@ Bodhesatva

I found these results to be quite interesting:

"ERTweekly reports that the survey found 42% of 25 to 34-year-olds would like a games console for Christmas, compared to just 30% of 16 to 24-year-olds."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a80664/survey-most-gamers-are-aged-25-to-34.html

Personally I think it would be best for Sony to dedicate their resources on creating the ultimate FPS games like Killzone 2 and Resistance 2, instead of adding more too many lower profile games. I think older FPS games are usually forgotten more quickly as the gamestyle is so similar and graphics play a very large role in this gerne (as I owned Unreal Tournament on the PC already, I wasn't interested in getting Quake 4).

As the PS3 is designed to play a central role within the home (the Wii or XBox 360 are more likely to be found in a kid's room instead of under the big HDTV sceen in the living room, the PS3 being a Blu-Ray player and more expensive), I think it's important to please everyone within the family and this will help the PS3 for the long run.

Bodhesatva said: Every company has a limited amount of resources. Is it really better to be spending money trying to recapture the female/child/elderly markets, or would it be better to accept those markets as lost and focus entirely on the demographics you have succesfuly captured?

 It's always good to try and keep the library diverse. Sure I may love the sports/fps/racing games on the 360, but like somebody else said earlier, my gf doesn't play those games at all. She's interested in Blue Dragon, Trusty Bell (ES), and Viva Pinata. She probably wouldn't play my 360 at all if those games weren't on there.

I use my Wii for Nintendo only games I can't get on the 360, (eg Mario/Zelda). Also I never owned the original xbox.

Interesting analysis, but that might only have a ponctual value.

IMO, it's a matter of demographic/price ratio.

MS targeted its library according to its price (which was high, even if not the higher). they knew they will attrac gamers at first, and what genre gamers may like.

Sony diden't and that was a mistake. R&C is one example and sadly (cause i'm excited by it), I fear Littlebigplanet might proove another if it's released too early.


But later on, once prices of X360 and PS3 have dropped, the potential players won't just be core gamers, and they will need more variety to be seduced.

"The problem is that these less violent games play a very important role in the PS3's library;"

This would only be true if there were "violent" exclusives that are available on the 360 but not on the PS3. Next year the PS3 has Killzone the 360 Fable2 as big exclusives. Therefore I think your analysis is flawed.

Besides Ratchet and Uncharted will most likely reach their million copies sold so they are successful enough.

I wouldn't necessarily look at it as much as a strength as I would look at it as something it has to do to survive. The other two systems have the same thing so it really isn't any stronger than the others. It's simply PAR for the course if you want to do well in this business.

Bodhesatva said: shrimpy_boy11 said: If the 360 library is lop-sided as you say in your post wouldnt that (not saying it does) take away potential buyers. Take me for example...I have a Wii and have been saving money to buy a 360 or Ps3 as i want to play games with high end graphics. Do I: a) buy a 360 due to its large library? even though its mostly consists of FPS but is cheaper. or b) buy a PS3 as its has a diverse of games?(not as large as the 360 tho) and has some good upcoming-games and already good games outside of the FPS genre. And plus it costs more. - right now im straying towards the PS3 as its game library has lots of potential for the future.... but you are right bod saying that the 360 is getting a advantage since im already wanting to play some o the FPS on the 360.  Your arguments are totally reasonable in a world where the Wii  does not exist, and that's why the 360 was criticized so much before the Wii became so popular (and even afterward, to some extent). The point is that now that the Wii IS here, and has soaked up such a large portion of the demographics outside males 18-30, is it even worth Sony and MS' time to try to get those demographics back? Because as of right now, games like Viva Pinata, Uncharted and Ratchet are running in to a brick wall and losing money.  Every company has a limited amount of resources. Is it really better to be spending money trying to recapture the female/child/elderly markets, or would it be better to accept those markets as lost and focus entirely on the demographics you have succesfuly captured?

You have a valid point there. I would say that the MS should keep producing games to keep the 18-30 demographic happy as i think nintendo has won casuals. But i wouldnt hurt for MS to release some casual games as it can now feed on the the new demographic the wii has opened (guitar hero showing that casual does work on 360). Sony on the other hand i think will get the biggest advantage as the ps3 will have FPS,RPG,Sim and Racing and a large variety of casualgames in its library eventually so it will cash in on both areas of 360 and Wii. Although in the same amount of time the Wii's library could be more diverse than both the 360 and PS3.

Basically (since i didnt explain it well) MS, Sony and Ninty could do many things to cash in on different demographics but only time will tell as anything could happen.

 

Didn't Squeenix say Sony doesn't know what to focus on PS3?

@ shrimpy_boy11

I think the war for casuals is all but lost, of course the Wii has taken the lead (due to various reasons, easy to get the most out of the console due to great similarity with the GameCube and due to lower pricing). But HDTV sales are on the uprise and a future Slimline PS3 may well win over a huge amount of casuals, a Wii next to a PS3 will not provide much games overlap. Many PS3 games (all 1st and 2nd party games and many high profile technically demanding 3rd party ones) will never be ported to the Wii and Nintendo published games will never hit the PS3.

We are still very early in this console race and the market seems to be increasing in terms of total volume.

Galaki said: Didn't Squeenix say Sony doesn't know what to focus on PS3?

I think they were referring to advertising the PS3 too much as a Blu-Ray player and everything in one multimedia solution. But I don't think that's strange considering Sony is leading the HDTV market in terms of market share in the US, Blu-Ray movies (not only games) are also a good reason to buy a new HDTV.

MikeB said: I agree with you, most XBox 360 owners are FPS fans (due to games like Call of Duty, BioShock and Gears), so releasing a game like Halo 3 will do very well amongst its userbase as will other 3D shooters like Mass Effect. Halo 1 and Halo 2 were the original XBox' most important games, so I think it's not much of a surprise. The Wii has a much larger percentage of yound kids and females playing, while PS3 and XBox 360 is preferred by older teen and mature males according to surveys. I do applaud the approach of game diversity though, games like Singstar and Ratchet & Clank can be enjoyed by the whole family. On the PS3 there's still a lot to keep the hardcore FPS fan satisfied with good 3D shooters like Warhawk, Resistance, Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Duty 4. I think having a large game diversity is good for the long run, eventually there will be a slimline PS3 for kids to afford and there will be a nice selection of games to choose from. Killzone 2 (and of course Metal Gear Solid 4 and later Resistance 2) I think will be very important for the PS3 to be more viewed as the ultimate shooter console, <b>I think that in people's eyes offering the best is more important than the amount of games offered within the gerne (quality above quantity)</b>. Personally I applaud the addition of light hearted games like Snakeball and LittleBigPlanet to it's games library as I'm not the type of guy who plays 3D shooters all day long and like the ability to play some game with my girlfriend (she hates FPS games, she loves Motorstorm, R&C, Super Stardust HD, Super Ruba Dub, Fl0w though, of the PS2 games she likes are Ape Escape 2 & 3, but for instance she doesn't feel like playing God of War games although see likes to watch me playing these, unlike FPS games, I guess too hectic/disorientating to watch).

Wrong.  See: N64