So, the second wave of the seventh generation of video games systems has finally arrived, with the Playstation 3 going on sale in Japan today.
Every website worth it’s salt has had pictures of the massive queues lined up outside Bic Cameras and other Japanese games shops. The BBC even had messages posted on it’s website from Europeans who had flown out to Japan to pick up a PS3 four months ahead of it’s EU launch.
The one thing I am noticing with this launch is that the hype that accompanied the launch of the Xbox 360 and the PS2 just isn’t there. Even the Wii seems to be getting more attention then the PS3 right now, with several US based gaming websites receiving their Wii test systems yesterday.
That’s not to say that the PS3 is a bad system, but Sony have defiantly put their foot in it a few too many times with the PS3. Who can forget the ‘giant enemy crabs for massive damage’ E3 Keynote, Ken Kutaragi’s utterly insane PR comments and the sudden change from a global launch to a staggered launch over a five month period.
Strangely, I’m still attracted to the PS3. It has lost one of it’s main exclusives in the form of Grand Theft Auto IV, but it retains the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy franchises. It does also promise high quality graphic performance.
At the same time, I’m not convinced by Blu-Ray. I do not believe that we need that much space for our movies just now. DVDs have only been the mainstream media of choice for the past seven or eight years. Prior to that VHS held sway over the recorded media world for more then twenty years.
I’m also not convinced by the Cell processor. Sony seem to have hyped it up to the point that it’s become a sort of talisman of how advanced the PS3 is. Yet it’s said to be much harder to program for then previous processors. Compare that to the stories of developers using tweaked G5 Power Macs to do early development for the PowerPC based Wii and Xbox 360. That said, the faster performance of the Cell should yeald benifits when it comes to actually playing games.
The other thing is that consumers don’t like new things. HD-DVD expands on a name they already know. They can buy a player and keep on calling it a DVD player. Blu-Ray sounds edgy and different. As strange as it sound, any marketing expert will tell you that factors like that will have an effect on how well a product does.
I would like to see the PS3 become a success. I would prefer to see the Wii come out on top at the end of the seventh generation, but that’s because it seems to me to be the only console do being doing something completely revolutionary.
Hopefully the mistakes that Sony have made with the PS3 so far will give Sony a bit of a boost when it comes to the PS4, so they can make it as innovative to gamers as the Playstation when it kicked the ass of the N64 and sent the Dreamcast to an early grave.
