Think that is a wrap for the PS3 in US now. Obviously the PS3 fanboys will not agree with that but you have to look at it realisticly. Right now the 360 is the cheapest console of the generation. Coming into the holiday period, in a time where the world is in serious financial disorder with the price of everything going up. The PS3 is twice the price of the 360 and that will be a massive factor in those buying this holiday. For the extra $200 your be paying for the PS3 you are not really getting anything to warrent that price. Games wise all consoles have games coming out but if you look at it as a whole the 360 has a varied bunch of games coming out such as Gears 2,Fable 2 etc.. but those things will only appeal to the hardcore gamers. It is the same with the PS3 with Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet. I just cant see old granny smith sitting down with LBP creating levels etc..It is like many level editors already out there, great for 5mins but after you have played it for a day or 2 you want to get back to killing stuff,scoring goals, beating that score on GH3, racing cars etc.. The games that will tap into those markets will be things like Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour. Seeing as RB2 is exclusive to 360 now that will be massive buisness for them. Add to that the compatibility with GHWT which is 100% confirmed will be huge seeing as Guitar Hero prints money for fun.
So you have to look at it in the sense if your after a console is it really worth paying the extra for nothing then pay on top of that extra for say the equipment for Guitar Hero World Tour? If you look at the sales of the previous one you see That the PS3 is the format with the lowest GH sales with only 1m sold in US. Where as it sold 2.7m on 360 in US and 2.5m on Wii. That means 5.2m copies of Guitar Hero 3 were sold in the US on consoles other then the PS3. That is huge sales. Will those 5.2m people buy a PS3 and the instruments just to play the new one or buy it for the console they already have? The fanboys will obviously say yes but the reality is that is never going to happen. The people who bought it on Wii or 360 i could see buying the other console for it because it is a lot cheaper but i cant see someone paying $500+ just to play it on the PS3, that would be stupid and in the financial climate a poor buy.
That then leaves the hardcore gamers who have waited for the price drops. Again i just cant see Resistance 2 generating the same amount of hype/exposure that Gears 2 will, simply because Gears 1 was game of the year twice and has a massive following. Add to that you got exclusive content for games like Fallout 3 which was given game of show at E3 above littlebigplanet. Then you got GTA4 content about to come in. All in all Sony have pinned all their hopes on LBP, nobody can deny that. The critics love the game and it is being hyped up everywhere. I see this game as the last stand for Sony' PS3. If it Bombs it really will be difficult to see them come back from it.
If you really think about it 2008 holiday will be the last big sales for all three consoles. They will be older. The 360 will be 3 and the Wii and PS3 2. Statistics show your sales decline after the 2 year period. The problem is that has already started for all the consoles.
