There is of course the matter of strong PSP sales to consider, but this is really potentially pretty big news. Holiday was always the quarter in which PS1 and PS2 totally dominated the market. I don’t think anyone expected that to happen this year with the Wii’s massive success, but Sony themselves were predicting a strong Q4 08 to basically pull them through. There’s always the notion of after-Christmas sales, but without a price drop I tend to agree with WSJ that the lean economy is hurting potential sales of higher-dollar electronics, especially now that BD players are far more cheaply obtainable than a PS3.
Is this the death of a gaming dynasty?


To your question, NO.
Microsoft: Haha, out system is selling more!
Sony: Hey, our ps3 is more expensive, ofcourse your system is selling more. But just watch till 2009, we will price drop it close to 360 price but a bit more and we’ll see how the PS3 will sell. Christmas 09 is ours.
Microsoft: Okay, wake me up when that happens.
Sony: Alright.
man, i hope not…
fuck everything else, i love the ps3, doesn’t matter who else does, i do and i think the games are the best…
hopefully ps3 catches up and thrives, and hopefully the 360 still sells as well, we’re in for a hard time if either system fails… i just want both to do extremely well !!!
wtf… sony do ur thing!!
Yo,, wtf is up with this article?! Jon, you know damn well the ps3 is not gonna fail in any way. The best games for the system aren’t even out, yet its still selling exceptionally well despite it being the most expensive console on the market. I know at least 10 people waiting for the system to drop in price or waiting for a specific game coming out to wait to buy it. Actually I know more people then 10 that are already in the process of buying one.
This article is nothing but flaimbait and everything you wrote was totally unnecessary. Dude wtf are you doing even writing an article? Did you know that the ps3 is actually selling well and sales actually jumped these past 2 weeks? Its a sad day in gaming when people that are supposed to be supporting a console do the exact opposite.
i agree with DragonWarrior4.
So the ps3 is failing huh.That’s news to me, especially since the ps3 sold 20mil in 2 years while the 360 did 16mil in 2 years.It looks like Sony actually did better than Microsoft in that time frame.The article might have held more weight if the ps3 was only at 12-15 mil but come on.What’s with all the Sony hate articles?What next?A “Why killzone 2 sucks” article?Come February N4G will be full of them.Mark my words.
Well maybe I said it the wrong way. Im not saying he should like the ps3, everyone is entitled to their opinions (despite how idiotic and lack of proper credibility people generally have). Jon should be talking more about the positives of the ps3 instead of the bad. The fact is the ps3 has already hit the 20 million mark proves that its far from a failure.
Pretty much what Im saying, Jon, is that this article has 2007 written all over it. The ps3 has plenty of games and functionality to entice even the most casual of gamers. The only problem I see that Sony has is the networking aspects of the machine. Sure its the meat and potatoes of gaming, but there really isn’t anything wrong with it. Its just the 360 has the edge with its xbox live.
Fact is though, True gamers look at all aspects of all machines. I could go on about what the ps3 does better, but then I might as well be doing your job Mr. Sitzman. Hey buts its all cool bud,, Maybe you should talk to me whenever you need a good idea about an article. I know I could come up with something better then this garbage.
I think you guys got fired up by the title. Read this one line:
“…but without a price drop I tend to agree with WSJ that the lean economy is hurting potential sales of higher-dollar electronics, especially now that BD players are far more cheaply obtainable than a PS3″
Do you agree or not with that statement above? If you agree, then you agree with the whole blurb. Jon was just commenting on what WSJ wrote and tossing in his own opinion. If Sony doesn’t drop the price, PS3 sales will stay steady, they won’t see growth. This means that MS can and most likely will pull ahead even further, leaving PS3 in 3rd place. That’s not fanboyism, FUD or BS, it’s straight up facts. If they don’t drop the price, they will lose ground but still be successful. It’s another way of saying Sony won’t be the champion this generation.
Keep the comments coming. Let me know how you feel.
@Torrence
“…but without a price drop I tend to agree with WSJ that the lean economy is hurting potential sales of higher-dollar electronics, especially now that BD players are far more cheaply obtainable than a PS3″
Sure it will hurt sales, but the article isn’t talking about that It’s saying that Sony is failing and they are definitely not failing.
u know what i love my ps3 and my 360 and i am sick and tired of seeing all these fucking articles come on dude this is some straight n4g gold right here its not going to beat 360 just basically on 360 year headstart and price so stop coming out wit these damn articles this shit is common sense sony knows its not going to be on top this GEN damn im sick of hearing this shit i didnt expect to see something like this on this website step yo game up fellas
o no its there last console nobody said MS should stop making xboxs just cause the first one didnt do shit shit if its like that then all we need is a nintendo wii and what did nintendo do last gen nobody said they need to stop making games so get the fuck out of here wit this nonsense man just sick of seeing this shit
I agree with you Metal Gamer. Also, I have to say that it doesn’t matter if the 360 sells more then the ps3. The fact is that Sony is selling, and will continue to sell with or without a price cut. There are more then 20 exclusives coming out next year. Sony is doing their own thing and should only take note of what Microsoft does better with so they can take the ps3 to places that they didn’t even think of before they launched the system.
The fact is that Sony is here to stay. Regardless of what haters got to say about the system. All these articles wont mean a damn thing here coming Feb. Killzone 2 is gonna be a system seller, so will Uncharted 2, GOW3, and White Knight Chronicles(omg I cant wait for that game). There is nothing but good coming from the system next year and so should everything that is coming out of the medias mouths.
@ Tor
I didn’t get upset about what Jon was saying. I just wanted to get his attention so that maybe we could take this conversation further. I love talking video games with people. WWE Raw starts in 10 mins. I will be back and hopefully you guys have some more interesting things to say. L8R.
Yep, a lot of good shit is gonna come out next year for both consoles but don’t be surprised when n4g is flooded with articles bashing Sony’s games.I guarantee come February there will be articles bashing killzone 2.When mgs4 came out they were bashing the cutscenes yet kept asking for it to go to the 360.Funny how that works.
right thats crazy man people just hate on it cuz its been the best for so long they just going to bash it
I think you guys are mistaken over the word “dynasty.”
Dynasty: A series of rulers from one family.
In this case, the family is Sony, and the rulers are the PS1, PS2, and PS3.
But the PS3 is not the king of this generation, and therefore, a death of the Sony dynasty. There is no dominant console in this generation. You don’t want a dynasty where there is a dominant corporation over the gaming market. You want competition.
Jon asked,”is this the death of a gaming dynasty?” This is not asking if this is the death of Sony or the PS3. I think it is asking if the control of one console developers having major influence in the market finally over. As he said, ” holiday was always the quarter in which PS1 and PS2 totally dominated the market.” This is not true for the PS3.
Wow mongum,, that was deep man. You just turned all of that stuff from the article and broke it down with science. Good job. I bet you were the teachers pet in school.
What? Torrence and I know Jon, so we know how he thinks. He likes to play with words.
You fail at sarcasm though.
Well, damn if I didn’t have a nice wordy and eloquent reply all typed up and accidentally closed the window, erasing all of it. :p Ever have one of those days?
Okay, so here’s the short version. First, it’s good to see so many new voices exchanging opinions here, even if I don’t happen to agree with all of them (or they all agree with each other). Thanks to all for visiting us – we try really hard and appreciate the support.
Second, apparently Wong is the only one who read my post for content, rather than flying of f the handle after reading the title. I said nothing about Sony dying or the PS3 dying. I said – in the form of a question – that a dynasty seems to be ending.
As was correctly pointed out, a dynasty is a succession, not a single ruler, entity or product. Playstation has been a monstrously successful brand name since its inception over a decade ago. Now, by “monstrously successful” I’m not talking about sheer volume of sales; I’m talking about market pre-eminence. If anyone had said, around 1989 or 1990, that Nintendo’s absolute dominance over the American and Japanese gaming markets was about to be shaken to its roots, they’d have been laughed out of the room. And look what happened. The PS1 wasn’t so much a “foot in the door,” as pundits predicted; it was a foot up the ass of the competition. PS2’s success and market hegemony was even more pronounced. Who would have thought we’d see Sony struggling to even keep a chance at grabbing SECOND place just one generation after they released the most popular set-top gaming box ever built? I sure to hell didn’t. I figured another Sony sweep this generation (I had no idea the Wii would take off like it has), or at least MS in third place again. Nothing prepared me for this outcome, even when I saw the writing on the wall.
Sony isn’t out of this industry, not by a damn sight. But – like it or not, fanboys – they are out of the running for first place this time around. So is Microsoft. Wong’s incorrect that there is no dominant console this generation. The Wii is pretty close to selling more units than the other two consoles COMBINED. If that’s not dominance, I don’t know what could be. The issue here is Sony’s future as a game creator, and a motivating force in the industry. They do have a stable of exclusive IPs coming out, including some impressive-looking potentials, but they’ve also lost exclusive rights to many of their strongest past sales drivers. That’s the exact fate that condemned Nintendo to less-than-stellar performance.
I’m simply asking this: today, it’s clear that the PS3 will not be the market leader this generation. Anyone who disputes that at this point is ignoring reality. But what happens tomorrow?
If you’re going to discuss something, discuss that. And I don’t mean later this generation: I mean PS4, or PS(whatever they call it). Not going with a basic number sequence seems to have worked moderately well for Microsoft.
@Jon Sitzman
Well, when you put it that way…
I agree with everything you just said.Good job man, that was an even more interesting read then what you posted.Why aren’t you on the warzone man?It would make the warzone a bit more interesting than just arguing over which console or game is better.
Haha, I had 5 minutes to write that article this morning and had about 15 minutes to type my prior post. That’s why this morning’s article was short. I just knew Torrence would bust everyone’s ass if someone didn’t at least link to that article, so I grabbed it and ran.
Thanks for the props. I’d love to be on Warzone and have talked to Torrence about it recently. Unfortunately, my schedule is totally unfriendly to that time-slot right now. I may be getting a different schedule around February, but it will probably still involve working Fridays and weekends (gotta hate real-world jobs), so I can’t promise – but if it’s at all possible, I want to be in there, and the other WZ voices are amenable to the idea.
No console is “better” right now if you ask me. PS3’s got more under the hood, but its online experience isn’t as polished and its primary storage medium isn’t well-known and has read-speed issues. Early 360s have a comical failure rate and it sucks to pay for Live when you’re already ponying bucks for your ISP subscription. Wii’s online experience is shit and it has very little to appeal to the hardcore gaming market. Yet with all that said, each console has a demographic that is buying it, and each is doing moderately well within that demo. To be more correct, Wii seems to cross all demographic boundaries, but that’s exactly what Nintendo was going for.
I’ll try and be a bit more of a voice on the site. Unfortunately I’m usually better for lengthy ruminations than breaking gaming news, but I’ll see what I can do.
Yo Jon, you just cracked me up. Thanx for that man. Just so you know Im not a fanboy. I play on my 360 more then my ps3 everyday of the week. I pretty much play COD4 and 5, Fallout 3 , and SSFHD nonstop on the machine, and even talked alot of my old ps3 only friends into getting it because our favorite online game (The whole COD series) plays so much better on the machine. So there ya go.
But now there is somethings you said above that sorta get under my skin. First you throw numbers around. Saying that the Wii is beast, and we need to be worried about the future of a certain console because its in 3rd place. Dude you have never been so wrong. Sony could be in fourth place and that wouldn’t stop them from doing what they are still doing. They could be in 5th or 6th place and still, why would they stop? They are actually making a profit on the machine now. So all these numbers with other consoles dont mean anything. Do me a favor and stop talking about numbers. Numbers don’t mean shit unless your real name is Reggie, Kaz, or Bill Gates . Even then, youd be so rich that it wouldn’t really matter. This pissing contest is getting really old man.
So besides that, thanx for the reply,,, even though you didn’t exactly comment back to what I was saying in particular. I know you mean no harm in this article, and no hard feelings were made in the process. Its just the article seemed so negative, and being the non biased gamer that I am, I had to say something. You stated some other things that I dont wanna get into. Its all been said hundreds of times. Maybe the next article you write will be fashionably done and you would have enough time to take your time. Take it easy man.
@ Wong. Dude the funny thing is that I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. You really did sound like the kid that always wants to be the center of attention in class and both you and jon act like you are right about everything. But you have every right considering this is your friends’ site and all. But yeah man, just calm down a little bro.
All these “SONY has to price cut the PS 3! articles” are causing only one thing: people waiting for a price cut. Look to the exclusives to come in 2009. Awesome games, right? they will sell consoles for sure!
What I would like to ask is…who gives a rats ass who wins this “Console War?” I know the gamers have won and thats all that matters do I want to see sony beat microsoft and nintendo…No…I really don’t care as long as all three companys can stay profitable and make games that I and we as gamers play then I could care less who wins the MEDIA and FANBOY driven “Console War”
Ok, I want to give my perspective about this whole console war. The 1st thing is that ppl seems to toss away the Wii and just focus on the PS3 and the 360, but ironically the subject of discussion is who’s selling more. To me I rather look at which is the better system overall to judge who’s this generations winner. Back in the days we didn’t track system sales or whatnot we went with the overall quality of the system. I give you example (like hiphop would say lol). I think Nintendo won the 16 bit generation because the SNES was better overall than the Genesis or the Turbografix 16. They had the best games, they look better, sound better and the controller was better. So With that said if we go by sales then the Wii is clearly this gen’s winner. But do you really think that’s the better system overall?
As far as I’m concern Sony’s PS3 is the better system and that started to show early this year and the only thing Microsoft could do to keep them in the fight is having a bigger volume of units on the streets; thus giving them the edge with the developers pockets and brilliantly manipulating the media to focus on the sales aspect of this so called war. Thats my opinion and the way I see things. Just in case I’m not a fanboy or whaterver you what to call it, I own both systems and I enjoy playing on my 360 but to me it’s clear that it’s showing it’s limitations (thats allot of it’ss ha) and if I can see that developers can too.
@ DragonWarrior 4:
“…They are actually making a profit on the machine now. So all these numbers with other consoles dont mean anything.”
You sure about that, ace?
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/208469/sony-cuts-playstation-3-costs-by-35-percent/
The lines you want to read (or maybe don’t):
“The components used to produce the second-generation of the PS3 console cost $448.73, based on October component prices, iSuppli said, citing a recent teardown of the system it conducted to see what components are used inside. The market research firm then assembled a bill of materials based on that list of components and estimated prices to arrive at a system cost.
By comparison, the components used inside the first generation of the PS3 cost $690.23, based on mid-2007 prices, iSuppli said.
Sony makes a LOSS on the sale of each PlayStation 3 console, which sells for $400.”
Now the very next thing they say is that the shortfall is narrowing, so that a price drop may become possible soon, but you’re trying to claim Sony is profiting per sale now, and that is factually false.
Also, for the second time, kindly get your attribution right! *I* did not throw around any numbers in this article. I posted a link to a Wall Street Journal article that talks about sales and history. If you’re taking issue with someone’s research, it would be theirs – but I assure you they have vastly better resources than either of us, so their data is probably quite correct.
Wow,, dude, do you even talk to the people who you work for on this site? Do you ever listen to the Warzone? You pretty much just told me that Torrence and Fat Anorexic are liars. Both of them said that it only cost $300 bucks to make a ps3. They make a $100 dollar profit. Also, your taking an article that is a known xbot site and magazine. Ive seen plenty of articles that said Sony was making a profit on the ps3 months ago. Again, you just took all the credibility you had and washed it down the drain man. I had total respect for you and now you just proved your a mindless drone like the rest of them.
Also,, When I say your throwing around numbers, I was referring to you talking about how the Wii and 360 is beating the ps3 in sales. You did it without representing numbers, but your still talking about sales, thus trying to emphasize numbers without actually mentioning them. Why in the hell are you even trying to argue with me when you are wrong? Get over it dude,, you cant be right all the time. You should really just calm down, take a deep breath and figure out whats really going on before you start running your mouth.
And once again I’d like to point out that I’m getting reference material for my post. A far more legitimate counterargument would be to say “Well, that iSuppli data is from October 2008, so prices may have gone down since then.” That would at least be reasonable speculation.
If Torrence has data showing that PS3s currently cost $300 to manufacture, I’m sure he’ll post it. The link above is the most recent data I could find on production cost for the PS3, and it’s dated *yesterday,* so I’d say it’s pretty current. Again, if you’ve got contrary data, let’s see it.
Since you guys love numbers so much here you go.
http://www.n4g.com/NewsCom-252103.aspx?CT=1&Page=1&Page2=1#C1885281
That should be some good news.
Dude, Im not gonna sit here and argue with you anymore. I never said the wii and the 360 weren’t ( not aren’t) outselling the ps3. I think its irrelevant , as a gamer I could give 2 shits if the Wii was outselling the ps3 a million to 1. Its the fact that you posted this garbage that upsets me. I simply stated that you should be talking about the positive things in gaming right now.
There is so much negativity going around the ps3, and studies actually show that has an effect on consumers. You are part of the problem Jon, not the solution. At first I didn’t know it, I was just trying to make conversation, but I guess that didn’t turn out the way I wanted to.
Funny thing is that Ive always known you were a fanboy at heart since last year. Its not a big deal really, everyone has their opinion about what they feel is right, but the thing is that bashing the ps3 passive aggressively doesn’t change the fact that you are bashing the ps3 knowingly, subconsciously, or unknowingly.
You can make a difference Jon, and the fact that you are able to write articles for this wonderful website is a blessing. Thebitbag.com is the most unbiased and refreshing site ive ever seen, and thats probably why I even started this. I apologize for any misunderstandings though, I would actually love to talk to you on xbox live or the psn, and have grown folk talk about the gaming industry.
I’m not aware that an argument has been in progress. I’ve been citing facts, and you have been insulting me personally. Despite your saying you now wish to stop arguing, you’re STILL insulting me personally.
There is no point in trying to argue that this person or that person, including me, is or isn’t a fanboy. That’s entirely relative. If you like one thing and someone else likes another, it’s all too easy to pin a label on them and thus dismiss their arguments via the ad hominem fallacy than actually answer them. Opinions are like buttholes. Everyone has one, and most of them stink. :p
What I can and will say is this. If you read reviews I’ve written for this site since its inception, I’d like to see you cite some evidence for this fanboyism. You’re accusing a person who lamented that BioShock and Mass Effect were 360 exclusives (and who crowed with delight when he found out BioShock would be coming to PS3). I’d be more than happy to provide you with links that illustrate these. I’m sure Torrence would vouch for the fact that the reviews in question (I wrote both) have not been edited.
I’ll be honest about my opinions. I’m glad to see MS enjoying some success, sad to see Sony fallen so far from last generation (and have strong ideas about why it happened), and totally despise the Nintendo Wii. That said, I’d like to think I can objectively review product on any of those three platforms, leaving my own personal biases out of it. I assure you, if I could cite the positive aspects of Valkyria Chronicles (a game I absolutely deplored), I can pay attention to quality regardless of how I feel emotionally.
This article was based on factual citations from one of the most respected business news sources in Western media. For the last time, your debate is with them, not me.
I dont think the ps3 is dying but I do think if the 360 didnt have the rrod problems early on that the lead would be 2m+.The ps3 is selling wel at its price point and has been getting a big boost thanks to bluray.
HOLY SHIT! I slept in too late! What happened here?
Just to clear my name, I never said Sony was making money on the PS3. I thought they were still losing or breaking even. Maybe Fat said that but he works at Sony so he should know.
I don’t think any of you are fanboys, especially Jon. Jon will tell you the best things about the PS3 and 360 and then tell you things you don’t want to hear. The Warzone started off as Unformatted but Jon did a podcast with Lee Yi called 1VS1 and it’s really good. When I get the new feed up you should check it out.
I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m tired of the sales talk too. This generation has been ‘defined’. I gave you my end of generation sales numbers and I’m sticking with those until the X3 comes out.
I’m really excited about the next generation because I know all of this gen’s fuck ups will be fixed. Microsoft QA issues, Sony PSN issues, system limitation issues and many other things will be hashed out. The next gen is going to be HOT!
Anyways, just agree to disagree. I think a lot of folks are disappointed Sony isn’t dominating this generation. I’m not. I’m glad they’ve been humbled and are taking network gaming seriously for once. You can thank Microsoft for this. I’m also glad that MS is taking Japan seriously now and going after more 3rd party titles. You can thank Sony for this. Enjoy what you have…take a deep breath…and be True Gamers.
Yep, it’s a good thing Sony has been tooken down a notch.Maybe now Sony won’t be so cocky and start taking this a little more seriously and stop relying on it’s brand name.
@Torrence
Who’s calling who fanboys?
And what ever happened to 1vs1.Seems like it just disappeared.
Lee and Jon weren’t interested in doing the show anymore. I think they should still do it.
Torrence, please! We’ve had this discussion. I LOVED doing 1v1s and if Lee were able I would get online with him every Sunday night. Without sharing someone else’s personal business, I believe family and time management issues were his reasons for no longer wanting to continue the show. Saying I wanted to stop or no longer cared about it is totally inaccurate, please don’t put the Word on me like that!
It had one bad month for godsakes!
You didn’t mention how the PS3 outsold the 360 for 8 straight months in 2008 either!
PS3 has sold 18 million units in its first two years, with an expensive price and strong adversaries like Microsoft and Nintendo.
Xbox 360 has sold 16 million units in its first two years, with a much lower price and no adversaries at all in the first year (2005).
So, which one is doing better?
PS3 has a built-in Blu-ray player, built-in wii fi, full HD graphics and sounds with HDMI 1.3, some of the best games of this generation (with A LOT of great games coming in 2009 such as Killzone 2, God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, Infamous, Gran Turismo 5, and More!!! in front of a lack of good games for Xbox 360 next year such as: two sub par halo games an extension too H3 and Halo Wars…..what else is there?). It can also be used for browsing the internet. Optionally, you can install Linux and use your PS3 as a true PC. All of this features are FREE. They’re included in the $399 ( not to mention they’re taking a hit on everyone sold, we should be thanking them for putting so many thing into one box for so little!). You don’t have to pay a single cent (except for the games and the movies, of course), and you have the best console of this generation from a multimedial standpoint.
Xbox 360 can barely read DVDs (when its not scratching them… are you aware of this problem?), cannot play Blu-rays, doesn’t allow you to browse the net, requires an annual fee of 50 $ and an expensive external hard disk to properly access the internet functionalities of the machine, doesn’t have wii-fi (you can buy it for $100 … nice, right?), doesn’t have true HD (it has HDMI 1.2, wich translates in less-quality sound)… and has a HUGE failure rate( of at least 50% upon release and still around 30% today) that makes the console COMPLETELY useless after the 3-years warranty expires (never heard of the infamous Red Ring of Death? Try to search on Google and YouTube, you’ll see).
The Wii has last-gen graphics, no HD and cannot even play normal DVDs (except for the games). It’s an old-technology machines. The games are for the most party horrible, except for the kids and the families.
So, a savvy consumer will NEVER buy an Xbox 360 (altough he profoundly loves some of its exclusive games… wich, for the most part, can be played on PC also), and will buy a Wii ONLY if it’s a gift for his kids an he’s not interested in high definition. EVERYONE ELSE, should buy a PS3, because it’s BY FAR the best console on the market today.
Yes, I know, its price is high. Maybe too high, given the state of the economy. But it’s worth every single cent and offers you things that no other console has.
So, if you think that $399 are too much, just leave the console on the shelf: someone will buy it. But to say that the PS3 is selling less than its competitors and write an article like this, so full of mistakes… it’s a shame.
Don’t get brainwashed people, think with your own mind and do research in first person instead of believing these writers who know nothing of these systems.
And here’s another one:
NOTE: I’M SORRY FOR THIS BEING LONG! I SEEM TO ALWAYS HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT ANYTHING I TALK ABOUT!
Someone once said, and one may believe it applies to the gaming world right now:
The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosives and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn.
It’s funny because the person who said this was not even involved with video games, and he didn’t say that when computer games existed (at least not to the common knowledge). It was Rod Serling, writer and narrator for the 1960’s TV show “The Twilight Zone” in an episode entitled “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street”. This quote was the closing narrative of that episode, and it is probably one of the best quotes to be used at many times during the history of the world. This quote now also fits the video game industry, as we have seen several stories submitted on N4G.com and posted throughout the web concerning the so called “imminent gloom and doom” of a console, just after one month in which the system sold less units in November of 2008 to the November the year before. Apparently, the people that so wanted to become the martyrs for the Playstation 3 in 2008 have been let out of their cages. Little do they know that they either have some short-term memory loss, or failure to care of showing bias, or something. Because the straw men arguments are getting old and tired, yet come with no new ideas, information, or anything to show that they actually have common sense with their stories at a rate of one or two a day, and they get even more pathetic with every passing day and article.
It actually all started when CNN Money.com, a place that shouldn’t even be talking about this subject like they know anything about gaming, reported about the Playstation 3 having one bad month. Someone should’ve told them about the eight consecutive months that the Playstation 3 outsold the Microsoft XBox 360 in this same year beforehand, or that Microsoft wasn’t able to sell more 360s in January or February of 2008 than they did during those same months the year before. At that time, the sluggish sales of the 360 was claimed to have been “shortage of the system”. Of course, the portable pubic chorus never did question it, much like they never have questioned much about anything about the 360 or Microsoft this current generation (and when, by some stroke of God, they actually did, it was pitiful at best). There was nothing like the phenomenon we now have.
It is a shock to what CNN actually started. Every person under the sun with a gaming blog and a hatred for everything Sony suddenly decided that since CNN got the hits to their website that they wanted by a flame-bait article, they would have as much luck, and suddenly, they come out with a post about how doomed the system is, then others see two, three, four, TEN articles, within half a week, repeating everything that CNN and everyone else said beforehand, so much so that you could probably win a case against them plagiarizing the articles that came before hand, and delivering suggestions such as “take out the Blu-Ray player”, suggestions that may make the person who suggested it needing a defense for a sanity hearing. No matter how many times someone calls out the person that wrote it, or say that it’s nothing new, no one is there to listen, or they hear it and don’t care.
This is all after one bad month, and it’s as if no one else in the business ever has had an issue in which they sold less units in a particular month that year then they did at that point one year ago. Many companies have recovered from far worse, and many companies and analysts have never really seen it as that much of a big deal.
So what is the issue this time? It’s the brand name of the company that has done so: Sony. And for some reason or other, it seems like the portable public chorus has had it in for Sony, and will stop at nothing to spin anything into bad news for Sony. All while ignoring anything and everything that could never be spun into negatives. There is always some excuse, such as the so-called “360 shortage” that Microsoft kept claiming and every chorus member, media whore house, and fanboy just amplified to any decibel that they could get in order for the unsuspecting consumer to hear and take seriously. They over-hype the negatives while never appreciating the positives. This is at the same time the yet same people never call out any negatives for the other companies and praising the tiniest positive, or worse, making something that should be negative for the other side into a positive (the reverse of what they do for Sony).
However, this wouldn’t be as bad if it was just the no name blogs that were doing this. Hell, anyone with a computer can type anything up and send it out there for the masses, not to say that no blog is creditable or brings up good points. Blogs can be dismissed as fanboy bias (though sometimes that’s almost too easy, especially when you have a blog that actually brings up unbiased points). However, it’s not just them. It’s the mainstream media, the people that should know better than this, that write these stories, put them out there, and thus add fuel to the fire. They are the ones that visit the executives, are at the gaming expos, are at the press conferences, are the ones talking to the people that make the systems and the games that we enjoy. They are the ones that we are supposed to trust to give us fair, accurate, and unbiased reviews, news, and views. Us consumers, the ones that are buying the games and the systems with our hard earned dollars, depend on the reviews and views to tell us if something is worth purchasing.
However, instead of these journalists actually doing their damn job, what do we get? We get sites who call the 360 “the greatest game system of all time” as if they have any right naming any current generation console that. We get skewing of facts in graphs that tell us little yet pretend that they tell us everything. We have the gaming media whore houses visit the executives of one console manufacturer telling one of the whores that “we want more” in the other system’s would be former exclusives and the whore never even flinching while he goes and calls the other side of everything under the sun. We have that same whore house do whatever they can to expose Playstation Home when Sony wasn’t ready to reveal it, as if they think it’s the same as Sony hiding Saddam Hussein’s invisible WMDs. We have stories submitted to the gaming news portal N4G to the rate of one per day, now maybe even more. We have people posting holiday shopping guides that are nothing more than cheer leading one console when the video doesn’t match what the narrators tell us. We have a reviewer that makes clear factual errors and omissions on a PS3 exclusive game, and when called on it, instead gets on a soapbox, calling those that called his review of that game BS as “fanboys” and saying that other reviewers have always given that game’s creator a “free pass”. We get the article that stated us on this month of gaming media HELL that says that the economic crisis has nothing to do with Sony’s November NPD sales, then the very next paragraph contradict themselves by saying that the video game industry is not immune to the side effect of the bad economic time. We get those people that distort the truth and over exemplify the facts, conveniently forgetting about anything else that could prove their argument(s) futile, and only tell us of their twisted, spinned logic, their version of reality, as an absolute.
It is pitiful that one dismal month, a instance that many companies have had and have recovered from many times over and hasn’t even fazed many in the press corps (and even during a rough economic time in which several companies are not doing well), has garnered this much hatred and this many wolves who were so starved for their dinner to feast so much. At least when this same thing happened in 2007, it was in easier doses to swallow. This time, it’s more of a piling on of things that one or two people say, then everyone else rushes to put their own spin on the spin. It’s even more pathetic that it’s people we should trust that fuel this. Hatred for the Playstation 3, for whatever reason…no, scratch that, hatred for SONY, for whatever reason, run rampant though the veins of these wolves, and there seems to be no changing their minds about what they want to believe.
Where DOES this hatred come from? Is it because Sony is a Japanese company and they don’t like that Sony products are popular in the United States? Is it because they think that Sony drove Sega out of the console business, even though Sega had their own problems that clearly contributed to the demise of that side of their company (such as the numerous Genesis add-ons and failure to support a console for long enough)? Is it because Sony beat Microsoft, an American company, during last gen, and they want revenge? We need to know and we need to know soon, because this hatred for one system and one company is baffling and disgusting. There should be no reason for someone to just WANT something to fail, and to fail this badly. We should be hoping that the gaming industry, ALL of it, thrives. Neither gaming developers nor gaming journalists should be playing favorites. If it’s not alright for Sony to “buy exclusives”, then it shouldn’t be alright for Microsoft to do it, either. If a Playstation 3 game becomes multiplatform, there should always, ALWAYS be a 360 game that gets a similar treatment. We can no longer accept this notion that as long as the game is a 360 exclusive, it can stay that way while the PS3 loses everything, and we can no longer accept the gaming media continue to be hypocrites.
Yes, we get it. The Playstation 3 did have a rough start and Sony did fumble the ball on more than one occasion this generation. We do agree, as well, that a price cut for the system would do the system much good. However, with that being said, every single company known to man, woman, and child has had some sort of crisis, or bad times, and they have all recovered from them. There is nothing lately to suggest that Sony has fumbled to ball as badly as the press is making things out to be, with only small issues like marketing or fighting fire with fire against Microsoft being the only key issues right now.
There is something worse, still, within this. It is the enablers. The people that look at the stories, look at the tactics, look at the things that many people would frown upon, and never even so much as question it. Hell, they even encourage these stories, these tactics, these hounds, to continue on this petty little game. This is the most dangerous of all, because it’s those people that the press is seemly willing to listen to, the most extreme of the loons that say “yeah, they proved it”, might as well be written in damn crayon. Hell, maybe the media whore houses that write these stories are writing in the margins in crayon, maybe writing the entire stories as such. Yet, nothing will change, because the people who read them will do exactly what the idiots that write those stories will do: Flame. Not provoke thought as some stories will do (and those stories we should and do encourage more of). No, they don’t provoke that. They provoke the dividing of the gaming public. They are not the ones that feed the fanboys, at least not anymore. No, they are now the ones that MAKE the fanboys, and the fanboys say to the whore houses that it’s alright and rush to anyone’s defense as long as the story says something that they want to hear, true or not. Then, seeing such, the whore houses continue to spin, continue to flame-bait, continue to mislead the gaming public, some of which would know so little about the media nowadays. In order for these idiotic stories to stop, we have to stop it ourselves, and that’s by the fanboys to wake the hell up! It’s not amusing, it’s damn sure not funny, and it’s pathetic and disgusting.
We gamers should and do take this seriously. This is not only our hard earned money that is being put into these companies (hell, how does anyone know that any of us gamers DON’T earn stock in Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo or whoever else decides to join those three?), but our passion for the industry and the hobby. Those who say that we’re just taking this industry or this situation way too seriously isn’t taking this industry seriously enough. What if it was your system that got this treatment? What if this were your company that constantly got dogged with no reason as to why, and no way to get them to shut their mouths? This is our hobby, this is our passion, this is our lives. Hell, sometimes, this is our CAREERS and our JOBS! We are therefore saddened when we see this type of thing happen to any one entity in the gaming industry, and we’re just as disgusted when we see the gaming media be this biased, this ready to draw blood, this ready to pile it on. “There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men.” Indeed!
And to the media, you have to start doing your damn job. Give us some sign that you are not biased. Hell, none of us are even saying that you have to switch the parties around. We would call you out on that just as bad. No, we’re only looking for you to be fair. To call out shady business practices for what they are. To not hate on a company because they originated from a different part of the world, to not hate a system just because you feel like being the martyr that day. To review a game fairly, and to tell us all the facts, and make the score reflect that, and when someone DOES tell you that you factually erroneous on a review, be a true journalist and fess up. Tell us all the facts, call out everyone, stop having your opinions influenced by small groups whose websites will make you need to take a shower after you’re done visiting them, and be the people who you say you are. Because, just as you have the choice to skew the facts, we have the choice, to go elsewhere.
Finally, to those in doubt: No, we shouldn’t and don’t think that any gaming platform should or will die out. Neither we nor the gaming media should ever wish it, no one should ever try to pursue it. While some of us may be fanboys at heart, and there are some fanboys that have thankfully not walked down this long and cold road of self-absorption and bias and can look at things just as objectively as us that call ourselves true gamers (we’re all fanboys for something in the gaming industry, labels be damned), we are gamers first, and fanboys fiftieth. We deserve much better than someone skewing the facts and playing politics with this industry. It just so happens that it’s with Sony. Maybe ten years down the road, when we look back on this generation, one thing will be for sure: Unless the media starts acting like adults, grow up, and stop making these articles of “Fear, uncertainty, and doubt” (or “FUD”, as many on the internets have cleverly coined), and actually do something called their damn job, the press will be the ultimate laughing stock of the generation. Get it together, media, because it’s the blogs that have to come in and clean up the mess you have made, and we cannot fully depend on them to exactly clean it up instead of mess it up more. One bad month doesn’t constitute for a failed platform. PERIOD! Nor does it produce any monsters, on any street.
Rod Serling was also right on one more thing. None of these things could’ve ever been confined to the Twilight Zone.
Good night, and good luck.
IMO Yes,
Now before I am stoned to death I am PRO PS3 it is my console of choice.
But I wonder if we will see this next generation?