they did it, by getting to market significantly quicker, with a brilliantly redesigned controller (now the better of the two), a robust online community, nicely designed dashboard, and great games, leaving Sony to putter on for a year to come up with its machine.
The fair question is what advantage did that extra year give Sony in creating its machine? It seems it gave them more challenges than wins. The superior hardware hasn’t given it a practical edge and, in fact, it’s been known to give game developers considerably more difficulty than the 360. The games look great, but comparisons often show a slight edge to the 360.
Sony has definitely done well managing the challenges. Sales, as you point out (and to which I’d hoped I’d alluded in the post), definitely attest to that. But, even as an old PS2 fan, it’s hard to see where it is matching the 360′s practical advantages. It’s not that the 360 is pummeling the PS3 like the PS2 did to the Xbox, but rather that a company who made such an industry-dominating product has so quickly found itself on a level playing field, fighting to prove its superiority.
Great post, Chris.
What is your opinion on the PS3 Move/XBOX 360 Kinect battle? In the new world of (mostly) controller-free gaming consoles, who do you think will maintain the upper hand?
Just curious.
Thanks, Adam. I haven’t tried either of those yet, mostly because I haven’t heard or seen anything from either that has intrigued me, but that’s definitely a sign of where the technology is at the moment, finding its legs.
Your “new world” is definitely future tense. Hand held controllers are still the dominant interface and aren’t likely to be usurped very soon.
Again, as a Sony fan, I hate to say it but I think Kinect is a more ambitious and forward-thinking concept — i.e. along the lines of your new world, sans-controller — but it doesn’t seem like they have been able to capitalize on that innovative thinking yet.
When technologies like this surface it’s tempting to think they might replace their predecessors, but gaming will never be entirely controller-less. It may flirt with that, but the pendulum always comes back. It’s very easy to see certain types of game play involving guns, swords, or other hardware, things we *do* interact with in reality, sustaining a market for controller designers and manufacturers.
We see it already in games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, games that actually replace a fun controller-less activity (air guitaring) by putting the “controller” in our hands, where we *want* it!
PS3 Move doesn’t seem to do much different than the Wii, where Kinect is reaching for that realm of interactivity where we *do* want to shuffle off the controller coil.
Great points. I agree 100%.
Over the holiday weekend I got to play the Move and have been reading a lot about the Kinect. The Move DOES seems a lot like Sony’s answer to the Wii. But like you said, the Kinect seems to be where this is all heading, but I can’t see widespread change being implemented even within the next few years.
Gamers will always need accessory guns to blow things up, swords to strike adversaries down, and (in my case) fake guitars to play EXPERT level on.
Yes, I went there.
I feel sorry for anyone over 18 that is dancing in front of their TV instead of the club! Even worse pretending to hold a race wheel is just stupid! Move is what the Wii could have been. I like the idea of playing ping pong with something like a paddle or putting the Move into a gun & playing shooters. Makes more sense than to blow things away with my hand in the shape of a gun like Kinect lol
“Kinct”, you get a little closer to what I was trying to say, which actually, now I think about it, puts Sony in a bit better light. Ultimately, the winning formula will be a combination of something like Kinect with Wii’s controller, which is what the PS3 has — even if in its infancy — in its Move controller AND the PS3 Eye camera which offers Kinect-esque style gameplay.
I think this is an area where science fiction, again, has given us what the future will be, i.e. Star Trek’s holodeck. That’s the Holy Grail of gaming: A place that’s completely immersive in the sense that it reacts to you naturally (Kinect, PS3 Eye the precursors) while allowing you to handle and manipulate convincing replicas of concrete tools and objects (Move, Wii, Guitar Hero/Rock Band controllers being the stone-age stand-ins).
These technologies are in their novelty stages, but aren’t fads — they’re the desert bit of us getting to the promised land.