Gaming Signal: PS3, Wii and Xbox 360's

PS3, Wii and Xbox 360's - Oh my!!!

So we have had a fair number of comments on our little console price drop post (thanks guys and remember we do enjoy comments from our readers), and with E3 ending we have seen the truth behind that lovely press release. To summarize, basically Sony will sell the 60GB model at $499 until they run out, but it will also be introducing an 80GB model that includes MotorStorm at the price of 600 bucks. When the supply runs out, the 80GB model will be the only PS3 console available for consumers - gee thanks, and I am sure that will generate additional sales in the short term. But longer term it will do very little for them and generate very little good will with the gaming community. There is some speculation that the price point will stick but that is probably just wishful thinking on behalf of one analyst. Combine all this with the fact that newer PS3s will be even less backward compatible than the ones shipping today. What?? Sony's strength has always been its depth of its library and the fact that upgrading consoles was pretty much done without fear of losing access to my current game investment. Now they have followed the Microsoft path through the use of emulation software and lists of supported titles. Sorry but that is just bad form and a big black mark in my opinion.

Now to our friends over at Microsoft who had a good showing at E3. Yet things are a little dark with the hardware woes they are still somewhat suffering from (although that maybe alleviated with the new processes and hardware components they are working to put in place later this year), and now the loss of Peter Moore. They are seeing somewhat flat sales numbers in the console market when compared to the sales of this time last year. Now this is partially due to the fact they were first out of the gate and the fact that Halo 3 has not shipped yet. And while these can be seen as somewhat negative points, they really have shined with the XBox Live Marketplace and the offerings that are out there. I don't just mean the arcade titles and the demos, but also the fact they are now offering users the ability to rent Disney movies in HD - something that Apple does not currently offer. This combined with a pretty strong lineup of titles where multi-player matchmaking and gaming just works (for most of us - sorry Kev), and for me the fact that patches are automatic and near seamless reinforces why the 360 really a pretty good gamers platform. The control schemes for FPS (first person shooters) and RTS (real time strategy) games leave something to be desired, but the hope is that Microsoft will eventually enable keyboard and mouse options - well that is my hope. Microsoft also continues to prove that while they have stopped making the original XBOX - it has not been forgotten. They just recently updated the backward compatibility list for the summer and added a lot of titles. Overall, this console really is really making the move to be the media extender and entertainment powerhouse that Microsoft originally envisioned. Time will tell if this is true, but for now things look pretty good for them.

Finally that brings us to the Wii, or what shall be known as the "darling console" of the year. It has probably exceeded all sales numbers and has been embraced by almost every class of gamer in one way or another. Mind you there are some folks (Dean) who will not be happy until EA brings out a NCAA football game and some company comes out with a decent war game/shooter. Mind you that the Wii will be receiving a new RPG from Square Enix in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers or perhaps a new Metroid game. Now I honestly think that the Wii is currently suffering from a lack of really top notch titles, but others may disagree (and probably will). They are in the position Microsoft was last year after the release of the 360 and before the influx of titles like Gears of War and Crackdown. Given that these bad boys will be in high demand through Christmas though, and the fact that they are not losing money on each sale bodes well longer term for Nintendo. I hope they can take the number one console position and get the likes of Sony and Microsoft to realize that the charm of the system is not only in the new features, but also in supporting all that came before it. Nintendo learned the hard way that backwards compatibility is something they cannot forget...

So what was the point here? I am not completely sure beyond babbling about the state of things from my perspective. For me, I have pretty much entrenched myself in the Nintendo/Microsoft arena with my choices of the Wii and the 360 for my gaming needs. The PC still gets work for MMOs and general websurfing, but I find myself play other games on those consoles and my aging PS2 - which has the largest library of any system out there. And as a last jab before I end this diatribe, I wanted to say that while I appreciate advances in technology - I am not so happy when said advances render some or all of my current software useless.

I must admit that the 60gig PS3 seems like the one to get with the ps2 hardware built right in. However, the one thing that really disgusts me about the ps3 is the lack of rumble. I know they had the protracted lawsuit going on but please, it's an older technology that has proven itself in the quality of gameplay it provides. I just don't understand why Sony continues to make what I consider small mistakes that keep adding up to a big one. The big mistake is not providing a truly compelling story the way MS and Nintendo have been able to.

What's surprising to me is that the predictions by the MS employees that many gamers would end up with a 360 and a Wii for the price of a PS3 is actually coming true. The 360 appears to be doing very well save those hardware issues.

Now if someone could just create a system that could play awesome games, watch movies, play music, and maybe even surf the web . . . now that would be fantastic.

Posted by Dean on Tuesday July 17, 2007 at 9:36 PM

Ah yes humor - you guys are funny. Now seriously, the concept of the PC being the penultimate platform for all the things Dean listed is not new. But I think its one that is just not practical for many folks. A gaming rig tends tends to be large, loud and has control schemes that do not make it a living room appliance. There are some units that do work in those environments, but they tend to be specialized components. I would also point out that while $2000 for a decent gaming rig is not too extreme - it is a pretty large investment that will be outdated in six to eight months. For us in the industry, it is not unheard to have two or three PCs plus gaming machines, but that should not be considered normal. Furthermore, for that same price I could buy a 360, a Wii and a PS3 and still have cash left over for games. And sure you could say that they will not be as good as their PC counterparts, but I would have enough of them to keep me occupied for quite sometime....

Posted by Tim on Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 11:24 AM

The experience is just different on the consoles vs. the PC.

I agree that most of the same console games eventually make it to the PC but if you look at the way the trend is going, things have changed. It used to be that the PC game was made first and then "ported" to the console. The exact reverse is what is happening lately and most games are now made for the console first and then poorly ported to the PC. Now with the recent news that id (makers of Doom) is joining the console ranks full bore is worrisome news for the PC.

I'm not saying that there is a complete paradigm shift at hand. But definitely a broadening of platform development by a good many developers.

I think I'm one of the few that actually thought Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was better on the 360 than the PC. For the control scheme. (not the graphics, graphics were of course better on the PC due to more memory on PC video cards) The game just plays (feels?) better on the 360 controller.

(note to Scott: Stop re-justifying the PC to yourself and just get a 360 already! We're waiting!)

Posted by tditto on Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 1:04 PM

Tim - 5 points for alliteration, but minus 10 for using the wrong word .

But I differ with you on one point. The PC is not obsolete in 6-8 months - at least no more than a console is. Games don't always demand the latest and greatest technologies either, but if you have them a game can at least make use of them thanks to Windows drivers and abstraction layers.

And of course you can upgrade a PC. Technology improves, but the PC lets you pick and choose what to upgrade based on what areas are seeing the most improvement. Adding memory has long been a cheap performance boost, and the technology in graphics cards has improve most dramatically in recent years. But now we've also seen huge strides in multi-core CPUs and higher speed disks as well.

I also agree that we've seen a trend shift from PC first to console first. The game companies can't be blamed - they are just following the money. BioWare is a great example - despite the overall lackluster quality of Jade Empire, they sold more copies and made more money off that one game than they had off the entire Baldur's Gate series. Volume matters.

What bothers me most about console is the high price of games. Given the volume, you'd think it would be cheaper - but no. Somehow they cost more - whatever the market will bear I suppose.

Posted by scottsh on Wednesday July 18, 2007 at 7:50 PM