A Console Retrospective

So we are now in August and the long barren early months of the year are about to yield for the oncoming flood of titles that populate the gaming horizons between now and the new year. Whatever console you own there is plenty to look forward to, and so I will have a brief look at what to look forward to in the coming months mixed with some reflection on the current state of play.

The year so far has been surprising in many ways with a current situation few would have predicted a couple of years ago. Struggling Nintendo have bounced back to dominate this generation so far and sales of the Wii are set to pass those of the Xbox 360 in a couple of weeks despite the fact that the latter console was released over a year beforehand. Such is the popularity of the console all over the world, and yet for many it has yet to truly prove its worth, the big holiday release of titles will come as a big relief for those (like me) whose consoles have been scarcely used these past months.

Europe gets Super Paper Mario next month (the US got it in April) with Metroid Prime 3 seeing a US release in the next couple of weeks, it arrived here at the end of October. As well as this Super Mario Galaxy should ship to all regions by the end of the year and the US will get Smash Brothers Brawl as well, a stellar line up to be sure and it should ensure that the Wii tops the best seller list this Christmas, ensuring Nintendo manage to supply enough consoles to meet demand. While the over abundance of lazy ports and party games has been a shame the truth is that the Wii has surprised everyone and so a lot of companies, EA in particular, have been late to the game and are only now developing stand alone software, so expect this problem to be less of an issue next year with more games making use of the unique controls and audience. The Xbox 360 sees a slew of big releases as well, however the delay of GTA IV has dented both theirs and Sony’s end of year line up,. Still of the two Microsoft have the big guns with developers able to get more out of the console than ever the line up of Mass Effect, Halo 3, Bioshock and many more make it a good choice for the hardcore gamer this Christmas. However constant talk about the Xbox’s reliability has hit Microsoft hard with them having to fork up over $1 billion to extend all current consoles warranties, word is that improved consoles are making their way to the market but first Microsoft need to get rid of all the old stock, this coupled with falling sales and a lack of a price cut (they have only just announced one for the US now after 20 months at the same price) coupled with the fact that they have failed to capitalise on Sony’s PS3 has rather left them afloat.

Truthfully with the line up they have, the head start and the online capabilities of Xbox live the 360 should be far ahead of where it is, and the general apathy amongst consumers to both it and the PS3 may be an indicator that their strategies are not totally in line with what the public want. A couple of recent surveys have highlighted this point and whiles some may be amazed by the findings I am not at all surprised. Just because those of us who follow the games industry and are fairly tech savvy know the capabilities of these machines does in no way mean the mass market do. The whole HD situation is in flux at the moment and a bit of a mess as I have talked about, and frankly I think a lot of people just don’t care. They want to sit down and play games and don’t worry about HD graphics, Blu-Ray players or the online marketplace. Still with the price cut and some good bundles in stores Microsoft should have a strong second half of the year, but until their reliability problems are sorted and their message to the consumers clearer (seriously, 3 versions of the same console? Really?) they will fall short of what they should be achieving.

Finally we get on to Sony, who to be honest have had a pretty tough year. Currently the PS3 has sales of just over 4 million units, not bad but les than 40% of the sales of the Xbox and the Wii. The thing is, again, this should have been expected, I mean they released a very advanced piece of kit, but at far to high a price. Sony focused far to much on the tech rather than the consumer and just arrogantly assumed people would follow. Now the problem lies in that they can’t afford to drop the price any more, their recent price cut in the US may only be temporary, to get rid of the 60GB models from the shelves before returning to the $600 price point with the new 80GB consoles. Notice a pattern here? Like Microsoft Sony have made a complete pigs ear of marketing their console to consumers, what is wrong with having one version of a console and having that same console everywhere? Why have both Sony and Microsoft seen fit to firstly release 2 versions, one essentially a stripped back version of the ‘proper’ more expensive version? Well again this backfired as just a few months after launch Sony announced they had stopped making the smaller 20GB models of the PS3, but now they go and put another version out there, as have Microsoft with the Elite Xbox 360. If this is confusing to you reading this then I rest my case, something can only achieve mass-market success by being at a popular price point ($200 is the usual) and by being simple and not confusing. If you wanted to get an Xbox and were faced with 3 models at 3 different prices you may well feel overwhelmed and confused, not empowered.

As for games Sony have some good looking stuff for the rest of the year, Heavenly Sword looks very impressive visually for example, but a lot of their big guns are scheduled for next year, MGS4, GT5 and now GTA IV but with some decent software on the shelves (another reason the PS3 has failed to ignite sales-wise so far) it could see an improvement to the end of the year. Still as long as that price remains so high the PS3 will remain a high-end electronics device rather than a mass market product and frankly the damage done this generation so far has made it impossible for Sony to reclaim its position at the top that it claimed so well last generation. It shall be interesting to see what the future holds and whether there is any way of saving the PS3 from anything but being seen as a failure in the long term.

Personally I am looking forward to dusting off my Wii-motes and spending some time with Mario and Samus this holiday, and if I could afford it (or had the time) the Xbox 360 makes a very tempting proposition for the future, but as for the wider world? Who knows, all I know is that we have an almost unprecedented slew of top quality games coming in the next 5 or 6 months and no matter what the politics behind the consoles themselves, it has always been the games that count, to forget that is to forget why we play in the first place.