Why Did The PS3 Fail?

Speculating on 2008 is pretty much as useless as saying that the PS3 has already failed in the market at this point. Arguably, Sony has the largest announced lineup with GT5, Killzone 2, MGS4, LBP, and FFXIII among others, Microsoft with Fable 2, Banjo Threeie, Halo Wars, and others, and Nintendo with WiiFit and Mario Kart among others, but all three have a huge number of titles to still left to announce, especially at TGS and events early next year.

Think of how many chances Sony has to announce a game to completely turn around public perception of the platform. Think of how many chances Microsoft has to announce a game that could cause 360 sales to explode, PS2-style, and launch it into a sales growth that doesn't end for years? Think of how many chances Nintendo has to announce a game to solidify its absurdly high sales numbers and lead the Wii to becoming the best-selling game console of all time?

Hell, these could all happen, and in a gamer's perfect world, 2008 could be the best year ever for videogames, and each and every platform could see some sort of revolutionary, critically-acclaimed title.

2008 is a pivotal year for this generation, and I can't wait for TGS, but there's still so much time before we get a solid look at each platforms' 2008 release calendars.
 
Sharp said:
How many of those sales were in Japan?
Well, Europe is the biggest market for GT, MGS and Killzone.
I believe US actually had the largest amount of GT3 sales specifically but it was just barely past Europe.
 
Pai Pai Master said:
Hell, these could all happen, and in a gamer's perfect world, 2008 could be the best year ever for videogames, and each and every platform could see some sort of revolutionary, critically-acclaimed title.

I'd be pretty amazed if it ever got better than August-November 2007. And I certainly didn't say that about the ends of 2005 and 2006.
 
Stuneseht said:
a better title would be:
Why the PS3 is failing.

Seriously, if the Wii was in the exact same position as the PS3, everyone would have called it a failure.

That's because the Wii is $250 and the PS3 isn't.

The PS3 is clearly looking at the long term, and it's obvious with the high launch price. To compare it to the PS1 or PS2 doesn't make sense as they didn't launch for $600.

If the PS3 does drop to $399, the whole market will change in 1/2 years. It's way too early to write off the PS3.
 
pretty lame to write a whole book about something like this.... the PS3 can hardly be considered a failure.. it's way too early to say so, and I think that with the sales they've already had it seems to be doing fine.
 
It's simply too early to say at this point. I've followed the industry for many generations and it's just too early to tell how this one is going to turn out. There are far too many variables that could turn the tide:

- Blu-Ray dominates and somehow becomes mainstream despite super-cheap < $150 chinese HD-DVD players this Christmas.

- Major 3rd Party game massively better on PS3 (and it has to be massive, not just "sparks!" or "Jaggies!")

- Sony decides to take massive losses and cuts price aggressively on PS3 and 360 doesn't follow suit because they are stupid.

- Casuals tire of the endless stream of 3rd Party crap on Wii and decide to look elsewhere. (The Atari Syndrome)

- Sony takes aggressive 16-bit era Sega style advertising tactics, calling out MS on RROD and Wii on kiddy crap games in major TV ads.

- Any combination of the above.

Personally, I don't see Sony being able to beat X360 in America or Wii in Japan this gen unless one or more of these things happens. The supposed stellar line-up of games next year assumes they will all hit at the same time and not too late (and that KZ2 won't be a disappointment). I think we all win if we end up with a bit of parity in the industry, with all 3 camps able to survive and have their own successes, a 33/33/33 worldwide split or something comparable. It's not good for one camp to totally dominate.
 
Take-Two wants to make money.

Take-Two needs to make money.

A franchise that makes lots of money + a console that makes lots of money?

It'll inevitably happen, and it'll make a metric fuckton of money.
 
The Sphinx said:
I agree that 2008's PS3 lineup appears solid but I'm not convinced FFXIII will make it out of Japan by the end of next year.

I think they will, if ANYTHING SE, is going to start scaling back that project, who needs 100 plus hours when a 60 hour game will sell ~ and save BIG bucks in the CG budget
 
Dragona Akehi said:
Thread bookmarked.

One console future, mark it dude.

Tell me what kind of lineup, say, Nintendo could have that would trump this lineup. Or Microsoft, for that matter, but Nintendo's easier as it tends to come out with established IPs (and Wii Blank I suppose).

Do we really want to do this?

People are ultra quick to judge the HS/R&C/Uncharted combo this fall, adventure games and all with ironically the biggest X360 release destined for 08 being Alan Wake (though potentially Halo Wars in my eyes).

Halo Wars and Alan Wake won't be the best selling 360 games of 2008. It's insane to think so. A console RTS and a 3rd person horror game...just no.

Killzone 2

Gears 2


Splinter Cell 5


Forza 2 bundled with every Premium 360 starting in November.

LittleBigPlanet.

Banjo Kazooie 3

Final Fantasy XIII

This isn't coming out in 2008...at least not anywhere where we can play it. But here, to be safe I'll play the 360 SKU of GTAIV.

WipEout PS3

Tricky one...so I'll just use the Madden and/or NFS sequel trump card. 360 SKU.

White Knight

Fallout 3, 360 SKU alone.


See now, this game being included here bugs me the most. You really think a shooter, any shooter, on PS3 at this point is going to bring in new gamers for that genre after Rainbow Six, Gears, Halo 3, Bioshock, GRAW2 and COD4 hit in the span of one calender year for the 360? All of these games are at least as popular as Resistance btw.

But here, I'll simply put the 360 SKU of Unreal Tournament 3.

inFamous and potentially a Insomniac game and other unannounced Sony 1st party titles

Too Human
All Points Bulletin
Bungie's new game
Ninja Gaiden 2
Alan Wake
Lost Odyssey (whoops, this one slipped)

should do nicely against Sony's TBA projects
 
Wollan said:
The PS3 2008 lineup shames all others.
People are ultra quick to judge the HS/R&C/Uncharted combo this fall, adventure games and all with ironically the biggest X360 release destined for 08 being Alan Wake (though potentially Halo Wars in my eyes).

There are at least three PS3 exclusives coming next year that will strike higher than that game, those being Killzone 2, MGS4 & GT5 (the first two will hover around 4-5 million copies sold, GT5 will probably be ~10 million).

Way way way too early to say the PS3 list shames everything else in 2008. We don't even know what Microsoft or Nintendo either one have planned for 2008 to be honest, beyond a few games. I do believe that Sony has a better exclusive lineup of games lined up for the calander year, but there's still a lot of games heading the 360 way and you know Nintendo will have their own AAA 1st party games as well.
 
Sho_Nuff82, a lot of those games you just listed are going to get slaughtered by their counter part. And you continue to list quite a few games that will end up on both sides of the fence.
We don't even know what Microsoft or Nintendo either one have planned for 2008 to be honest, beyond a few games.
Microsofts 1st party hasn't magically increased over night. We have a very good idea on the majority of what we will see from them next year. Fable, Banjo, Lost Odyssey, Halo Wars, Alan Wake, Too Human & probably PD3.
 
Wollan- Great list of games, but like others have said, you can't just throw out those numbers with PS3's userbase where it currently is. Established franchises are not going to sell as much on PS3 as on PS2. See Hot Shots Golf 5 in Japan. Its really simple math.

Amirox- You don't need me to tell you this, but you're completely right. All Sony had to do was release the PS3 at a competitive price and it would have done fine. They decided to put blu ray in and it killed them, bottom line.
 
I love it how people are talking about Nintendo/Microsoft 08 plans when we barely know em. :lol

Microsofts 1st party hasn't magically increased over night. We have a very good idea on the majority of what we will see from them next year. Fable, Banjo, Lost Odyssey, Halo Wars, Alan Wake, Too Human & probably PD3.

Cough Gears 2 Cough.
 
Wollan said:
Sho_Nuff82, a lot of those games you just listed are going to get slaughtered by their counter part. And you continue to list quite a few games that will end up on both sides of the fence.

Microsofts 1st party hasn't magically increased over night. We have a very good idea on the majority of what we will see from them next year. Fable, Banjo, Halo Wars, Alan Wake, Too Human & probably PD3.

So?

You asked what 360 games would outsell the games you listed, they don't have to be exclusive to sell well.

Guitar Hero 2 is going to outsell just about every 360 exclusive game released in 07 except for Halo 3, does it not count because it's multiplatform? Are the people who bought a console to play it not included in Sales-Age?

What does it matter if LAIR outsells Shadowrun if COD4 360 outsells them both 10x over?

Exclusives don't always matter more than multiplatform games, and they aren't always necessarily better.

One console future, mark it dude.
y.. you don't know?

It was a Big Lebowski (and belated sonycowboy) reference, I know Dragona's a chick.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
uitar Hero 2 is going to outsell just about every 360 exclusive game released in 07 except for Halo 3, does it not count because it's multiplatform? Are the people who bought a console to play it not included in Sales-Age?

What does it matter if LAIR outsells Shadowrun if COD4 360 outsells them both 10x over?

Exclusives don't always matter more than multiplatform games, and they aren't always necessarily better.

You just punched my brain with a TruthFist.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
So?

You asked what 360 games would outsell the games you listed, they don't have to be exclusive to sell well.

Guitar Hero 2 is going to outsell just about every 360 exclusive game released in 07 except for Halo 3, does it not count because it's multiplatform? Are the people who bought a console to play it not included in Sales-Age?

What does it matter if LAIR outsells Shadowrun if COD4 360 outsells them both 10x over?

Exclusives don't always matter more than multiplatform games, and they aren't always necessarily better.

You know what, I said the opposite earlier, but the way you said it, I think you're right.

BenjaminBirdie said:
You just punched my brain with a TruthFist.

Yeah, my ears are ringing too.
 
Wollan said:
Microsofts 1st party hasn't magically increased over night. We have a very good idea on the majority of what we will see from them next year. Fable, Banjo, Lost Odyssey, Halo Wars, Alan Wake, Too Human & probably PD3.
And the last 2008 game they announced was Banjo Threeie and co. at X06, nearly a year ago. Somehow, I doubt they've shown all of their cards.
 
ParticleReality said:
GT3 Sold Almost 15 million copies
GT4 Sold almost 9 Million copies.

With the right marketing GT5 could go well beyond 10 million.

What consoles were those games on?
 
Duck said:
Somehow, I doubt they've shown all of their cards.
They don't really have that many more studios to tap. They are probably trying to get some exclusivity deals but as far as MS 1st party goes they are pretty much fully tapped.

schuelma said:
What consoles were those games on?
A console with less units sold when the (first) game dropped.
 
schuelma said:
What consoles were those games on?


The Playstation 2(GT3 came out in 2001 and sales weren't insanely high).

GT5 comes out in 2008, theres more then enough time between now and then to surpass 10 million units sold. Granted, in order to hit those sales right off the bat everyone who owns a PS3 would have to buy it.

In the long run however it could do very well considering its probably the best looking and best playing racing sim on a system.
 
ParticleReality said:
GT3 Sold Almost 15 million copies
GT4 Sold almost 9 Million copies.

With the right marketing GT5 could go well beyond 10 million.

Right marketing: $299 80 gig PS3 starting by Christmas buying season 2007. Otherwise, it won't happen.
 
TheDuce22 said:
Two hundred and seven pages? You can sum it up in one sentence. It came out 200 dollars too expensive, no system selling games until a year after launch, it lost exclusivity of the top third party game and totally lost the, arguably, the most important 3rd party RPG.

fixed
 
ParticleReality said:
The Playstation 2(GT3 came out in 2001 and sales weren't insanely high).

GT5 comes out in 2008, theres more then enough time between now and then to surpass 10 million units sold. Granted, in order to hit those sales right off the bat everyone who owns a PS3 would have to buy it.

In the long run however it could do very well considering its probably the best looking and best playing racing sim on a system.

Seems a touch unlikely, doesn't it?
 
Pai Pai Master said:
"Well beyond 10,000,000" is quite unlikely right now, but the game won't be a slouch and could easily be one of the bestselling titles of 2008.
Best selling titles for the PS3 perhaps...
 
If the PS3 gets a price cut this year to 399 GT5 will easily sell 10million next year..its not comming "this spring" fall 08

and IMO MGS4 will sell 8-9
 
Phoenix Down said:
If the PS3 gets a price cut this year to 399 GT5 will easily sell 10million next year..its not comming "this spring" fall 08

and IMO MGS4 will sell 8-9
Joke post, right? I don't think I want to be anihawked at this point...
 
Phoenix Down said:
If the PS3 gets a price cut this year to 399 GT5 will easily sell 10million next year..its not comming "this spring" fall 08

and IMO MGS4 will sell 8-9

Comming? Sounds McCarthy-like.
 
Phoenix Down said:
If the PS3 gets a price cut this year to 399 GT5 will easily sell 10million next year..its not comming "this spring" fall 08

and IMO MGS4 will sell 8-9
Oh well, don't be so pessimistic... I think MGS can make it up to 10 copies.
 
Top Bottom