Don´t write off Sony, says GamesIndustry.biz

Amid a number of rumours about cancelled games, bad reviews of Blu-Ray movies and a truly laughable pre-E3 press briefing, are we losing the big picture when assessing the chances of the PlayStation3 in the marketplace?

There is an interesting commentary piece on GamesIndustry.biz about the console´s fate. Obviously, the price tag of $600 is mentioned right at the start as a big deterrent to mass market compatibility. But:

A host of factors could conspire to outweigh that price point. If Sony has software with massive appeal to the mass market - something which Microsoft will still lack even coming into 2007, with the resolutely hardcore Gears of War being its key title for Christmas - or better again, if Blu-Ray really does prove to be as popular with consumers as movie bosses seem to believe, then the price point could prove inconsequential, at least for the first ten million units to pass through the channel.

This is quite an optimistic way of viewing Sony's chances, of course - but it's worth balancing out some of the pessimism which has been doing the rounds so often that it almost seems to be accepted as fact in some quarters. Much of this, it's clear, is influenced heavily by the American dominance of English-language media. Microsoft is so hugely successful in America relative to other territories that it can skew the global perspective; whereas the Xbox 360 has sold 3.3 million units in North America, it has sold only 1.3 million in Europe and just 400,000 elsewhere, making it fair to say that North America is still the only territory where the Xbox 360 has seen major success.

It´s always interesting to read articles that go against the grain (and the daily grain is to write off Sony, I amust admit) because they make you question your own beliefs and opinions.

In my mind, though, the author has overlooked one very important aspect in his editorial: Wii. The console is mentioned only once, alongside the PS3. I agree that the Xbox360 hasn´t exactly saturated the market. But how does such a general demand necessarily benefit Sony?

In order to stay market leader, Sony has to compete with Nintendo, if only for the attention of third party publishers. Ubi Soft developing seven Wii titles means they have significantly less resources for the PS3. The apparent division of labour at Electronic Arts (40% Xbox360, 40% Wii, 20% PS3) shows just that: shifting towards one console means shifting away from another. And if Wii can get a headstart over the PS3 and continues to outsell it for the coming months, developers will surely divert resources away from Sony.

Allow me to return to the initial question I asked. Are we losing the big picture? I honestly do not think so.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz
Thanks to: EuroGamer

Wii launch week revealed: November 10th - 16th

My good friend Game On has exclusively revealed the week in which the Wii will launch in the US. The console will go on sale between Friday, 10th and Thursday, 16th of November.

Evidently, you would like to know what kind of source this originates from. Here´s what he writes:

I got the call tonight gamers from my inside source. And I thought it was going to be just a normal tuesday night. Now I know that everyone has "sources" but I can assure you mine works for a major retail company and they have received information on the Wii release.

I have been able to verify this information sufficiently to vouch for the authenticity of the source. This really originates from an internal memo that was circulated within a major US retail company.


Of course, an internal memo that circulates now, more than three months before the alleged launch, could theoretically mention a tentative date, rather than one that was communicated to them from Nintendo (via head office, for sure).

But why communicate a tentative date to store managers? That would make no sense. No, I seriously believe this is the first real leak of the Wii´s launch schedule.

Also, this is totally in keeping with what Iwata told me at E3: that Nintendo doesn´t feel any need to rush their console to launch and that they will wait until they can offer Wii together with a great software portfolio right on day one.

EDIT Having posted this simultaneously on the NSider forums, user GRRLGAMER25 replied with the following pic:


She saved that frame from Ubi Soft´s Red Steel page. The date was later changed to ´Holiday 2006´ and the age rating to pending.

Source: Game On´s blog

No Atari titles for PS3 until 2007, CEO calls console´s appeal ´selective´

Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell has announced in an interview with Games Industry that its company will not be publishing any PS3 games until 2007. He doesn´t sound pessimistic about the console´s future, but he doesn´t believe in its mass appeal at the launch price. Here´s what he had to say:

I don't think there is a risk there [that the PS3] will fail. I think that by deciding to put the PS3 at this price, Sony has chosen to really differentiate itself from the other consoles, and the fact that you have Blu-ray, and the fact that it's HD compatible - all this is driving me to think that Sony is picking up the high-end of the market, the hardcore, passionate fans.

There will be a time they can reduce the price and access more people, but clearly that's a technical choice that Sony has made to be selective on the field at stage one.

Let´s decipher what he really is saying. He agrees that Wii will outsell PS3 (that´s the upshot of the last sentence), but he genuinely doesn´t seem to think that the PS3 will fail.

At any rate, let´s remember that Atari is not the heavyweight they used to be and their support matters far less than it did five years ago. Bonnell is desperately trying to get the company back on its feet when he says:

Very often people look at the share price, or the financial situation of the company, to reach a conclusion about the quality of the products we're releasing. I think those two are fairly separate.

Well, only fairly. Because selling a license like ´Driver´ and a studio like ´Shiny´ may get you out of financial woes - but obviously does impact upon quality.

EDIT Kotaku reported yesterday that developer SNK Playmore may hold off their first PS3 release until 2009. The studio is famous for the ´SNK versus´ and ´Metal Slug´ series, the last of which is coming to Wii as a launch title. Here´s their reasoning:

My first impression is that it's expensive. The PlayStation 2 is good enough. It's small and cheap. For us, for manufacturers, we have to invest in a new system, and the PlayStation 3 is a risk. There won't be enough consoles at launch. Few consoles mean few software sales. We need to wait three or four years. Maybe 2009-2010 is a good time to release a game for the PS3.

This is, of course, a bigger blow to Sony than Atari holding off their first PS3 title for maybe as little as two months and might curtail the Japanese demand for PS3.

Source: Games Industry
Thanks to: Some Guy, Babble, CaptainN