PS3 launches with a bang
PS3 launched some hours ago in Japan and, surprise! Thousands of people queued up for it. If you follow any gaming blogs at all, you’d think that everyone in the world hates PS3 and can’t wait to fap (to) their Wii. But judging by the turnout today, I think we can safely say that the bad publicity Sony has been getting is not going to determine the success (or failure) of the PS3. The product is.
Sony screwed up quite a lot of things, such as the mass production of blue diodes needed for Blu-ray drives, leading to a massive shortage of PS3. Then again, it happened with PS2 too. Europe got shafted as usual.
Crazy Brits who paid £750 to queue up in Tokyo for a PS3. From Akiba-blog.
It also took quite long for Sony to finalize the PS3, delaying its release from spring to end of the year and giving 360 a one-year head start. Then again, it happened with PS2 too. How many of you own(ed) a Dreamcast? (I do, BTW.)
People are complaining that PS3 and 360 offer no innovation compared to Wii. Then again, there were plenty of innovative games for the PS2 without having to revamp the whole control scheme. It’s a console and what I want for a console is to be a able to lie down on a couch while playing it. If I wanted to play games that required cursor movement and targeting, I’d be playing it on my PC.
Japanese people love to queue, it’s in their blood. From Akiba-blog.
The graphics on PS3 and 360 look good. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War look like sex. Wii’s graphics are NOT good. “But graphics are not important! Gameplay is!” – Bullshit. Graphics are not as important, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant. There is absolutely no reason why you have to sacrifice good graphics for gameplay. You can have them both!
Now, assuming that Wii, PS3 and 360 end up splitting the market three-way and they want to find ways to gain an edge over one another, will it be easier for Sony/Microsoft to copy Wii’s gameplay by releasing a remote control add-on, or will it be easier for Nintendo to magically upgrade Wii’s graphics? I think the answer is obvious.
Queues at Yodabashi-Akiba hit 1,400 people. From Akiba-blog.
Sony’s controller already has motion sensing. Clearly, Sony is hedging its bets. On the other hand, Nintendo is placing all its chips on one gimmicky feature alone. I’m not sure if third-party game developers can really utilize such a feature in the way Nintendo intended. Just look at Battalion Wars 2, it’s using the Wii-mote for nothing more than a mouse pointer.
It’s tempting to compare PS3 and Wii to PSP and NDS. Nintendo DS is outselling PSP by at least three to one, even though PSP has the better graphics. But there is a huge difference between the PSP and the PS3 that this comparison fails to account for. The reason why PSP failed (relatively speaking) was because of its lack of good games. PSP is a dumping ground for full-priced PS1 and PS2 ports that people have already played 100 times before. PS3 is not. It makes a huge difference.
Danny Choo, his PS3 preorder secured, terrorizes the queue.
Of course, the high price point of the PS3 can very well be its undoing. If Blu-ray manages to take off like DVD did, then PS3′s selling price will be justified. But I doubt it. DVD offered significant improvements over VHS while Blu-ray doesn’t look all that different without a HDTV. Most people do not own a HDTV. I’m sure either Blu-ray or HD-DVD will eventually replace DVD as the de facto format for movies, but whether that happens soon enough to make the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 worth the money remains to be seen.
If Blu-ray flops, then Sony would’ve done better to use dual-layered DVDs for PS3 games, especially if the supply bottleneck and the high cost price are really caused by the Blu-ray drive. Then again, if Sony did that, it would be the same as burying Blu-ray alive. Sony chose to take the risk with PS3, a risk that Microsoft avoided by choosing conventional DVD over HD-DVD for 360 games. Again, it’s still too early to say who was right.
Metal Gear Solid 4
No matter what the Digg and Joystiq crowds are saying, Sony still has plenty of fight left. Just ask those people who spent last night queuing.
November 11th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Yes, PS3 still rocks.
Dunno, all seems to boil down to the price. Internet people always love the underdogs and the bang-for-buck stuff (Apple, Nintendo in this instance) and they turn a blind eye or make excuses even when the underdogs are faulty (I want region-free Wii dang-it!)
All those screwups of Sony will become nitpicks next year. When they fix all the kinks of PS3 and killer apps get released we will see who’ll win.
But who cares who wins? If you want (console) games, buy (console). Very simple.
November 11th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Wii’s graphics are NOT good. “But graphics are not important! Gameplay is!” – Bullshit. Graphics are not as important, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant.
Typical rant from a Sony fanboy. Maybe you need to go back and attack Doremi-fansubs a bit more. At least there you can look down your nose at them and have the majority on your playfield.
November 11th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I totally agree…….
i wonder when’s it is coming out in singapore i can’t wait
November 11th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Anonymouse:
I own an Xbox and a Dreamcast, but not a PS2. Comprendo? Typical comment from a Doremi fanboy who, due to some mysterious psychological complex, still reads my blog.
See, I can poison the well too! :3
It’s a perfectly valid point, even if the “Sony fanboys” (of which I am not one) tend to raise it in an unpleasant manner. Why can’t you have good graphics AND good gameplay? Why must they be exclusive? That is a question that Nintendo has repeatedly avoided answering. And that’s one of the reasons why I am sceptical about Wii.
November 11th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
[...]The graphics on PS3 and 360 look good. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War look like sex. Wii’s graphics are NOT good. “But graphics are not important! Gameplay is!” – Bullshit. Graphics are not as important, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant. [...]
It really does depends. I do agree that graphics is important, but gameplay might be the more important factor instead. When one gets engaged in a particular game, graphics come in second.
Of course, a game with both great graphics and gameplay is one rare gem. It (might) be one that allows mods (which leads to PC games and a few console ones), and yet with great graphics, user interactivitiy etc. Take a look at the games which allow mods, most of them are still being played despite being ‘graphically old’.
I believe one solution to solve this gameplay v.s graphics thing, is to get all 3 consoles :p (Xbox360, PS3, Wii)
November 11th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Sony is putting a lot of risk into the PS3. If PS3 is not a success for Sony they will have serious trouble as a company. They’ve already lost over 200 billion yen as a result of the ps3 price cuts and their yearly sales have been going down. I think the Playstation brand is what’s keeping sony on their feet at the moment.
I agree with the fact that graphics are just as important as gameplay and story. More so now than before because graphics have improved to such a state where it is used to make the player feel immersed in the game.
Yes i’m a Sony fanboy because i have a PS1 and PS2, but that’s not to say i agree with everything Sony has done. Quite honestly this Mediawar between Blu-ray and HD-DVD has me bummed.
I know that if i buy a PS3 i’ll only play Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo (which was the reason i got the two previous models). But at $1000AUD im not in any hurry to buy one, let alone sit outside a store in the middle of the night.
Howabout a poll for the consoles?
November 11th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Wii by far, is the weakest link among the 3 new consoles.
Yay for PS3.
November 11th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Personally, what I’ll suggest is to get the games first and wait till you have amassed quite a few titles before you make the decision whether to get the console or not.
MGS 4 and DMC 4 looks intersting but they are not enough of a driving force for me to folk out $1599 for a Japanese import set yet.
They need to rush out KH 3, BH 5 and maybe a few SRTs before I take the bait. Of course by then, prices for the hardware had already drop.
November 11th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Take a look at things historically. Any old game has bad graphics compared to new games and yet those old games might be really good and popular while lots of new games with good graphics suck. For example, Ocarina of Time is one of the best and most popular games of all time but compared to any new game its graphics suck. Even so, people still agree that it’s a lot better than most new games, even if those new games have great graphics.
Tsumari,
graphics matter (but only a little)
gameplay (and other important elements like story) is alpha and omega (essential)
To sum up: Wii will probably another success and bless us with endless hours of fun while Ps3 MIGHT be successful depending on gameplay and other factors not related to graphics
And yes, I am a Nintendo fanboy (but I don’t hate Playstation)
November 11th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
You assume that graphics and gameplay are exclusive.
I think not. Look at HL2 and Gears of War.
Good games don’t HAVE to look ugly.
Orochi: It’s all moot, because I can’t buy any of them anyway. :3
November 11th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
It’s pretty obvious that the people on the internet are a vast MINORITY. My brother, an avid freakogamer, has set his sights on a PS3 and isn’t considering other options at all. Many are like him. End of story.
Besides, many people got burnt by Dreamcast, Saturn and other consoles and will not risk being all cowboy about it again. I say, wait a year and stick to Sony. And only losers do not have HD TV WOOOOO!!
I don’t.
November 11th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
If this was Singapore, riots would have occured and shops ransacked.
November 11th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
HDTV is soooo unnecessary… my 19 inch LCD monitor is enough for me… (okay so i’m not rich enough to buy one. happy?)
haha… let’s just hope that PS3 sales would boom and sony would earn lots of profit so that the price will eventually drop to a more reasonable level…
November 11th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Hey, bbc has a poll on the 3 consoles, last time i checked, ps3 is last at 22% of the 14k votes
its prolly not one of the most reliable poll as you can vote as many times as you want
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/default.stm
November 12th, 2006 at 12:09 am
In my opinion both the PS3 and the Wii will be succesfull, 360 will be way less.
Playstation and nintendo just have too much fanboys that will surely use their consoles, Xbox won’t die, but it’ll be less like the Xbox for sure.
At any rate, don’t forget that the Wii can use the old gamecube controller for games as well, just like SSBBrawl will use.
November 12th, 2006 at 7:53 am
Check this out:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212
November 12th, 2006 at 9:33 am
LOL @ the Warai Otoko censoring in the 1st pic.
Some facts I’d like to say:
- The Wii’s main weapon is the Wiimote, true. It’s just one feature, true. But, sincerely speaking, it’s THE feature. Not useful for traditional bishoujo games, but put it in Half-Life 2, Unreal Tournament, MS Flight Simulator, guitar-playing games, Star Wars-based games, Silent Hill’s and others and you can think a LOT of things to add to the game that you just couldn’t before (of course, it all depends on how well defined are the Wii’s APIs).
The Wiimote bets for a playing interface that even my 80-yr old grandma and my 6-yr old nephew can get used to almost INMEDIATLY. It all depends on how the game designers think.
So, Nintendo is betting for a new, more natural way to play.
- The PS3′s main weapon is Cell. The almighty 25.6 GFLOPS processor should be able to handle physics, graphics, sound and a lot of other things smoothly. And that translates to (graphical and physics-modeling talk) better Splinter Cell’s, Half-Life 2 (again? :P), Resident Evils, FIFA’s and others. Heck, it even has Havok, PhysX and Unreal Engine inside!
So, Sony is betting for a stunning visual appearance.
I look closely and I think Nintendo’s bet weighs more than Sony’s, but not enough. So, as a programmer, what would you prefer? A system with barely the processing power needed, but a cool natural interface (and that opens a market of new people buying and playing cause the Wiimote makes you forget the “X,X,Y,right,left” tendonitis hell)? Or a boring, traditional playing machine that boasts a HUGE amount of processing power allowing you to simulate real physics even in a programmed ant?
Who knows. PS3 + Wiimote pwnz everything, that’s for sure. But that’s a dream.
BTW, I still can’t decide… bit personally, I’d try to buy both :P (of course, in case they reach Chile someday…)
November 12th, 2006 at 10:42 am
DarkMirage, it won’t be so easy for Sony or Microsoft to add a motion-sensing controller if the Wii ends up being a smash hit. Sure, they can develop an add-on like the Wiimote, but what games will use it?
Games would either have both a regular control scheme and a motion-sensing one, which would limit innovation and increase development costs; or they would be limited to those PS3/XBox 360 owners who bought the special controllers. And as we know, optional console peripherals that require significant effort from developers have not fared well hisorically, with the only exceptions I can think of being totally custom controllers like DDR pads and the Guitar Hero controller.
As for the Wii controller being “gimmicky,” we really won’t know that until we play the games for ourselves. Was the analog joystick a gimmick? Nintendo invented that. What about shoulder buttons? I’m sure some people thought they were gimmicks, too. And the DS, for crying out loud– I remember many people calling that system a gimmick, with its dual screens and stylus. On the other hand, the Virtual Boy turned out to be a real turd, so not everything Nintendo touches turns to gold. But my point is that it’s way too early to dismiss the Wiimote as a “gimmick” just yet.
Also, there’s more to the Wii than just the remote: Wii Channels are the other major feature. They seemed like a minor feature to me until I read “Iwata Asks” (http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol1_p1.html), which makes it clear that they are a major part of the Wii’s strategy. Again, it’s too early to judge how successful they will be, since the Wii hasn’t been released yet.
Finally, as for graphics vs. gameplay: of course they are not completely mutually exclusive, or else all games would be like D&D. But each does require a certain investment of resources, and it is certainly not the case that Nintendo could have made the Wii as powerful as the PS3 with no extra effort.
And it’s not only Nintendo that would have to pay the price, either: consumer expectations about graphical quality are making PS3 and XBox 360 games insanely expensive to produce, meaning only the largest publishers can do it. And large game publishers are generally risk-averse: they would rather polish an existing, proven formula than risk millions on something totally new. So better graphics do come with a price– one Nintendo has chosen not to pay. We’ll see in a year or so whether that gamble pays off.
November 12th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Graphics are sort of the height of many next-gen console conversations. When I see things like “Wii’s graphics are NOT good”, it makes me think of where the industry is going. I’ll admit that they aren’t near 360 or PS3 in an HD environment, but one has to think of something else: when did graphics start to matter all that much? Many gamers tend to think that the only thing they want is the next graphical upgrade – the closer to reality the better. But when you think 10 years ago, we still played even though the graphics looked like ass. What kept us playing? For sure not the mind boggling graphics. Sure, they were different and probably looked decent for their day, but that was never the main draw. It was “is this game fun”.
And unlike Nintendo, I’m not saying that a fun experience can be generated by a radical and innovative controller or control scheme. Gameplay is also just part of the mixture that makes a game. It’s the same with other production values such as music, sound effects, special effects, story, etc. They all have to come together to make a game fun.
The biggest draw for me, for any of the machines, is if I think any game will bring to the table a fun experience. I don’t mind if the graphics aren’t in 1080p with meticulously rendered textures and intense physics. I don’t really care if the game uses a wild control scheme where I have to do a flip or run around the room. All of these things are merely a plus when I can receive them with a fun game.
Where is the industry going if we can’t just stop to ask ourselves “why do we want this?” and honestly answer “because it’s fun.”
November 12th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Erm……………..wat on Earth is Wii?!?!?!?!
I agree that PSP failed coz it has too little good games but maybe in the future it will be better then nintendo DS?? I previously owned an X box but now i only have a gameboy advance sp and a PSP……however PSP allows u to upload videos but i dun think that nintendo DS has that ability right??
hm………….i think i will stick with my PSP which i have uploaded most of my MOHS’s (melancholy of haruhi suzumiya) episodes =P
November 12th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
>>But judging by the turnout today, I think we can safely say that the bad publicity Sony has been getting is not going to determine the success (or failure) of the PS3. The product is.
well, I don’t think turnout on launch day is ever representative of how successful a console will be. No matter how good or bad any of the three major consoles are, people WILL line up for it. It’s pretty much a given that PS3 and Wii will sell out fast (PS3 especially since it’s got such short supply). However, these launch-day sellouts are just a drop in the bucket, and are relatively insignficant in the long run.
on the graphics vs. gameplay debate, graphics are getting to the point where these upgrades are becoming almost undiscernable to the human eye. Yes MGS4 looks like sex but you know what? so does FFXII. Nintendo realized this, and wanted to open up a new dimension of upgrading other than graphics acceleration.
>>It’s pretty obvious that the people on the internet are a vast MINORITY.
what year do you live in, 1999? is there anyone left who doesn’t go on the internet to look up information about videogame consoles? I think the internet at this point is a decently reliable gauge of public opinion. Your brother may be all for PS3, that’s fine, there are people in the internet like him too. They are called “minorities”.
November 12th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
I disagree. What he meant was that the people who visit gaming blogs and read up on the latest gaming news are in the minority.
I have a lot of friends who do not care about the latest gaming news, who aren’t even sure what new games are coming out for their PS2s, have never even heard of Revolution or Wii, but they know about the PS3.
For example, if you go to a tech blog and look at some comments on operating systems, how many Windows vs. Linux supporters will you find? My bet is on Linux, but that’s not how it woks in real-life. It’s too early to write PS3 off as a failure just because it has been getting bad press coverage on blogs. Gaming blog readers are the minority.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
PS3 is basically overpriced right now…what was it, $1000 or close to that right?
November 16th, 2006 at 7:25 am
Are u retarded?
PS3 never costed 1000$
staring price was 63.000 Yen ~ 534 dollar
but they had to drop it bc of nintendo to 50000 yen ~ 424 dollar
yeah still expensive…
but i guess the auctions/street price will rly get to 1000+ ;)
December 4th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Sony or any 3rd party vendor can always make extra gadgets for PS3 so that it`ll add more gameplay depth. There was Eye Toy for PS2 though it was so underused. But there are always new possibilties. I`ve always wanted to play Konami`s Keisatsukan on a gaming console. Too bad I`ve stopped becoming a hardcore gamer, or even a gamer at that.
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