| Panama said: The problem is that the consumer gives them no reason to release retail exclusives. The 360 usually dominates sales charts in the USA with what tends to be a purely third party retail lineup for the last 4 years. It's the consumer's fault for having such low standards if anything, not Microsoft's. |
It's actually very much sony's fault. With all things equal, the 360 is the console to get simply because it's the more popular console, and so getting means you have more friends to lend you games and to play online with. Sony came to the race very late, and tried to pass the leader by copying its every move. The wii was able to easily pass it by coming up with a different game plan.
I am talking strictly USA in the following paragraph.
Sony hasn't been able to differentiate themselves from xbox, and hence they have struggled against them. Other than Uncharted and God of War, the US fanbase has shown no interest in any recent exclusives and that goes for even ps3 owners. They are just buying CoD, Madden, NBA, and Assassins Creed, with a little skyrim and battlefield 3 to spruce things up last year. Basically the exact same games 360 owners buy, except replace Uncharted and God of War with the much more popular Gears of War and Halo(again strictl yUSA). So tell me again why people should be flocking over to the PS3? The only reasonable arguement is because online gaming is free, and I think its a very big one, sony just screwed themselves because the people who care about online gaming want to play with their friends who happen to most likely have 360s.
The 360 is approaching market saturation in America. Sony just needs to make more imaginative games to convince 360 owners to suppliment their console with a ps3. Killzone, resistance, and infamous sequels won't help. Sony needs big immaginative games that won't compete with a multiplatform behemoth. LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 5, and Gran Turismo 5 are good examples of games in genres with little competition that a sony exclusive was able to dominate. They do not need some shooter or sandbox game that has no chance to compete with CoD and GTA. Microsoft is very lucky that Gears of War and Halo got big before Call of Duty got big and so those two games can still sell well. Sony is sheer out of luck in that respect. It would take far too much effort and advertisement to make a very successful shooter nowadays, unless it has some way of differentiating itself. (Platforming in Uncharted, rpg elements in borderlands, zombie horde Surivival in Left 4 Dead)
As for the E3 news, this thread is about, its really dissappointing that the xbox's main focus no longer seems to be games. I really want to buy one for halo 4 and witcher 2 since my pc can't handle that game well, but if they decide to force extra services into xbox live gold along with another live price increase, I may have to reconsider.
