OrtizGames

I remember thinking in summer of 2006 that I wanted an Xbox 360, and bad, for one game. One, single game was catching my attention. I wasn’t waiting for Halo 3, I wasn’t excited about Gears of War–which really wasn’t even that big yet, so whatever–no, I wanted to play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

To me, that was the selling game of the 360 during that time. A multiplatformer.

Fast forward to one year later, and the games that sell the PS3? None. Despite the fact that it has FEAR, The Darkness and Oblivion in its repertoire, it has no selling point at all. And people hate it. They hate the PS3. They hate Sony, too–not that they didn’t have a reason to, with Sony’s constant confusing marketing strategies that are about as commendable as falling on your face on purpose. Everything seems geared completely against the Playstation 3, and what’s the argument used against it?

“It doesn’t have any games.”

At the very same time in the PS3′s lifespan, it holds just as many interesting titles as the Xbox 360 did in its time–and yet people hate the PS3, with a passion.

Why is that?

I have a theory that has three points of reasoning behind it.

1) PS3 does not have a Gears. Gears of War was the game that turned Microsoft’s sales completely around–whether it be because of the overhyped marketing put across for it about how it would be a ‘Halo-killer’ or just the general attitude of the game itself which somehow appealed to the exact same audience that would be interested in Halo, plus ten of their friends. Christmastime, and PS3 has no Gears of War title to show–it could have been Uncharted, or even Folklore, but Sony simply didn’t back the game up enough–they threw their support behind games like Heavenly Sword and LAIR which were, to be honest, simply atrocious compared to what was promised in the advertising. Heavenly Sword was by no means bad–I loved it, it was gorgeous–but it just didn’t live up to what people wanted, like Assassin’s Creed. And LAIR… let’s not go there.

2) Sony screwed up too much. Microsoft had the Red Ring of Death and crappy launch titles and the whole “This is an Xbox 180, not a 360!” bit. Sony had a lot of bad rap for not having “PlayStation Live” or having any good exclusive games. But they didn’t fix things. They screwed up with the Boomerang controller, which I have a high suspicion was supposed to have motion sensing technology but they wanted to save the news for later. Upon hearing people’s dislike for the controller, they went right back to the drawing board–only Nintendo came out with the motion sensor technology announcement first. And then Sony were left looking like jackasses as they raised their Sixaxis timidly, “We added motion sensing, too.”

Then there was the horrible PSP advertising, and bad management of things like prices and titles being held back, all of which made the console look like it was either not worth it or too hard to develop for.

3) Above all other factors, though, it comes down to competition. The Xbox 360, during its starting year (we all remember), had no competitors. It had CRAP games, like Perfect Dark: Zero, Kameo and Battle for Mattle (My affectionate name for Battle for Middle Earth II). It had some good ones, like PGR3, but those were so niche it was difficult to sell via mainstream (and PGR3 was rather limited compared to PGR2, to be honest). But it didn’t have any next gen console to compete with. It could make its mistakes, and there would be no other company to compare to.

Sony comes out with the PS3, making a lot of the same errors and having many of the same difficulties as the 360, but now that Microsoft has an established fanbase, Sony’s called out as if they were incompetent, because they have trouble catching up to a console that has already been out for a year. Now, let’s think critically here, you naysayers who seem to believe PS3 has no games: what are the REAL differences between PS3′s launch and the 360′s?

Decent but somewhat unimpressive shooter

(Xbox 360) Perfect Dark: Zero

(PS3) Resistance: Fall of Man

Fun But Otherwise Unremarkable Driving game

(Xbox 360) PGR3

(PS3) MotorStorm

Oh Look A Multiplatform Game

(Xbox 360) Oblivion

(PS3) Also had Oblivion, but also recieved games like FEAR, Project 8 and Fight Night

A War Game? Oh Wow

(Xbox 360) COD2

(PS3) COD3

I mean, the list goes on. We didn’t have that much of a success story with either of these launches. Or do you remember Xbox 360s in very short supply? I certainly don’t. And PS3′s been getting back up. Xbox 360 had to do exactly the same thing. We barely ever sold 360s when I was working in the game shop. The thing is, nobody was really aware Xbox 360 had been tripping. Now, with Nintendo and Microsoft also competing in the NextGen market, Sony has to not only establish their console but also maintain face as an approachable platform for games release.

In summary, all I’m trying to say is, lay off Sony, peeps. Yes, they’ve screwed up. But in the long run, PS3 has a very bright future ahead of them. All they need is a must-have, and a killer app.

I nominate MGS4 and Final Fantasy. But we could really use something right now.

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