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JWeinCom on 07 November 2013
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Lawlight said:
Leadified said:
brendude13 said:
Not surprised by this.

PS3 has allegedly been stomping the 360 for the past few months and even holding its own against the 3DS. Performance seems too good for such an old console.

3DS doing even better and the recent less-terrible sales of the Vita now seem even better.


The PS3's numbers in the past couple of months have seemed to be a bit unrealistic, it's incredible to see how close the 360 and PS3 will finish.


They won't finish close since the PS3, like all PS consoles will have amazing legs.


But this is not the same situation.  PS1 and PS2 were basically unopposed.  By the end of their respective generations, the library of games so vastly outpaced the N64, Saturn, XBox, and Gamecube that it was ridiculous.  If you got into it at the end of the generation looking for a deal, there was absolutely no reason to buy another console, especially since PS1/2 games were still being produced.

The PS3 is not in that situation.  The XBox 360 is an established console that will see support for a couple of years from third parties due to its very large install base, and it has a library that's about on par with the PS3.  The PS3 is going to have a longer lifespan due to Sony's stronger PS3 support, but it's not going to be the same.  The Wii will not be as strong due to Nintendo's cut off of its support, but at its low price point it will take away some of the "kid's first console" sales that the PS2 enjoyed long after the end of it's life.  Also, this generation has been a lot longer than the previous gens, which naturally diminishes the potential PS3's second life.

There is nothing magic about Sony products that cause them to sell well.  There were clear reasons that it happened, and a lot of the factors are different this time around.  The PS3 is still going to do well over the next few years (especially since I anticipate next gen pickup to be a bit slower than most expect), but it's not going to be like the PS1 or 2.  More along the lines of the PSP.