Quite a change in fortune, ever given that the PS3 has been outselling (by a small margin) the Wii for the last few weeks.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the interest in the Wii may actually have already peaked?
Both Nintendo and Microsoft have largely been devoid of any significant amount of new exclusive high profile games for some time now.
In fact this came up in a recent discussion about
available racing games, and compared to the 360 and Wii, the PS3 has a significant advantage.
In fact, I am still very surprised that after more than three years since the 360 launched, it's only had four distinct racing games, and with the exception of
Race Pro (which has largely been criticized heavily, even by 360 fans and even the official 360 magazine gave it just a 50 out of 100), the others are all over a year old, and in the case of Forza 2, two years old next month.
On the other hand, the PS3 has released six high profile
(7 if you want to count Initial D Extreme Stage), and very well received racing games in just two years time, and
SuperCar Challenge and
GT5 have not yet been released.
Over the last year, arguably the only noteworthy 360 titles were:
- Halo Wars
- Left 4 Dead
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
- Gears of War 2
- Fable II
By comparison, the number of released
PS3 exclusive games has grown to over 140 titles, around 70 of which came out over the last year with some of the stand outs from last year being:
- MLB 09: The Show
- Killzone 2
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Resistance 2
- MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
- LittleBigPlanet
- SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
- NBA 09: The Inside
- Buzz! Quiz TV
- Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli
- Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- SingStar (vol. 1 & 2)
- Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
- Everybody's Golf: World Tour (Hot Shots Golf 5)
This doesn't even include some of the recent exclusive PSN gems like:
- Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic
- Burn Zombie Burn
- Xi
- Flower
- Cuboid
- Savage Moon
- Lumines Supernova
- Crash Commando
- Astro Tripper
- GTI Club+: Rally Côte d'Azur
- Wipeout HD
- PixelJunk Eden
- The Last Guy
- Elefunk
- Echochrome
And while 2008 turned out to be a banner year for PS3 gamers, 2009 looks like it could be even better.
It started with a bang with the release of
Killzone 2 and a home run with
MLB09, and an already significant lineup of upcoming high profile games like:
- inFamous
- God of War III
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Heavy Rain
- SuperCar Challenge
- Gran Turismo 5
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
- Under Siege
- EyePet
- MAG: Massive Action Game
- DC Universe Online
- The Agency
- Free Realms
- Final Fantasy Versus XIII
- Uncharted Waters Online
- Angel Rings
- Dark Cloud 3
- METRO 2033: The Last Refuge
- Quantum Theory
- Redwood Falls
- Undead Knights
- The Wall
- WarDevil: Unleash the Beast Within
- Untitled Square Enix Next-Gen MMORPG
- Untitled Kingdom Hearts RPG
- Untitled Persona RPG
- Untitled Steambot Chronicles 2 RPG
- Untitled Twisted Metal
And then there are the following high profile games that have been released in Japan, and are supposedly going to be released here as well:
- Cross Edge
- White Knight Chronicles
- Demon's Soul
- National Geographic: Africa
- Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 (Yakuza 3)
By comparison, there is hardly anything that has been announced for either the Wii or the 360.
In fact, the following article really took me by surprise:
Halo 3: ODST
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Dragon Age: Origins
Mafia II
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
I'm surprised for two reasons:
- Because all but one (Halo) of those games is a multi-platform title that is coming out for the PS3 at the same time... seems odd for a Top 5 list for upcoming 360 games.
- Is Mafia II really a top 5 contender?
So basically what that said, is that the only exclusive game in the top 5 upcoming games for the 360, is an expansion of Halo 3???... the rest are all multi-platform releases that are available for PS3 as well.
Now maybe they left off
Forza Motorsport 3 because they believe it isn't coming out until 2010, which may indeed be the case. However, I'm sure MS is trying to get it out before GT5, so that should definitely be on the list, but other than that the upcoming landscape of 360 games is fairly bleak at best.
I don't know about Nintendo, but I suspect
some of the reasons the 360 has lost steam is the cancellation of several appearances at most of the major game conferences, the cancellation of the Halo MMO game and the closure of some of their first party developer studios like Ensemble Studios
(Halo Wars, Age of Empires) and ACES
(Flight Simulator series), as well as the closure of their Gamerscore Blog. They also laid of over 5,000 of their employees from their gaming division, including the head of their PC Gaming division following a massive management restructuring... and the
RRoD and disc scratching problems are still an issue today, now it has a new problem with the
E.74 issue.
I think all of this has put Microsoft and their Xbox division in a very difficult position in terms of being able to maintain it's early advantage of being the first next gen console.
Nintendo, while it is certainly been making a fortune from the amazing sales of the Wii, in terms of games the selection really isn't terribly impressive, and the trimmed down and or lower quality versions of multi-platform games for the Wii compared to the 360 and PS3 have certainly not helped things.
All the platforms certainly have many things that explain why they sell, but it seems the tides are changing fairly noticeably, and as far as game development and features
(which at first many thought were unnecessary, like Blu-ray, Built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, cheap HDD upgrades, etc - but now many see as highly desirable features), the PS3 seems to be on the verge of making a noticeable jump ahead of the competition.
One thing is for certain, both Microsoft and Nintendo are really going to have to show up at E3 in a few weeks with a bunch of surprise announcements, or else they are basically giving up on 2009 as far as new content goes.
We should certainly be able to tell a year from now whether or not this is happening... and whether or not MS is willing and able to release a brand new console in order put behind them all the reliability problems they have had with the 360, the billions it's cost them so far, and to try and match or exceed the capabilities of the PS3 - either that or I wouldn't be entirely shocked if the 360 turns out to be the last console, and instead they focus more attention on their core business
(which over the years they have lost sight of, and their OS and IP software has suffered for it) and away from hardware.
I don't think a lot of people will mix it up with M2 though. I think the majority of people becoming interested in Mafia II never played Mafia I (similar to Killzone, and I recall both KZ and Mafia were hyped games that kind of flopped.)
). I've my Playstation 3 always on vertical position near to a window. I clean it from time to time but I'm not a maniac with that, so some days it has a bit of dust. I use it a lot, leave it connected downloading things... and 50% of my games are Blu-Ray disc based. I've never listened the fans working.
