Upon walking into a Blockbuster store today, this is what I saw:
Playstation 3 systems are now plentiful, not reaching reserve prices on Ebay, and garnering nowhere near the demand of the Wii.
So let’s be clear, Xbox 360 sold more consoles since the fall of 2006 than Wii and PS3 combined. Currently, over 1 million Wii have been sold and they are still in high demand with none on shelves and still commanding premium pricing on ebay. Over 600,000 PS3 systems have been sold, but they are now languishing on the shelves, apearing to have tapped out the market place in around four months, with systems now reaching the secondary sellers like Blockbuster video.
Tell me again how Sony will “dominate the market” if people don’t appear to want to buy their consoles. The PS3 has nice graphics, but nothing else makes it better than a Xbox 360 or a Wii. We have all three at work, and no one ever plays the PS3.
This set of circumstances is almost identical to the PS2 launch in 2000 (ie a next-gen system out with a year’s lead in Dreamcast, Nintendo offering a family-friendly cheaper alternative in Gamecube, and a weak launch lineup for Sony). And yet, PS2 games are still being developed and released seven years later. I’m not saying PS3 will have that kind of staying power, but Sony did not completely destroy all the competitors in the previous war by accident. People will go where the games are, and only time will tell where those games end up. Including the blu-ray and upping their price point has hurt PS3, but when the heavy Sony exclusives hit (FFXIII, MGS4, etc.) it may all change.
Remember, these guys are in the businesss of selling razor blades, not razors.
Of course the release of Halo 3 later this year is not going to help them.
I was impressed with the graphics of the 360, but it just didn’t seem to have any soul. That was until I played the PS3. Pat Boone has more soul than the PS3. DiaF.
All very true…
Sony has built one of the greatest pieces of advanced hardware since Nec’s PC-Engine. There’s a lot of great aspects to the machine and some of the flexibility it carries (like being able to replace the harddisk with one of your choice!) but without games.. I’m afraid it’ll never get a fair shake.
BTW: for those not in the know, Xbox-360 is faring MUCH better in Japan than it’s predecessor. It has a REAL GOOD shot at fighting the PS3 on it’s own ground. Now if only they’d nix that pesky region coding… 🙁